‘Well, it’s certainly more cheerful,’ she said, tracing round his nipple with a sharp fingernail, ‘Thea is pleased with her betrothal to a Percy, and since Nell moved out, Frances Sidney has moved in. She is so much in love with her absent husband we needs must listen to her speak about what they got up to in their marital bed before he left.’ Her hand travelled downwards, caressing his belly and lower, and she giggled at his response to her questing fingers.
‘And listening to that is more interesting than being here with me, my love?’
‘God’s blood, no!’ exclaimed Bess. ‘She is so innocent, she describes his lovemaking in a breathless, scandalised whisper, although it seems to me he barely did his duty. He seems to have been kind, but slightly perfunctory if you ask me, but she speaks as if he was Lancelot and she was the Fair Maid of Astolat. And now she is with child, God forbid she names it Galahad.’
‘And how do you fare, my love? Is keeping our secret weighing heavily upon your soul?’ Bess laughed and swatted his chest.
‘Not my soul, my Lord, but hiding my belly is becoming less easy. That I wear my shift at all times isn’t noticed, because they are all full of their own excitement, but putting my petticoat roll on top of my hoop amazes them. I tell them my gown is too long, and I cannot find the energy to take up the hem. Frances, bless her, has offered but I tell her to stitch for her babe, and she is easily distracted. But, my Lord, it cannot remain a secret much longer. I shall be too large soon.’
‘I shall speak to the Queen, my love. I swear, as soon as the promised finance is with me, I shall confess all.’ He kissed her gently, then with rising ardour. He smiled in his mind, thinking that Frances Sidney wasn’t the only one who could be easily distracted.
***
‘Sir Kytt, how lovely to see you,’ Lettice dimpled up at Kytt, who strode into her solar and bowed low, ‘Is my son with you?’
‘No, my Lady. He has sent me to retrieve something from his apartment.’ Kytt gave Lettice a rueful smile, and she realised he had been sent to find something Essex could sell.
‘You shall sit with us a while, Kytt. Have some refreshment and tell us what is happening at court.’ Lettice stood and pulled the bell, and Kytt sat on a low stool, smiling shyly at Meg, Jane and Ursula who were stitching by the window.
‘Ah, Cissy. Ale and bread and cheese for Sir Kytt, if you please. And sweetmeats for us, I think.’ Lettice smiled at the maid, who bobbed a curtsey and swiftly left the room.
‘You shouldn’t call me ‘Sir Kytt’, my Lady. People will think I have ideas above my station.’ Kytt looked at Lettice with wide eyes and she giggled.
‘I have no doubt you will be ennobled, Kytt. I am just getting people used to it.’ She patted him on the arm and took her seat. Slow hesitant footsteps sounded in the gallery and Lettice beamed towards the door, which opened carefully to reveal Daisy helping Robbie to totter forwards. Lettice opened her arms wide to welcome her son.
‘What a clever boy,’ she laughed, ‘walking to his Mama.’ Robbie offered a wet grin at the sound of his mother’s voice, and concentrated on moving his sturdy little legs as Daisy held both hands over his head. Lettice slid off her chair to her knees, her glorious silk gown heedlessly pooling round her as she held her arms towards her boy. Daisy brought them nearer and then loosened her grip so Robbie was standing unaided.
Nodding, Lettice beamed at him again and held out her hands so he could grasp them and walk towards her. With wide eyes he reached out and touched her fingers, wobbling perilously until her grip firmed on his hand and he took another hesitant step. And another, before being swept up and kissed by his mother.
‘Well done, young Sir,’ laughed Kytt as the baby squirmed and crowed with delight in his mother’s arms. ‘May I hold him, my Lady?’ Lettice’s brows rose in surprise but she passed her son to Kytt, who smiled and held him expertly.
‘Not the first child you have held, Kytt?’ Her eyebrow lifted in question.
‘No, my Lady. My mother had children younger than I.’ He grinned at Robbie and slid him down his crossed leg, until he rested against his boot. Holding the child’s hands he lifted his leg up and down as if Robbie was riding and he clicked his tongue in time, ‘Giddy up, horsey,’ bouncing the delighted child higher and higher.
