Winter Blockbuster 2012 (82 page)

‘Where are you, Robert?’ she whispered, pressing the book to her heart. ‘Oh, my love, where are you?’

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

R
OB
paced the length of his gaol, ten steps one way, ten the other, prowling like the caged lion in the Queen’s menagerie. He knew now how those creatures felt, burning with the need to run, to howl with fury and frustration. He had pounded on the stout, iron-bound door until his fists bled, but he was no closer to freedom.

And no closer to knowing where he was—or where Anna was. Was she even still alive? Had she escaped?

He braced himself against the cold stone wall and stared up at the beamed ceiling as if he could peer into the building above him and know what was happening. The room was very small, like an underground dungeon lined with stone. The packed-earth floor was covered with straw, and there was a low cot and a slop bucket in one corner. A small table was set against the wall, where a rush light cast a precious warm glow. It was a much cleaner prison than others he had found himself in before. There were no rats.

But there was also no Anna.

Rob slid down to sit on the floor and rubbed at the hard knot at the back of his head. It still burned like hellfire, and he cursed the man who had knocked him unconscious from
behind. They had also left him with a wound on his thigh, but he had given as good as he had got. He had stabbed one in the shoulder and hit one on the head before they had taken him down, still struggling to give Anna time to flee.

After they had beaten him down onto the road he remembered nothing more until he had woken here. Had she got away? Was she safe? If she was safe, they could do with him what they would.

His heart had never felt heavier, darker. He had taken on this work to protect the vulnerable, like his sister and Anna, to try and make their lives safer. All he had done was expose them to greater danger. He was cursed, and he had brought the curse upon them, as well. He had to get out of there, to make things right somehow and let Anna go free again.

Rob carefully stretched his leg out before him to examine the wound on his thigh. Someone had roughly bound it up with a cloth, but blood had seeped through and dried so it clung to his skin. He set his jaw and carefully prised it free. The cut was not very deep, but it needed to be cleaned and tended to.

He shrugged out of his torn and dusty doublet and tore a strip from the bottom of his shirt for a makeshift bandage. As he bound it carefully, he remembered Anna’s soft, cool hands as she mended his wounds, the warm rose scent of her hair as she leaned close to him.

He had so many scars, she had said. And now he had one more. But it was nothing to the scar of remorse on his soul. He had wanted to keep Anna safe, and instead he had driven her right into danger. He was worse than her brute of a husband.

‘I will find you,’ he vowed. ‘No matter what, I will find you.’

He heard the sudden rusty scrape of a bar being drawn
back from the door, and he stood up to face whomever was coming. He had no weapons, only his determination to find and protect Anna however he could.

Only one man appeared in the doorway, thin and bent, swathed in a black cloak and shadowed by flickering torchlight from the corridor outside. The only things that stood out from the darkness were his grey-flecked beard and waxen skin.

‘Walsingham,’ Rob said tightly.
Of course
—who else had the resources to snatch a man from the public road and make him vanish?

A faint smile whispered over the Secretary’s gaunt face. ‘Were you expecting someone else, Master Alden? We had an appointment, you and I.’ He shut the door behind him and slowly crossed the small room with his walking stick before lowering himself onto the cot.

‘Where is Mistress Barrett?’ Rob demanded.

‘Is that your only concern now? The theatre owner’s daughter?’

‘She has naught to do with any of this,’ Rob insisted, struggling to hold back the primitive urge to shout, to fight, to find his way to Anna however he could. Only a coldness to equal Walsingham’s own could save them now.

‘Does she not? Yet she was with you at Hart Castle. Does she know nothing of what her father does?’ Walsingham demanded.

Rob watched Walsingham warily, feeling as if he walked a sword’s blade. Which way to jump? Which way lay safety for Anna? ‘She is innocent.’

‘Innocents are caught up in plots all the time, I fear. As you well know, Master Alden. Her father has a finger in many pies—not all of them to Her Majesty’s advantage.’

‘It is Thomas Sheldon you want in this plot.’

‘So you and Lord Edward say—and so say the documents you kindly sent via my daughter. But we must find his conduit in Lord Henshaw’s Men before we can move. Mistress Barrett can surely help us with more information concerning that.’

