A Midsummer Tempest Read Free Page A

and other ancients, but the chronicles of later strategists like great Gustavus. I’ve thus had knowledge to admire your skill as it deserves. They call you overbold—but nearly always, lord, you’ve won the day. And still so young: a score of years and four!” Shelgrave blinked at his prisoner, who did not act like a man tickled by flattery. “The fight on Marston Moor thus strikes me strange. When faring north to lift the siege of York, you found your opposition ill-supplied, disheartened, split in squabbling sects and factions, and in no favor with most Northerners. You could have chivvied them as wolves do kine until they broke, ’Tis what I feared you’d do. Instead you forced a battle on a ground ill-chosen for your side. I wonder why.”
    “I had mine orders,” Rupert rasped. “More I will not say.”
    “’Tis honorable of your Highness, that—yet useless, for it surely is no secret what envies and intrigues have seethed around the youthful foreigner who sought the King when war broke loose, and was at once raised high. Which rival engineered those orders, Prince? No Puritan would undermine—”
    “Have done!” Again Rupert stopped as if in menace.
    Shelgrave bowed to him. “Of course. Mine object’s only to explain why I’ve the pleasure of your company. You see, you’re priceless to our enemies, and hence to us. Your capture was God’s mercy, which brings in sight an ending of this war. Yet still the Royalists retain some strength. Their court’s at Oxford, not so far from London. A massive raid by, let us say, Maurice might stillregain you for that high command which soon your fiercest rival won’t begrudge. It must not happen. Fairfax saw this too. Accordingly, he had you carried hither in deepest secrecy, here to abide until the East is absolutely cleared. Then, without fear of any rescuers, you can be brought to London.”
    “To what end?”
    “That lies with Parliament.”
    The furrows tautened around Rupert’s mouth. “I thought as much.”
    Shelgrave took his elbow in companionable wise and guided him on along the path. Roses stood tall on either side, above a shyness of pansies; the breeze was full of their fragrance. Sunbeams slanted through trees to dapple the lawn. Gravel scrunched underfoot.
    “Your Highness, cast your melancholy off,” Shelgrave urged. “You’ll find enjoyment and surcease from strife. The household staff and others you may meet are under oath to breathe no word of you, and known to me for their trustworthiness. And thus by day, though guarded, wander free about these grounds.” He gave an apologetic sigh. “I dare not let you ride. I would I did. I’m eager in the hunt, and you will like my horses and my hounds.”
    Briefly, Rupert’s fists knotted.
    “But you can fish, play ball, do what you wish,” Shelgrave promised. “I hear you are of philosophic bent. Well, so am I. Make use of any books. Do you play chess? I’m not so bad at that. At night, I fear, you must be locked away in your apartment, high in yonder tower. But ’twill be furnished with the tools of art—they say you draw and etch delightfully—and you’ll have access likewise to the roof. There often I beguile a sleepless night by tracking moon and stars across the sky. Come too! I’ll show you mysteries in heaven”—his voice trembled a little, ardor leaped behind his eyes—“and maybe they’ll convert you to the truth.”
    Rupert shook his head violently. “That lies not in your sour and canting creed.”
    Shelgrave flushed but kept his words level. “Were you not reared a Calvinist, my lord?”
    “I try to be a proper Protestant, yet not cast offwhat’s good from olden time. I’d liefer hear a service than a rant; I do not think my Romish friends are damned, nor that ’tis right to persecute the Jews; I’d hang no helpless granny for a witch.” Bitterly: “That day we captured Lichfield, I was glad to let its staunch defenders leave with honors. But then we entered