Page 6 of Exile's Return
Hyde’s mouth tightened. ‘You’ll hear stories about your brother, so be prepared.’
Longley raised a hand. ‘Not now, Ned…’
Hyde glared at him. ‘Why not now? It’s better he is prepared, is it not?’
Daniel looked from one to the other. ‘What stories?’
‘There are those who believe he may have been in the employ of Cromwell,’ Hyde said. ‘In fact, he may have been the one to betray Gerard and the others to Thurloe.’
Daniel pushed his chair back from the table, a white spark of anger flaring in his breast. ‘Kit? A traitor? Never! He was a king’s man to the bone.’
Hyde waved him back to his seat. ‘Calm yourself. I cannot say with certainty if there is truth to the stories; I merely repeat what some who were closer to the events believe.’
‘If he were indeed a traitor, why would they hang him?’ Daniel glanced at Longley.
‘Unlike his fellow conspirators, his execution was private, conducted on the grounds of the Tower itself. No one can say with certainty that Kit Lovell died at the end of a rope,’ Hyde replied.
Daniel shook his head as the enormity of what Hyde implied sunk in. It seemed impossible that his brother, the man he had known all his life would turn his coat, but if it were true, couldKit still be alive? Coming here had raised more questions than it had answers.
‘Enough about your brother. I told you we have a commission for you.’ Hyde dismissed the fate of Kit Lovell with a wave of his hand.
‘You know nothing about me,’ Daniel repeated.
Hyde glanced at Longley, who shrugged.
‘What we know is that, like your brother, you are dead, are you not, Master Lovell? According to the official stories, you were sent to Barbados where you died of a fever.’
So that was the story Outhwaite had put out.
‘Every second prisoner died of fever,’ Daniel said.
‘But you didn’t. You escaped, and I am curious as to how a dead man is sitting here having an ale with us on a chilly night in the Low Countries.’
Daniel looked from one man to the other. ‘I told you. I escaped…I was rescued by French privateers…that is all.’
Hyde shrugged. ‘It makes no difference. Since Cromwell’s death, the mood in England has changed. The time is right for the King to return but this, as you can understand, is no simple matter. There has been a group of men operating in secret with the King’s commission. They call themselves the Sealed Knot but they have been relatively ineffective since Penruddock’s uprising back in ’55. Earlier this year the King issued a second commission. Part of that commission was to organise simultaneous uprisings across the countryside, but the reach of the spy network set up by John Thurloe is long and we may as well have set up a town crier in the centre of London. The uprising in Cheshire was quickly defeated and unfortunately one of our key supporters, James Ashby —’
Daniel started and Hyde looked at him, his eyes narrowing. ‘You know the man?’
Daniel shook his head. ‘My pardon, I recognise the name Ashby, but the man I knew wore the uniform of Parliament.’
‘Oh, you mean Colonel Tobias Ashby? A cousin, I believe. He has done well in the favour of Oliver Cromwell.’ He shook his head, his mouth tightening. ‘He commanded the martyred King’s escort on the day of his murder.’
Tobias Ashby, that hard man of the Parliamentary forces who had issued the order to his men to shoot down Thomas Lovell in cold blood.
Murder and Tobias Ashby seemed to have much in common.
‘Who is this other Ashby?’ Daniel changed the subject.
‘James Ashby. You may know him as the Earl of Elmhurst of Charvaley Castle in Lancashire.’
Daniel frowned. He had vague recollections of his father talking about Elmhurst but he could not remember meeting the man himself.
Hyde shrugged. ‘He gave some nominal support to the King’s cause during the wars, but rumour is he was equally as forthcoming to those who came on behalf of Parliament. Whatever his true feelings, his home at Charvaley survived intact and unmolested. Like many we will encounter in the next few months, who trim their cloth to the wind, after the death of Cromwell, James Ashby professed his loyalty to the King, and being in a position of some influence and power in the north, the King named him in his commission. A few months ago his men captured a consignment of coin bound for York. Charvaley was used as the hiding place. It was to have been passed on to our agents, but Ashby was taken before the handover could be affected and we believe the coin is still at Charvaley.’
‘How much?’ Daniel enquired.
‘Four hundred new-minted Unites.’