Lettice laughed as her boy laughed and then stilled as she heard hard boots moving swiftly along the gallery. She stood, an excited smile on her face as she watched the door open.
‘Hello, Robin.’
‘Lily,’ Robert kissed her lips gently and then bowed to the ladies, ‘Ladies, Sir Kytt.’
‘To what do we owe the pleasure, Robin?’ Lettice asked, then turned as the door opened and Cissy brought the tray of food and sweetmeats she had requested.
‘Another cup for Lord Robert, if you please,’ she smiled at Cissy whose eyes grew huge at the sight of Robert stroking his son’s head tenderly. Cissy bobbed a wordless curtsey, flushing to the edge of her lace cap, then twirling around in a flurry of linen petticoats to fetch another mug. Kytt raised his eyebrows to Robert in surprise at the maid’s uncharacteristic clumsiness and Robert, eyes dancing merrily, shook his head despairingly.
‘Every time, Sir Kytt. And she has worked for us for years.’ He shrugged and Kytt snorted a laugh, prompting a loud giggle from Robbie, still riding his boot.
‘You are teaching my son to ride, Sir Kytt? He seems to have a good seat.’
Kytt laughed, bouncing the child higher, ‘Indeed, my Lord. We shall have to ask my uncle to find him a pony soon.’
Lettice handed them both a mug of ale and swept her son in her arms, protesting vigorously. She set him on his feet and held his hand as he thought about walking. She glanced up at Robert, sipping his ale and picking up a bread roll.
‘As lovely as it is to see you, Robin, you didn’t come for the bread and ale at this time of day?’ He shook his head and took another drink to clear his mouth.
‘I am on a royal errand, my love. I come from the Queen.’ Lettice’s brows rose even higher. She knew it wouldn’t affect her, and she wondered what the errand was.
‘The Queen wishes me to summon Lady Sadler to a private audience.’ Robert looked astonished as Meg half rose from her seat, sewing tumbling to the floor and her hand at her throat.
‘No, no, Lady Meg. Do not distress yourself. Nothing has happened to Sir Ralph, I assure you.’ Meg sat back down heavily and Jane took her hand.
‘Robin, really,’ scolded Lettice, ‘for a courtier and diplomat, trained in the subtleties of language, you really are the limit. Ed could do a better job.’ Robert snorted and Kytt suppressed his own smile.
‘My apologies, Lady Meg. The Queen wishes to do you a kindness and would discuss it with you in person. She says it is so long since she saw you, and she feels your absence sorely.’ Lettice smiled her approval at his gentle words, casting her mind around for a reason why the Queen would want to speak to Meg privately.
The topic would provide hours of idle speculation, she thought as she helped her son totter around the room. And she must ask Meg to remember all the gowns and jewels to relate to them when she returned from court.
Robert watched as Lettice bent to help Robbie navigate the room, and he held out a small piece of cheese he cut with his dagger for the child to taste. At a swift stagger, the little boy reached one hand for the cheese, clinging to his mother’s fingers with the other. Robert took his son’s hand and steadied him while the boy gnawed on the cheese with his new teeth, then swept him in his arms and carried him to the window.
‘When does the Queen wish to see me, Lord Robert?’ Meg’s voice was hesitant.
‘Tomorrow, Lady Meg, if that suits you?’ Robert’s words were filled with amusement
as his son tried to pull his nose and grasp his beard, then Robbie cackled with laughter as Robert rubbed his beard against the child’s soft cheeks and neck, growling as he did so.
‘Of course, my Lord. Whatever her Majesty wishes.’ Meg was becoming breathless with anxiety, and Jane took her mother’s hand again and patted it to calm her.
‘I will take you to court when I go in the morning, Lady Meg, and I shall accompany you to see the Queen, if that would make you feel better?’ Robert held his son close and rocked him gently, turning smiling dark eyes towards Meg’s relieved countenance.
‘Thank you, my Lord. That does indeed make me feel better,’ Meg sighed, then Lettice took the baby from Robert and passed him to Daisy quickly.
‘You almost had a wet sleeve, Robin,’ she chuckled, ‘Now, if you gentlemen will excuse us, we have a gown to choose for Lady Sadler’s audience with the Queen.’ The ladies swept out with smiles to Kytt and bobbed curtsies to Robert, and the two men toasted them with raised ale cups as they departed.
