Philippa Gregory 3-Book Tudor Collection 2: The Queen’s Fool, The Virgin’s Lover, The Other Queen. Philippa Gregory
father smiled at my petulance but said nothing as the door of the print room opened and Daniel came out, wearing an apron over his black breeches, the front bib stained with black ink, his hands dirty.
‘Good evening,’ I said, unsmiling.
‘Good evening,’ he replied.
‘Now!’ my father said in pleasurable anticipation of his dinner. He drew three high stools up to the counter as Daniel went out to the yard to wash his hands. I unpacked the basket. A venison pasty, a loaf of manchet bread still warm from the oven, a couple of slices of beef carved from the spit and wrapped in muslin, and half a dozen slender roasted chops of lamb. Two bottles of good red wine had gone into my basket from the queen’s own cellar. I had brought no vegetables; but from the sweet kitchen I had stolen a bowl of syllabub. We put the syllabub with cream to one side to eat later, and spread the rest of the feast on the table. My father opened the wine as I fetched three tankards from the cupboard under the counter and a couple of horn-handled knives.
‘So, what news?’ my father asked as we started to eat.
‘I am to go to Princess Elizabeth. She is said to be sick. The queen wants me to be her companion.’
Daniel looked up, but said nothing.
‘Where is she?’ my father asked.
‘At her house at Ashridge.’
‘Are you going alone?’ he asked with concern.
‘No. The queen is sending her doctors and a couple of her councillors. I should think we might be as many as ten in the party.’
He nodded. ‘I am glad. I don’t think the roads are safe. Many of the rebels got away and are heading back for their homes and they are angry men, and armed.’
‘I’ll be well guarded,’ I said. I gnawed on a chop bone and glanced up to see Daniel watching me. I put it to one side, having quite lost my appetite.
‘When will you come back?’ Daniel asked quietly.
‘When Princess Elizabeth is fit to travel,’ I said.
‘Have you heard from Lord Robert?’ my father asked.
‘I am released from his service,’ I said stiffly. I kept my eyes on the counter top, I did not want either of them to see my pain. ‘He is preparing for his death.’
‘It must come,’ my father said simply. ‘Has the queen signed the warrant for the execution of his brother and Lady Jane?’
‘Not yet,’ I said. ‘But it will be any day now.’
He nodded. ‘Hard times,’ he said. ‘And who would have thought that the queen could have raised the city and defeated the rebels?’
I shook my head.
‘She can hold this country,’ my father said. ‘While she can command the hearts of the people as she does, she can be queen. She might even be a great queen.’
‘Have you heard from John Dee?’ I asked.
‘He’s travelling,’ my father said. ‘Buying manuscripts by the barrel. He sends them back to me here for safe-keeping. He’s right to stay far from London, his name was mentioned. Most of the rebels have been his friends before now.’
‘They were all men of the court,’ I contradicted him. ‘They knew everyone. Queen Mary herself befriended Edward Courtenay. At one time they said she would marry him.’
‘I heard it was him who named the others?’ Daniel asked.
I nodded.
‘Neither a good subject nor a good friend,’ Daniel ruled.
‘A man with temptations we cannot imagine,’ I said smartly. Then I thought of the Edward Courtenay I knew: a weak mouth and a flushed complexion. A boy pretending to be a man, and not even a pleasant boy. A braggart hoping to leap higher by courting Queen Mary or Lady Elizabeth, or anyone who would help him rise.
‘Forgive me,’ I said to my betrothed. ‘You are right. He is neither a good subject nor a good friend, he’s not even much of a boy.’
His smile warmed his face, and warmed me. I took a piece of bread and felt a sense of ease. ‘How is your mother?’ I asked politely.
‘She has been ill in this cold wet weather, but she is well now.’
‘And your sisters?’
‘They are well. When you come back from Ashridge I should like you to come to my house to meet them.’
I nodded. I could not imagine meeting Daniel’s sisters.
‘There will soon come a time when we all live together,’ he said. ‘It would be better if you meet now, so that you can all become accustomed.’
I said nothing. We had not parted as a betrothed couple but clearly Daniel wanted to ignore that quarrel, as he had overlooked others. Our betrothal was still unbroken, then. I smiled at him. I could not imagine living in his house with his mother ordering things as they had always been done and his sisters fluttering around him as the favoured child: the son.
‘Do you think they will admire my breeches?’ I asked provocatively.
I saw him flush. ‘No, not particularly,’ he said shortly. He leaned back on the counter and took a sip of wine. He looked towards my father. ‘I think I’ll finish that page now,’ he said. He stepped down from the stool and reached for his printer’s apron.
‘Shall I bring your syllabub out later?’ I asked.
He looked at me, his eyes dark and hard. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I have no taste for things that are sweet and sour at the same time.’
Will Somers was in the stable-yard while they were saddling up the horses for our journey, cracking jokes with the men.
‘Will, are you coming with us?’ I asked hopefully.
He shook his head. ‘Not I! Too cold for me! I’d have thought it no job for you either, Hannah Green.’
I made a face. ‘The queen asked it of me. She asked me to look into Elizabeth’s heart.’
‘Into her heart?’ he repeated comically. ‘First find it!’
‘What else could I do?’ I demanded.
‘Nothing but obey.’
‘And what should I do now?’
‘The same.’
I drew a little closer. ‘Will, d’you think she was really plotting to throw down the queen and put herself on the throne?’
He smiled his little world-weary smile. ‘Fool, there is not a doubt of it. And you a fool even to question it.’
‘Then if I say she is pretending to be ill, if I report that she is a liar, I bring her to her death.’
He nodded.
‘Will, I cannot do that to a woman such as the princess. It would be like shooting a lark.’
‘Then miss your aim,’ he said.
‘I should lie to the queen and say that the princess is innocent?’
‘You have a gift of Sight, don’t you?’ he demanded.
‘I wish I did not.’
‘It is time to cultivate the gift of blindness. If you have no opinion, you cannot be asked to account for it. You are an innnocent fool, be more innocent than fool.’
I nodded, a little cheered. One of the men brought my horse out of the stable and Will cupped his hand to throw me up into the saddle.
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