Martin Marbeck 04 Marbeck and the Gunpowder Plot by John Pilkington

Author:John Pilkington [Pilkington, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780106670
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2015-04-07T21:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

There was a long moment, while MacNeish gazed at Marbeck. Finally, seeing that dissembling was pointless, he spoke up.

‘He was a foreigner,’ he admitted, with a glance at Marbeck’s hand, now on his sword-hilt. ‘Spanish or Portugee … Claimed he had important news for you – a warning, he said. He knew we’d done business, off and on – the Lord knows how, but he did.’

‘As you knew he was lying,’ Marbeck said gently. ‘About wanting to warn me, I mean.’

MacNeish gave no answer.

‘In fact, it hardly matters, for he’s dead now,’ Marbeck told him. ‘Or at least, the odds on that are better than you’ll ever make in there.’ He nodded towards the cockpit.

Still MacNeish was silent. Finally, he heaved a sigh and said: ‘What will you do then, Sands? I’ve no head for guesswork.’

‘But one for gathering scraps and rumours and knitting them into something you can sell,’ Marbeck said coolly. ‘Fool I may have been, but I thought you sold them to me and others like me, rather than to the one with the fattest purse.’ Seeing the other about to speak, he lifted a hand briefly. ‘I know – you’re a poor man. The lady I spoke of told me: she tried to kill me, just this morning.’ In a harsher tone he added: ‘That’s how I guessed it was you who gave me away: you’re the only one who knew I lodged at Skinner’s.’

Uneasily, MacNeish rubbed his beard and focused his gaze on the broadside seller – whereupon Marbeck seized the edge of his cloak and made him turn.

‘Would you have seen me despatched so readily?’ he demanded. ‘You knew the people who sought me had some evil intent … Were you indifferent to it?’ He waited, then: ‘Or am I just another Englishman – little better than the Swaggerers who assail you in the street? What’s one less?’

Another moment passed, in which the other man’s silence was confirmation enough.

His mind busy now, Marbeck spoke quietly. ‘You couldn’t be everywhere, so I’m guessing you’ve had me watched,’ he said. ‘Indeed, I had a feeling I was being followed a while back … I should have paid more attention to it. How else could the lady have known I’d be at a certain house, at a certain time? Was it one of your friends from Little Scotland?’

The big man swallowed, but kept silent.

‘You’d best answer me, MacNeish,’ Marbeck said. ‘Or I’ve a mind to turn you over to my masters … They’d hang you up by your wrists, simply on my word—’

‘Enough, damn ye!’ For a moment, the Scotsman’s eyes flashed. But seeing Marbeck’s expression, he let out a sigh; he was powerless, and he knew it. ‘’Twas Blue Donal watched ye,’ he admitted, in a bitter tone. ‘The wee man’s family are near starving. They – the lady and her man – agreed to cut him in. That way I could help him, as he’s helped me in the past – more than a man like you would know!’

After that, there was little left to say.

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