He nodded glumly.
‘The reason the law gives is that the evidence needed to convict in a criminal trial must be so clear no counsel is needed. That is all nonsense, I’m afraid; the cases are run through quickly and the jury usually decide merely by preferring one man’s word against another’s. Often they favour the accused because most juries don’t like sending people to hang, but in this case,’ - I looked at the wretched pamphlet on the table - ‘a child killing, their sympathies will be the other way. Her only hope is to agree to plead and tell me her story. And if she did act in a fit of madness, I could plead insanity. It might save her life. She’d go to the Bedlam, but we could try for a pardon from the king.’ That would cost more money than Joseph had, I thought.
He looked up and for the first time I saw hope in his eyes. I realized I had said, ‘I could plead,’ without thinking. I had committed myself.
‘But if she won’t speak,’ I went on, ‘no one can save her.’
He leaned forward and clutched my hand between damp palms. ‘Oh, thank you, Master Shardlake, thank you, I knew you’d save her—’
‘I’m not at all sure I can,’ I said sharply, but then added, ‘I’ll try.’
‘I’ll pay, sir. I’ve little enough but I’ll pay.’
‘I had better go to Newgate and see her. Five days - I need to see her as soon as possible, but I have business at Lincoln’s Inn that will keep me all afternoon. I can meet you at the Pope’s Head tavern next to Newgate first thing tomorrow morning. Say at nine?’
‘Yes, yes.’ He stood up, putting the handkerchief back in his pocket, and grasped my hand. ‘You are a good man, sir, a godly man.’
A soft-headed man, more like, I thought. But I was touched by the compliment. Joseph and his family were all strong reformers, as I had once been, and did not say such things lightly.
‘My mother and brother think her guilty, they were furious when I said I might help her. But I must find the truth. There was such a strange thing at the inquest, it affected me and Edwin too—’
‘What was that?’
‘When we viewed the body it was two days after poor Ralph died. It has been hot this spring but there is an underground cellar where they store bodies for the coroner to view, which keeps them cool. And poor Ralph was clothed. And yet the body stank, sir, stank like a cow’s head left out in the Shambles in summer. It made me feel sick, the coroner too. I thought Edwin would pass out. What does that mean, sir? I have been trying to puzzle it out. What does it signify?’
I shook my head. ‘My friend, we do not know what half the things in the world signify. And sometimes they signify nothing.’
Joseph shook his head. ‘But God wants us to find the true meaning of things. He gives us clues. And, sir, if this matter is not resolved and Elizabeth dies, the real murderer goes free, whoever he is.’
Chapter Two
EARLY NEXT MORNING I RODE into the City again. It was another hot day; the sunlight reflecting from the diamond panes of the Cheapside buildings made me blink.
In the pillory by the Standard a middle-aged man stood with a paper cap on his head and a loaf of bread hung round his neck. A placard identified him as a baker who had sold short weight. A few rotten fruits were spattered over his robe but the passers-by paid him little attention. The humiliation would be the worst of his punishment, I thought, looking up at where he sat, then I saw his face contort with pain as he shifted his position. With his head and arms pinioned and his neck bent forward, it was a painful position for one no longer young; I shuddered to think of the pain my back would have given me were I put in his place. And yet it gave me far less trouble these days, thanks to Guy.
Guy’s was one of a row of apothecaries’ shops in a narrow alley just past the Old Barge. The Barge was a huge, ancient house, once grand but now let out as cheap apartments. Rooks’ nests were banked up against the crumbling battlements and ivy ran riot over the brickwork. I turned into the alley, welcoming the shade.
As I pulled to a halt in front of Guy’s shop, I had the uneasy sensation of being watched. The lane was quiet, most of the shops not yet open for business. I dismounted slowly and tied Chancery to the rail, trying to look unconcerned but listening out for any movement behind me. Then I turned swiftly and looked up the lane.