Free Keeper of the King's Secrets by Michelle Diener

weapon.
    With a final heave, the waterman piloting the merchant’s boat scraped the shore, with Parker’s boatman just behind them.
    “Get below the bank, out of sight.” Parker leaped from the boat, diving past the merchant to take the path at a run. But by the time he’d climbed the bank, he could see the Frenchman running toward the crowds of Billingsgate Market, where it would be impossible to catch him.
    Harry waved to him from the doorway of St. Magnus. They were safe.
    He turned back, walking down to the boats, surprised to see the watermen struggling with the merchant.
    He was tired of chasing down leads that ended in nothing, and he strode to where the three men fought and pulled out his knife.
    At the sight of it, the merchant stopped his struggles.
    “Held on to ’im for ya, sir.” The waterman who had piloted his boat gave him a grin, his teeth dark brown stumps in his mouth.
    Parker gave a nod of thanks to the watermen and they stepped in front of the boats in case the merchant tried to escape that way.
    He hefted his knife and, after a moment, slipped it back up his sleeve. “If you answer me, I will let you take your cart and leave for Dover. If you don’t, I will personally deliver you to the Tower myself.” He spoke evenly.
    The merchant lifted a hand in defeat, then flicked his eyes to the watermen, but they were far enough away to give them a measure of privacy. Even so, the merchant pitched his voice very low.
    “I don’t know the whole of it. I am glad that I don’t. But Jens let one thing slip, and it was then I realized how much trouble he had led me into by his contact.” The man shifted his gaze to the bank above, and then dropped his voice even further. “Jens was in London to assess a gem. The Mirror of Naples. I do not know who commissioned him to undertake the task, only that he discovered there was more to the job than merely valuing it and verifying what it was. He would not cooperate with the larger plot, and he and his employer fell out over it. He became a hunted man.”
    Parker stared at him. “You are sure of this?”
    The man nodded.
    Parker stepped away, and the merchant cowered back as if expecting him to strike. But Parker was already fumbling for a coin each for the watermen for their help, tossing them through the air to them. He ran back up the narrow path that led to the road, leaving the merchant to his own devices.
    Whoever was behind this, if they were trying to steal the Mirror of Naples, then they were surely trying to force the King into war.

14

    It is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity.
    —Machiavelli , The Prince, chapter 15
    T he King was back at Bridewell.
    It saved Parker riding out to him, for which he was infinitely grateful.
    He kept hold of Susanna as they skirted the chaos of the courtyard, trying to avoid the mud. He shoved a little harder than he usually would against the crush of bodies as he forged a path into the great hall.
    A monkey was screeching and chattering, causing cries and yelps as it ran over the heads and shoulders of the servants lifting trunks and chests.
    It leaped at Parker, landing on his shoulder and clutching tight to his cloak. Parker could feel it shivering, hopping from side to side with agitation.
    Susanna stopped, uncertain, and he grabbed the creature by the scruff of its neck and held it away from her.
    “He won’t hurt you.”
    Parker saw Will Somers approaching, stoop-shouldered and gaunt, his face for once free of any mockery.
    “Come here, lambkin,” Somers said.
    Parker held the monkey out and it jumped into Somers’s arms and then scuttled to his shoulder, chattering softly in his ear. Somers stroked its golden brown fur with a long, bony finger. “You were frightened by this unholy racket, weren’t you, lambkin?”
    “Where is the King?” Parker drew Susanna closer as two servants staggered past with a massive