Nigel Tranter - Lord and Master

'H'mrrm. And after?

'Send the women and the baggage on before us, with a small escort. We are well mounted – as well as any that Walsingham can find to send after us, quickly. With our escort of nearly five score, we can ride for Scotland with Mary – and who shall stop us?

'I think that you are too sanguine, Davy. It would not be so simple and easy as that'

'Who would expect it to be simple or easy? But it is our plain duty.'

'I cannot see that it is mine – as King James's and Scotland's ambassador.' 'To save Scotland's monarch and James's mother? 'But not this way, Davy.'

'We have tried your way. You did as much as any man could. But Elizabeth will have none of it We have waited her pleasure for long enough. We have tried talk. Now we must use deeds, Patrick.'

'What Davy says is true, Patrick,' the girl asserted again. 'We have an opportunity, a great opportunity, with our strong armed escort. Never have plotters for my aunt's release had this -armed men who need not go secretly. I believe that it would be wrong not to take this opportunity.'

Patrick looked away, sighed, and shrugged. 'When do you propose that we attempt this… adventure?

'Before long,' David declared. 'It is time that we went home. It lacks dignity thus to wait on Elizabeth's whim. Besides, the sooner we attempt it, the less the opportunity for Walsingham.'

'Aye. Very well, we shall see.'

'Restalrig had best not be told, as yet, He talks…'

In Sidney's room in the main house, the following evening, Patrick smiled. 'I think that you will find that she will see me, Philip. Tell her that I believe that it is necessary, and urgent. She will not say no.'

'My dear Patrick, perhaps, you are right. But no other man that I know would demand an audience thus. Do you have an understanding with her? In spite of how she is treating you this week? I think that perhaps you have, my friend.'

'I would not presume to name ft that'

'No? Very well. I will do what I can, Patrick.'

To the surprise of the attendant courtiers, in half-an-hour Patrick was shown into the Queen's private apartments – indeed into her bedroom. Elizabeth sat up in bed, in a state of highly elaborate undress, her head bound in a jewelled turban.

'Leave us, Philip,' she commanded, very much the queen despite her decolletage. 'The Master of Gray is showing more marked attention to his Lady Grey-eyes, so I think my maidenly virtue may be safe from him for a space!'

Patrick grimaced, as Sir Philip retired. Walsingham did not miss much, clearly.

'Well, sir?' the Queen said, suddenly business-like. 'What is it? What is this important matter which you must tell me?' She made no comment on her arm's-length attitude of the past days.

'It concerns our princess, Your Grace,' he told her.

'What of her?'

'May I be so bold as to ask, has Your Grace decided whether or no I may see her, and whether you will release her should she agree to renounce the Crown and retire to France?'

'Impertinent, sir! What the Queen of England has decided, and when, is not a matter for your enquiry.'

'Yet, dearest Madam, without knowing your mind on this matter, I cannot know what action to take in a new situation. A situation that affects Your Grace's interests as nearly as it does mine.'

'A new situation, Master Patrick? With regard to Mary Stuart? What is this? How can this be? Is it a new plot? My good Moor has reported none such.'

'I fear that even your well-informed Sir Francis cannot be apprised of this, Lady.'

'Cannot? Cannot is a large word, sirrah. What is this situation?'

Patrick offered a convincing display of hesitation. 'May I say, Majesty, that it makes the need for a decision on the matter of our princess urgently necessary. Else events may move beyond even Your Grace's grasp.'

'My God, sir, will you play cat-and-mouse with me? Out with it, man – or I shall find means to make you talk plain!'

Gustily the young man sighed, and spoke with every appearance of reluctance. 'There is a project to rescue our princess from your… hospitality, Madam. One that, for once, may well

succeed. One that for once, also, is simplicity itself

'I do not believe in this marvel of a plot, sir.'

'If you know my brother Davy as well as I do, Highness, you would be the more ready to believe.'

'Your brother…? The honest, unsmiling Master David? He plots against me?'

' 'Not against you, Your Grace, but for our Mary Stuart He is her man, heart and soul There are many in Scotland still, like Davy Gray.'

'Indeed. But not you, Master of Gray?'

Patrick shrugged. 'While I am devoted to the well-being of the unfortunate but headstrong lady, as has been my father, to his cost, I can take the wider view'

'I see.' Through narrowed eyes the Queen inspected him. 'And this plot of your brothers, sir?'

'It is not so much a plot, as a simple plan of action. On our way home to Scotland, we make shift to go to Derby, to visit the seat of some lord. Near enough to Wingfield Manor to make a descent upon it, by surprise. With our escort of five score armed men. Mary goes hunting, hawking, riding – guarded indeed, but by sufficient to withstand our many Scots mosstroopers? I doubt it Your people would pursue us, naturally, but we are well-mounted, vigorous… and the North of England is traditionally of Catholic sympathies.'

'Christ's wounds – they would attempt treachery! Such base ingratitude for my fond hospitality! Your graceless Scots would so outrage my trust? I shall know how to deal with such, 'fore God!'

'That is what I believed, Highness, and why I told you. That, and my love for you.' He essayed to touch her jewelled wrist, lightly.

Elizabeth snatched her hand away. 'You tell me, you betray your brother to me – if so be it this is true – only for some very good purpose, Sir. Good, for you! But do not think that you may bargain and chaffer with Elizabeth Tudor.'

'That would be unpardonable – and foolish, Your Grace. Also unnecessary. The sure and wise course is so evident'

'The sure and wise course, with treason, is to the Tower and the block, sir! That is where your precious Davy and the rest should go, forthwith.'

Patrick actually laughed, though not respectfully. 'But that is not where the astute Gloriana will send them, I swear!' he said.

'No? Where then, sirrah?'

'Where but to Mary herself, Lady? To Wingfield. To speak with her – under due restraint, to be sure. To take strong measures against our company would set back Your Grace's relations with Scotland grievously, offend King James, and greatly rejoice France, Spain and the Pope. Yet this project was devised only because Davy and the others believe that you will not permit us to see Mary. Allow that, under what safeguards you desire, and there is no need for this desperate venture – no rift in Your Highness's relations with Scotland.'

Elizabeth drew a long breath, and then exploded into urgent speech. 'God's passion -! believe that you have devised it all your own self, Patrick Gray, in order to constrain me! It fits all too close, too snug by far. It is your work, you devil…!'

'Not so, dear Madam. For I have patience, and entire faith in your wisdom. My brother and his friends it is who are thus headstrong, not me.'

'Either way, you are a devil, Patrick. Why I permit you even to speak with me, I know not…' she paused, and from the littered table at her bedside picked up the locket which Patrick had given her some days before, weighing it in her hand. Though he smiled gently, the young man watched that beringed hand keenly. 'I should return this bauble to its shameless giver,' the Queen went on. She dangled it back and forth. 'Should I not, Patrick…?'

He leant over. 'If Your Grace wishes to break my heart,' he told her.