Sleep of Death by Philip Gooden Page A

Sir?
    N: Sir Thomas Eliot, where was he all this while?
    F: Sir Thomas?
    N: Your old master’s brother and now your new master.
    F: He was about his business.
    N: Where? Here in the house?
    F: Oh no, I do not think so. He was away, in Dover, I think.
    N: So when did he find out about the death of his brother?
    F: The next day it must have been, sir. When he returned from Dover. My lady went to tell him as he came into the hall, but in truth he must have been able to tell something was wrong. Tom Bullock would have said as he arrived.
    N: Tom Bullock?
    F: He is the doorman. He says little, but even he could not keep his mouth closed around this.
    N: Was Sir Thomas often here?
    F: He dwells in Richmond. No longer of course. Now he dwells here with my lady.
    N: But, before your old master died, he was often here?
    F: I dare say so, Master Revill.
    N: Out of love for his brother and sister?
    F: It is said—
    N: Yes?
    F: – that he was near to bankrupt before this marriage.
    N: Thank you, Francis. And still one thing more. Can I ask you again about the moment when you saw Sir William?
    F: Again, sir?
    N [
sensing that even this simple man’s patience is about to be exhausted
]: For my own private satisfaction. You touched nothing about Sir William’s person in the garden?
    F: I – no . . .
    N: Well, I thank you, Francis.
    [
Nick Revill makes to turn away, knowing that Francis has more to say on this topic and that a pretended dismissal, and an active conscience, will work best on this good servant.
]
    F: Wait a moment, sir. You set me thinking now. I went close to the body and, like I said, I knew that he was dead straightaway, even before I put my fingertips out. His head was on one side and . . .
    N: Yes?
    F: It’s a tiny thing, sir. But on the side of his face turned towards me there was a mark that ran aslant his cheek.
    N: How did you see this? It must have been dark by this stage.
    F: Like I said, my eyes had grown used to the dark, and there was a strong moon nearly at the full. The moonlight caught this . . . trail . . . as it will pick out the trail of a boat on the river. It was like a snail’s trail, a silver track that stretched from his ear and down across the cheek before it disappeared in his beard. I . . . I wiped at the mark with my sleeve, sir, because I did not like to think that something had crawled across the face of my dead master. I had almost forgot it until this instant. Did I do wrong?
    N: No, Francis. You showed respect towards your master. The sleeve you used to wipe Sir William’s cheek, would that happen to be the one on the shirt you’re wearing?
    F: I keep it in my trunk beneath my bed. I have two shirts, and I have not worn that one since the night of the discovery. And if you were to ask me why, sir, I could not tell you.
    We’d landed on the south bank by now. I paid off the boatman, adding a small tip, and was rewarded with a surly nod. Can you ever satisfy a boatman? Will Charon, who is to ferry us all across Lethe one day, be as bad-tempered as a London waterman? Impossible!
    As I made my way up the landing steps and into Hopton Street on the way to the playhouse, I considered again what I had discovered. I must confess that the feeling that there was indeed something to find out – the feeling that this wasn’t all a matter of a son’s grieving imagination – had grown strongly upon me. William Eliot was convinced of something odd, even suspicious about his father’s death. Now I was starting to believe the same thing. Even so quickly may one catch the plague! After talking with Francis and summarising our exchange in my little black book, I had noted (in my Greekified style) the following points for further reflection:
    firstly
: Why were the family, Lady Alice and William, so sure that Sir William was in the garden, that he hadn’t, for example, slipped away from the house? One of the servants, Janet, had witnessed him entering the garden, to be sure, and no one had seen