Jack and Amy Coles are agents of the British Nobility.
The time period for their activities is the latter half of the 16th Century, 1569 to be exact. It is a period of much unrest and trepidation. In England Elizabeth I was decidedly in control, or at least as much as any monarch ever is but from Scotland there came a near constant threat of upheaval. Mary, Queen of Scots, was again insinuating that she held more legitimate claim to the English title than did Elizabeth and the loyalty of the various Earls and Dukes of the land was always in question.
Jack Cole is a servant of the Duke of Norfolk though in no way was he close to man. His station was as one of the men responsible for the Duke's fine stable of horses and though he was well thought of by his immediate boss, the Duke himself had possibly never met Jack; certainly Jack Cole was too far down any hierarchy to be anything other than someone who brought a horse when needed or held a set of reins or took a tired steed away to be cleaned. As jobs and positions go, it is not a bad one and Jack seems happy with it and content with his life, married though still fairly young to the lovely Amy. He was not looking to raise his station other than eventually replacing his boss; he was definitely not looking to be 'traded' to another nobleman and become a spy in that other man's household. Spy is not what Jack Cole wanted to be.
One interesting fact about Jack Cole is that he is described as having a moon-face and few friends, and an earned reluctance to smile. It is said that "rom the moment he had been old enough to work he had smiled on everyone, until eventually the taunts started: that he was a mad moon-man, a grinning simpleton. He had lost his reason to smile at the world." Except that he smiled when he was with his Amy.
Amy Cole, nee Wylmot, is one of many laundresses in the Duke household and thought by many of her colleagues as "too broad-mouthed by half". She hailed from the countryside and sought employment to earn her keep. She had met Jack not too long after arriving and had over time been wooed by him (or was it the other way around) and now seemed content like he is though she chafed under her supervisor's stern management. She was surprised by Jack's interest as she had always thought not much about herself, poor and "never been one to stir great emotion in any man in the village, pretty without beauty". While she understands when Jack tells her of his trade and how he is to keep mindful of what went on in the Earl's household and report interesting facts back to Norfolk, she has no inkling that the move will put her into the same line of work as Jack, a spy with a different vantage point in the castle of the Earl where the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, will be transferred.
Good Lines:
- "No one liked a servant with an opinion."