‘I got swept up in the crowd. I saw him enter London.’

‘Jack Cade?’

‘The captain? He is John Mortimer.’

‘Jack Cade is his name but he’s calling himself Mortimer, and John Amend-All, and all sorts of names. The name Mortimer brings out the supporters of Richard of York for him, it’s York’s family name. Cade is borrowing it or worseuke is lending it. Either way it means more trouble. Where did you see him?’

‘Crossing the bridge, and getting the keys of the City.’

‘Getting the keys?’ my husband demands, dumbfounded.

‘They greeted him as a hero, all the common people and the mayor and the aldermen too. He was dressed like a nobleman coming to rule.’

He lets out a whistle. ‘God save the king. You’d better tell Lord Scales, he’s in command here.’

He tucks his hand under my elbow and leads me to the White Tower. ‘Are you tired, beloved?’

‘A little.’

‘And you feel well? The baby?’

‘All right, I think. All well.’

‘Were you frightened?’

‘A little. My love, I thought you were dead.’

‘Not I.’

I hesitate. ‘You have seen our house?’

‘Nothing that we can’t repair when this is over.’

I glance at him. ‘They walked in through the door and took what they wanted. It will be hard to repair that.’

He nods. ‘I know. But we will do it. Now, I’ll get you some wine and some meat as soon as we find Scales. He’ll need to know where Cade is tonight.’

‘Dining with the Lord Mayor, I think.’

Richard pauses and looks at me. ‘A man who has brought an army out of Kent and defeated the king’s men has the keys to the City of London and is dining with the Lord Mayor?’

I nod. ‘They greeted him like he was freeing them from a tyrant. The Lord Mayor and all the aldermen welcomed him to the City like a hero.’

Richard scowls. ‘You’d better tell Scales,’ is all he says.

* * *

Lord Scales is in a state of ill-concealed terror. He is using the Constable of the Tower’s house and he has double guards on the front and back doors and at the windows. Clearly, he fears that his king has abandoned him and the City together to the men from Kent. His men may be of the royal guard and have taken the king’s shilling but what is to say that they are not Kentishmen, or that they do not have a family making a poor living at Dover? Half of them have come from Normandy and feel betrayed; why should they defend us now, who let them be driven from their own homes? When I tell him that Cade was welcomed as a hero he tells me that I must have been mistaken. ‘He is a scoundrel and a villain,’ he rules.

‘There were many in his train who were gentlemen,’ I say. ‘I could see they had good horses and good saddles. Cade himself rode like a man accustomed to command. And there was only one alderman in the whole of the City who did not welcome him.’