John Shakespeare, brother of William, intrigues in old London town. A priest about to be executed for treason in Newgate asks Shakespeare to find a girl who was, misguidedly, the victim of exorcism rites. Another man tries to sell Shakespeare information about a Spanish plot, then he vanishes.THE...
In the summer, when she had come to this house, she had experienced an electric thrill like dry lightning. The saying of the mass in the warmth of a June night, the candlelight, the serene procession of the communicants, like some holy dance, moving as one as though they all floated on air. The c...
He had his caliver slung over his back and his cutlass at his belt. He was not going unarmed again. Disembarking at St Katharine’s Dock, a mile downstream from the bridge, he made his way slowly and carefully along the narrow lanes to the Burning Prow. At the end of the street, not fifty yards fr...
Shakespeare frowned in puzzlement. ‘Boltfoot?’ ‘My horse was shot from under me, master. I have had to walk here.’ ‘Who did this?’ ‘A scavager named Billy. The man who found the body. I know where to find him.’ ‘Then let us ride.’ Shakespeare turned to the steward. ‘Mr Stickley, I am leaving...
‘A sea battle don’t compare to the stench of powder and the clash of steel on land. When two regiments of foot meet on the field there is no hold to escape to; a captain of infantry cannot just turn with the wind and sail away, Mr Cooper. At the Maas river, in the mud and rain with every man’s po...
Her coachman was standing to attention just inside the door. He stared at Shakespeare, barring his way, until Eliska said something in her native tongue, then he turned and bowed to her before departing, without a word. ‘I was not expecting you, Mr Shakespeare. Solko has quarters in the east wing...
It was a tall structure, built of stone to withstand seaborne gales. Above the ground floor, jettied chambers overhung the narrow street. Clearly, the crucial thing to the Vice Admiral was its convenience, being so close to the mouth of the Plym and the dockyards, where he had to spend so much ti...
He was thinking about the events of the previous evening at Essex House. There had been a fevered air of treachery, billowing like the dark clouds of an approaching storm. In particular, the open defiance and mockery of the masque seemed to confirm everything Sir Robert Cecil had said about Essex...