The Last Protector. Andrew Taylor

      THE LAST PROTECTOR

      Andrew Taylor

       Copyright

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2020

      Copyright © Andrew Taylor 2020

      Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020

      Cover illustrations © Andrew Davidson/The Artworks Inc

      Andrew Taylor asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      Endpapers show a reduced copy of Fisher’s Ground Plan of the Royal Palace of Whitehall, 1680’, (1881) © The Print Collector/Alamy Stock Photo

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008325510

      Ebook Edition © April 2020 ISBN: 9780008325534

      Version: 2021-02-04

       Dedication

       For Caroline

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

      The Main Characters

      Epigraph

      Map

Chapter One

Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       Chapter Twelve

       Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Chapter Sixteen

       Chapter Seventeen

       Chapter Eighteen

      Historical Note

      Read on for a sneak peek of The Royal Secret, the next book in Andrew Taylor’s acclaimed series due April 2021

       Keep Reading …

       About the Author

       By the Same Author

       About the Publisher

       THE MAIN CHARACTERS

       Infirmary Close, The Savoy

      James Marwood, clerk to Joseph Williamson, and to the Board of Red Cloth

      Margaret and Sam Witherdine, his servants

      Stephen, his footboy

       At the sign of the Rose, Henrietta Street

      Simon Hakesby, surveyor and architect

      Catherine Hakesby, his wife, formerly Lovett

      Jane Ash, her maid

      Brennan, Hakesby’s draughtsman

      Pheebs, the porter

       Whitehall

      King Charles II

      Lord Arlington, Secretary of State

      Dudley Gorvin, his clerk

      Joseph Williamson, Undersecretary of State to Lord Arlington

      William Chiffinch, Keeper of the King’s Private Closet

      George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham

      Ezra Reeves, a mazer-scourer

      Ferrus, the mazer-scourer’s labourer

       Others

      Mistress Elizabeth Cromwell, late Lady Protectoress of England (died 1665)

      The Reverend Jeremiah White, formerly chaplain to the Lord Protector

      Richard Cromwell, late Lord Protector of England, in succession to his father, Oliver Cromwell

      Elizabeth Cromwell, Richard’s