***
‘Do you know why she wishes to see me, my Lord?’ Robert strode through the gallery with Meg’s trembling hand on his arm. As they walked towards the Presence Chamber, doors guarded as they always were, people on either side of them bowed and curtseyed to Robert, nodding and smiling and whispering requests for a word, a moment of his time, an audience with the Queen. Robert acknowledged them all with an incline of his head, but only spoke to Meg.
‘She wants to tell you herself, Lady Meg, but please don’t be alarmed.’ He patted her hand as they reached the door and the guards opened it for them. The Presence Chamber was full of yet more people, and Meg felt eyes turn to look at Robert and his companion, an elderly lady of no importance. Meg straightened her spine and allowed herself a glance round the room. A young man caught her eye and she blinked as he came towards her, grinning.
‘Lady Sadler, you look lovely. That tawny silk complements your eyes beautifully, and that necklace is astonishing. Amber and topaz has never looked so lovely until it graced your neck.’ Meg raised her hand to touch the necklace, which had been a gift from Elizabeth’s mother and smiled at Rob Dudley broadly.
‘Rob, how nice to see a friendly face.’ Rob bowed over her hand and she smiled down at his dark curly head. ‘Are you enjoying being at court, Rob?’
‘Yes, my Lady. Many people have been extremely kind.’ He retained her hand and pressed it to his chest, and Meg had to suppress a smile at the Dudley charm he exuded without thinking, ‘Aunt Kit has introduced me to her friends and…’
‘And her friends’ daughters and granddaughters, I imagine, my son.’ Robert interrupted with a chuckle and Rob coloured slightly and tilted his head in acknowledgement.
‘Lady Meg, would you allow me to leave you here for but a moment with my son to look after you?’ Robert looked at Rob and received a happy nod in return. ‘I shall enquire whether the Queen is ready to receive visitors in her Privy Chamber before she comes out here and,’ he looked around at the mass of people in the Presence Chamber, ‘is ambushed.’
‘Of course, Lord Robert. I’m sure Rob will look after me.’ Meg dipped a curtsey and smiled at Robert as he strode towards the door in the far wall, then turned to her young escort, ‘Not everyone has been kind then, Rob?’
His brows rose at the knowledge that she had caught his careful statement, and he led her over to the window seat so they might be more private.
‘No, Lady Meg, not everyone. My stepbrother Essex and his cronies are a trial when they are in their cups. Sober, they ignore me but too much wine and they find me ….entertaining.’ His mouth quirked downwards and Meg cupped her hand round his jaw and brought his gaze to her own.
‘Remember who you are, Rob. And find your own friends and make your own way.’
‘The Queen has introduced me to John Dee, Lady Meg. He is such a scholar and..’
‘The necromancer?’ Meg’s gasp was scandalised.
‘The astrologer, Lady Meg. The scholar. The astronomer and most learned man. He charts the heavens and the earth, and he is showing me different ways to make maps.’ Meg’s eyes widened at the passion in Rob’s voice, and he smiled, ‘He has much to teach me, my Lady. And I am happy to learn. I don’t have to avoid anyone when I am in his rooms.’ Meg patted his hand in sympathy.
‘And have you made the acquaintance of any young ladies of the Court, Rob? Anyone special that is?’
Rob huffed a laugh and shook his head. ‘There are many young ladies of the court, Lady Meg, and they are all special in their own way. But,’ he gave her a sharp glance, ‘Lady Howard’s granddaughter Eliza is enchanting.’
Meg’s lips twitched at his description, and she hoped that Rob’s own Howard ancestry would make a difference for him when he pressed his suit for the girl’s hand. Across the room she saw Robert walking towards her, accompanied by a very pregnant Nell on one side and Beth Knollys, now Lady Leighton on the other. Both girls were smiling broadly and kissed and held Meg in their delight.
‘Her Majesty will see you now, Lady Meg.’ Robert offered his arm, and Meg rested her trembling hand on his muscular forearm, walking towards the door of the Privy Chamber with butterflies in her stomach as the girls walked carefully behind her.
