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

“He cannot be chasing after children.”
    “But he said there is a girl—”
    “ Was a girl,” Mother quelled me. “ Was, Nell.”
    “It is all right, my lady,” the Lieutenant told her. He hunkered down the way Father sometimes did so he could look into my eyes. “The girl I knew gave me something precious.” He reached inside his doublet and withdrew a small volume. I opened it.
    “It is a prayer book,” I said, unable to hide my disappointment.
    Sir John ran his thumb over the velvet binding. “Can you read the name written within?” It was squeezed at the bottom of the page, the words penned in by hand.
    “Lady Jane Dudley.”
    “Most still remember her as Lady Jane Grey.”
    I sobered. Lady Jane—no matter what surname one called her—was quite dead. “No wonder you are sad,” I said.
    “You would have liked her. She was very brave and good. However, she was not as fortunate in her parents as you are, Mistress Nell.”
    On impulse, I kissed him on the cheek to chase the sadness away. Sir John’s eyes brimmed over with tears. Appalled, I shrank back against Father’s legs, expecting a reprimand for being so forward. But both Father and Mother smiled at me as Sir John swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand.
    “Enough gloom, little Nell,” Sir John said. “You did not travel all this way to listen to my grim musings. Perhaps while the servants help your parents settle into their lodgings you and I could walk over to the menagerie?”
    “I would like that, sir. Very much. If my lady mother does not mind.”
    He turned to my mother. “You will indulge me in this, will you not, my lady?”
    “But your duties—”
    “I have had a belly full of duty. God forgive me what I’ve done in its name.”
    Soon we were back in the bustling courtyard of the mightiest fortress in England. My neck ached from peering up at the towering walls. Guards paced along parapets, their halberds glittering in the sun. Thrice, Sir John had to keep me from bumping into one of the numerous workers who kept the fortress running. Once I nearly trod upon one of the ravens the Tower was famous for. In an explosion of squawking and feathers, the great black bird flew into the sky visible above the golden walls.
    I wrinkled my nose as we entered a building filled with strange smells and echoes. “Do you have a dragon from the Ethiops here, Sir John?” I regarded the intriguing shapes within. “I am very fond of dragons.”
    “I am afraid not. But we have a bear that ate a very naughty boy once.”
    I peered down into the nearest pit, anxious to see this bear. Two lions paced instead, their manes far more scraggly than the stone ones on our gatehouse back home. I chattered with delight, feeling myself the luckiest girl in England when a keeper let me fling a moldy haunch of mutton to wildcats with yellow eyes that glared right through me.
    “Do you get to feed the animals whenever you wish if you are the Lieutenant of the Tower?” I asked.
    “I do. And all of the soldiers here are under my command. During the rebellion I shot cannons at Wyatt’s traitors to help save the queen.”
    I was not sure if that was a good thing or a bad one. But before I could ask him, Sir John grew grim. “I have other duties not so pleasant. I must accompany prisoners to trial, and those condemned to the block.” Sir John stopped beside another pit. I looked in and saw the bear.
    “This is the hungry fellow I was telling you about,” he said.
    “He does not look very dreadful.” The animal lay on his back, licking his paw.
    “May I offer you a bit of wisdom to remember about wild things? Just because you cannot see teeth doesn’t mean they won’t bite.”

    N OT UNTIL THREE days later did I peer out of the window in the Lieutenant’s lodgings to see the most compelling creature held captive behind the Tower walls: The fair young princess out walking in the Lieutenant’s tiny walled garden. She wore a black dress with barely