On the Altar of England (Tudor Chronicles Book 4)

by Lesley Jepson

  Elizabeth took a gold and pearl hair ornament from on top of the dresser and pressed it into Nell’s hand. Nell’s eyes flew upwards in astonishment and she shook her head.

  ‘No, your Majesty. I do not need a reward. My reward is serving you.’ Nell smiled and tried to hand the ornament back but Elizabeth curled her long slender fingers round Nell’s hand.

  ‘Keep it as a memento then, rather than sell it as a reward. A thank you from your Queen. You shall be in charge of the Royal maquillage in the future, young Nell. You have a real talent.’

  ‘Thank you, Majesty. My Lady Mother says it comes from my great grandmother Mary.’ Nell sank into another curtsey and didn’t notice Elizabeth’s mouth tighten into irritation as she mentioned her mother. Elizabeth waved her hand in dismissal, and the other ladies brought her ruff to pin to the neck of her gown.

  Abruptly, a swift tapping came at the door to the outer chamber. A page thrust a rolled parchment into the hand of Bess Throckmorton, who was the one to open the door.

  ‘From my Lord Walsingham, so her Grace may read it before the council meeting.’ He bowed, and the feather from his cap swept the floor as he bent from the waist. She nodded and turned towards the Queen, bobbing a curtsey as she passed on the note and message.

  Elizabeth unrolled the paper and her dark eyes moved quickly across the cramped black writing. Her head came up swiftly as she crumpled the scroll in her hand.

  ‘Where is Lord Robert? Find him and bring him to me this instant.’ Her gaze fell on Bess Throckmorton and her hand shot out, grasping the maid’s wrist in a tight, painful grip. Elizabeth pulled the surprised girl forward and hissed in her ear, ‘Find me his Lordship, girl. Go now, and go quickly. Tell him I have need of his counsel.’

  Bess nodded silently as the chatter of the maids and ladies fell silent at the unpredictability of the Queen’s mood. She scurried quietly away on her errand as the Queen began to pace up and down her apartment.

  ***

  ‘Mistress Throckmorton. You are in a hurry, my Lady.’ Bess turned at the smooth voice coming from the window seat on the gallery.

  ‘Oh, Master Raleigh. I didn’t see you. I am afraid I cannot stop to speak,’ Bess passed Raleigh towards the tower staircase, ‘I have to find the Earl of Leicester for the Queen.’ She twisted the latch on the heavy door and pulled hard, but it wouldn’t move. She tried again and sighed her frustration.

  ‘Allow me, Mistress.’ Raleigh stepped behind Bess and twisted the latch again, this time lifting slightly as he pulled. The door swung smoothly outward.

  ‘Thank you, my Lord. But I cannot stay.’ Bess swept her skirt round the corner of the door jamb, and Raleigh followed.

  ‘Then I shall accompany you to the yard, my Lady. Tell me what has got you in such a panic.’

  ‘The Queen has had a message from Walsingham, my Lord. She wishes to discuss it with Lord Robert before the Council meeting.’

  ‘Indeed? She would discuss Council business with his Lordship prior to the meeting?’

  ‘She discusses everything with Lord Robert, sir. He is her oldest friend.’

  ‘Despite how she treats him? Despite how she speaks to him?’

  Bess stopped at the doorway leading to the stable yard and turned to Raleigh, following her down the stairs.

  ‘The Queen may treat any of her subjects as she sees fit, my Lord. That doesn’t mean they have earned her displeasure. We all do her bidding, and I must do her bidding in a hurry. Excuse me, my Lord. She will be displeased to be kept waiting. I must find Lord Robert.’

  ‘He is in the far stable, my Lady. I saw him enter the stable yard from the gallery window.’

  ‘And you didn’t think to tell me, so I could send a page and get back to the Queen?’ Bess huffed an impatient sigh and opened the door herself.

  ‘Then I wouldn’t have been able to spend these moments in your company, my Lady.’ Raleigh caught hold of Bess’s hand and kissed the knuckles briefly as she tried to pull away. She nodded her head at him as she hurried into the yard.

  ‘My Lord.’

  Raleigh smiled his winning smile at her, teeth bright and white in his tanned face, ‘Until next time, my Lady.’ He turned and retraced his steps up the tower and back to the gallery.

