Philippa Gregory 3-Book Tudor Collection 2 Read online

  ‘Oh, for saints’ sake, stop!’

  She gave a little gasp. ‘You may not like it, Robert, but it is no more than everyone says about her.’

  He took a breath. ‘I beg your pardon, I did not mean to raise my voice.’

  ‘It is not very pleasant for me, knowing that you are her favourite and that she has no good reputation for being chaste.’ Amy finished her complaint in a breathless rush. ‘It is not very pleasant for me, knowing that your names are linked.’

  He had to take a long, deep breath. ‘Amy, this is ridiculous. I have told you I am not a particular favourite. I ride with her because I am her Master of Horse. I am a favoured man at court because of my abilities, thank God for them, and because of my family. We should both be glad that she favours me as she should. As to her reputation, I am surprised you would lower yourself to gossip, Amy. I am indeed. She is your anointed queen. It is not for you to pass comment.’

  She bit her lip. ‘Everyone knows what she’s like,’ she said stubbornly. ‘And it is not very nice for me when your name is linked with hers.’

  ‘I do not wish my wife to gossip,’ he said flatly.

  ‘I only repeated what everyone …’

  ‘Everyone is wrong,’ he said. ‘It is almost certain that she will marry the Earl of Arran and secure his claim to the Scottish throne. I tell you this in the deepest secrecy, Amy. So that you know that there is nothing between her and me.’

  ‘Do you swear?’

  Robert sighed as if he were weary, to make his lie more persuasive. ‘Of course, I swear there is nothing.’

  ‘I trust you,’ she said. ‘Of course I do. But I cannot trust her. Everyone knows that she …’

  ‘Amy!’ He raised his voice even louder, and she fell silent at last. Her sliding glance at the door told him that she was afraid her cousin would have heard his angry tone.

  ‘Oh, for God’s sake. It doesn’t matter if anyone heard.’

  ‘What will people think …’

  ‘It doesn’t matter what they think,’ he said with the simple arrogance of a Dudley.

  ‘It does.’

  ‘Not to me,’ he said grandly.

  ‘To me, it does.’

  He bit his lip on his argument. ‘Well, it should not,’ he said, trying to keep his temper with her. ‘You are Lady Dudley, and the opinion of some London merchant and his wife should be nothing to you.’

  ‘My own mother’s cousin …’ He could just hear a few words of her whispered defiance. ‘Our hosts. And always very civil to you.’

  ‘Amy … please,’ he said.

  ‘I have to live with them, after all,’ she said with a childish stubbornness. ‘It’s not as if you will be here next week …’

  He rose to his feet and saw her flinch.

  ‘Wife, I am sorry,’ he said. ‘I have gone all wrong about this.’

  At the first hint of retraction she was quick to meet him. Her head came up, a little smile on her face. ‘Oh, are you unwell?’

  ‘No! I …’

  ‘Are you overtired?’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Shall I get you a hot posset?’ Already she was on her feet and wanting to serve him. He caught her hand and had to make himself hold her gently, and not shake her in his anger.

  ‘Amy, please be still and let me talk to you. I have been trying to tell you one small thing since we came up, and you don’t let me speak.’

  ‘How ever could I stop you?’

  He answered her with silence, until obediently, she sank to her stool and waited.

  ‘The queen is to honour me by awarding me the Order of the Garter. I am to have it with three other noblemen and there is to be a great celebration. I am honoured indeed.’

  She would have interrupted with congratulations but he pressed on to the more difficult topic. ‘And she is to give me land, and a house.’

  ‘A house?’

  ‘The Dairy House at Kew,’ he said.

  ‘A London house for us?’ she asked.

  He could imagine Elizabeth’s response if he tried to install a wife in the pretty little bachelor’s nest in the gardens of the royal palace.

  ‘No, no. It’s just a little place for me. ‘But my idea was that you could stay with the Hydes and find a house for us? A house that we could make our own? A bigger house than Flitcham Hall, a grander place altogether? Somewhere near them in Oxfordshire.’

  ‘Yes, but who will run your house at Kew?’

  He dismissed it. ‘It is little more than a few rooms. Bowes will find me servants, it is nothing.’

  ‘Why does she not want you to live at the palace any more?’

  ‘It’s just a gift,’ he said. ‘I may not even use it.’

  ‘So why give it to you?’

  Robert tried to laugh it off. ‘It’s just a sign of her favour,’ he said. ‘And my rooms in the palace are not of the best.’ Already, he knew, the gossips were speculating that the queen had given him a place where the two of them could go to be alone together, hidden from the eyes of the court. He had to ensure that Amy would dismiss such rumours if they ever came to her ears. ‘In truth, I think Cecil wanted it, and she is teasing him by giving it to me.’

  She looked disapproving. ‘And would Cecil have lived there with his wife?’

  He was pleased to be on safe ground. ‘Cecil has not seen his wife since the queen’s accession,’ he said. ‘She is overseeing the building of his new house, Burghley. He is in the same strait as I. He wants to get home but he is kept too busy. And I want you to be like his wife; I want you to build a house for us, that I can come to in summer. Will you do it for me? Will you find us a really lovely house or site, and make a home for us, a proper home at last?’

  Her face lightened as he knew it would. ‘Oh, I would love to,’ she said. ‘And we would live there and be together all the time?’

  Gently he took both her hands. ‘I would have to be at court for much of the time,’ he said. ‘As you know. But I would come home to you, as often as I could, and you would like to have a proper home of your own, wouldn’t you?’

  ‘You would come home to me often?’ she stipulated.

  ‘My work is at court,’ he pointed out. ‘But I never forget that I am married and that you are my wife. Of course I will come home to you.’

  ‘Then yes,’ Amy said. ‘Oh, my lord. I would like it so much.’

  He drew her towards him and felt her warmth through the thin linen gown.

  ‘But you will take care, won’t you?’

  ‘Take care?’ He was cautious. ‘Of what?’

  ‘Of her trying …’ She chose her words carefully so as not to irritate him. ‘Of her trying to draw you in.’

  ‘She is the queen,’ Robert said gently. ‘It flatters her vanity to be surrounded by men. I am a courtier, it is my work to be drawn in by her. It means nothing.’

  ‘But if she favours you so much, you will make enemies.’

  ‘What d’you mean?’

  ‘I just know that anyone who is favoured by the king or the queen makes enemies. I just want you to take care.’

  He nodded, relieved that she had nothing more to go on. ‘You’re right, I have my enemies, but I know who they are and what they threaten. They envy me but they are powerless against me while I have her favour. But you are right to warn me, wife. And I thank you for your wise counsel.’

  That night Robert Dudley and his wife slept in the same bed in some accord. He bedded her as gently and as warmly as he could and Amy, desperate for his touch, accepted the false coin of his kindness as love. She had waited so long for his kiss, for the gentle press of his body against hers, that she whimpered and cried with joy within the first few minutes, and he, falling easily into the well-known rhythm of their lovemaking, with her familiar body surprising him with pleasure, found her easy to please and was glad of that, if for nothing more. He was used to whores, and the ladies of the court, and it was a rare pleasure for him to bed a woman that he cared for, it was strange for