Nigel Tranter - The Wisest Fool

"No doubt, sir. She will not hear of it from me. I am only concerned as to why you gave my rooms to her husband."

"Not gave, my friend-merely lent. The Palace is greatly crowded, these days, and all accommodation, much in demand. These rooms were presently unoccupied. And, of course, not your property, only lent also. But, to be sure, Master Heriot, you shall have them back Immediately, if you require them. With my regrets if you have been inconvenienced. Are you to be long in Edinburgh?" "Until His Grace sends for me."

"Ah. Do not say that you also have been turned back from entering the Promised Land? By our somewhat erratic prince? Has he discovered that there are goldsmiths and money-lenders in London also? As well, as, h'm, rogues I think it was? Are we companion in rejection, Master Geordie?"

"As to that I know not, sir. Only that His Grace has sent me back to the Queen."

"The Queen, is it?" That was quick. "Her Grace is to go South? Join the King? Even in her present condition?"

"In time, no doubt That is understood. Just when is a matter for His Grace."

"M'mm." Gray did not look put out or annoyed-seldom indeed he did-but undoubtedly unused to finding himself stalled and baffled, he was slightly less sure of himself than usual. His daughter seemed rather to enjoy his discomfiture. "Quite," he said. "To be sure. Her Grace is at Linlithgow." "So Mistress Gray tells me. I am surprised."

"Never be surprised at anything a woman does, Master Heriot -queer or other. That is part of the delight of them. Now, perhaps I should go clothe myself. Let me know how I may serve you, sir-anything." And on that suitably recovered and assured note, the chief satyr sketched a bow and sauntered off. At once he was engulfed by the ladies.

"I admire your aplomb, Master Heriot" Mary Gray said. "Not many can deal so with Patrick Gray. He got little or nothing out of that exchange " "And you are not displeased?"

"Far from it. I have a fondness for my sire. Indeed, I love him dearly. But not all his works. You must have heard as much, surely? From the Queen."

"The Queen's confidences towards me are of money, jewellery, Mistress, not as to her ladies."

"I am suitably rebuked, sir! And now, if you are sufficiently refreshed and sustained, perhaps we should go get my letter from the Duke?" "No need for you to come. I will fetch it…"

"It will be my pleasure, sir. Not only to see who Patrick Leslie of Lindores dallies with in your bedchamber!"

"I fear that you may be too late for that Mistress Gray. I told them to be out of there before I got back-or I would have the palace guard throw them out" "You did? How splendid!" She laughed cheerfully. "He deserved that-whether the woman did or not. Do you know who she was?"

"She was plump and generously proportioned, fair of hair, and no child. Nimble for her size, too-unencumbered, to be sure."

She looked up at him closely, and actually clapped her hands. "You smile, Master George! A small smile, I swear! You are other than you seem, I think-and I like you. We shall be friends, I hope?" She linked her arm in his, and led him towards the door.

Arm-in-arm they went downstairs and across the crowded and noisy outer court, Mary Gray not seeming to notice the unseemly horseplay and excesses which went on therein. Though, that she was not wholly unheeding was proved when she drew him into a dark comer and asked if there was a back way into his lodging? At his wondering, she said, "You do not think that we will not be followed, do you? When you did not give the Master of Gray the information he desired. And are, moreover, in my company. I think you will have to learn to watch where you tread, in Scotland now, Master George!"

Not a little perturbed, he led her inconspicuously round the stable-block, past the wing tenanted by the reprobate Earl of Orkney, and so to the back entrance of his own quarters. Lights still burned therein, but the place seemed to be deserted now.

They went upstairs, and he looked in distaste at his ravaged bedchamber. He shrugged. "King James was always very careful for lights," was all he said.

"As his Master of the Wardrobe is not! Patrick is careful for nothing, save the success of his projects. So-the nest is flown!" "I will get your letter. It is with my gear in the garret above."

When he brought the paper down, she took it and tucked it into a pocket in the folds of her olive-green gown, a simple garment with none of the extravagance of fashion, padding, slashing, bows and deep-plunging necklines. Yet there was certainly no attempt to hide or make less of the shapely woman's body beneath.

"You will be riding on to Linlithgow, to see the Queen, Master Heriot?" she put to him. He nodded. 'Tomorrow, yes."

The girl hesitated-and it was not often that this capable and clear-minded young woman seemed at anything of a loss. "I think that I must confide in you," she said, after a moment "And hope that you will be… understanding, thereafter. I believe that you are a man I may trust-and God knows, I can think of no other I can dare confide in With the Duke gone…"

"You sound, h'm, concerned, Mistress. I do not seek confidences. But if you wish to tell me aught, I think you can trust me to be discreet. It is to do with the Queen?" 'Yes. The Queen… and the Master of Gray!" He looked at her quickly, but said nothing.

"I cannot speak with certainty," she went on. "You could say that it is all conjecture. That I am a foolish woman imagining dramatics. I cannot prove that it is not so. But I know my father, I know the Queen, and I know the situation. All too well. And I must needs do something to save it, if I may. If I can make you believe me."

"I know, Mistress, how greatly the Duke of Lennox esteems you. Not only in his love, but for your ability and strength. The King himself speaks of you as having wits almost as sharp as the Master of Gray's own-which is saying much! I shall not lightly doubt you."

"Many would. For it is scarce believable. Unless you know my father, and what he can do, has done. I think that he has devised a plot, a most shameful plot. To be even with the King."

"I would not be surprised," Heriot admitted. "He was ever one for plots. And the King treated him most scurvily at Berwick." "Yes. It was foolish of His Grace. Almost wicked, perhaps. And dangerous. For years the Master has held the King in his hands, guiding him-and the realm with him. Almost more powerful than the Chancellor and the Privy Council, claiming only this position of Master of the Wardrobe, yet in fact holding a balance, moving noble against noble, playing one faction against another, the Catholics against the Protestants, Elizabeth against Spain, the Pope. I have hated it, men are no more than pawns on a board to Patrick Gray. Yet he has served the Kirk and the realm well, in his own way. There has been peace of a sort now, for years-Patrick's peace! The country has been spared the savageries of the great lords. And King James saved from disasters innumerable. For one purpose, to one end. The uniting in his one person of the two thrones, the two kingdoms. This has always been what Patrick worked for, to make sure that it was James who succeeded Elizabeth, against all other claimants. In order that Scotland should enter a. new era of peace and prosperity and the endless wars and intrigues between the two should cease. He may have been wrong in this belief-I do not know. But he believed it, worked for it, plotted and all but lived for it, shepherding James to it step by step. And now-this! Cast aside scornfully at the very door of England, while others enter in." She paused, panting a little with her long declamation, moved obviously, proof if that were needed, that she had indeed a feeling for her extraordinary father.

"I know it. Saw it. And grieved. But the King conceives him a rogue. Has always done so, it seems. And used him, in his turn."