  ***

  ‘Majesty? You need to see me?’ Robert bowed at the door of Elizabeth’s Privy Chamber and she looked round at all her ladies tidying up the clothes strewn around the room.

  ‘Leave us,’ she commanded, and her attendants filed out of the door in silence. Robert’s sister Kit rolled her eyes at him as she passed, and he gave Nell a quick wink as she hurried out of the door, which put a small smile back on her pretty face.

  ‘Your Grace?’ Robert placed his hat on the side table and walked to Elizabeth, who was still pacing up and down, ‘Bess Throckmorton said you’d had a message you wished to discuss.’

  ‘Another plot, my Lord. It would seem my cousin of Norfolk has ideas beyond his station.’ Elizabeth thrust the scroll towards him, and he opened it, carefully reading what was written then meeting the Queen’s eyes.

  ‘He has gone north to marry the Scots Queen?’ Robert snorted his contempt. ‘What is he about, to do such a thing?’ He went to the side table and poured Elizabeth a cup of wine, then a cup of small ale for himself.

  ‘He thinks to sit on my throne, my Lord. He thinks to marry the Catholic Queen of Scotland and sit on the English throne with her. Walsingham has had spies in his household for some time, knowing a plot was brewing. We just didn’t think he would be so …so…intemperate.’

  ‘Do you know what Walsingham is going to do, Majesty?’ Robert sipped his ale, replacing the cup quickly on the table, and watching as Elizabeth swallowed her wine in one gulp.

  ‘He is going to despatch Ralph Sadler to arrest our cousin Howard and bring him to the tower. Ralph has instructions to have the Scots Queen moved to Tutbury Castle. We would have her nearer London in her captivity.’

  ‘But, your Grace, Tutbury is almost a ruin.’

  ‘Then she will have other things to occupy her mind than plotting against us, my Lord.’ Elizabeth slammed the goblet down onto the table as her voice rose. ‘And if I’m on my Progress, I wouldn’t have her anywhere near where we might visit.’

  ‘No, Majesty.’ Robert shook his head and continued, ‘We would have bypassed Chatsworth in any event, but I still won’t have you venture further north than York. The Inglebys of Ripon are still supporters of the Bishop of Rome, and thus the Scots Queen. Your Royal person will not be put in any danger.’

  Elizabeth smiled at him, and nodded as he offered her another cup of wine. Robert lifted a sardonic eyebrow and smiled at the Queen.

  ‘I shall make sure the Earl of Shrewsbury keeps a close eye on the Scots Queen and that her staff is investigated before they are engaged to her service. If memory serves, Hatfield House wasn’t in the best of repair when your sister sent you there,’ he shook his head before continuing, ‘and living in a ruin didn’t prevent you from making plans for your future, Majesty. I would not have her plans meet with the success yours did.’

  Elizabeth chuckled as she sipped appreciatively and smiled over the rim of her cup, tilting her head in acknowledgement of the truth of his words.

  ‘Indeed, my Lord. And if she proves to be half as much a magnet for plots as I was, when every man with half a grudge against the Crown wanted to ally himself to my cause in the hope of an eventual reward, then I shall be mightily relieved when she is nearer the Tower, and Howard is in it. Then I can look forward to my Progress with a lighter heart.’ Elizabeth finished her wine and took Robert’s arm.

  ‘Come, my Lord. Let us see what Burleigh a
nd Walsingham have to say about all this, and hear the latest threats from Spain about their ships in the channel. You will have heard Drake is in port, laden with booty.’ Elizabeth threw her head back and laughed her genuine throaty laughter, and Robert couldn’t help but smile at the sound.

  ‘Philip of Spain won’t be pleased, Majesty. Losing the ships that bring him gold from the New World.’

  ‘By God, my Lord, I care nothing for that Spaniard’s feelings. Not a fig. He will rue the day he accepted the Bishop of Rome’s excommunication of England. Mark my words. I will have retribution for his slights.’

  Robert kept Elizabeth’s hand on his arm as he escorted her into the Council chamber, ready to hear the plans Walsingham had made against this latest threat to the Queen.

  Chapter 9

  ettice will need you for her confinement, my love. And I shall be back before you realise I’ve gone.’ Ralph Sadler held his slender wife on his lap, his arm round her shoulders as she sighed.

