Lost Love Found (9 page)

The queen was a study in contrasts. Her body was extremely youthful, and her movements—especially those of her beautiful hands—were extraordinarily graceful. But her long, thin face had aged greatly. Her fine dark gray eyes, actually almost black, were still bright and alert, but they were sunken into her head above the once long and prominent nose that had thickened over the years. Her skin was yet very white, or perhaps just seemed so beneath the queen’s brilliant red wig.

Elizabeth Tudor was filled with a nervous energy that increased with her anger. She paced as she raged at the helpless Mistress Fitton. “Last summer! Last summer at the wedding of Worcester’s son to Lady Anne Russell! Do you remember it? Aye! You remember, you sly jade! ’Twas there that you and the rest of that pack of drabs who call themselves my
maids
invented that silly dance. I asked you what character you represented, did I not? And you simpered at me, ‘Affection, madam.’ What said I then, mistress? What said I to you then? Can your feather brain recall back that length of time? Can it?”

“You said that affection was false, madam,” sobbed Mary Fitton.

“Aye, affection’s false, ’tis true, but you would not believe it, would you, mistress? Have I survived this long by being stupid, you dunce? Have I?”

“No, madam,” the girl wept.

“Huumph.” The queen snorted. “Well, you have learned the truth of my words the hard way, mistress. What a fool you have been to play the whore when, if you had just waited a while, you might have had my comptroller, William Knollys, for a husband. Aye,” she told the startled girl. “I know he admires you greatly, and has looked after you with great care, as your father asked him. But you would pursue Will Herbert, a man singularly lacking in charm or spirit. Bah! You are a fool!”

“Would you have had me chase after your comptroller, madam, and William Knollys a married man?” Mary Fitton demanded with a small show of spirit.

“You are a fool, wench,” the queen repeated. “His wife is many years his senior and expected to die shortly. He would have made an honest woman of you, not merely taken his pleasure and then left you to my displeasure as your lover, Will Herbert, has done. Oh, I see your motive. My Lord Herbert was to succeed to an earldom one day, which he now has, and you thought to be his countess! Well, my girl, he will not have you. Did you know that?
He will not have you!
”

Mary Fitton whitened. “He cannot deny the child, madam! It is his! I swear it by Almighty God! I was a virgin when I went to him!”

“You are a virgin no more,” said the queen fiercely. “Would you like to know what your lover thinks of you, wench?” The queen reached into her bosom and pulled forth a folded parchment. Opening it, she read it aloud,

“
To a Lady residing at court:
Then this advice, fair creature, take from me
.
Let none pluck fruit, unless he pluck the tree
.
For if with one, with thousands thoul’t turn whore
.
Break ice in one place and it cracks the more.
”

The queen glowered at the girl. “Well, mistress? Even as we speak this shameful verse is being passed about the court. What think you now of your lover’s tender concern for you and for his child?”

Mary Fitton fainted.

“Huumph,” said the queen, looking down at her. “See, ladies? Look well upon
virtue scorned
. Hah! The jade got no more than she deserved. Take her away. Place her in the care of Lady Hawkins. As for my lord, the Earl of Pembroke, I should have him clapped in the Tower, but put him in the Fleet prison to cool his hot heels for a time. ’Twill do for now.” For a moment she stood gazing with contempt at her maid of honor. Her slender, beringed hands smoothed the white velvet skirts of her gown with its embroidered silver bodice. Then suddenly she glanced at Valentina. “And who is this?” she demanded.

Lady Dudley curtsied. “Lady Gardiner’s replacement, madam, and her cousin, the Countess of Alcester.”

“Alcester?” The queen peered sharply, and Willow stepped forward to sweep her a curtsy.

“A happy New Year to you, madam,” she said.

The queen beamed with sudden recognition. Several teeth were missing on the left side of her mouth. “Willow, my dear! How happy I am to see you. It has been too long.”

“It is the children, madam,” replied Willow. “They are hard to leave. I have never allowed servants to bring up my sons and daughters, for if I did they would lack delicacy of manners, as do so many these days. I know that you understand.”

“Indeed I do,” replied the queen. “The young people today have few, if any, manners, and their morals are worse. ’Tis not like it was, I fear.”

