Jean Plaidy - For a Queen's Love - The Stories of the Royal Wives of Philip II

“John … does it mean you will go away?”

He smiled at the fear in her eyes. “If I went away, I should come back. You know, do you not, Jane, that when we are old enough we are to marry?”

“Yes, John,” she answered.

“You will be happy then, Jane. So shall I!”

He was sure of her contentment—as sure as he was that one day he would be a leader of men. It did not occur to her that this might be arrogance on his part; if he was arrogant, then, in her eyes, arrogance was a virtue.

As they cantered across the fields she was thinking of their future, of their marriage and the children they would have.

He too was thinking of the future, but not of his life with Jane. Jane’s love was something he took for granted. The thunder of horses’ hooves seemed to say to him “Dudley—Tudor!”

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1954, 1971 by Jean Plaidy

Excerpt from A Favorite of the Queen , copyright © 1955 by Jean Plaidy.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

Three Rivers Press and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain as The Spanish Bridegroom by Robert Hale Limited, London, in 1954, and in hardcover in the United States by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, in 1971.

This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming Three Rivers Press reprint of A Favorite of the Queen by Jean Plaidy, which was originally published as Gay Lord Robert by Robert Hale Limited, London, in 1955. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Plaidy, Jean, 1906–1993.

[Spanish bridegroom]

For a queen’s love: the stories of the royal wives of Philip II /

By Jean Plaidy. — 1st trade pbk. ed.

p. cm. — (A novel of the Tudors)

Originally published: The Spanish bridegroom: G. P. Putnam’s Sons,

1971.

1. Philip II, King of Spain, 1527–1598—Fiction. 2. Great Britain—

Kings and rulers—Fiction. I. Title.

PR6015.I3S63 2010

823′.912—dc22

2009022659

eISBN: 978-0-307-58958-3

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