  ‘I miss you as much now as when we were first wed, Ralph, when you go away.’ He tightened his arm around her and kissed her forehead gently.

  ‘I shall be well escorted, Meg. I shall have Henry Hastings and a hundred of his soldiers with me. I shall be safe, I promise.’ Meg felt his lips whisper against her hair and she burrowed further into him, still happy to be in his embrace after more than thirty years together.

  ‘Do you expect Norfolk to give any trouble, Ralph?’ Meg’s forehead creased in concern and she sat up properly to look her husband in the eyes as he replied.

  ‘He is not his grandfather, my love.’ Ralph smiled as Meg wrinkled her nose in memory of the old Duke of Norfolk, a fearsome man and a valiant but cruel soldier. ‘We know where his camp is, and we know how many men have rallied to his cause, mistaken though it is. Sir Henry is confident that his troops will intimidate sufficiently that there will be no need for bloodshed.’ Meg blinked in astonishment that this had all been planned before the journey to arrest Norfolk had been undertaken.

  ‘I shall arrest Norfolk and bring him to London, to the Tower. The Scots Queen will be taken separately to Tutbury, and her household will be reduced. She will be served by people whose loyalty to Queen Elizabeth cannot be questioned.’

  ‘And after I have helped Lettice deliver her babe, Ralph, I shall go to stay with Mary and Anne for a while. It seems such a long time since I saw them.’

  Ralph kissed his wife again before she stood to go and instruct the servants to pack his belongings. ‘If the Queen can release me after I get back, my love, I might come and join you for a while. It will be nice to be with family after all the court intrigue.’

  Meg smiled excitedly. It had been quite a while since she had spent time with her elder daughters and her own grandchildren. Once Lettice was recovered, she would feel happy to leave her in the care of Jane and Ursula while she took some time for herself.

  ***

  ‘Mother! Mother!’ Tom Sadler began shouting for Meg while he was still in the stable yard. He jumped from his horse, tossing the reins to a stable lad and giving orders to prepare his mother’s carriage. Then he rushed through the scullery into the kitchen, taking the back stairs two at a time in his haste.

  ‘Mother! I come from Lord Robert.’ Tom stood in the wide hallway, gazing round at all the closed doors leading from the hall as well as those along the gallery.

  Meg hurried from her chamber on the first landing, closely followed by her maid Jennie, who was struggling with a huge valise.

  ‘Is it Lettice, Tom?’ Meg trotted swiftly down the stairs, one hand on the banister rail and the other pressing her bronze brocade skirts close so she didn’t catch her foot as she descended.

  ‘Lord Robert said she started with pains as dawn broke, Mother. He bade me bring you as soon as you could pack some things,’ he looked towards the maid, still valiantly tugging at the bag, ‘but I see you are prepared.’ He smiled at the maid, and lifted the valise easily. Jennie blinked in amazement at his strength, and coloured at his smile. She bobbed a curtsey towards Meg and scurried away quickly.

  ‘You still have such an effect on that girl, Tom, even after all these years,’ Meg laughed, pinning a velvet hat over her curls and picking up her gloves from the dresser in the hallway. Tom shrugged carelessly and hefted the bag into his other hand.

  ‘I can’t think why, Mother. I barely see her, and I have only said ‘thank you’ when she brings me something.’ Meg smiled up at her son, taller than his father but with her hazel eyes and light brown curls, and such broad shoulders gained from hard work with weapons and horses, and she shook her head.

  ‘You are astonishing, Tom. You are Lord Robert’s man at arms, you serve him at court, you are strong and brave and kind. I’m sure poor Jennie isn’t the only maid mooning over you.’ They walked through the main entrance and Tom held his mother’s hand as she stepped down the shallow front steps towards the waiting carriage. Tom helped her inside and gave the bag to be stowed away by the coachman.

  ‘There is a new lady in Letty’s household, Mother. She is so beautiful, and Jane seems to like her.’

  Meg nodded, supressing a smile at the tone of her son’s voice.

  ‘Ursula.’

