Chapter 8 #2
John reached inside his tunic and pulled out a well-worn letter. It bore a wax seal, with what appeared to be a hunting horn stamped into it. He placed it on the table. After a moment, he reached into the tunic again. This time, he pulled out a leather pouch.
It looked very heavy. When he dropped it beside the letter, it clinked.
‘A friend of the family reached out to me. They do not know what to do and are seeking some way’ – the angelic look John plastered across his face nearly made Noll laugh – ‘to ease their suffering. Their daughter is being forced to wed a brute. She is a widow, with land and power. She has safety guaranteed for her in Scotland, but she cannot take it. They require someone to secure her freedom.’
‘By killing her husband?’
‘He is not her husband yet.’
‘It just seems extreme,’ Noll said desperately. ‘Murder? Why not write to her, and urge her to call the match off? Or visit her?’
John gave his best expression of contrite empathy. It was not particularly convincing.
‘Ah, but they have,’ he said. ‘Letters gone unanswered, requests to visit unheeded. The daughter is … prickly, at the best of times. This family friend fears she would not respond well to him interfering in her life. His presence would force her even further into the arms of this monster.’
‘Her family have had no word from her?’
‘None at all.’
‘They fear coercion, then. Or control.’
‘That is exactly it. They are desperate, Noll. They would do anything for their baby girl.’
Noll raised his eyebrows. ‘Their widowed baby girl who is about to enter a union with a second man?’
John grinned. ‘Exactly.’
Noll sighed. ‘This just seems enormously risky. I cannot—’
‘The reward is extremely generous.’
Noll fell silent. He eyed the straining leather pouch beside the letter.
‘How generous?’
He did not, in truth, expect a great deal.
The sort of family who would request their daughter’s betrothed be murdered rather than simply talk to the man – and wealthy enough to get away with it were their sins discovered – would likely also be the sort of family who considered a generous reward to be a few coins and a promise not to turn the man with blood on his hands over to the law.
‘Extremely. They have promised money, of course; that is to be expected. And …’
‘And?’ John was drawing this out, Noll knew, attempting to pull him in like a fish on a line.
‘Safety across the border in Scotland. I told them I had a man likely for the job, who was looking for a …’ he gave a low, mirthless laugh ‘… a fresh start. It has been promised that the man who sees through this request …’ he picked up the knife, and tapped the point of it against the letter ‘… will be given money and safety. A home. Employment, I would guess, should you play them right.’
Noll’s chest went tight. Safety. That was what he wanted – what he’d been searching for all these years. He could even take Pepper with him, if Pepper agreed. It would be a chance at a new life, away from the many people they had wronged.
A chance away from the past, which still threatened to choke him. English soil and Scottish soil were one and the same. It was all just dirt in the end. But merely treading where he trod was too much, sometimes.
The border – even if it was no more real than a line in his own head – would ease that.
‘May I have time to consider it?’ Noll said.
John smiled. ‘No.’
Noll sighed. ‘Fine. Fine. This is hugely risky,’ he said. ‘It is no easy thing, to take a life.’
‘If it’s any incentive,’ John added, ‘they’ve paid part of your compensation already, to be given upon agreement. Presumably they think you need the tools to handle the job correctly.’
Noll had to stop himself from gasping as he looked at the money pouch beside John, realising at last what it was.
‘All of that?’
John smiled. ‘Only once the job is done,’ he said. ‘A third is yours. The rest, of course, is mine. For finding you such a lucrative opportunity.’
‘Your compensation for sitting on your arse while I murder a man?’
John placed a hand to his heart. ‘I am hurt, Noll.’
‘Not hurt enough, I fear.’
John ignored him. ‘This is my payment for acquiring this job for you, and ensuring the goodwill of the people who have hired you. Without me, you would not be here. It would behove you to remember that.’
Noll bristled. ‘And if I don’t agree to these terms?’
John played with the knife on the table. Noll tracked the shining movement carefully.
He was ready for the moment John moved, flicking the knife across the table with such speed and precision that it was barely a glimmering blur before lodging itself neatly in the wood between Noll’s hands. He didn’t even flinch.
‘I do not think we have to worry about that.’ John grinned, leaning across the table and pulling out the knife. ‘Do we have an agreement?’
Noll looked at the notch in the wood between his hands. He looked at the groaning bag of coins beside John’s arm.
