Thomasin did not need to say a word.
“I know she is playing a dangerous game,” said Rafe, “but I am sent out to look for the book. You do not have a moment spare, do you, to help me? Two pairs of eyes would be better.”
“You want me to help look for a banned book? To help Anne?”
“It’s a lot to ask, I know.”
Thomasin shrugged. She would play this game. “I suppose I could help for a short time, but you would have a better idea than I of where we might seek it.”
“Thank you, thank you, Thomasin!” He made to step forward, as if to kiss her, but she stepped back out of his reach. “Come this way.”
He hurried down the staircase and out towards the courtyard. Thomasin hurried after him, heart in her mouth at the thought of discovering the missing book. If she saw it first, she might be able to hide it and deliver it to the queen. Above all, Rafe must not find it.
“George has been courting Nan, and one of their favourite places is in the covered walk. Let’s start there!”
George had been courting Nan? This was news to Thomasin, and although it was not really her business, it might have a bearing on the matter.
“Yes,” said Thomasin, pulling her cloak around her as they plunged outside. The temperature dropped, but the walkway had at least been sanded and swept. “Let’s find this book!”
TWENTY-THREE
There were many places in the covered walk where you could hide a book — if that was the place the thief had chosen to hide it, and Thomasin profoundly hoped that it was not. Statues and stone benches, niches and nooks, urns and bushes. She and Rafe took a side each, working their way along, but although it was covered and the snow had not managed to drift inside, Thomasin thought that any book left here, even for a few hours, would surely be ruined. The dampness of the air and the ice-cold floor and stone must have corrupted its pages.
“They were here only yesterday,” said Rafe, as if he was seeking their footsteps. “Just before the book was found to be missing.”
“You think it has been taken, or just mislaid?”
“It could be either, but this is not just any book.”
“I know, I know.” Thomasin peered behind a little evergreen bush. Again, nothing. “Is it really a book they would have brought courting with them?”
“Oh, George Zouche has been reading her passages, thinking himself very clever for it.”
“Have you heard any of it?”
“Me? I don’t pay attention to things like that. I’ve been in the room when they’ve been reading it, but I don’t know what all the fuss is about.”
Thomasin stopped in her tracks. “You don’t?”
Rafe emerged from an archway. “Does it really matter if the Pope or the king is head of the Church? It’s just a different master. It’ll touch the king, and Anne, of course, but will it change the lives of you and I? We’ll still have to follow orders, and be saved or damned.”
“Of course it matters. It would mean breaking with Rome. We could no longer look to the Pope; we would be alone, following the dictates of the king.”
“Are we not already? How many times has the Pope intervened for you?”
He had a point. “Well, he hasn’t directly, but everything is determined by him. All our Church rules and laws come from Rome.”
“But even if they come from the king instead, they are still rules and laws that we must follow. It would only mean us following another master.”
“No, this is not like seeking employment, or entering another household. This is spiritual guidance, the salvation of our souls. Does the king how best to fulfil those duties, better than the Pope?” Thomasin thought of the conversation she had just left in Catherine’s chambers and continued, “What if the king is imperilling his soul? Acting against God’s wishes in putting aside his wife and seeking to marry another. How can we trust him to be fair and true in spiritual things, if he himself might be misguided?”
Rafe took a step closer. “Thomasin, hush, you should not say such things aloud out here. In questioning the king, you put yourself in danger.”
She realised she had spoken rashly and lowered her voice. “But is the king above criticism? There have been kings, anointed kings in the past, who have been misguided, have there not?”
Rafe shrugged. “I can’t speak of these things, only think of their effect upon people like us, Thomasin. The lives of those in service are determined by those they serve. I have never met the Pope in Rome, but I do know the king. I already live according to his rules, so how would this be any different?”
Thomasin shook her head, frustrated that he could not see her point. “So you do not see any difference between your body and your soul?”