  Tom ducked his head shyly as his mother mentioned her name. ‘Well, my son, we shall see what this beautiful lady is made of soon.’ Meg settled in her seat and Tom closed the carriage door. ‘She will be helping deliver Lettice’s baby today. I hope she has got sense, to go with her beauty.’ Meg nodded and Tom slapped the carriage as a signal to start before he swung into his own saddle and followed the coach back to Leicester House.

  ***

  'Letty, he is beautiful,’ Jane held Lettice’s new son in her arms as Meg and Ursula washed the new mother and dressed her in clean linens, all delicately embroidered round the neck and hem.

  ‘All Lettice’s babies have been beautiful, Jane.’ Meg laughed and looked at Lettice, raising her eyebrows as Ursula braided Lettice’s damp curls ‘Do you remember your mother arguing with the Dowager Duchess when you had young Essex?’

  ‘How could I forget, Aunt Meg? Walter’s mother was such a snob that Mother couldn’t resist reminding her that we are Howards.’ Lettice pushed herself higher against the embroidered pillows and held her arms out for her son. Jane placed the baby gently in his mother’s arms and went to help Ursula gather up the soiled linen.

  ‘Shall I call Lord Robert in to see his son, sweetheart?’

  ‘Please, Aunt. He has been so worried about me, all the way through. He will be relieved we are both safe.’ Lettice looked at Meg and laughed ruefully, ‘Although delivering a babe is less easy now than it was when I was nineteen, Aunt Meg.’

  ‘I know, sweetheart. And you have had so many disappointments between then and now.’ Meg tilted her head and smiled at the tiny boy, who was snuffling and rooting towards his mother’s breast. ‘Do you want me to send the wet-nurse up, my dear?’

  ‘No, not yet. I want Robin on his own first, to meet his son. And I would like to feed him myself for a little while, Aunt. Is that terrible of me?’

  ‘Not at all, sweetheart. He is your baby after all, and I doubt you had the chance with your others, did you?’ Lettice wrinkled her nose at the memory of being expected to hurry back to court, and leaving her children.

  ‘I didn’t, Aunt Meg. They came into your nursery as soon as I was blessed, and your wet-nurse fed them.’ She squirmed a little on the bed, stretching her limbs and making herself more comfortable. ‘This time, I have nowhere else to be. I can enjoy this boy like I was unable to enjoy my other babes.’

  Meg felt tears threaten at the back of her throat at Lettice’s obvious happiness, and she hurried from the room to find Lord Robert
so he could meet his heir. Robert was on the settle directly opposite the door of Lettice’s chamber and Meg’s eyes widened as he stood immediately on seeing her, looming large in the narrow upstairs hall.

  ‘Lady Sadler,’ Robert swallowed and took another deep breath, ‘all is well?’ Meg smiled and patted his arm gently, a gesture she would never have contemplated at any other time.

  ‘All is very well, my Lord. Lettice is ready for you to meet your son.’ The tears that had been threatening sprang into her eyes as she saw Robert struggle with the emotions rising in his own throat at the news that he had a son.

  ‘Go in, my Lord.’ Meg opened the door and ushered Robert through as if she were in her own home, not his. She heard Lettice’s happy, excited voice from the depths of her pillows.

  ‘Hello, Robin.’

  ***

  Raleigh strode through the door to the gallery which led to the Queen’s Presence Chamber and stopped in surprise. The gallery was crowded with people who would more usually be in the presence of the Queen, playing music, playing cards, practicing the newest dance, sewing, gossiping, all the usual pastimes of the day. He spied Bess Throckmorton in a knot of the Queen’s ladies and he made his way through the throng to her side.

  ‘Mistress Throckmorton,’ he bowed over her hand and Bess looked round at her companions and smiled excitedly.

  ‘My Lord.’ As Raleigh released her hand, Bess made her curtsey gracefully, looking carefully up at him through her lashes. He failed to notice her smile as he gazed round the crowded room.

  ‘Mistress Throckmorton, what is happening?’ He gestured at the mass of people. ‘Why is everyone out here?’

  Bess looked at him, and then lowered her eyes as his gaze came back to her, ‘The Queen was angry, my Lord, and sent us all away.’

  A deep bellow of a laugh sounded from inside, followed by the more familiar throaty chuckle of the Queen. Raleigh looked at Bess and raised his brows.

  ‘She doesn’t sound angry, Mistress.’