Philippa Gregory 3-Book Tudor Collection 2 Read online

  They were both trembling, gazing into each other’s eyes as if they could never tear themselves away. It was Kat Ashley who had the courage to interrupt them, after long minutes when they had been handclasped and silent.

  ‘Your Grace,’ she said gently. ‘People will talk.’

  Elizabeth stirred and released Robert, and he rose to his feet.

  ‘You should rest, my lady,’ Kat said quietly. She glanced at Robert’s white, shocked face. ‘She’s not well,’ she said. ‘This is too much for her. Let her go now, Sir Robert.’

  ‘May God bring you to good health and happiness,’ he said passionately, and at her nod he bowed and took himself out of the room before she could see the despair in his own face.

  Mr Hayes’ father had been born a tenant of the Dudleys but had risen through the wool trade to the position of mayor at Chislehurst. He had sent his son to school and then to train as a lawyer and when he died, he left the young man a small fortune. John Hayes continued the family connection with the Dudleys, advising Robert’s mother on her appeal to reclaim the title and estates, and as Robert rose in power and wealth, running the various wings of Robert’s steadily increasing businesses in the City and countrywide.

  Amy had often stayed with him at Hayes Court, Chislehurst, and sometimes Robert joined her there to talk business with John Hayes, to gamble with him, to hunt his land, and to plan their investments.

  The Dudley train reached the house at about midday and Amy was glad to be out of the September sun, which was still hot and bright.

  ‘Lady Dudley.’ John Hayes kissed her hand. ‘How good to see you again. Mrs Minchin will show you to your usual room, we thought you preferred the garden room?’

  ‘I do,’ Amy said. ‘Have you heard from my lord?’

  ‘Only that he promises himself the pleasure of seeing you within the week,’ John Hayes said. ‘He did not say which day – but we don’t expect that, do we?’ He smiled at her.

  Amy smiled back. — No, for he will not know which day the queen will release him — said the jealous voice in her head. Amy touched the rosary in her pocket with her finger. ‘Whenever he is free to come to me, I shall be glad to see him,’ she said, and turned and went up the stairs behind the housekeeper.

  Mrs Oddingsell came into the house, pushing back her hood and shaking the dust from her skirt. She shook hands with John Hayes, they were old friends.

  ‘She looks well,’ he said, surprised, nodding his head in the direction of Amy’s bedroom. ‘I heard she was very sick.’

  ‘Oh, did you?’ said Lizzie levelly. ‘And where did you hear that from?’

  He thought for a moment. ‘Two places, I think. Someone told me in church the other day, and my clerk mentioned it to me in the City.’

  ‘Did they say what ailed her?’

  ‘A malady of the breast, my clerk said. A stone, or a growth, too great for cutting, they said. They said that Dudley might put her aside, that she would agree to go to a convent and annul the marriage because she could never have his child.’

  Lizzie folded her mouth in a hard line. ‘It is a lie,’ she said softly. ‘Now who do you think would have an interest in spreading such a lie? That Dudley’s wife is sick and cannot be cured?’

  For a moment he looked at her quite aghast.

  ‘These are deep waters, Mrs Oddingsell. I had heard that it had gone very far …’

  ‘You had heard that they are lovers?’

  He glanced around his own empty hall as if nowhere was safe to speak of the queen and Dudley, even if their names were not mentioned.

  ‘I heard that he plans to put his wife aside, and marry the lady of whom we speak, and that she has the power and desire that he should do so.’

  She nodded. ‘It seems everyone thinks so. But there are no grounds, and never could be.’

  He thought for a moment. ‘If she were known to be too sick to bear children she might step aside,’ he whispered.

  ‘Or if everyone thought she was ill, then no-one would be surprised if she died,’ Lizzie said, even lower.

  John Hayes exclaimed in shock and crossed himself. ‘Jesu! Mrs Oddingsell, you must be mad to suggest such a thing. You don’t really think that? He would never do such a thing, not Sir Robert!’

  ‘I don’t know what to think. But I do know that everywhere we rode from Abingdon to here, there was gossip about his lordship and the queen, and a belief that my lady is sick to death. At one inn the landlady asked me if we needed a doctor before we had even dismounted. Everyone is talking of my lady’s illness, and my lord’s love affair. So I don’t know what to think except that someone is being very busy.’

  ‘Not his lordship,’ he said staunchly. ‘He would never hurt her.’

  ‘I don’t know any more,’ she repeated.

  ‘Then, if it is not him, who would spread such a rumour, and to what end?’

  She looked blankly at him. ‘Who would prepare the country for his divorce and remarriage? Only the woman who wanted to marry him, I suppose.’

  Mary Sidney was seated before the fireplace in her brother’s apartments at Windsor, one of his new hound puppies on the floor at her feet, gnawing at the toe of her riding boot. Idly, she prodded his fat little belly with the other foot.

  ‘Leave him alone, you will spoil him,’ Robert commanded.

  ‘He will not leave me alone,’ she returned. ‘Get off me, you monster!’ She gave him another prod and the puppy squirmed with delight at the attention.

  ‘You would hardly think he was true bred,’ Robert remarked, as he signed his name on a letter and put it to one side, and then came to the fireplace and drew up a stool on the other side. ‘He has such low tastes.’

  ‘I have had highly bred puppies slavering at my feet before now,’ his sister said with a smile. ‘It is no mark of bad breeding to adore me.’

  ‘And rightly so,’ he replied. ‘But would you call Sir Henry your husband a low-bred puppy?’

  ‘Never to his face,’ she smiled.

  ‘How is the queen today?’ he asked more seriously.

  ‘Still very shaken. She could not eat last night and she only drank warmed ale this morning and ate nothing. She walked in the garden on her own for an hour and came in looking quite distracted. Kat is in and out of her bedroom with possets, and when Elizabeth dressed and came out she would not talk or smile. She is doing no business, she will see nobody. Cecil is striding about with a sheaf of letters and nothing can be decided. And some people say we will lose the war in Scotland because she has despaired already.’

  He nodded.

  She hesitated. ‘Brother, you must tell me. What did she say to you yesterday? She looked as if her heart was breaking, and now she looks halfway to death.’

  ‘She has given me up,’ he said shortly.

  Mary Sidney gasped and put her hand to her mouth. ‘Never!’

  ‘Indeed, yes. She has asked me to stand her friend but she knows she has to marry. Cecil warned her off me, and she has taken his advice.’

  ‘But why now?’

  ‘Firstly the rumours, and then the threats against me.’

  She nodded. ‘The rumours are everywhere. My own waiting woman came to me with a story of Amy and poison and a whole string of slanderous lies that made my hair stand on end.’

  ‘Beat her.’

  ‘If she had made the stories up I would do so. But she was only repeating what is being said at every street corner. It is shameful what people are saying about you, and about the queen. Your pageboy was set on at the stables the other day, did you know?’

  He shook his head.

  ‘Not for the first time. The lads are saying they won’t wear our livery if they go into the City. They are ashamed of our coat of arms, Robert.’

  He frowned. ‘I didn’t know it was that bad.’

  ‘My maid told me that there are men who swear they will see you dead before you marry the queen.’

  Robert nodded. ‘Ah, Mary, it could never happen. How could i