‘So you
do
have her,’ Rob said, cold fury pounding at his heart as he thought of her locked in a dungeon like this one. His sweet, fair Anna. Surely she was in fear and pain because of what he had done.

‘She is in a comfortable place, never fear. We seek only to speak with her. Often people know more than they realise they do.’

And torture was used to help them ‘remember.’ ‘I wish to see her.’

‘Of course you do. But I don’t see how you can help us in these circumstances, Master Alden. You are much too—engaged. Perhaps closer to the scheme than you should be?’

Rob froze. Walsingham’s calm words were filled with menace. Was this the end, then? How could he save Anna if he was dead? ‘Am I accused of treason?’

Walsingham studied him closely for a long, silent moment, his thin face giving away not a flicker of his thoughts. ‘We have been speaking to someone else inside Lord Henshaw’s Men. He makes certain claims, but I do have my suspicions of him. He is not entirely what he claims, and he is much too emotional—like all you actors.’

‘If this man accuses me, I have the right to refute him, surely?’ Rob demanded.

‘You have only the rights the Queen chooses to bestow upon you,’ Walsingham said. He waved his stick around the cell. ‘And you should think of yourself now. Will you help me bring this to a conclusion? To save yourself and Mistress Barrett—if you are not lying to me?’

Rob crossed his arms over his chest. He felt a faint glow of hope, which he pressed down under cold calculation. ‘You know that I will.’

Walsingham seemed to consider this. Finally, he nodded. ‘You have served us well in the past. And I am in need of a fresh scheme to close in on our quarry. Very well. The young man who has been speaking to us of you and Mistress Barrett and her father is an actor by the name of Henry Ennis. I am sure you know him.’

‘Ennis,’ Rob muttered. It
would
be him—he followed Anna about like a besotted puppy, and picked quarrels with Rob in the middle of the White Heron when he only saw Anna smile at Rob. Rob remembered the burning hatred in Ennis’s eyes as he had swung his sword at Rob’s head.

‘Yes. You do know him, then? He certainly seems to have taken against
you
,’ Walsingham said.

‘I believe he is in love with Mistress Barrett and she spurned him,’ Rob said slowly.

Walsingham’s eyes widened with interest. ‘Is he, indeed? Men are so foolish in love. That is certainly a bit of information we can use to our greater advantage …’

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

A
NNA
reached up as high as she could and tried to grab the ledge of the window with her fingertips. She had pushed the table up against the wall and climbed atop it in the hope she could peer outside. Maybe if she could see what lay outside Walsingham’s house she could plan some sort of escape.

But that was a vain hope. The tiny window was too far above her head, and she could hear almost nothing beyond her room. She wasn’t even sure how much time had passed since she had been carried here. Was it another day now?

‘Z’wounds,’ she cursed. ‘Robert, where are you?’

She scrambled down from the table and sat back on the chair to stare into the empty fireplace. She reached for the book again and held it tightly in her hands, as if it was a talisman against fear.

She couldn’t afford fear. Not now.

Suddenly the silence was shattered by the faint click of the key at the door. Anna jumped to her feet, the book held before her like a shield against whatever was coming.

The entrance slid open, creaking on its heavy hinges. Anna blinked at the sudden rush of torchlight, dazzling after the
dimness of the room. When the glare cleared, she looked again—and beheld the most welcome of sights.

It was Robert who stood before her, alive and whole. He braced his hands on the doorframe, studying her in turn just as greedily as she watched him.

‘Are you real?’ she whispered. ‘Or am I merely dreaming?’

‘If you are, I hope it is a dream from which we never wake,’ he answered hoarsely. He rushed across the room to snatch her into his arms and pull her close, his arms around her.

Anna held on to him desperately, as if she would never let him go, never let him be snatched from her again. She felt the heat of his skin, the pounding of his heart, and sighed a deep prayer of thanksgiving that he was
alive
—here, now, with her. Even if they were prisoners together, she could fear nothing with him.

‘You are alive,’ she whispered. ‘But what happened there on the road? Are you Walsingham’s prisoner, as well?’

‘So many questions, fairest Anna,’ he said, pressing a kiss to her hair. ‘I would have thought you would be waiting here to kill me yourself for getting you into this.’

