The story so far…
Week 6: Entirely Beloved Cromwell (Part 1)
Cromwell asks him to ignore Lent restrictions and prepare beef for Wolsey. Does his master look like a murderer?
‘'Not like a murderer, no. But if you will forgive me, master, you always look like a man who knows how to cup up a carcase.’
Week 9: Arrange Your Face (Part 2)
We meet him twice in this chapter: first, complaining about all the meat sent by gentlemen as gifts. “But it is the butchering! The skinning, the quartering!” Cromwell offers to lend a hand and Thurston insists that “you must forget you ever knew these businesses.”
Next month, Cromwell is sending beer and bread to the men at the gates. “Well, if you aim to be feeding the whole district.”
Thurston has taken on more kitchen boys. Cromwell says they should be taken care of: “One day they must be able to walk upstairs, as he did, and take a seat in the counting house.”
Week 12: Anna Regina (Part 1)
Cromwell at Easter, “to the kitchen first, to give his man a slap on the head and a gold piece.” Austin Friars is feeding the neighbourhood. “What comes out of this kitchen is so good, there are aldermen out there, with their hoods up so we don’t know them.”
Week 15: Supremacy
He tells Thurston of his promotion to Master Secretary. The council may meet at Austin Friars in future and, he, Thurston, will prepare them dinner.
Cromwell tells him he could “put on a gold chain, and strut about”, but Thurston says he will keep his hand in the kitchen, “in case things take a down-turn. Not that I say they will. Remember the cardinal, though.”
Week 19: Crows (Part 1)
They have busy, buzzing minds, the Londoners: minds like middens.
At Austin Friars, Thurston says they are feeding two hundred Londoners, twice a day. The gossip is Anne is sleeping with all the gentlemen of the privy chamber, and Thomas Wyatt and Henry Percy.