Barak and Nicholas heaved Leeman up, putting his limp arms over their shoulders. Cecil looked on, his eyes wide. Barak gave him a grim smile. ‘Don’t worry, he’ll come round in a while.’ Cecil shook his head, as though wondering whether all this could actually have happened, then motioned Lord Parr’s second man to help him lift the dead man’s body.

WE REACHED Nicholas’s lodgings without incident, taking the conspirators’ discarded lamp to light our way. I kept a keen ear out for anyone following us through the dark streets, but heard nothing. Leeman was still unconscious when we reached Nicholas’s lodgings. Barak and Nicholas laid him on the bed, which needed a change of sheets. I coughed at the dust in the room. ‘Don’t you have someone in to clean?’ I asked.

‘We had a woman, but Stephen next door tried it on with her once too often. We haven’t found anyone else yet.’

I looked at Nicholas’s bookshelf, noting that along with some legal tomes and a New Testament which seemed suspiciously pristine, there were a couple of volumes on gentlemanly conduct and the Book of the Hunt.

‘I’m hungry,’ Nicholas said. ‘I have some pork dripping and bread. I think the dripping’s still all right.’ Under the fading bruises his face was pale. Barak, too, looked tired and grim. We were all exhausted. I studied Leeman, lying prone on the bed. He was young, tall and strongly built, with dark hair, a neatly trimmed beard and a handsome face with a proud Roman nose. He wore a jerkin of ordinary fustian, a far cry from the finery of the Queen’s court. I felt gently round the back of his head; there was a large swelling there.

Barak and Nicholas had sat down at the table, and were hungrily devouring the bread and dripping which Nicholas had brought from a cupboard. ‘Here,’ Barak said to me. ‘Have some food. We could be here a while.’

I joined them, but continued to check on Leeman. I had some time, at least, to question him before Lord Parr’s men arrived. I sensed that, like Myldmore, this man might be willing to speak if we could convince him that we were working for the reformist side. It was worth a try. I remembered what I had said to Nicholas that time Elias had fled. Never prick a stirring horse more than he needs. I was desperate to find out what Leeman knew but a soft touch might work here. I remembered Cecil’s remark that he would talk in the end, and had a momentary vision of fists thudding in a darkened room.

After a while, Leeman groaned and began to stir. Barak took some water from a bucket and squeezed a cloth over his face. Leeman coughed, then sat up, clutching his head. Grimacing with pain, he looked down at his bound arm.