NEXT MORNING I rose early again. It was another fine summer’s morning. The tenth of July, ten days already since we left London. As I dressed in my robes for my visit to Priddis, I thought of Dyrick’s words the night before. Characteristically vicious, they had nonetheless unsettled me. But I was still sure Hobbey had told him some secret – he had looked worried ever since.
I breakfasted with Barak in the kitchen. Ursula was there, but apart from a brief nod she ignored us. We crossed the great hall to the porch, past the tapestries of the unicorn hunt, their colours shining brightly in the sunlight. I glanced at the representation of the hunters with their bows stealing through the trees. I wondered, would we be gone by the time of Hobbey’s hunt on Monday?
‘You’re quiet this morning,’ Barak said.
‘It’s nothing. Come on.’
The horses had been brought out, and I was pleased to see Oddleg had been fetched for me. Two young manservants were already on horseback; evidently they were to accompany us. Hobbey stood with Dyrick, bent over some papers, Dyrick’s black robe shining in the sun like a raven’s wings. Nearby, Hugh and David were talking with Feaveryear. Hugh, like Dyrick, wore a broad-brimmed hat. I went up to them. David flushed and looked away. I wondered whether he felt shame for what he had done.
‘Ready for the journey?’ I asked Hugh.
‘Yes. Master Hobbey suggested David and I should stay behind, but I will not be done out of seeing the fleet. Master Hobbey has agreed that we may ride along the side of Portsdown Hill so we can get a view of Portsmouth Haven.’
I looked at the two young servants. ‘They are coming too?’
‘Gentlemen travellers should be accompanied, and Fulstowe is staying behind, to look after David’s mother.’ There was a touch of contempt in his voice. I thought, with unexpected anger, you do not care about poor Abigail at all. I turned to Feaveryear. ‘Are you looking forward to seeing Portsmouth?’
‘I do wonder what it will be like,’ he answered soberly.
‘We are ready, Master Shardlake,’ Hobbey called.
‘Ay,’ Dyrick said in a biting voice. ‘We must not keep Sir Quintin Priddis waiting.’
One of the servants brought the mounting block and helped Hobbey to the saddle. Then he fetched it over and Barak and I mounted. I settled myself in the saddle, patting Oddleg’s side.
Then something odd happened. Hugh was about to mount. As he did so Feaveryear said, ‘What will we see in Portsmouth, eh, Master Hugh?’ and touched him lightly on the arm. There was nothing unusual in the gesture, though it was presumptuous given their difference in status. But Hugh thrust Feaveryear’s arm violently aside, nearly toppling the skinny clerk. ‘Do not touch me!’ he said with sudden anger. ‘I will not have it.’
He climbed into the saddle. Dyrick snapped savagely at Feaveryear, ‘Don’t ever do that again. Who do you think you are, you little booby? Now get on your horse!’ Feaveryear obeyed, his face full of hurt.
As we rode through the gate I remembered Hobbey’s deposition, the allegation that Michael had touched Hugh in a way a man should not touch a boy. And I thought, what if that were true after all? Could that be why he had reacted so fiercely just now?
THE ROAD was dusty, the sun already hot. We rode past the area where the foresters were still at work, then south, up a long, increasingly steep slope, towards the crest of Portsdown Hill. We passed one of the beacons that would be lit if the French landed; a long sturdy pole with a wooden cage suspended by a chain from the top, filled with dry kindling soaked in tar. A man stood on guard. I rode up to Hugh, who was at the head of our group beside Hobbey and David. I passed Dyrick, who still seemed preoccupied, his coppery eyebrows knitted in a frown.
I said, ‘Thank you again, Hugh, for lending me Toxophilus.’
Hugh turned to me, his face shadowed by his wide hat. ‘Do you think any better of it on reflection?’
‘I agree he is a most learned scholar. I know little of archery, but I know that many worthy people praise it.’ I had a sudden memory of the Lady Elizabeth sitting with Catherine Parr, her questions about the virtue and conscience of lawyers. ‘But I still think that in the first part of the dialogue Master Ascham rather preened himself, as well as over-flattering the King. And I have read better dialogues. Christopher St Germain, now there is a writer, though he talks of law and politics.’
‘I do not know him.’
‘Thomas More, then. You have Utopia. With all his faults More never took himself too seriously.’
Hugh laughed. ‘Utopia is but a fantasy. A world where all live in peace and harmony, where there is no war.’ He looked me in the eye. ‘That is not the real world, Master Shardlake, nor one that could ever exist.’