History's Great Queens 2-Book Bundle: The Last Queen and The Confessions of Catherine de Medici (90 page)

“What I mean,” he said gently, “is that I am not my brother Charles. I want to rule on my own, Maman. I am king of France now. I need to make my own decisions.”

I felt faint, sitting utterly quiet as he lifted my hand to his lips in a brief kiss. “You must be so tired,” he went on. “You’ve spent the last fifteen years fighting to save us all from destruction. You lost Papa, two sons, and many friends; it is time you surrendered your burden. I am king now. Isn’t this what you want: a son who can rule the country you’ve sacrificed so much for?”

I nodded numbly, the goblet untasted in one hand, my other limp beneath his.

“I know why you are afraid,” he said. “I know that is why you let Navarre escape. You wanted him safe, in case we should fail. While he is wed to Margot, there is still hope he might convert again, should the time come for him to inherit.”

I flinched. He hushed me. “Don’t deny it. I don’t reproach you. You love France and both of my brothers died without heirs. Hercule is unfit, and now you think I’ll disdain my duty. But you needn’t fear. I’ve no intention of letting my love for Guast interfere with my reason. In fact, I will wed as soon as possible and get my wife with child, so no one can question my manhood. For no matter what they think, I am a man. I have the tools like any other.”

Once again, he’d seen right through me. I had thought to conceal the truth with intrigue and lies, and in the end I had hid nothing. The only thing I’d managed to keep from him was Margot’s terrible act of revenge against us.

“Think of it.” He smiled. “You’ll soon have a grandson of our blood, not a half-breed with a heretic for a father. I’ve even chosen my bride: I will wed Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont.”

“But she’s a Guise,” I exclaimed. “You cannot bring her family back into our lives.”

“She’s not a Guise; she’s descended of the house of Lorraine, niece
to my own sister Claude’s husband. She’s lived in Savoy since she was twelve. She barely knows the Guises.” He pressed my hand, silencing my next protest. “And she understands. We spent time together in Savoy and she knows about me. She told me I’d do her honor by making her my queen and she’ll do everything to prove her worth. All she needs to do is bear a son; and if there’s one thing you can say about the Guise-Lorraine families it’s that they do not lack for children.”

He had already discussed this with Louise. He had planned it even before he arrived. My mind spun; I felt as though I’d just stepped off a precipice into the unknown. I knew instinctually that if I resisted, if I tried to dissuade him, I’d achieve only his mistrust. This was his first official act as a king and I must honor it, difficult as it might be.

I set my goblet aside and leaned to him, taking his face between my hands, inhaling his scent of musk mixed with the expensive ambergris he used in his hair.

“Are you truly certain about this girl?” I asked.

He nodded. “Will you see to it, Maman? Will you do me the honor of arranging my marriage? I can think of no one better suited to the task.”

I looked into his eyes, so dark and expressive, so like my own in my youth it was as though I gazed into a mirror. “Yes,” I said. “I’ll take care of it. You rest now. Go back to your Guast.”

He kissed me and stood. As I pulled myself up and reached for the portfolio, which contained my recommendations for his Council, he said, “Leave it. I’ll look it over later.”

I smiled and left, and made my way straight to Birago’s rooms. He was on his couch, a skullcap on his liver-spotted pate, his portable desk at his side, immersed in work as always.

I told him everything. When I finished, he sat quiet for a spell before he said, “Perhaps it’s for the best.”

I stared at him. “You can’t be serious. He wants to marry a Guise!”

“Technically, as he told you, she’s a Lorraine. And she’s hardly a threat.”

“Oh? And what if he’s wrong? What if Monsignor takes her under his wing, like he did with Mary Stuart?” I lowered my voice. “She knows about Henri; he told me so himself. Together with Monsignor, she could make him a laughingstock, turn this entire court upside down.”

“
Madama
, I trust Monsignor no more than you but Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont brings nothing to this marriage save her person. And men of Henri’s predilection are not incapable of the act with a woman. Were it so, half the marriages in this world would be childless.”