‘We do,’ he said at last.
Noll found Pepper waiting outside. He headed over as soon as he spotted him, eyes lit up with curiosity.
‘Well?’ he demanded, keeping pace with Noll. ‘What did he want?’
‘Not here.’
Noll managed to stay silent until they were back in their tiny room with the door bolted behind them. In a rush, he explained the whole horrible business. By the end of it, Pepper was watching him, mouth ajar.
‘My God. And you agreed to this?’
‘I did.’
‘And who is it? This man?’
‘He’s an earl. John only gave me a description and told me where to wait. He does not want me knowing too much, the bastard, and frankly I agree with him.’
Pepper nodded. ‘You’re worried you will be traced back here?’
‘I am.’
‘If it is so risky, then why even do it?’
‘They have offered so much money, Pep. And I could start again in Scotland. You know I hate it here. You could come with me.’
‘Come with you?’
‘You do not have to,’ Noll said quickly. ‘I know that you are content here, as you are, but if you wanted to, you would be more than welcome to join me.’
Pepper didn’t respond. Noll began to panic.
‘You are the closest thing I have to family,’ he said. ‘Damn it: you are my family. And I will never forgive myself if I leave and something happens to you. Besides, I owe you my life.’
Pepper sighed. ‘I do not need anything from you, Noll.’
‘And yet I still wish to give,’ Noll said. ‘Promise me you will think about it. I shall return for my pay once this mess is over, and we can talk about it more then. And until then … I have something for you. A gift.’
Pepper raised his eyebrows as Noll dug in his pack.
‘A gift?’ he said, cynically.
Noll pulled out the package with a flourish. ‘Well, if you do not need it …’
Pepper immediately went to grab it, but Noll quickly snatched it back.
‘Ah,’ he said, eyebrows raised as Pepper humphed at him. ‘So you do need it?’
Pepper rolled his eyes. ‘Fine. I do not need anything from you. But you cannot tease me with a gift, that is just unfair.’
Noll grinned, and this time, tossed the package across to him. Pepper caught it and hurriedly tore into it, pulling away the string and ripping away the wrapping until—
He burst out laughing.
‘What?’ Noll said, in faux innocence. ‘You need some, after all.’
Pepper turned the bollock dagger over in his hands, still laughing. The wooden guard had been carved into perfectly symmetrical orbs, the waxed handle ending in a bulbous tip. Pepper pulled it from the leather sheath to examine the blade, his hand fitting perfectly between guard and pommel.
It was, in truth, a perfectly nondescript dagger.
Noll had seen dozens of them in his time – hundreds, perhaps.
But the blade was sharp and sturdy, and the sheath, which to his mind could be just as important as the blade itself, was thick and watertight.
It would serve Pepper well, if he was careful, and learned to wield it.
Noll could only hope that he would be there to teach him. But if he wasn’t – if accident or injury or misfortune parted them – the dagger alone would be enough to help keep him safe.
‘Well?’ he said. ‘What do you think?’
Pepper finished examining the dagger, pushing it back into the sheath and holding it tight in both hands, as if Noll had gifted him something rare and wonderful.
‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘It is too much, surely? How could you afford this?’
Noll waved him away. ‘You ask too many questions,’ he said. ‘Ask me again and I’ll leave you on the side of the road where I found you.’
Pepper crinkled his nose and busied himself using the straps on the sheath to secure the dagger to his belt.
‘No’ – Noll couldn’t stop himself, leaning forwards – ‘like this.’
As he properly attached the dagger, he thought of how correct Pepper had been.
The blade had cost him the very last of his coin – the money left over from his convalescence, in fact, when Pepper had been forced to sell Noll’s lute.
Noll had allowed Pepper to assume that the money had been used up months ago, and had been completely unaware of the tiny stash that Noll had squirrelled away, just in case.
When the dagger was attached securely, Noll sat back on his heels.
‘There,’ he said. ‘And do not lose it.’
Pepper laughed. ‘I won’t. I will protect it with my life.’
‘It is supposed to be the other way around.’
‘As you say.’ Pepper looked uncharacteristically thoughtful. ‘Thank you, Noll,’ he said at last. ‘Really.’
Noll placed a hand upon his shoulder. For a reason he could not fathom, he felt terribly sad.
The birds nesting in the rafters of the building were singing far too sweetly for a day upon which blood was going to be spilled.