Murder at Hatfield House: An Elizabethan Mystery by Carmack Amanda

Author:Carmack, Amanda [Carmack, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

Kate found the players’ cart in the sheep meadow beyond Hatfield’s gates, near a large old oak tree, under which was a favorite picnic spot of Elizabeth’s in the summer. Tonight the field was cold and damp, the moon obscured by the slide of purple-gray clouds. A few torches stuck in the earth illuminated the makeshift campsite, blankets on the ground, hastily packed chests still piled around. A woman sobbed quietly inside the cart.

They’d left in a hurry after Braceton stormed out of the great hall, but it was impossible to travel on such a night.

Kate drew her shawl closer around her shoulders as she cautiously scanned the darkness for any movement. Was someone out there right now, with their arrows or their blades?

“Who is there?” a man called, his voice hoarse with caution. Rob Cartman stepped out of the shadows beside the cart and into an amber circle of torchlight, his sword drawn. Kate sensed a few other people by slight stirrings of movement under the blankets, but no one else showed themselves. It was as if they had all gone to earth, hiding.

Which was no bad thing. Not with Braceton tearing through Hatfield. “It’s me. Kate Haywood. Her Grace sent me to see how you fared, and to give you this.” She held out the purse of coins.

Rob slowly lowered the sword, which she saw was not a blunted stage prop, but a raw blade, like the dagger he had carried earlier. He raked a hand through his rumpled hair, and Kate could see the weariness etched on his face, the slump of his strong shoulders under his thin linen shirt.

“How did you get away?” he said.

“The same way you did—while Braceton was not looking,” she answered. “He is too busy questioning the princess and the Popes to bother with me.”

“Nor hopefully with us. We will be away at first light.”

“Princess Elizabeth said to tell you she is heartily sorry for bringing you into her troubles.”

Rob gave a harsh laugh. “I would say we brought it on ourselves. For did we not seek you out on the road to Hatfield?”

“Because Cecil sent you? And asked you to perform that play for the princess?” Kate said, exceedingly puzzled. Did Rob work for Cecil? Or for more sinister forces? “He is usually more subtle than that, I’m told.”

“What do you mean?” Rob asked sharply.

Kate remembered what Elizabeth sought to know, what she’d whispered so quickly before she sent Kate out to find the actors. She remembered her own startled realization that the play was far more than it seemed. She needed to get to the bottom of it all before anyone else was hurt. “Is the play not about Jane Grey? The sweet young scholarly maiden, dethroned and imprisoned? The pawn to the power of others?”

“Hush!” Rob grabbed Kate’s arm, and led her beyond the light, beyond the hearing of the others. “I know not what you speak of. It is merely a classical myth, as so many other plays are.

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