Dyrick looked at Hobbey. ‘I can negotiate a better deal than that for you.’
‘Don’t be a fool, Vincent,’ Hobbey said dismissively. He reached out a hand to me. ‘Again, I agree to it all. Everything. Thank you, Master Shardlake, thank you.’
I could not take his hand. I looked him in the eye. ‘I am not doing this for you, Master Hobbey. It is for Emma, and David, to try and bring some future for them out of all this ruination.’
BARAK AND I left the house an hour later. It was early afternoon now, the sun high and hot. We pulled the horses to a halt outside the priory gate.
‘You’re stark mad,’ Barak told me.
‘Perhaps I am. But mad or no, it is time for you to go home. No more words now. With hard riding you might make Petersfield tonight. I will try to find Emma, then follow you. If I do not catch up with you tonight, ride on tomorrow and I will meet you on the road.’
‘How can you trust Hobbey and Dyrick?’
‘Hobbey is a broken man now, you saw that. All he has left is David. And Dyrick knows what is good for him.’
‘So much for Dyrick believing his clients were always in the right. He was as corrupt as Hobbey.’
‘I still think he believed Hobbey was in the right, at least until he discovered Emma’s identity. Some lawyers need to believe that. But yes, after the discovery his only concern was to save his own position. And as for what he would have done to the villagers – ’
Barak looked back through the gates at the untended flower beds. ‘Poor old Abigail. She’ll get no justice out of this, you realize that.’
‘I think in her heart she would have wanted to see David and Emma safe. I think she too was haunted by guilt.’
‘What about Rich? Mylling? The corner boys? Did you believe what they said?’
‘I think I know what happened there, and it did not involve Hobbey or Dyrick. I will pick up that matter in London. I will say no more now – if I am right it could be dangerous to know. But I will tell the Queen. This time Richard Rich may find he has gone too far.’
‘Sure you won’t tell me?’
‘Quite sure. Tamasin would not want me to.’
‘If Emma has chosen to go for a soldier, it is what she always wanted. Why not leave her to follow her choice?’
I answered firmly, ‘She has been so hemmed all these years she is in no right mind to make a decision like that.’
He shook his head. ‘You are determined to rescue her whether she wants it or no. Whatever the consequences. As with Ellen.’
‘Yes.’
‘What if she’s not in Portsmouth?’
‘Then there will be nothing else I can do, and I will return alone. Now, goodbye, Jack.’ I put out my hand. ‘Until tonight or tomorrow.’
‘Mad,’ he said. ‘Completely mad. Try to stay safe, for God’s sake.’
He turned his horse, spurred it, and rode fast up towards the London road. He disappeared round a bend. I patted Oddleg. ‘Come, back to Portsmouth.’ I said.
THE ROAD SOUTH was strangely quiet. I thought, it is Sunday. No, that was tomorrow. From the deep-set lanes I smelt smoke several times and thought, are the charcoal-burners working as far south as this? I heard shouts, too.
I began the slow climb up Portsdown Hill. And then, near the top, the air became thick with smoke and I saw a burning beacon, men milling round it. My heart thumping, I crested the escarpment. Smoke from beacon after beacon was visible, in a line all along the hills. I looked down, across Portsea Island to the sea. Then my jaw dropped and I gripped Oddleg’s reins, hard.
Most of the warships were still at anchor in the Solent, though some of the smaller ships were in the harbour, small dots from here. In front of the warships half a dozen larger dots were manoeuvring rapidly to and fro. I heard a sound like the rumble of thunder that could only be cannon firing. I thought, those ships are moving and turning so fast they must be galleys, as big as the Galley Subtle. Then I saw, at the eastern end of the Isle of Wight in the distance, an enormous dark smudge. The French fleet had arrived. The invasion had begun.
Part Six
THE BATTLE
Chapter Forty-three