“Perhaps I may assuage his disappointment,” Lord Cambridge said. “Tell your master to come and see me. There may be a way that he can obtain Melville. I am Thomas Bolton, Lord Cambridge. My home is on the river near Richmond and Westminster. Bolton House. Any wherryman will know.”
Robert Burton stood up. “Thank you, my lord, I will tell my master what you have said to me. I believe he will come, for he very much desires old Lord Melvyn’s lands. A new owner might wish that pasturage for themselves, and would not rent it.” He bowed politely and hurried off, leaving Thomas Bolton considering that he might very well have all their problems solved, providing of course that the earl of Witton was amenable.
Robert Burton left London as quickly as he could and rode north and just slightly west for the earl of Witton’s lands, which were called Brierewode. He pushed himself, stopping when it grew dark only to eat and rest his horse for a few hours. At the first light he was up and riding once more. Reaching his master’s estates after several days, he gave his exhausted horse into the keeping of a stable boy and hurried into the house to find the earl in his library.
Crispin St. Claire looked up as his secretary entered the room. “How much did it cost us, Rob?” he asked.
Robert Burton shook his head. “We lost it, my lord.”
“What?” The earl of Witton was astounded. “Did I not tell you you could bid up to two hundred guineas?”
“There were three bids, my lord. The first was for one hundred and fifty gold guineas. It was made by a Lord Cambridge. Two hundred, says I, not wanting to prolong it. Three hundred, says this other gentleman.” He shrugged. “My lord, what was I to do?”
“The property isn’t worth all that gold coin,” the earl exclaimed.
“That’s what I told Lord Cambridge,” the secretary replied. “Well, it is to me, he says. Then while the royal secretary is counting out the price plus an additional ten guineas Lord Cambridge says he should take for himself, he tells me to wait. So I did.”
“And what did he say to you afterwards?” the earl asked, curious.
“He asked a lot of questions about you, my lord. Then he says if you will come and see him there may be a way for you to obtain the property in question. He says any wherryman in the London vicinity will know Bolton House, his home. His name is Thomas Bolton.”
“He probably wants to sell me the property at a profit,” the earl said, irritated. “He may even be in league with the royal secretary in this matter. I will not be diddled by some scheming courtier, damnit!”
“I don’t think he is that, my lord,” the secretary responded. “His garments are grand, and say he is a fop. But his manner is assured and direct. I cannot reconcile the two, but I must tell you that I liked him. I did not think him dishonest.”
“Interesting, Rob, for you are a good judge of character, and always have been,” the earl noted. “Shall I go then, and meet this Lord Cambridge?”
“It is winter, my lord. The land is lying fallow. The cattle are in the barns, and there is little to do right now for any of us. Is winter not the time when the nobility go to court? What harm can it do you to speak with Lord Cambridge? You can be no worse off after you have spoken with him than before, I am thinking.”
“I could be in great debt, Rob,” the earl told his secretary.
“The land is worth no more than I offered, my lord, and you would be foolish to go into debt to obtain it. I deposited your coin with your goldsmith in London, and there it will remain until you have need of it.”
“I will admit to being curious,” the earl said slowly, “and you are here to act on my behalf, Rob. Yet I swore I would not go back until I had found a wife.”
“You are more apt to find one at court, I am thinking,” the secretary said, “than here. None of our near neighbors have daughters of an age to wed.”
“I do not want some spoiled lass who thinks only of gowns, and how to spend my coin. A man must have a wife he can speak with now and again. These girls at court are naught but dancing, preening featherheads in my opinion. They giggle, and flirt, and kiss every gentleman they can find in whatever dark corners they can find. Still, there might be just one who would suit me. A biddable lass who would manage my home, and bear my children without complaint. And not waste my coin on fripperies.”
“You’ll never know, my lord, unless you go back to court,” Robert Burton said. “You know the king would welcome you. You served him well for eight years.”
“I did,” the earl agreed. “Being a diplomat for Henry Tudor is not an easy task, Rob, but I served him with honor both in San Lorenzo after that idiot Howard was called home, and in Cleves as well.”
“And you never found a lass in either place, my lord? ’Tis a pity, I think. We would have been happy to see you bring a bride home. Even a foreign lass.”
“In San Lorenzo the ladies of the south were too free with their favors to suit me,” the earl said. “And in Cleves they were too large, and too straightlaced. Nay, give me a good English wife. If I can find one.”
“Go back to court for the rest of the winter, my lord,” the secretary advised his master. “See what Lord Cambridge desires of you. And see if there is a pretty lass there who would suit your lordship.” Robert Burton was a servant of long and good standing with his master, and so was able to speak so freely to him.
“Well, I must go to London if for no other reason than to see what Lord Cambridge desires from me, and whether I can cajole him into giving me the lands that are rightfully mine. If only I could have convinced Lord Melvyn to sell me his properties, but towards the end there he became dotty, and convinced that everyone around him was stealing from him. I could not reason with the man at all.”
“He was very old, my lord,” Robert Burton reminded the earl. “They get that way sometimes when they are so old. Not all, but some.”
The earl of Witton departed for court a few days later. By the time he reached London the court was up from Greenwich and settled at Richmond again. Presenting himself first to Cardinal Wolsey’s majordomo, he begged a place to stay from him. It had been the cardinal who had assigned him to his various missions and postings for the king. The earl of Witton doubted if King Henry would even know who he was, but the cardinal did. He was given a small cubicle where he might leave his few belongings and lay his head at night. His food would be his own concern. He might eat in the cardinal’s hall if he could find a place. The earl of Witton thanked Cardinal Wolsey’s head of household, insisting he take a little bag of coppers for his trouble.
The morning after his arrival he dressed carefully, but soberly, and hailing a wherryman asked to be taken to Bolton House. The boatman nodded, and began to row upstream with the incoming tide. They were well past Richmond when the wherryman began guiding his boat towards the shore where a fine slate-roofed house of several stories, set in a garden, was situated. They drew up to a little dock, and the earl got out, tossing the wherryman a large coin.
“Shall I wait, me lord?” the wherryman asked.