The guard opened the door and Robert escorted her inside, where Elizabeth was seated on her large chair. Meg sank into a deep curtsey and bowed her head until Elizabeth spoke.
‘Lady Sadler. Meg. I am so pleased to see you again, and in happier circumstances.’
Meg felt her throat close as she remembered the last time she had seen Elizabeth was at Cat’s bedside just before she died. She pushed down the emotion and smiled at the Queen.
‘As am I, Majesty.’ Her stomach still churned in trepidation at why the Queen wished to see her, and Robert again took her arm and led her to a seat near the Queen, where she sank gratefully. Meg regarded Elizabeth surreptitiously, and could see the lines of anxiety in her face carefully masked by the makeup Nell applied twice daily. Elizabeth was ignoring Nell’s advancing pregnancy as she had ignored all of Cat’s; she kept her favourites as close as she could until she had no choice but to allow them time to deliver their babes.
‘You must wonder why I wanted to see you in person, Meg.’ Meg nodded wordlessly and Elizabeth flicked her hand negligently. Instantly wine and sweetmeats were brought and placed on the table at the Queen’s side, and with a sideways glance, Robert poured wine and brought a cup to Elizabeth and then to Meg, who sipped nervously.
‘Lord Robert tells me that two of your children have recently become betrothed.’
‘Yes, Majesty. But as neither of them are in your service, neither their father nor I thought we needed to ask Royal permission. If we have been neglectful, please excuse us, as we meant no disrespect.’ Meg knew her words were tumbling over themselves but she couldn’t help herself, and she wished Ralph had been with her for this.
Elizabeth’s eyes danced over her wine cup, and briefly Meg saw the princess she had been, before the plots and schemes and difficulties of ruling a country as a single woman had dimmed her joy and hardened her heart.
‘My permission is not needed for your children, Meg. But as, I hope, a friend as well as your Queen, and in memory of what you and Cat did for me when I was but a princess, I would like to offer you St. George’s Chapel at Windsor to hold the weddings.’ Elizabeth smiled at Meg, and Meg could see the eagerness in her eyes that her gift would be well received.
‘Oh, Princess, thank you. I mean, Your Majesty. My apologies. But, your Majesty, that is such an honour, Ralph will be overcome when I tell him.’
‘No apology necessary, Meg. I miss Cat, as you must, and no-one else calls me that now. It brings back many happy memories. An
d a few less happy ones.’ Elizabeth turned her mouth down ruefully, then continued, ‘Your son Tom has served Lord Robert faithfully and well, and it is Lord Robert who suggested the gift. And your daughter has become betrothed to Cat’s son, I understand?’
‘Yes, your Grace, Jane. And Dickon. But they won’t wed for some considerable time yet.’
‘The offer will stand, Meg. And it is a thank you from me to you. Nell tells me you still make your salve and it is that which she tints and uses when she serves me.’ Meg nodded.
‘So, in gratitude and friendship, your daughter will marry Cat’s son in the royal chapel. After all, he is a kinsman of ours, a second cousin or some such.’ Elizabeth shrugged and replaced her wine cup then Robert stepped towards Meg who rose from the chair and sank into another low curtsey.
‘Their father and I both thank you very much, Majesty.’ Meg rose slowly and held Robert’s arm. ‘And I shall make sure Nell has plenty of salve, your Grace, and I shall teach her how to make it for you.’ Elizabeth inclined her head and Robert guided Meg carefully from the room.
‘I told you it was happy news, Lady Meg,’ laughed Robert when they were back in the Presence Chamber, and Meg flushed as people turned to see why Lord Robert was laughing.
‘Indeed, my Lord. But I still wish Ralph had been with me. Her Majesty is very different now than she was when she was our Princess.’
‘Everyone is different now, Lady Meg. All of us, and the world around us, has changed. And we are all different.’
Chapter 34
ooking quickly at the travel-stained parchment in her hands, Nell stuffed it into the pocket of her gown and carried on down the gallery. Reaching her own apartment, she hurried through the door and closed it deliberately behind her as she excitedly broke the seal.
Beloved, I shall soon be home with you.
On the Altar of England (Tudor Chronicles Book 4) Page 26