Marbeck and the King in Waiting

The Queen is dying and Marbeck is feeling shut out of doing what he does best; gathering information for the Queen’s spymaster, Robert Cecil.  At the same time, he is asked by his lover, Lady Celia Scroop, to talk to her son, Henry, who, while at university, has taken up with a radical group of Puritans.

Lady Celia also hands a note to Marbeck, which she had been holding for him for a week.  A fellow intelligencer warns him that someone has told Cecil that Marbeck is working for the Spanish.  He tells him to go to Scotland and make himself available to King James, who is sure to be named the inheritor of the throne of England.

He promised Lady Celia that he would stop in Oxford on the way and speak to her son.  However, when he gets there, he finds that the lad has left university and gone to Oxford to follow Isaac Gow, who leads the radical Puritans.  When Marbeck speaks to Henry, he finds a lad in grief over his father’s death and completely in the grips of Gow.

In Cambridge he encounters Edward Poyns, another of Cecil’s intelligencers.  Poyns tells him of a conspiracy to put the Spanish Infanta and her Austrian husband on the throne, thereby bringing back the catholic religion.  The following morning news arrives that Elizabeth is dead, and James VI of Scotland will be James I of England.

As Marbeck learns more about Gow, he comes to the conclusion that Henry is involved in something more sinister than what he thinks.  Marbeck decides that his best course of action is to head to London.  There he meets with Prout, assistant to Cecil.  Prout arranges a meeting with two others; John Chyme and Llewelyn.  The four of them discuss a threat to the country.  It is agreed that Marbeck and Llewelyn will join the potential army of insurrectionists in Kent, while Chyme will go after Gow and seek out Henry.  Meantime, Prout will sift through messages coming in to Cecil.

Can Marbeck and Llewelyn stop the army from advancing on London before the Infanta arrives?  How will Chyme make out with getting Henry from the clutches of the fanatic, Gow?  Author John Pilkington has these answers and many more in this exciting historical novel.  It is full of action and a fun read.  I look forward to reading more of this author’s works.