Betrayal Read Free Page A

wearing such a pretty pair of high-heeled shoes with pompoms on the front, because one heel now appeared to be stuck. And Lady Sarah had somehow caught her petticoat on a bit of wood. Captain Drake and Captain Derby were practically bumping heads as they tried to unsnag it, both of them quite ignoring Lady Jane.
    We walked on through a very battered and splintered gate. It had the Royal Coat of Arms carved above it, but the paint and gilt was all cracked and peeling. We were entering a dockyard. There were no ships, just empty pits where they would have been built and which would then have been filled with Thames water to launch them. Some old bits of wood lay scattered about, and a coil of rope was being used as a nest by seagulls.
    The Queen stopped dead and looked around, her hands on her hips. “Good God! What a desolation. Why has this happened?”
    “No money, Your Majesty,” burred Mr. Hawkins. “No money and no interest. And what’s more, all the ships your Royal Father built are near ready to sink from shipworm.”
    The Queen was frowning. “I had no idea. And I pay thousands of pounds every year to the Royal Dockyards for the fitting out of my warships.”
    Mr. Hawkins didn’t say anything to this, only stared into space.
    The Queen’s frown became positively menacing. I would hate to be whoever is Secretary of the Navy at the moment.
    Mary Shelton nudged me. I looked to where she was pointing and saw that Lady Jane now had her muddy foot firmly on the back of Lady Sarah’s damask kirtle, where it would leave a nice clear imprint. Her face was pure innocence, of course.
    “I’m going to win when Sarah sees that,” I whispered to Mary. “Hope you’ve got sixpence to pay me.”
    “Lady Jane will snap first,” Mary insisted. “Look at her face.”
    It was true that Lady Jane was looking very sour,but I know how fussy Sarah is over her gowns. “We shall see,” I replied.
    We moved on, with Mr. Hawkins still talking and talking. Mary and I had to hurry forward because the Queen was walking briskly and we had to make sure her train didn’t fall in the mud. As we passed Lady Sarah I saw her staring at the muddy footprint on her white damask.
    Next thing, Lady Sarah “accidentally” gave Lady Jane a shove with her bumroll, and Lady Jane stepped off the walkway, getting her other pretty high-heeled shoe stuck in the mud.
    By now Mr. Hawkins had the crook of his arm held out for Her Majesty to lean on. Mr. Hatton followed behind, looking as if his nose was thoroughly put out of joint.
    “Well, you see, Your Majesty,” Hawkins was saying enthusiastically, “what we need is a new kind of ship altogether—a lower ship, with no castles and smooth hulls, built for speed—”
    “Mr. Hawkins,” the Queen interrupted, putting out her white kid-gloved hand to stop him.
    Hawkins, Drake, and Derby blinked at her.
    She smiled. “Gentlemen, I speak excellent French, Italian, and Latin, not to mention English, but alas, I have absolutely no Sailorish.” Then she pointed at adocked galleon. “Those are the castles?” she asked, pointing at the raised ends of the ship.
    “Aye,” Mr. Hawkins confirmed. “They’re used for boarding, Ma’am,” he explained. “Being higher than an enemy ship makes it easier to board from them. One can just drop down onto the deck of another ship.”
    “Ah. I see,” the Queen acknowledged. “Then should not our ships have higher castles than the enemy’s—else what happens if the enemy boards from his high castles?”
    Hawkins grinned and winked down at her. “He’m got to catch us first, Ma’am, which he won’t if we have the fastest ships.”
    “But how do you know your new lower ships will be faster?” the Queen inquired.
    “I know it because God made fish for to swim fast and I learned the shape from Him,” declared Mr. Hawkins simply.
    “The argument is sound,” agreed the Queen, nodding. “But can you prove it?”
    “Aye, Your Majesty,” Hawkins said.