I looked hard at him, wondering if I’d failed to note the same affinity in him. I’d never heard a single hint of impropriety in all the years he had served me and I’d come to see him as a genderless being, though of course he must have had needs. The thought that I might not know my intimate as well as I supposed brought a curt laugh to my lips.

“You honestly think she’ll turn a blind eye every time Guast takes her place in Henri’s bed?”

“Yes. Every royal union is the same, regardless of the spouses’ tastes, and serves the same purpose: to breed heirs. After His Majesty, Prince Hercule is next in line to the throne and we know he can never rule or sire children; after him, there is Navarre. Under other circumstances I’d agree Louise is less than ideal, but we need this time to bring stability to the realm. There is a new king on the throne; our deficit is immense, the harvest poor, and the Huguenots sneak back over our borders. We can’t afford to argue his choice of a queen, so long as he has one.”

“You try my patience,” I said tersely. “I know all too well how much we endure. Have I not been at the helm of this country these many years?”

“
Madama
, no one questions your devotion. But we now have a king of age to rule and he must do so.” He paused. “It is always difficult for the lioness to let her cub leave the pride but in the end she must. And the cub must learn to be a lion in his own right. What the king needs now are experienced advisers to guide him and a queen who’ll take what he can give. But if you try to thwart him, he could dig his heels in. Remember Charles; we can’t afford the same mistake.”

I scowled. “Very well, but only after you find out everything you can about her. And she comes alone, without favors, and without brothers and uncles seeking favors. I won’t have the entire Guise-Lorraine clan invading this court. Understood?”

“Perfectly. What of Monsignor? He’ll expect a seat on the Council for this.”

“He can expect alms from beggars. After he brings her, he will return
to his diocese and tend to his flock. I’ll not abide him in my presence. The only Guise I trust is a dead one.”

Six days later the cardinal himself came to say good-bye.

I dined in my apartments when the chill overcame me. I looked up to see him standing at the wall, his translucent figure wavering like red smoke against the tapestry. He lifted a hand. I glimpsed a sardonic smile on his face. Then I blinked and he was gone.

Lucrezia shuddered, went to close the draperies at the window. “I feel a draft.”

“It wasn’t a draft,” I said. “Monsignor is dead.”

My ladies went still. I continued with my supper.

The next morning word came that Monsignor had caught a fever on his way to Savoy and taken to his bed. At the very hour I’d seen him, he died. He was forty-nine years old.

I didn’t grieve his passing; I was not that much of a hypocrite. But I liked to think that in coming to see me, he had finally acknowledged my victory.

W
E HELD MY SON’S CORONATION IN FEBRUARY; TWO DAYS
later, he wed Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont.

Birago’s investigation had uncovered an astonishing virtuousness. Even Claude, who’d recently given birth to her second daughter and couldn’t attend the wedding owing to a mild case of fever, endorsed Louise. Our twenty-one-year-old bride had led a sheltered life; she’d been a companion for her father before his death and then departed for Savoy to attend my own sister-in-law, Marguerite.

I had nothing to object to, save her connection to the Guise family. Still, as she came down the aisle to the altar, a fine-boned girl clad in lavender, I wondered how she would hold any lasting appeal for my son. Nevertheless, Henri seemed genuinely delighted with her, plucking a pink rose from the garland overhead to tuck into her fair hair. Color flushed her cheeks; she lifted her brown eyes adoringly to him as he kissed her and the court burst into applause.

From across the aisle, Birago caught my eye and winked.

After the wedding, I dedicated the summer to the selection of the Council with Henri, while Birago guided him without remonstration, so obsequious that my son didn’t appear to realize that he was in fact under
tutelage. Despite my initial apprehension, Guast remained in the background, even after he had gained his title and a lavish new wardrobe, while Louise garnered praise for her quiet dignity. Birago reported that my son visited her bed at least twice a week.

