Serpent Never Sleeps Read Free Page B

handwriting. He sent, he sent you..."
    I had to pause for breath. The countess reached out and gave me a shake. She was short, immensely fat, and very, very strong. Her fingers bit hard.
    "Sent me what?" she said calmly.
    "A message. Anthony is free. And the king is coming to the masque!"
    She jumped to her feet and threw her hands in the air and danced in a circle. Then she sat down and
caught her breath and smiled, showing her dimples, two deep ones on each side of her mouth.
    Countess Diana smiled a lot, whether the word was good or bad. The year before, for instance, when word had come that three of her ships had been lost in a storm off the African coast, with all of the crews and more than two hundred black slaves, she smiled and said, "I still have three ships left."
    She grasped me by the wrists. "Are you sure that Anthony is free?"
    "The king sent a messenger to London to attend to the matter."
    "What a boon! The news lifts my heart!"
    She released the grip on my wrists. Her sharp eyes took notice of the smudge on my forehead. "Blood," she said. "A gift from the king?"
    "Yes. Just now in the meadow after he killed a stag. It's a talisman, Robert Carr said. The king said it is much, much more. But I am puzzled. What can it be?"
    "His Majesty believes that standing in the open body of the stag gives him strength, which he needs, having a crooked leg. He also believes that the blood with which he washed his hands and daubed your forehead has power. It is a mystical power that opens the door into a secret world. You believe in none of his nonsense, do you?"
    I scarcely heard her question. My head was going round. I had seen the king of England. I had talked to him. I had stood close enough to touch him. I had seen him send a messenger to London to free Anthony
Foxcroft. He had invited me to come to London. Upon my finger I wore his magic ring. His pledge rang in my ears.
    The countess gave me a disgusted glance. "You must believe in the king's nonsense or you would not be in such a swoon."
    Before I could answer, she caught the sultry glow of the circlet His Majesty had given me. She grasped my hand.
    She drew me aside because servants were listening, slipped the ring from my finger, and examined the inward side of the gold band.
    "I make out a unicorn," she said, more to herself than to me. "'Twas His Majesty's sign in the days he was king of the Scots. Where did you find it? In the meadow, by chance, where the king was hunting?"
    "I didn't find it. It was a present from the king."
    Squinting, she stared at me. Her pale, near-sighted eyes darkened. "Why would the king give you a ring? A ring of any value? For what possible reason? Now don't lie to me, don't you dare! Tell me the truth."
    "We were talking and the king asked how I was employed at Foxcroft and I told him. Later he gave me the ring."
    "His Majesty and I are friends," she said. "Clearly he gave you the ring but meant it for me, to make amends for holding my son in jeopardy. With such a valuable gift, he could not have dreamed for a moment of anything else."
    She had rings on every finger, even her thumbs,
and she tried the circlet here and there until she found a finger where it fit. She held her hand up to the struggling sun and smiled. Then she squinted at my forehead again.
    "Go to your room," she said. "Take a big handful of soap and wash off the bloody stain. 'Tis of no use against witchery. Or for that matter, against any of life's mischances. Nothing is, save common sense."
    "I shall be glad to wash it off, Countess. 'Tis very uncomfortable."
    "Please do so at once!"
    I went to my room and washed the mark away, using two handfuls of scented soap. Yet, strangely, when I combed my hair in front of the mirror as I got ready for breakfast, the mark had not disappeared. It was in the middle of my forehead, right where the king had traced it with his jeweled finger.
    For fear the countess would send me back to my room when she discovered that I still