Jane Feather - The Silver Rose

London, 1689

The winter night was dark; snow fell softly, covering the slimy cobbles in the narrow lanes, overlaying the filth in the kennels, creating a delicate white world that would last until the first footfall of dawn.

The small room under the eaves of Sam Begg's bakery on Distaff Lane was warmed by a brazier, lit by a dozen wax candles, the air fragrant with the smell of yeast and baking bread from the oven in the shop below. Sam's first customers would appear with the dawn, and the hot bread must be waiting for them.

"It wants but ten minutes before five." The man in a fur-lined chamber robe turned from the small diamond-paned window where he'd been watching the snow.

"When will I see you again?" The woman was dressing before the brazier, her fingertips clumsy with the cold despite the charcoal's heat. The question was simple enough but the voice was filled with a deep yearning akin to despair.

"When do you return to Ely?" He came over to her, taking her hands in his, chafing them. His hands were large, fitting his physique, and the woman's slender fingers disappeared in their grasp.

"My husband talks of tomorrow." Her eyes were gray, clear, almond-shaped, the sable eyelashes long and curling. She moved her hands from his to put up the tumbling mass of hair, the color of liquid honey. "And you?"

"I still petition the king for the return of my land," he said, gently tracing the curve of her cheek. "Some days I think he will grant me the favor, others…" He shrugged massive shoulders beneath the robe. "But I cannot as yet leave Whitehall. Not until I have an answer."

"And if the answer is in your favor, then Ravenspeare will bear you even greater hatred."

Again he shrugged. "That's nothing to me, Margaret. So long as I have the undying love of his wife." Smiling now, he caressed her face before kissing her, a long, lingering joining of their mouths that spoke of the night they had just passed and contained the promise of future nights.

"I fear for you," she said, taking up her hooded riding cloak. "My husband bears the Hawkesmoors such ill will." She shivered as she drew the garment tightly around her. "It runs deep in Ravenspeare blood."

"The rivalry and hatred between our families has run deep in blood for nigh on two hundred years," Geoffrey Hawkesmoor said somberly.

"And yet there has been love too," Margaret murmured, almost to herself. "Love between the two families as powerful as the hatred."

Geoffrey did not speak his thought that on the occasions when love and passion had fired the two neighboring dynasties, the results had been as violent and tragic as anything produced by the vein of hatred. Such reflections were too chillingly close to their own situation.

But they would be safe. They were careful. They didn't ask for too much. They accepted the limits of their passion.

Thrusting the cold moment from him, he drew something out of his pocket. "There is something I would give you, my love. But you must keep it well hidden from your husband." He extended his hand so that she could see what he held.

A strangely shaped bracelet lay on his huge palm. It was gold, pearl encrusted, shaped like a serpent. In the serpent's mouth was a large perfect pearl.

"How beautiful." Margaret lifted it from his hand, holding it to the candle flame, turning it to catch the light. "It's very strange, though."

"It reminded me of you." He took it from her, running his finger over its shape. "All the beauty, the power, and the terror of Eve."

Margaret shivered suddenly. "Don't say that. I am no temptress, Geoffrey."

"No." He smiled. "It's not your fault that I am tempted to madness by you." He held up the bracelet again. "Do you see the charm it already carries?" He touched a delicate, glowing emerald cut into the perfect shape of a swan. "This one was already attached, but I have the notion to mark each of our meetings with another charm. So there will always be an enduring record of our love. And you will keep it as secret, as deeply hidden from the eyes of the world, as we must keep that love."

Margaret was always surprised by the romantic, poetic side of her lover-a man more at home with the sword than the pen. But it was an essential part of the vibrant and varied personality that was dearer to her than life itself.

"Come," he said with sudden urgency. "You must leave. Brian will be waiting with the sedan chair at the corner. You must be back in your own bed before dawn."

She clung to him with the desperation of a hopeless love, then tore herself away without looking back, running down the stairs, past the bakery where the red glow of the great fireplace threw the black shadow of Sam Begg, huge, against the whitewashed walls. He didn't acknowledge her. He never acknowledged her. He was paid well and silently by the man, who always arrived first and left last, and the baker maintained his own silence.

The door to the street was unbarred, and she threw back the oiled bolts with ease. Swiftly she slipped into the silent lane, drawing the door closed at her back.

They came toward her, moving out of the doorways opposite. Three men, cloaked and hooded. They held daggers glittering in the snowlight, but only one man struck the silent woman, whose eyes, wide with horrified knowledge, glowed in the dim white light.

The earl of Ravenspeare killed his wife as she stood immobile against the doorway. She made no attempt to evade the dagger, made no sound, until, as she crumpled to the ground, she cried out, a sound terrible enough to waken the dead, and loud enough to warn Geoffrey Hawkesmoor in the chamber above the street.

Margaret's blood clotted the snow beneath her. Her fingers loosened, and the glitter of gold, the glow of emerald, the translucence of pearl fell stark onto the ground beside her.

Her husband bent to pick up the lover's bracelet. He dropped it into his pocket, pushed the body away from the door with the toe of his boot, and unsheathed his sword.

Geoffrey would have had time to fling open the back window of the small chamber. Time to escape over the rooftops. But instead he came down the stairs, out into the street. He knew what he would find. Margaret would not have had a chance. His sword was in his hand as he faced Ravenspeare.

Only their eyes spoke the hatred each bore the other. Geoffrey's sword passed in salute through the air, but before he could issue the challenge, an assassin's dagger slipped into his back, between his ribs, piercing his heart.

His opponent lowered his unused sword. He stood over his dying enemy. "You dishonor the house of Ravenspeare, cur. And you die without honor. The knife in the back is all the honor due you."

"You speak of honor, Ravenspeare." The dying man spoke slowly, haltingly, blood bubbling from his mouth. And yet he managed to sound ironic. "Remember Esther and remember dishonor." A scathing laugh crackled in blood between his lips. His blue eyes were for a moment sharp with contempt, then the film crept over them, extinguishing the light, and Geoffrey Hawkesmoor died beside his mistress, their blood mingling in the snow.

London, 1709

Queen Anne lowered her corpulent body into the great chair, decorated with gold lace and crimson velvet, at the head of the long table in the council chamber at the Palace of Westminster. Her ladies on either side of her arranged the crimson train of her gown in graceful folds, discretely covering the swollen, poulticed, bandaged foot that they carefully lifted onto a velvet footstool. Despite their care the queen grimaced with pain. Her gout was at its worst today.

The men in the chamber saw the wince as they took their own seats, and knew that their sovereign would be irritable, intransigent, and most likely capricious in the day's council.