Philippa Gregory 3-Book Tudor Collection 2 Read online

  Elizabeth raised her hand. ‘I swear, on my immortal soul, that I shall keep this country in the true faith,’ she said. Her hand trembled slightly. She brought it down and clasped her hands together before her, and turned to Jane Dormer.

  ‘Did she ask for anything more?’

  ‘No more,’ Jane said, her voice very thin.

  ‘So you can tell her I have done it?’

  Jane’s eyes slid towards me, and the princess was on to her at once.

  ‘Ah, so that is what you are here for.’ She rounded on me. ‘My little seer-spy. You are to make a window into my soul and see into my heart and tell the queen what you think you know, what you imagine you saw.’

  I said nothing.

  ‘You will tell her that I raised my hand and I swore her oath,’ she commanded me. ‘You will tell her that I am her true heir.’

  I rose to my feet, Danny’s little head lolled sleepily against my shoulder. ‘If we may, we will stay here tonight, and return to the queen tomorrow,’ I said, avoiding answering.

  ‘There was one other thing,’ Jane Dormer said. ‘Her Grace requires you to pay her debts and take care of her trusted servants.’

  Elizabeth nodded. ‘Of course. Assure my sister that I will honour her wishes as any true heir would do.’

  I think only I could have heard the ripple of Elizabeth’s joy under her grave voice. I did not condemn her for it. Like Mary she had waited all her life for the moment when she might hear the news that she was queen, and now she thought that it would come to her, without dissent, tomorrow, or the day after.

  ‘We will leave at dawn,’ I said, thinking of the frailty of the queen’s health. I knew she would be hanging on to hear that England was safe within the true faith, that whatever else was lost, she had restored England into grace.

  ‘Then I will bid you goodnight and God speed now,’ Elizabeth said sweetly.

  She let us get to the door and Jane Dormer to go through ahead of me, before she said, so quietly that only I, listening for her summons, could have heard it: ‘Hannah.’

  I turned.

  ‘I know you are her loyal friend as well as mine,’ she said gently. ‘Do this last service for your mistress and take my word as true, and let her go to her God with some comfort. Give her peace, and give peace to our country.’

  I bowed to her and went out.

  I thought we would leave Hatfield without another farewell but when I went for my horse on a frosty cold morning with the sun burning red like an ember on the white horizon, there was Lord Robert looking handsome and smiling, wrapped in a dark red velvet cloak with John Dee at his side.

  ‘Is your boy warm enough for the journey?’ he asked me. ‘It’s been a hard frost and the air is bitter.’

  I pointed behind me. Danny was labouring along under an extra-thick jerkin of wool, carrying a shawl that I had insisted he bring. He peeped at me from under a heavy woollen cap. ‘The poor boy is half-drowned in clothes,’ I said. ‘He will sweat rather than freeze.’

  Robert nodded. ‘The men are to be released from Calais within a week,’ he said. ‘They will be collected by a ship which will bring them into Gravesend.’

  I felt my heart beat a little faster.

  ‘You are blushing like a girl,’ Lord Robert said, gently mocking.

  ‘Do you think he will have had my letter, that I sent when I first came home?’ I asked.

  Lord Robert shrugged. ‘He may have done. But you can tell him yourself, soon enough.’

  I drew a little closer to him. ‘You see, if he did not receive it then he will not know that I escaped out of Calais. He might think I am dead. He might not come to England, he might go to Italy or somewhere.’

  ‘On the off-chance that you are dead?’ Lord Robert asked critically. ‘With no-one ever mentioning it to him? With no proof? And his son?’

  ‘In the confusion of the battle,’ I said weakly.

  ‘Someone would have looked for you,’ he said. ‘If you had been killed they would have found your body.’

  I shifted awkwardly. Daniel came to me and stretched out his arms. ‘Dan’l up!’ he commanded.

  ‘Wait a moment,’ I said absently. I turned back to Lord Robert. ‘You see, if someone told him that I left with you …’

  ‘Then he would know that you are alive, and where to find you,’ he said logically. Then he checked and slapped his forehead. ‘Mistress Boy, you have played me for an idiot all along. You are estranged from him, aren’t you? And you fear that he will think you ran away with me? And he won’t come for you because he has cast you off? And now you don’t want me; but you’ve lost him, and all you’ve got is his son …’ He broke off, struck with sudden doubt. ‘He is your husband’s son, isn’t he?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said staunchly.

  ‘Is he yours?’ he said, some sense warning him that there was a lie hidden away somewhere near.

  ‘Yes,’ I said without wavering.

  Lord Robert laughed aloud. ‘My God, girl, you are a fool indeed. You did not love him till you lost him.’

  ‘Yes,’ I admitted through gritted teeth.

  ‘Well, more a woman than a fool,’ he said fairly. ‘I would say women love men most when they have lost them, or cannot get them. Well-a-day, my pretty fool. You had best get a ship and set sail for your Daniel as soon as you can. Otherwise he will be out of prison and free as a bird flying away, and you will never find him at all.’

  ‘Can I get a ship to Calais?’ I asked blankly.

  He thought for a moment. ‘Not very readily; but you could go over with the ship that is going to fetch my soldiers home. I’ll write you a note.’

  He snapped his fingers to a stable boy and sent him running for a clerk with pen and paper. When the lad came he dictated three lines to give me a free pass on the boat for myself and my son.

  I curtseyed low to him in genuine gratitude. ‘Thank you, my lord,’ I said. ‘I do thank you very deeply.’

  He smiled his heart-turning smile. ‘My pleasure, dearest little fool. But the ship sails within a week. Will you be able to leave the queen?’

  ‘She’s sinking fast,’ I said slowly. ‘That’s why I was in such a hurry to leave at once. She was holding on for Elizabeth’s answer.’

  ‘Well, thank you for that information, which you denied me earlier,’ he said.

  I bit my lip as I realised that to tell him, was to tell Elizabeth, and those planning her campaign, when she should be ready to call out her army to claim her throne.

  ‘No harm done,’ he said. ‘Half of her doctors are paid by us to let us know how she is.’

  John Dee drew closer. ‘And could you see into the princess’ heart?’ he asked gently. ‘Could you tell if she was sincere in her oath for keeping the true faith? Do you believe she will be a Catholic queen?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said simply. ‘I shall pray for guidance on the way home.’

  Robert would have said something but John Dee put a hand on his arm. ‘Hannah will say the right thing to the queen,’ he said. ‘She knows that it is not one queen or another that matters, it is not one name of God or another, what matters most is to bring peace to this country so that a man or woman in danger of cruelty or persecution can come here and be certain of a fair hearing.’ He paused, and I thought of my father and I, coming to this England and hoping for a safe haven.

  ‘What matters is that a man or woman can believe what they wish, and worship how they wish, to a God whom they name as they wish. What matters is that we make a strong country here which can be a force for good in the world, where men and women can question and learn freely. This country’s destiny is to be a place where men and women can know that they are free.’

  He stopped. Lord Robert was smiling down at me.

  ‘I know what she will do,’ Lord Robert said sweetly. ‘Because she is my tender-hearted Mistress Boy still. She will say whatever she has to say to comfort the queen in her final hours, God bless her, the poor lady. No queen ever came to t