Extract 2: A Visit to Bedlam.

Hezekiah recognised the voice from outside his cell door. Surely he was dreaming or finally driven insane by his incarceration. He leaped from his bed and pushed his face up against the grill in the door hatch to see. The visitor was real: long golden curling hair and richly dressed like a royal courtier. Hezekiah had not seen the man in ten years or more, not since his own wedding, but he still recognised him.

‘God be praised,’ Hezekiah called out. ‘Sugar! Sugar Candy, save me!’

Candy turned back and looked through the grill at Hezekiah’s words; his eyes widened at the sight of the inmate.

‘Well, bugger me sideways with a bargepole. Hez Hillier, I thought you were dead these past three years? I saw your brother at Anne’s wedding, he told me you were killed in the fighting?’

‘Get me out of here, Sugar, Elias has betrayed me.’

Candy turned back to the porter. ‘Open it up,’ he said.

‘This one is dangerous, Captain. He has tried to escape in the past.’

Candy cuffed the man with a gloved fist.

‘Do not presume to argue with me, insolent lout. Open up or I shall have you turned out under my authority with the Office of Ordnance and Armouries. Open it up!’

They porter glowered but knew that he could not refuse the famous Captain Candy. He took out his ring of keys, found the correct one, and turned the key in the lock.

‘My master will hear of this, and the governor,’ he muttered.

A furious Candy cuffed him again. ‘One more word out of you, mi’laddo, and I shall have you thrashed.’

As the door swung open Hezekiah was confused, he did not know what to say or do; he simply sank to his knees in front of the Roundhead captain grabbing at his coat.

‘Thank you, Sugar,’ he whispered. ‘Thank you.’

‘You need a shave and some new clothes.’ Candy sniffed. ‘And you smell like a sewer, Hez. We are of a similar height; I can lend you some fashion and provide a bath.’

That brought a weak smile from the inmate.

‘Come along then, we are leaving now.’

Candy raised him up and helped him to the stairs. Now that his release seemed certain, Hezekiah felt as weak as a baby but kept looking around, still expecting someone to stop them.

‘You cannot take him out,’ protested the young porter. ‘You have no authority to do that.’

Candy turned and struck with such unfathomable speed that Hezekiah was shocked. A single swift punch to the solar plexus, and the porter collapsed to the floor gasping. Then he kicked the man in the head as he crawled on the floor, knocking him senseless.

‘He was a tedious conversationalist,’ said Sugar in explanation.