Treachery Read Online Free Page B

smoke and stretches his arms wide, lifting his chest to the rising moon.
    ‘Nothing like fresh sea air.’
    ‘It was before you arrived.’
    He leans with his back to the rail and grins. ‘Leave off, you sound like my wife. She always complains about the smell of a pipe. Especially now.’ He sighs and turns to face the sea again. ‘By God, it is a relief to be out of that house. Women are even more contrary than usual when they are with child. Why is one not warned of that in advance, I wonder?’
    ‘This time last year you were fretting you might not manage an heir at all. I’d have thought you’d be glad.’
    ‘It is all to please other people, Bruno. A man born to my station in life – certain things are expected of you. They are not necessarily your own choices.’
    ‘You don’t want to be a father?’
    ‘I would have liked to become a father once I was in a position to support sons and daughters myself, rather than still living in my father-in-law’s house. But … well.’ He laces his fingers together and cracks his knuckles. ‘They will not let me go to war until I have got an heir, in case I don’t come back. So I suppose I should be pleased.’
    The sails billow and snap above us; the ship moves implacably forward, stately, unhurried. After a long silence, Sidney taps his pipe out on the rail in front of him.
    ‘I put a group of armed men and servants on the road to Plymouth two days ago. They will meet us there and escort Dom Antonio back to London.’
    My earlier suspicions prickle again.
    ‘Along with us,’ I prompt.
    Sidney turns to me with a triumphant smile, his eyes gleaming in the fading light. He grips my sleeve. ‘We are not going back to London, my friend. By the time Dom Antonio is warming his boots at Whitehall, you and I shall be halfway across the Atlantic.’
    I stare at him for a long while, waiting – hoping – for some sign that this is another of his jokes. The wild light in his eyes suggests otherwise.
    ‘What, are we going to stow away? Hide among the baggage?’
    ‘I told you I had a plan for you, did I not?’ He leans back again, delighted with himself.
    ‘I thought it might be something realistic.’
    ‘Christ’s bones – don’t be such a naysayer, Bruno. Listen to me. What is the great problem that you and I share?’
    ‘The urge to write poetry, and a liking for difficult women.’
    ‘Other than those.’ He looks at me; I wait. ‘We lack independence, because we lack money.’
    ‘Ah. That.’
    ‘Exactly! And how do we solve it? We must be given money, or we must make it ourselves. And since I see no one inclined to give us any at present, what better way than to take it from the Spanish? To come home covered in glory, with a treasure of thousands in the hold – the look on her face then would be something to see, would it not?’
    For a moment I think he means his wife, until I realise.
    ‘This is all to defy the Queen, then? For not sending you to the Low Countries? You plan to sail to the other side of the world without her permission?’
    He does not answer immediately. Instead he looks out over the water, inhaling deeply.
    ‘Do you know how much Francis Drake brought home from his voyage around the world? No? Well, I shall tell you. Over half a million pounds of Spanish treasure. Ten thousand of that the Queen gave him for himself, more to be shared among his men. And that is only what he declared.’ He breaks off, shaking his head. ‘He has bought himself a manor house in Devon, a former abbey with all its land, and a coat of arms. The son of a yeoman farmer! And I cannot buy so much as a cottage for my family. My son will grow up knowing every mouthful he eats was provided by his grandfather, while his father sat by, dependent as a woman. How do you think that makes me feel?’
    ‘I understand you are frustrated, and angry with the Queen—’
    ‘The fellow she means to give the command of Flushing is my inferior in every degree. It is a