Page 126 of The King's Man
Thamsine searched his face but saw only confusion and worry.
‘Wait here. I have something for you, Roger.’
She left him and returned with a packet of papers, which she threw down on the table before him.
‘Your letters,’ she spat. ‘The letters you wrote to the Talbot doxy.’
Roger picked them up, counting them.
‘They’re all here,’ he said and looked up at her in wonder. ‘How … ?’
‘Kit Lovell risked his life to get those, paid for them with his blood. Now I am buying your loyalty with them, Roger. I need your help.’
‘What do you want of me?’
‘I’m a married woman now, Roger.’
He paled. ‘Not Morton?’
She shook her head. ‘Not Morton. I married Kit Lovell. I am, like you, free of Morton.’
‘You? You married Lovell?’ Roger stared at her. ‘Does Morton know?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t know and I don’t care, but I need your help to unwind his grasp from my estate. Can you do that?’
Roger nodded. ‘Of course I can. I … ’ He tailed off, tears welling in his eyes. ‘Words cannot express how appallingly I have failed you.’
She regarded him coldly. ‘I am prepared to let the past be, for the moment. Now, what of Jane?’
‘I have this for you.’ Roger handed her a piece of paper. She unfolded it and a ring fell out. She caught it and held it in her fingers.
‘My grandmother’s ring,’ she said, then turned to the note.
Dearest sister,
I am sending Roger to you on this errand in the hope that I can see you again before you leave. I dared not tell you about my illness for fear it would worry you and you seem to have enough worries. This may be the last time I will see you, so if it is possible, dearest, please come. Roger’s contrition is genuine. He does not wish you any harm and you are free to leave at any time.
Yr. loving sister, Jane.
She looked at her brother-in-law, who seemed to shrink inside his collar.
‘God is calling my wife. It’s a punishment for my sins.’
Thamsine studied him with narrowed eyes. All the fierce pride and resistance had gone from him. He looked old, tired, and desperately unhappy. She sighed. There seemed little she could for Kit, Ambrose Morton was no threat for the moment, and there seemed nothing to be gained from ignoring his plea. Jane had come to her aid when she needed it and her skill had saved Kit’s hand, if not his life.
‘Very well, Roger, I will come with you, but it is on the understanding that I come and go of my own free will.’
The relief on Roger’s face was pathetic. He rose to his feet and picked up his hat and gloves. ‘We must leave now, Thamsine. There is not a moment to waste if we are to reach Turnham Green before dark.’
***
Riding pillion behind Roger, Thamsine began to regret her impulsive decision. What if it was another trap? What if Jane was hale and hearty and it was Ambrose waiting for her? Jem had argued with her about her decision to go, but then she remembered Jane’s shadowed eyes and the cough and knew in her heart that all was not well with her sister.
The house in Turnham Green looked silent and grim in the gathering gloom as if death already waited by the door. She shivered as Roger helped her down off the back of his bay mare.
Thamsine followed Roger into the house and up the stairs to the main bedchamber. Roger had spoken the truth. Jane lay propped on the bolsters, her eyes sunken in her waxen face.
‘She came, my dear.’ Roger crossed to his wife, picking up her hand in a tender, intimate gesture that Thamsine had never seen before. ‘I’ll leave you with her.’
