Doctor Who_ The Roundheads - Mark Gatiss [72]
Striking and handsome in his Roundhead uniform, he carried his helmet under one arm and bowed to Thurloe as he crossed the threshold.
‘Ah,’ said Thurloe, ‘Captain Culpeper. Please come in, come in.’
Culpeper did as he was bidden, taking up a position by the fireplace. ‘You may sit if you wish,’ offered Thurloe, extending a hand.
Culpeper looked straight ahead. ‘I prefer to stand, sir.’
Thurloe nodded and sat back in his chair, crossing his hands over his chest. ‘I won’t delay, Culpeper,’ he said suddenly. ‘I do not like you and you, I know, have little but contempt for me.’
‘Sir –’ began Culpeper.
Thurloe held up a gloved hand. ‘Please, do not insult my intelligence by protesting. You regard me as an interfering old fool who gives General Cromwell all manner of bad advice. Is it not so?’ Culpeper looked straight ahead. ‘I have my opinions, sir, and am entitled to them.’
Thurloe nodded and smiled smoothly. ‘Quite so, quite so.’
He picked up a piece of paper from his desk and tapped it. ‘Do you know what this is?’
‘Sir?’
‘It is a draft copy of John Lilburne’s new pamphlet.’
Culpeper laughed shortly. ‘That hot-head. His Levellers are a spent force –’
‘Don’t interrupt me!’ barked Thurloe with sudden ferocity.
He rubbed his hand over his brow. ‘You underestimate them, sir. These Levellers are a strong force. Their crazed ambitions for manhood suffrage and republicanism are but a heartbeat away.’
Culpeper frowned. ‘What has all this to do with me?’
Thurloe leaned forward urgently. ‘Do you not see, man, that the Levellers are claiming Cromwell wants the crown?
That the whole conflict was engineered that he might snatch the bauble from Charles’s head?’
Culpeper shook his head. ‘That is a silly falsehood.’
‘Naturally!’ cried Thurloe with a sigh. ‘But these things have a habit of gaining ground, do they not? We all know that Charles must die, yet if popular opinion be persuaded that we are simply exchanging one king for another, what might the consequences be?’
Culpeper looked at Thurloe for the first time. ‘We must have strong leadership. A figurehead.’
Thurloe jumped to his feet and stalked towards the soldier, shaking his fist angrily. ‘And does not the general provide such leadership? Have you cause to complain?’
‘No but-’
‘Then, sir,’ spat Thurloe, his voice almost choked off with fury, ‘cease your prattling counsel. We shall have a council of state in place of the King. And that is the end of the matter.
Good day.’
Culpeper put out his hand. ‘Thurloe, I never meant –’
‘Good day!’ snapped Thurloe.
With a frustrated sigh, Culpeper turned on his heel and strode to the door. As he opened it, Thurloe spoke again. ‘You are an ambitious man, Thomas Culpeper. I have watched you as I watch everything that comes within the general’s circle.
Take care that I do not crush you.’
Culpeper hovered impotently in the doorway for a second and then stalked out, slamming the door behind him.
Thurloe smiled, pleased with his performance.
He walked back to the desk and picked up the piece of paper he had brandished earlier. The stuff about Lilbume’s pamphlet had done the trick admirably, although the document in his hand was nothing of the sort. It was a death warrant for Thomas Culpeper which Thurloe had had the foresight to draw up some months before.
He opened a drawer in his desk and carefully placed the warrant inside. You never knew when these things might come in handy.
Tearing like a greyhound across the deck of the Teazer, Ben didn’t pause for breath.
He and Winter had managed to lash together tarry ropes from the ship’s rigging which they fixed to the metal capstans which studded the outer hull of the vessel. Then, half-wriggling half-crawling, they had dragged themselves across to the Teazer splitting up as soon as they crashed onto her deck. Ben’s task was to ascertain whether Stanislaus was aboard or had joined the attack on Winter’s ship, while the lady captain headed straight for the Pole’s cabin.
‘If I know him, he’ll be as far from the fight as possible’
she’d said. ‘And now they’ve set