Since there were only the three of us, we held it in my office. I’d asked for tea to be served. Miss Lee had left out mugs, milk, lemon, sugar, tea bags, and even put water in the kettle. Sadly, she had made no attempt to assemble these component parts, all of which remained scattered around the room. It was like a treasure hunt. ‘Your turn,’ I said to Markham and to the accompaniment of the boiling kettle and clattering teaspoons, I laid out Dr Dowson’s findings. ‘OK, listen up. It’s 1643 – right in the middle of the Civil War, just before the Siege of Gloucester gets under way. At some point, for reasons unknown, Captain Edmund Lacey slips away from the city and makes his way here, to St Mary’s. His elder brother, Rupert,’ I laid down a photograph of a very dim painting of a pouty man in a vast wig, ‘is away fighting for the King.’ Markham gulped his tea. ‘They were on opposite sides?’ ‘Yes. Something not uncommon in this particular conflict.
