Chapter 5The following day, I went to the workshop of the King’s tailor, which is within the grounds of Whitehall, and had one of his apprentices make me a long-sleeved doublet and trousers of black leather which would wear better than velvet and be easier to clean.
The laundress had demanded an extra eight pence to scrub my wet clothes, complaining all the while that they stank. The worst part of my ducking wasn’t that Will had done it after betraying me, but that I’d had to walk the twenty-five minutes from the garden to my chamber sodden and stinking, and the guard whom I’d wounded was back on duty and saw me. He pointed me out to his fellows, and the laughter and jokes at my expense spread quickly around the palace.
I never wanted to see William Cranmore again, but see him I would, a
