The Betrayal Read Free Page A

been able to bring themselves to tell her of it. ‘How did that happen?’
    ‘A few days ago – the rightful day we should have set off for London. Her Grace was told of it out of spite by a foreign ambassador after she’d refused his own marriage proposal.’
    ‘Never!’ I exclaimed. Behind Tomas’s back I was aware of the white pony frisking about and the girl on its back making noises of annoyance. ‘And Her Grace has taken it very badly?’
    He nodded. ‘She has. She has wept so much she says she’s not fit to be seen by her people. Hence she travels behind curtains.’
    Tears sprang to my eyes. ‘Poor lady! I think she really loved Sir Robert.’
    ‘Indeed. She says her heart is broken.’
    ‘Then … ?’ I didn’t have to finish the question, which was one oft asked:
why hadn’t she married him?
    ‘Because he’s not popular with her senior ministers,’ said Tomas, shrugging. ‘There was the difficulty with his first wife dying in a suspicious manner … and anyway, the queen’s ministers want her to add to her status and her coffers by marrying a rich foreign prince, not give herself to someone as comparatively low born as he.’
    We fell silent for a moment, then there was a shoutahead of ‘Wagons, roll!’ from the driver of the repaired cart.
    The young lady on the white pony gave a little cry. ‘Tomas! By your leave we should depart. My pony grows impatient.’
    I glanced at her. Did she wonder for just a moment who Tomas was speaking to, or had she looked at me, summed up my lowly status and presumed he’d stopped to amuse a simple maid with his falcon?
    ‘At once!’ Tomas leapt back on to his own horse’s back, pulled at the cord to bring the white pony closer and flicked it on the nose. ‘Be steady, my boy, or you will unseat your little mistress!’
    Beth came up and tapped his leather boot. ‘Don’t forget your falcon!’
    Tomas looked up at the sky and gave a long, low whistle, causing the bird circling above us to fly down. Reaching into his jerkin pocket Tomas pulled out something small and dead, and threw it into the air. The bird swooped upon it and swallowed it in a gulp, then resumed its place on Tomas’s gauntlet to applause from Merryl and Beth and others nearby us in the crowd.
    I smiled at the display, but thought only of the queen; our poor, heartbroken queen.
    Tomas gave me his hand in farewell. ‘We will meet in London,’ he said formally.
    I bobbed him a curtsey and extended this to the young lady on the pony, spreading my skirts and dipping very low, for she was of the nobility.
    She didn’t acknowledge my courtesy, however, for she was sharing a joke with Tomas, and when I straightened up their horses had joined the vast, winding trail of travellers going towards London. Above the noise of the crowd I could hear the clip-clop of their hoof-beats and her laughter, tinkling on the chill air.



Chapter Two

    I could think of nothing but Tomas all the way home, despite reproving myself for doing so, reminding myself yet again that just because he’d paid me some attention it need not mean a thing. At Court people kissed, flirted, paid lavish compliments and even wrote sonnets to each other just as means of passing the time.
    Things were very different in Hazelgrove, the little country village where I’d been brought up. There the choice of sweethearts was few, and a girl would usually marry a boy she’d known from the cradle. Life there was quiet, my sisters were fully grown and had left home, and I’d worked every day with my ma making gloves for the gentry. Nothing very exciting had ever happened to me – until I’d run away.
    I’d run away
, I reflected, still amazed at myself for having dared do such a thing. I’d had no real alternative,though, for I regret to say that my father is a drunken, violent brute, and my choice was between staying in the village and continuing to be bullied by him, or leaving home. I’d chosen to leave and – save for