{"id":1817,"date":"2026-09-04T11:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/excerpt-from-speculation-undercurrents-of-treachery-11\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T11:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T10:00:06","slug":"excerpt-from-speculation-undercurrents-of-treachery-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/excerpt-from-speculation-undercurrents-of-treachery-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt from Speculation: Undercurrents of Treachery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Speculation: Undercurrents of Treachery:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;&#8221;You!&#8221; His eyes sparked with hatred, his voice stronger than his appearance suggested. &#8220;My brother can&#8217;t even do the courtesy of visiting me himself, instead he sends his errand boys?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Lord Admiral,&#8221; Dee began, &#8220;I see you remember me &#8211; as I do you. I don&#8217;t think we were ever formally introduced. My name is Dee. John Dee. I&#8217;m here on the Lord Protector&#8217;s business &#8211; as you rightly guess. This is my associate, Nicholas Whitely. Behind us you see Captain Mercer of the King&#8217;s Guard &#8211; whom I think you also know.&#8221;<br \/>\nSeymour&#8217;s gaze sharpened at Dee&#8217;s introduction. &#8220;Ah, yes. The Welsh Wizard of Cambridge. I remember you, Master Dee. You divined the secrets of my plan to rescue the King from his servitude to my brother.&#8221;<br \/>\nInternally, Dee bristled at Seymour&#8217;s characterisation of the past events, but he remembered an ancient eastern proverb he&#8217;d read: the secret to happiness is not to argue with fools.<br \/>\nHe inclined his head slightly, not bothering to correct this man that he knew to be duplicitous and deceiving. Instead he simply replied, &#8220;We come on a matter of state importance.&#8221;<br \/>\nSeymour gestured toward the small table and chairs in the centre of the room. &#8220;Then, by all means, let us discuss this matter of such import that it brings the Protector&#8217;s lackeys to my humble abode.&#8221; The sarcasm in his voice was unmistakable.<br \/>\nThey seated themselves around the table, Mercer remaining by the door. Seymour leaned forward, resting his elbows on the scarred wooden surface.<br \/>\n&#8220;Well?&#8221; he prompted. &#8220;I&#8217;m all aflutter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dee studied the man carefully. &#8220;I understand you have information regarding a hoard of Spanish gold &#8211; a significant quantity that could be of great value to the crown.&#8221;<br \/>\nSomething flickered in Seymour&#8217;s eyes &#8211; satisfaction, perhaps. &#8220;Ah, so my letter finally reached the right eyes. I was beginning to think my brother had consigned it to the fire without reading it.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;The Lord Protector takes all matters concerning the realm&#8217;s finances very seriously,&#8221; Dee replied pompously. &#8220;Particularly in these troubled times.&#8221;<br \/>\nSeymour&#8217;s laugh was harsh. &#8220;Yes, I imagine he does, considering the mess he&#8217;s made of the coinage. Tell me, Master Dee, have you seen what passes for silver shillings these days? More copper than a common pot.&#8221;&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Speculation: Undercurrents of Treachery: &#8220;&#8221;You!&#8221; His eyes sparked with hatred, his voice stronger than his appearance suggested. &#8220;My brother can&#8217;t even do the courtesy of visiting me himself, instead he sends his errand boys?&#8221; &#8220;Lord Admiral,&#8221; Dee began, &#8220;I see you remember me &#8211; as I do you. I don&#8217;t think we were ever &#8230; <a title=\"Excerpt from Speculation: Undercurrents of Treachery\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/excerpt-from-speculation-undercurrents-of-treachery-11\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Excerpt from Speculation: Undercurrents of Treachery\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predestination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jadownes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}