Philippa Gregory 3-Book Tudor Collection 2 Read online

  ‘She’s been sick,’ I said. ‘But she’s better now. She’s at Hampton Court, with the queen. I just came with her from Woodstock.’

  He nodded. ‘Has she seen Dee yet?’

  ‘No. I don’t think so.’

  ‘Have you seen him?’

  ‘I thought he was in Venice.’

  ‘He was, Mistress Boy. And he has sent a package from Venice to your father in Calais, which your father will send on to the shop in London for you to deliver to him, if you please.’

  ‘A package?’ I asked anxiously.

  ‘A book merely.’

  I said nothing. We both knew that the wrong sort of book was enough to get me hanged.

  ‘Is Kat Ashley still with the princess?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Tell Kat from me, in secret, that if she is offered some ribbons she should certainly buy them.’

  I recoiled at once. ‘My lord …’

  Robert Dudley stretched out a peremptory hand to me. ‘Have I ever led you into danger?’

  I hesitated, thinking of the Wyatt plot when I had carried treasonous messages that I had not understood. ‘No, my lord.’

  ‘Then take this message but take no others from anyone else, and carry none for Kat, whatever she asks you. Once you have told her to buy her ribbons and once you have given John Dee his book, it is nothing more to do with you. The book is innocent and ribbons are ribbons.’

  ‘You are weaving a plot,’ I said unhappily. ‘And weaving me into it.’

  ‘Mistress Boy, I have to do something, I cannot write poetry all day.’

  ‘The queen will forgive you in time, and then you can go home …’

  ‘She will never forgive me,’ he said flatly. ‘I have to wait until there is a change, a deep sea change; and while I wait, I shall protect my interests. Elizabeth knows that she is not to go to Hungary, or anywhere else, does she?’

  I nodded. ‘She is quite determined neither to leave nor marry.’

  ‘King Philip will keep her at court now, and make her his friend, I should think.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘One baby, as yet unborn, is not enough to secure the throne,’ he pointed out. ‘And next in line is Elizabeth. If the queen were to die in childbirth he would be in a most dangerous position: trapped in England and the new queen and all her people his enemies.’

  I nodded.

  ‘And if he were to disinherit Elizabeth then the next heir would be Mary, married to the Prince of France. D’you not think that our Spanish King Philip would rather see the devil incarnate on the English throne than the King of France’s son?’

  ‘Oh,’ I said.

  ‘Exactly,’ he said with quiet satisfaction. ‘You can remind Elizabeth that she is in a stronger position now that Philip is on the queen’s council. There’s not many of them that can think straight there; but he certainly can. Is Gardiner still trying to persuade the queen to declare Elizabeth a bastard and disinherit her?’

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t know.’

  Robert Dudley smiled. ‘I warrant he is. Actually, I know he is.’

  ‘You’re very well informed for a friendless prisoner without news or visitors,’ I observed tartly.

  He smiled his dark seductive smile. ‘No friends as dear to me as you, sweetheart.’

  I tried not to smile back but I could feel my face warming at his attention.

  ‘You have grown into a young woman indeed,’ he said. ‘Time you were out of your pageboy clothes, my bird. Time you were wed.’

  I flushed quickly at the thought of Daniel and what he would make of Lord Robert calling me ‘sweetheart’ and ‘my bird’.

  ‘And how is the swain?’ Lord Robert asked, dropping into the chair at his desk and putting his boots up on the scattered papers. ‘Pressing his suit? Passionate? Urgent?’

  ‘Busy in Padua,’ I said with quiet pride. ‘Studying medicine at the university.’

  ‘And when does he come home to claim his virgin bride?’

  ‘When I am released from Elizabeth’s service,’ I said. ‘Then I will join him in France.’

  He nodded, thoughtful. ‘You know that you are a desirable woman now, Mistress Boy? I would not have known you for the little half-lad that you were.’

  I could feel my cheeks burning scarlet but I did not drop my eyes like some pretty servant, overwhelmed by the master’s smile. I kept my head up and I felt his look flicker over me like a lick.

  ‘I would never have taken you while you were a child,’ he said. ‘It’s a sin not to my taste.’

  I nodded, waiting for what was coming next.

  ‘And not while you were scrying for my tutor,’ he said. ‘I would not have robbed either of you of your gift.’

  I stayed silent.

  ‘But when you are a woman grown and another man’s wife you can come to me, if you desire me,’ he said. His voice was low, warm, infinitely tempting. ‘I would like to love you, Hannah. I would like to hold you in my arms and feel your heart beat fast, as I think it is doing now.’ He paused. ‘Am I right? Heart thudding, throat dry, knees weak, desire rising?’

  Silently, honestly, I nodded.

  He smiled. ‘So I shall stay this side of the table and you shall stay that, and you shall remember when you are a virgin and a girl no longer, that I desire you, and you shall come to me.’

  I should have protested my genuine love and respect for Daniel, I should have raged at Lord Robert’s arrogance. Instead I smiled at him as if I agreed, and stepped slowly backwards, one step after another, from the desk until I reached the door.

  ‘Can I bring you anything when I come again?’ I asked.

  He shook his head. ‘Don’t come until I send for you,’ he ordered coolly, very far from my own state of arousal. ‘And stay clear of Kat Ashley and Elizabeth for your own sake, my bird, after you have given your message. Don’t come to me unless I send for you by name.’

  I nodded, felt the wood of the door behind me, and tapped on it with fingers which trembled.

  ‘But you will send for me?’ I persisted in a small voice. ‘You won’t just forget about me?’

  He put his fingers to his lips and blew me a kiss. ‘Mistress Boy, look around, do you see a court of men and women who adore me? I have no visitors but my wife and you. Everyone else has slipped away but the two women that love me. I do not send for you often because I do not choose to endanger you. I doubt that you want the attention of the court directed to who you are, and where you come from, and where your loyalties lie, even now. I send for you when I have work for you, or when I cannot go another day without seeing you.’

  The soldier swung open the door behind me but I could not move.

  ‘You like to see me?’ I whispered. ‘Did you say that sometimes you cannot go another day without seeing me?’

  His smile was as warm as a caress and as lightly given. ‘The sight of you is one of my greatest pleasures,’ he said sweetly. Then the soldier gently put a hand under my elbow, and I went out.

  Spring – Summer 1555

  At Hampton Court they made the room ready for the queen’s confinement. The privy chamber behind her bedroom was hung with the richest of tapestries especially chosen for their holy and encouraging scenes. The windows were bolted shut so that not a breath of air should come into the room. They tied the posts of the bed with formidable and frightening straps that she might cling to, while her labour tore her thirty-nine-year-old body apart. The bed was dressed with a magnificent pillow cover and counterpane which the queen and her ladies had been embroidering since her wedding day. There were great log piles beside the stone fireplace so that the room could be heated to fever pitch. They shrouded the floors with carpets so that every sound should be muffled and they brought in the magnificent royal cradle with a two-hundred-and-forty-piece layette for the boy who would be born within the next six weeks.

  At the head of the magnificent cradle was carved a couplet to welcome the prince:

  The child wh