‘Were you the one who landed us here in this gaol?’ she asked. ‘It seems strange you would contrive to have
yourself
locked up thus. Unless …’

She drew back to look up at him. She had thought him unable to hurt her, but she wanted to see the truth of that in his eyes. ‘Unless this is some sort of twisted scheme to coax confessions out of me? Is my father here?’

‘Oh, Anna. You do have every right to distrust me,’ he said sadly, wearily. He held tight to her hands, not letting her pull away from him. She didn’t want to leave him, though; she wanted only to know the truth. ‘But I fear I am bound here as you are, and I need your help now to discover the truth.’

Anna shook her head in confusion. ‘What truth do you
seek? I know my father is on your list, but I also know he can be no traitor.’

‘And I know that, as well. But someone in Lord Henshaw’s Men has been taking Spanish coin, and we must find out who and for what purpose. Then we will be truly free.’

Her head spun and she struggled to bring her thoughts together. ‘There are so many people around the theatre, and as you said yourself they are all constantly low on funds. And there are so many grudges and quarrels—it could be any one of the actors. They are as adept at hiding their true selves as …’

His hands held even closer to hers. ‘As I am?’ he hinted, a tiny flicker of emotion finally there, deep in his voice.

‘Aye, Robert, as you are. At Hart Castle I thought I could see you at last, but now I fear I know so little.’

‘You
do
know me, Anna, and I swear to you now I want only to help you.’ He raised her hands to his lips for a kiss, and inhaled deeply of the soft turning of her wrist, as if he tried to memorise her, savour her and this moment together no matter how fraught it was with fear and uncertainty.

Anna swayed towards him, a heavy longing for so many things sweeping over her. She wanted to believe him, to be close to him, to have all this vanish and life be as it was in those too-brief moments at Hart Castle. But she couldn’t let herself fall. Too much depended on it.

‘Let me show you,’ he said urgently. ‘Give me a chance to set all this right before you refuse me.’

‘Refuse you what?’

He shook his head with a frown, as if he felt confused and desperate, just as she did. But that couldn’t be—not for Robert Alden. ‘The chance to see you. To touch you as I do now. To be near you.’

‘How?’ she demanded. ‘How will this be set right? How can we be free?’

‘I have a suspicion who our villain is—or at least who is in the pay of the villain,’ Rob said. ‘Come, sit, and I will tell you of my scheme. I fear it is a wild one, but for all that I think we can succeed.’

Anna let him lead her back to her chair and help her to sit. As he knelt beside her, he glimpsed the book where she had dropped it at the sight of him.

‘You were reading
Demetrius and Diana
,’ he said.

‘Aye,’ she answered softly. ‘It has kept me from going mad today, I confess.’

‘Then I am glad I could help you in some way.’ His tone said clearly he could help her in no other way.

‘I think you can help me in other ways, as well,’ she said. ‘Tell me your suspicions.’

Rob pressed the book into her hand and closed her fingers around it. ‘You know Edward and I have been working to trap Thomas Sheldon in one of his schemes? We have known for some time that he is in the pay of the Spanish, and possibly of the French, as well—he is in very deep debt and has made many errors. He grows desperate and careless now. And he uses equally desperate men to help him.’

‘Actors?’ she cried, her heart freezing. It was someone near to them who had betrayed them?

‘One in particular, who passes messages between Sheldon and his contacts in verses and takes their coin, while also claiming to inform on others to Walsingham. He is a double agent, but his desperation makes him a good one no longer.’

Anna closed the clasp on the book as if it was this double agent’s neck. ‘Who is it?’

‘You know him well, I think. And now he tries to turn on
me
, since fighting me did not work. It is Henry Ennis.’

‘Henry!’ Anna cried, shocked. Henry Ennis? Who had declared his love for her? Who tried to kiss her in her father’s garden? Could it be true? She had seen there was something obsessive and strange in him, but being so hopelessly passionate and unrealistic was often a stock in trade for actors. It shouldn’t make a man turn to treason.

She looked deeply into Rob’s eyes and studied the steady glow of truth she found there. Any person was capable of anything when pushed far enough. She saw that around her all the time. If Henry Ennis had been insulted by her refusal and was jealous of Robert—if he needed money or revenge—aye, it
could
be him. It could be anyone.