Philippa Gregory - The Virgin's Lover

“Nearly there,” Lizzie Oddingsell said cheerfully, thinking that Amy might be tired.

“I know.”

Another soaring archway set into the thick stone walls took them into the courtyard and the very heart of the house. Mrs. Forster, hearing the horses, came out from the great hall on the right-hand side to greet them.

“Here you are!” she cried out. “And in what good time! You must have had a very easy ride.”

“It was easy,” Lizzie said, when Amy did not reply, but merely sat on her horse. “But I am afraid Lady Dudley is very tired.”

“Are you, your ladyship?” Mrs. Forster inquired with concern.

Amy lifted the veil from her hat.

“Oh! You do look pale. Come down and you shall rest,” Mrs. Forster said.

A groom came forward and Amy slid down the horse’s side in a clumsy jump. Mrs. Forster took her hand and led her into the great hall where a fire was burning in the large stone hearth.

“Will you take a cup of ale?” she asked solicitously.

“Thank you,” Amy said.

Mrs. Forster pressed her into a great wooden chair by the fireside and sent a page running for ale and cups. Lizzie Oddingsell came into the room and took a seat beside Amy.

“Well, here we are!” Mrs. Forster remarked. She was conscious of the difficulty of her position. She could hardly ask for news of court, when the only news was that the queen’s behavior with this white-faced young woman’s husband was becoming more blatant every day. The whole country knew now that Robert Dudley was carrying himself like a king-to-be, and Elizabeth could hardly see anyone else for the glamour that was her dark-headed Master of Horse.

“The weather seems set very fair,” Mrs. Forster said, for lack of anything else.

“Indeed, yes. It’s hot,” Lizzie agreed. “But the wheat looks very well in the fields.”

“Oh, I know nothing about it,” Mrs. Forster said quickly, emphasizing her position as the wealthy tenant of a beautiful house. “You know, I know nothing about farming.”

“It should be a very good crop,” Amy observed. “And I imagine we shall all be glad of the bread to eat.”

“Indeed, yes.”

The arrival of the page broke the embarrassed silence. “Mrs. Owen is also staying with us,” Mrs. Forster told them. “She is the mother of our landlord, Mr. William Owen. I think your husband…” She broke off in confusion. “I think Mr. William Owen is well known at court,” she said clumsily. “Perhaps you know him, Lady Dudley?”

“My husband knows him well,” Amy said without embarrassment. “And thinks highly of him, I know.”

“Well, his mother is honoring us with a long visit,” Mrs. Forster continued, recovering. “You will meet her at dinner, and Mr. Forster will be home for dinner. He rode out today to see some neighbors of ours. And he told me to take particular good care of you both.”

“How kind,” Amy said vaguely. “I think I should like to rest now.”

“Certainly.” Mrs. Forster rose to her feet. “Your room is just above the hall, overlooking the drive.”

Amy hesitated, she had been going toward the best bedroom on the other end of the building.

“Let me show you,” Mrs. Forster said, and led the way out of the great hall, through the double archway, through the stone-flagged buttery to the circular stone stairs.

“Here you are, and Mrs. Oddingsell is nearby,” she said, gesturing to the two wooden doors.

“It seems so odd that this should have been a monastery only fifty years ago,” Amy said, pausing by one of the wooden corbels which showed a little cherub, polished from dark wood to blond by constant touching. “This little angel may have helped someone to pray.”

“Thank God that we have been freed from Popish superstition,” Mrs. Forster said fervently.

“Amen,” Lizzie said smartly.

Amy said nothing at all; but touched the cheek of the little angel, and opened the heavy wooden door to her chamber and went in.

They waited until the door had closed behind her.

“She is so pale, is she ill?” Mrs. Forster demanded.

They turned and went to Lizzie Oddingsell’s chamber. “She is very tired,” Lizzie said. “And she hardly eats. She complains of a pain in her breast but she says it is heartache. She is taking it all very badly.”

“I heard she had a canker of the breast?”

“She is always in pain but there is no growth. That is another London rumor, like all the others.”

Mrs. Forster pursed her lips and shook her head at London rumors, which were wilder and more detailed every day. “Well, God protect her,” Mrs. Forster said. “I had the devil’s own job to persuade my husband to have her here at all. Of all the men in the world I would have thought him the most likely to pity her, but he said to my face that it was more than his life was worth to offend Sir Robert now, and more important than anything in the world to him to be in his lordship’s good books if he is going to rise as everyone says.”

“And what do they say?” Lizzie prompted. “How much higher can he go?”

“They say he will be king-consort,” Mrs. Forster said simply. They say he is married to the queen already in secret, and will be crowned at Christmas. And she, poor lady, will be forgotten.”

“Yes, but forgotten where?” Lizzie demanded. “My brother will not have her back, and she cannot live at Stanfield Hall all the year round; it is little more than a farm. Besides, I do not know that their doors are open to her. If her family refuse her, where is she to go? What is she to do?”

“She looks as if she will not survive it,” Mrs. Forster said flatly. “And there will be the solution to his lordship’s difficulty. Should we get a doctor for her?”

“Yes,” Lizzie said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that she is sick of grief, but perhaps a doctor could give her something so that at least she could eat and sleep and stop this continual weeping.”

“She cries?”

Lizzie’s own voice trembled. “She swallows it down during the day, but if you ever listen to her chamber door at night you will hear her. She cries in her sleep. All night long the tears run down her cheeks and she cries for him. She whispers his name in her sleep. Over and over she asks him: ‘My lord?’”

Cecil and Elizabeth were in the rose garden at Windsor with the ladies of the court when Robert Dudley came to join them, the Spanish ambassador with him.

Elizabeth smiled and gave de Quadra her hand to kiss. “And is this visit one of pleasure or one of business?” she asked.

“Now I am dedicated to pleasure,” he said in his strong accent. “I have conducted my business with Sir Robert and I can spend the rest of my time taking pleasure in your company.”

Elizabeth raised her penciled eyebrows. “Business?” she asked Robert.

He nodded. “All done. I was telling the Spanish ambassador that we are to have a tennis tournament this evening, and he would be most interested to watch.”

“It is only a little game,” Elizabeth said. She did not dare glance toward Cecil. “Some of the young men of the court have formed themselves into teams, the Queen’s Men and the Gypsy Boys.” There was a ripple of laughter from the ladies at the two names.

The Spanish ambassador smiled, looking from one to another. “And who are the Gypsy Boys?” he asked.

“It is an impertinence to Sir Robert,” the queen said. “It is a nickname they call him.”

“Never to my face,” Sir Robert said.

“An insult?” the more formal Spaniard asked.

“A jest,” Robert said. “Not everyone admires my coloring. I am thought too dark for an Englishman.”

Elizabeth took a little breath of desire; it was unmistakable. Everyone heard it and Dudley turned to her with a most intimate smile. “Fortunately, not everyone despises me for my dark skin and black eyes,” he said.