In late July, word arrived that my daughter Claude’s health was failing. She was only twenty-seven, but the ordeal of giving birth and ongoing struggle with childbed fever had taken their toll. I made immediate plans to go to her. At the last minute, as Lucrezia and I mounted my coach, Margot appeared with valise in hand. “My sister is ill,” she said. “I wish to see her.”

I bit back the retort that she’d never cared for Claude before. In fact, my second daughter had led such a quiet life in Lorraine, far from our entanglements, at times we forgot her altogether.

When we arrived at her home, Claude was resting; not wishing to disturb her, I had her worried husband show me to my rooms. As I sat on a padded chair, my aching feet propped on a stool while Lucrezia unpacked my coffers, he brought in little Christina and Charles, my daughter Claude’s two eldest children.

Four-year-old Christina was a replica of Claude at that age, with the same plump body and doe-brown eyes. Her brother Charles took after the Lorraine-Guise side with his slim height, a rash of adolescent pimples marring his pensive face. I could see they were awed by their legendary grandmother, of whom they’d no doubt heard many tales, but then Christina abruptly wrapped chubby arms about my neck. “Grand-maman, you’re so old!”

She couldn’t possibly remember me. Though I’d sent gifts and money for the children every year, never forgetting a birthday or Christmas, I’d never seen them, for when Claude came on her rare visits to court, they stayed behind. Nonetheless, Christina’s innocent declaration brought tears to my eyes. Then Charles cleared his throat and said, “Welcome, Madame Grand-mère.”

I gave him a smile. “My child, you’re so big. Almost a man, eh? Come, I’ve some presents for you.” My granddaughter beamed. I said, “Lucrezia, show Christina her new dress. I believe it’s the perfect shade for her complexion.”

As Christina squealed over the rose velvet dress my women had created for her out of one of my court gowns, Anna-Maria brought me a
volume bound in maroon Florentine leather that I’d ordered made in Italy especially for Charles, its cover inscribed with his name in gold leaf.

I handed it to him. “
The Prince
by Machiavelli,” I told him. “My favorite book. I think you are of age now to appreciate its wisdom.”

He fingered the book as if it were a jewel. “Thank you,” he breathed, his eyes glowing just as my own late son’s, his namesake, had when given a new falcon or pet hound. Only this Charles was clearly a scholar; the veneration with which he retreated to the window to open the book demonstrated he would never find satisfaction in swords or armor.

I leaned back against my chair and closed my eyes, content with the simple joy of having children about me again.

Later that evening I went to see Claude. I took one look at her emaciated form and placid smile and my heart sank. Still, I tutted over her, dug out my battered pot and herbs and commenced to cook up rhubarb drafts, while Lucrezia marshaled the servants.

Every morning for two months I awoke, bathed my daughter, and assisted her to a chair at the window overlooking the gardens. Sometimes, I read to her aloud. Other times we sat as she gazed into the gardens, smiling when she heard her young daughter laughing with Margot.

“Margot is so full of life, like a child herself,” Claude said to me. “She’d be a good mother. You must see that she reunites with her husband. She needs a child of her own.”

I smiled, blinking back tears at the thought of how perceptive she was and how little any of us had truly known her.

One afternoon in August, I awoke from a doze to find her eyes fixed on me. Never beautiful, she had acquired an evanescent grace, her large grayish eyes overpowering her fragile face. In a quiet voice, she said, “I’m tired, Maman.”

My throat knotted. I was about to lose this daughter of mine, whom I’d paid least attention to, whose stoic devotion to her family had spared her the excesses of ours. I belatedly saw that of all of us Claude had been the wisest. She’d known best how to escape the pain and fury that characterized our lives.

I started to rise, to help her back to bed. She shook her head. “No, I want to stay here by the window. Call the others.”

One by one they filed in: her bereaved husband, who loved her as few men love their wives; her favorite servants; the devoted nursemaid who cared for her infant daughter, Antoinette, and her son Charles, his chin quivering. Christina played in my rooms with Anna-Maria, for I would not let her witness this; it was too traumatic for such a young child.