THE TWO OF US had agreed our approach, the words we would use to bring a confession if Barwic was guilty. We had no time to waste. Lord Parr strode through the courtyard and then the central hall, looking stern, all the guards saluting the Queen’s Chancellor in turn. He came to the carpenter’s door and flung it open. Barwic was planing a length of oak – I noticed little pieces of sawdust in his russet beard – while his assistant sanded another. They both looked up at our entrance, the assistant in astonishment and Barwic, I saw, in fear.
Lord Parr slammed the door shut and stood with his arms folded. He inclined his head to the apprentice. ‘Go, boy,’ he said bluntly, and the lad fled with a quick bow. Barwic faced us.
‘Michael Leeman, the thief, is discovered,’ I said, bluntly. ‘And his confederate, Zachary Gawger.’
Barwic stood there for a second, his face expressionless, his wild red hair and beard, flecked with sawdust, looking almost comical. Then, like a puppet, he sank slowly to his knees, lowering his head and clasping his work-roughened hands together. From this position he looked up at the Queen’s Chancellor, the clasped hands trembling.
‘Forgive me, my Lord. At first I only made a copy of the key lest the original be lost. It is not a good thing for a chest containing valuables to have only one key.’
‘So you made another secretly and kept it?’ I asked. ‘Where?’
‘Safe, my Lord, safe. In a locked chest to which only I have the key.’ All the while he did not shift his gaze from Lord Parr’s face.
‘Have you ever done this before?’
Barwic looked at me, then turned back to Lord Parr. ‘Yes, my Lord, forgive me. If ever I am asked to make a lock with only one key, I make a second. I can show you the place I keep them all, show you the keys. It was for security only; security, I swear.’
‘Then how did Leeman get hold of it?’ I asked.
‘Stand up when you answer, churl!’ Lord Parr snapped. ‘I will get a crick in my neck looking down at you.’
Barwic stood, still wringing his hands. ‘He came to see me, near three weeks ago. I did not know him, but he wore the uniform of the Queen’s Guard. He told me the key to the Queen’s chest had been lost, said he had heard I might have another. I – I thought he came on behalf of the Queen, you see—’
Lord Parr brought his hand down on the bench with a bang, sending the plank of wood crashing to the floor. ‘Don’t lie to me, caitiff ! You know well enough a member of the Queen’s Guard would have no authority to demand a key. Especially when you kept the very existence of copies a secret!’
The wretched man swallowed nervously. ‘I let it be known, to certain people, that I made extra copies of keys. Not officially, but you see – if a key was lost, I could provide a replacement for anyone who lost it.’
‘At a price?’
Barwic nodded miserably.
‘How long have you been doing this?’
‘Since I first became the Queen’s carpenter and locksmith twelve years ago. Perhaps half a dozen times I have provided a spare key to a chest or coffer, usually to a lady who has lost hers. But always to someone who is trusted, sir, and nothing has been stolen in all that time as a consequence. Nothing.’
Lord Parr shook his head. ‘Dear God, the Queen’s household has been lax.’
‘Yes,’ I agreed, ‘and Michael Leeman, I would wager, ferreted out where the weak points were. How much did he pay you, Barwic?’
‘Ten sovereigns, sir. I – I couldn’t resist.’ I thought, the same bribe as for Gawger. ‘He told me the Queen had gone out and left the key with him for safekeeping and he accidentally dropped it through a gap in the floorboards. He did not want to have them taken up.’
‘Did you believe him?’ Lord Parr’s voice was scornful.
‘I was uncertain, my Lord. I told him to come back on the morrow. In the meantime I asked friends at Whitehall for information on Leeman – had he been there long, was he honest? I was told he was known as an honest man, godly. I wouldn’t just hand out a key to anybody, sir, I swear.’
Lord Parr gave him a look of contempt. ‘No. I imagine you would not, for fear of being hanged. But Michael Leeman was a thief. And you are deep in the mire.’ He looked at me. ‘I will have this man held close at my house for the moment. Come with us, Master Barwic. I’ll put you in the charge of a guard, as a man suspected of conspiracy to rob the Queen. And you don’t say a word about keys. Leeman, and his confederate, are discovered, but Leeman has escaped and you’ll keep all this quiet till he is captured.’
Barwic sank to his knees again. His voice shook. ‘Will – will I hang, sir? Please, would you ask the Queen to show mercy? I have a wife, children – it was all the expenses of being Guild Chairman, the taxes for the war – ’
Lord Parr bent over him. ‘You’ll hang if I have any say,’ he said brutally. ‘Now, come.’
BARWIC WAS PUT in the charge of a guard and led away, sobbing, across Baynard’s Castle yard. Another man whose life now lay in ruins. Some men lifting bolts of silk from a cart turned to look at the weeping prisoner being taken away under guard.