May 20, 1665
May 20, 1665“No, Lucy! I cannot. No, no, no!”
As he stared at her, Coke damned himself yet again for being a fool. Why had he not simply sent the actress a note of farewell, together with a promise of some money, forwarded when he had it? No written plea could have moved him to come if forewarned that such a boon might be asked of him. Once he’d heard from Isaac ben Judah that his cousin was in York and would not return for near a week and so be unable to value the gemstones—warned by him also in the same note, and by the gunshot that had sent him scurrying, that some huge man was inquiring after them, a thief-taker, no doubt—he should not have forsaken his room at the Aldgate coaching inn, let alone have ventured here. But no, fool that he was, he’d called in—and been trapp
