The Virgin Queen's Daughter - Ella March Chase Read Free Page A

loose on her shoulders, that is why!” Mother said. “Mark my words, Queen Mary will treat Elizabeth just as she did Lady Jane!” Mother’s voice caught the way it did whenever light hurt her eyes. It almost sounded like crying.
    I shivered. Now that I had seen the traitors up on pikes it was easy to imagine someone’s head coming loose and rolling away. “Where is the princess now?” I asked. “Is she hiding from the Spaniards?”
    “I wish that she were somewhere hiding,” Father said. “No, the princess is locked up in the Tower while Queen Mary decides what to do with her.”
    “Someone should let her out.” I was amazed no grown-up had thought of it.
    “Indeed, Little Bird. I wish someone could.” Father gathered me in his arms; I loved the smell of him: ink and leather and books.
    The barge cut through the water until a cool shadow fell over us, the curtain wall surrounding the mighty fortress. As we drew abreast of the Tower wharf to land, I could see the White Tower peeping over the top of the walls, its turrets gleaming in the sun. Thoughts of the princess fled as Father told me how William the Conqueror had brought those golden stones all the way from France to build a castle so the Saxons knew he was here to stay. Never had I imagined a structure so big. My head filled with the treats Father promised: booksellers and trips to the king’s menagerie, with strange creatures from lands far away. I was in London at last, where we would visit the mysterious conjurer who had once been imprisoned for making a wooden beetle fly. It was science that had wrought Dr. Dee’s famous feat, Father insisted. And yet, magic was far more enthralling to my mind.
    A guard whose face was ruddy as his livery glanced at the de Lacey lions baring their teeth on the banners rippling above us. He hastened toward us, saying that the Lieutenant bade him watch for visitors from Calverley. We were to be escorted to Sir John at once. The two men visited each other every five years to talk of pranks and theories and people I had yet to meet. Father had told me Sir John was forever laughing and could solve more riddles than any man he’d ever known. Yet when we entered the house close to the fortress’s thick wall, the man who embraced my father looked as if he had never smiled at all.
    “My dear friend, have you been ill?” Father’s shock was evident in his voice. Mother grasped my hand and pulled me away from them. She was fearful of contagion where I was concerned, and had been wary of bringing me to London. Everyone knew the crowded city was a breeding ground for fevers of every kind.
    “You need not fear for your child’s safety, Lady Calverley,” Sir John soothed, as if he sensed her fears. “My sickness is of a most singular kind. I am only sore at heart.”
    “I am sorry for it.” My mother relaxed her grip on my hand.
    “Your visit will cheer me. My wife is depending upon it. We will reminisce about happier times while I become acquainted with this remarkable daughter my friend has written about so often.”
    Father chuckled and laid a hand on my shoulder. “I think you will find I have been modest in my estimations. She could best many scholars twice her age.” Pride made my chest feel tight. I dreaded the possibility of failing him. “Make your curtsey to the Lieutenant, Nell.”
    I executed my curtsey passably enough. “Good morrow, Sir John.”
    “Good morrow, Mistress Nell. You are most welcome after your long journey. What do you most wish to see here in the city? We have shops full of pretty trinkets.”
    “It is books I want. Father says there are more in London than I could ever read.”
    I saw the Lieutenant flinch, and I feared I had offended him. But he looked into my eyes with a mournful gaze. “I knew a girl who loved books above all things.”
    “May we find that book-loving girl?” I asked. “I should like her very much.”
    “The Lieutenant is an important man,” my mother chided.