The Betrayal Read Free

glanced back and I saw, for the first time, that his horse’s bridle bore a long cord, which led in turn to the bridle of the small white pony behind him. A girl was seated on this pony, a girl with glossy dark hair spread like an overcape across her wool gown of Tudor green. She wore a pink feathered cap on her head and I caught a glimpse of pink velvet boots under her gown.
    I have heard before of love at first sight, and believe it possible. If one believes this, then surely the opposite can be true: that you mislike someone at first sight. Was it just her appearance? I wondered afterwards. Perhaps if she’d been a plain girl, a dumpy creature with a face like a penny loaf and hair as dry and straggled as a horse’s mane, I might have liked her better. As it was, she was very pretty and I did not. And I especially did not like the cord which tethered her to Tomas.
    ‘We have here a new lady-in-waiting and a nervousrider,’ Tomas said, seeing my glance. He smiled at the girl. ‘We will stay here just a moment.’
    ‘’Tis of no matter,’ the young lady said, ‘for it’s a relief to me when my pony stops moving.’ She laughed and swung back her hair. ‘I am more used to being driven in a carriage, but swear I would rather walk to Whitehall any day than ride about on this beastie!’
    I forced my cold face into what might pass for a smile, but need not have bothered because she wasn’t looking at
me
, a mere nursery maid; her gestures and glances were all for Tomas. My mind began to chase a hundred different questions: was she at Court to find a rich husband? Where had she come from? Who was her sponsor? Would she – oh, lucky girl! – become one of those chosen confidantes of the queen? Would she settle down at Court or not? Perhaps she would miss her mother and ask to go home again.
    ‘Tom-fool!’ Merryl said. ‘Will you do us some tricks?’
    Tomas shook his head. ‘Today, my children, I’m not Tom-fool.’ He beckoned them close and added in a whisper, ‘Today you see me as one of the queen’s hawkmeisters.’
    ‘Then will you bring your bird down to see us?’ Beth asked.
    He nodded. ‘In one moment.’ He looked towards me. ‘And how do you fare, Mistress Lucy?’
    I smiled as carefree as could be. ‘I do very well, and thank you. Though we are frozen to our bones fromwaiting here so long.’ I dropped my voice, ‘But can you tell me why Her Grace has gone by huddled inside her litter and not shown herself to the crowd, for we are all very concerned.’
    He shrugged. ‘’Tis nothing. She’s merely taken a chill and prefers not to expose herself to the frosty air.’
    I stared at him. I have one accomplishment which oft-times serves me well, and that is: I sometimes have feelings about things. My friend Isabelle says I have the Sight, but I don’t like to call it that, for they say similar gifts are possessed by witches. By some strange and unaccountable means, however, I knew that Tomas wasn’t speaking the truth. ‘Do you say so?’ I asked, rather coolly, for I had proved in the past that my loyalty and love for the queen were unquestionable, and I did not care to be fobbed off with trite excuses as if I were just anyone.
    ‘Ah.’ He knew I didn’t believe him. His eyes flickered around us, making sure no one was close enough to hear his next words. ‘Very well – but I must be brief,’ he said in a low voice. ‘You remember the so-called secret which was actually the talk of the Court?’
    ‘Which one?’ I asked, for the Court is ever a seething mass of rumour, mystery, gossip and speculation.
    ‘The rumour which concerned the queen’s favourite.’
    I nodded immediately, for Isabelle and I had been quite agog with the tale of the Master of the Queen’s Horse, Sir Robert Dudley, long held to be her lover,who’d recently wed without her knowledge or consent. ‘Has she found out about the marriage?’ I asked, for the last I’d heard, none of her ladies-in-waiting had