The Piccadilly Plot

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William Reyner watched Lord Teviot lead the five hundred soldiers to their deaths. It would be easy to prevent the massacre — just gallop after the column and tell Teviot that more than ten thousand Barbary corsairs were lying in wait ahead — but he made no move to do so. A large amount of money was at stake, and that was considered far more important than the lives of mere warriors. Besides, Reyner had never liked Teviot: the man was a greedy fool, who should never have been appointed Governor of Tangier in the first place.

He glanced around him. Tangier had come to England as part of Queen Katherine’s dowry, but it was a paltry place — a few winding streets huddled on a hill, rich with the scent of exotic spices, sun-baked manure and the salty aroma of the sea. It was being fortified, in the hope that it would provide British ships with a secure Mediterranean anchorage, although personally Reyner thought the King should have held out for something better. Tangier’s harbour was too shallow and too exposed, while the surrounding countryside was full of hostile Moors.

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