Page 36 of The King's Man
‘Oh, so you have money then?’ Nan’s eyes narrowed. ‘Could’ve fooled me.’
Thamsine gave a bitter laugh. ‘Yes, but when I marry it goes to my husband and until I marry it is controlled by my guardian, who is the same man who thinks he has a right to marry me.’
‘Same man?’
Thamsine nodded.
May shook her head. ‘Sometimes I reckon it’s best to be poor, then if a man marries you, you can think it’s coz he likes you … ’ she sighed, ‘ … or coz he got you in the family way.’
‘So what happened?’ Nan put in over her sister’s musings.
‘He … treated me badly.’
May’s eyes widened. ‘He didn’t … ?’
Thamsine grimaced as she took the girl’s meaning. Of course he had tried. It had only been the chance intervention of another that had prevented it.
‘He is capable of that and worse. He thought he could force me into marriage with him,’ she said
‘How d’ya get away?’
Thamsine swallowed, the memory of that terrible night as vivid as if it had only just occurred. ‘I shot him. I thought I’d killed him. I ran away to London to hide.’
‘You didn’t kill ’im?’
Thamsine shook her head. ‘No. I know I didn’t kill him and he’s here in London looking for me.’
‘How’d you know that?’
‘I saw him in the crowd that day. That’s why I threw the brickbat. If I hadn’t, he would have caught me and then … and then … ’ An unimaginable fate, far worse than her present predicament, loomed before her. At least he couldn’t find her while she was incarcerated in the Tower.
May put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her.
‘Well I reckon you had as good a reason as any for throwing brickbats at Cromwell,’ she said. ‘Have you told ’em why you did it?’
Thamsine shook her head. ‘I can’t,’ she said. ‘I would rather hang than go back to that man.’
‘Are they going to hang you?’ Nan asked.
‘I don’t know. I had a meeting with a really frightening man called John Thurloe. I think whatever happens to me will be his decision.’ She sighed, and changed the subject. ‘Is there any news of Kit Lovell and the others?’
Nan shook her head. ‘Nah. I feel quite sorry for poor old Noll Cromwell. Everyone seems to be trying to do him in. I tell you having half your patrons hauled away by the poll heads is not good for business. Jem’s threatening death if he finds who squealed on ’em.’
‘Where’s your brother’s loyalties?’ Thamsine asked.
Nan was silent for a moment. ‘D’ya mean was it Jem what squealed on yer all? You can put that thought away. Jem is dead loyal to the King. Always has been, always will be. Mind you, another week like this and my betting is they’ll find some way to shut him down. He don’t need Cromwell’s soldiers tramping around arresting his customers. Now you need to eat that pie before it goes stone cold.’
Thamsine sat down on the stool and attacked the pie with relish. A week of the cold, gelatinous gruel the turnkey dished up was enough to have reduced her to a state of semi-starvation again. Nan wandered around the cell, perusing it as if it were a possible apartment to purchase.
May sat on the cot. ‘One blanket? Cold enough in ’ere to freeze your tits off. If we can get in again, we’ll bring yer another blanket.’
‘So how’d you come to know Kit Lovell?’ Nan asked. ‘I never bought the “old friend of me brother” story.’
Thamsine looked up from the pie. ‘The truth is he pulled me out of the crowd that day I threw the brickbat.’
‘You never knew ’im before?’
Thamsine shook her head.