“Your Majesty,” said Willow with deceptive modesty, “if Mistress Fitton is now dismissed from your service, might I offer you my second daughter, Gabrielle, to serve you? She just had her fourteenth birthday this past December, and like her elder sister, Cecily, who served Your Majesty several years ago, she has been properly trained. She will cause you no scandal, I promise you.”

The queen chuckled. “Who would think that Skye O’Malley’s granddaughters would be such charming and well-bred young ladies. I am of a mind to grant you your request, my lady countess, first because it pleases me to do so, and second because it will save me the trouble of having to decide from among all the troublesome creatures I shall be beseeched to favor. Sly-eyed wenches, puffed up with their own ignorance and interested in only one thing. Men! Aye! Send me Mistress Gabrielle Edwardes. Now, introduce me to your cousin, who waits so patiently by your side. Who is she? Your family’s so damned overgrown now I cannot keep them all straight!”

Those within the queen’s privy chamber tittered behind their hands at this royal witticism.

“May I present to you my cousin, Valentina, Lady Barrows, ma’am. The widow of Edward, Lord Barrows, of Hill Court, Oxfordshire,” said Willow formally. She was beside herself with excitement at having managed to obtain Gabrielle a position. She had been trying to place the girl for almost two years. It certainly did pay to be in the right place at the right time, she thought a trifle smugly.

Valentina swept the queen a graceful curtsy.

“Who are your parents, my girl?” demanded the queen. “Your cousin’s so pleased with her little victory, she’s introduced you, but told me nothing.”

Willow flushed, embarrassed at having been understood so well.

“I am the eldest child of Lord and Lady Bliss of Pearroc Royal, madam. My father was born Conn O’Malley, although he is now known as Conn St. Michael, having taken my mother, Aidan St. Michael’s, surname so that her family would not die out. I have been told that Your Majesty arranged their match yourself,” finished Valentina.

“Conn O’Malley.” For a moment the queen seemed lost in thought, then she said briskly, “I have not seen your parents in almost ten years, Lady Barrows. Your father was a deliciously wicked rogue! Oh, aye, he was!” She chuckled with remembrance. “He caused such a scandal that I had to find him a wife, and as I spoke on it with my dear Cecil in my privy chamber at Greenwich, bemoaning the fact that there was not the right match for the young devil, your mother—I called her my country mouse, you know, for she was such a plain and retiring creature—spoke boldly, saying she was the perfect match for Conn O’Malley, ‘The Handsomest Man at Court.’ Hah! Hah!” The queen slapped her knee. “I don’t know which of us was more surprised by the declaration. Your mother, Cecil, or me! Of course the wench was perfectly right. She was just the right match for him, and I saw it in an instant. Had them married in my own chapel several days later, I did. How long ago is it now?”

“ ’Twill be twenty-three years next month, Your Majesty,” replied Valentina.

“And they’re still happy?”

“Aye, very!”

“And how many children did your father give your mother?” the queen asked.

“Seven, madam, all told. We are four sisters and three brothers.”

“How old are you?” Elizabeth Tudor demanded.

“Twenty-one in March, madam,” replied Valentina.

“How long were you married?”

“Less than a month, madam.”

“Was he your second husband then?”

“Nay, my first, madam.” Valentina looked distinctly uncomfortable.

“You did not wed till you were past twenty? Why is that, my lady Barrows?”

“I could find no one who pleased me, and my parents said I should not have to wed unless the man pleased me” was the reply.

“And did Lord Barrows please you, my lady?” the queen probed nosily.

“He was a good man, madam.”

“Hmm,” the queen replied. Her eyes were sharp, but she questioned no further. “So you have come to serve me, eh, Lady Barrows? Think you to find a second husband among my gentlemen? They are a poor lot for the most part, I can tell you. Wenching and gambling, ’tis all they are good for these days. There’s not a loyal one in the bunch. They sit like vultures awaiting my death, but they will wait a while longer, I think.
Mortua sed non sepulta
! Do you speak Latin, Lady Barrows?”

Valentina nodded. She translated the queen’s grim yet humorous words: “Dead, but not yet buried.” Then she said, “I do not seek another husband, madam. I seek only to serve my queen in whatever capacity is pleasing to her.”

“You have your mother’s sweetness of temper, that much I can see,” said Elizabeth Tudor, “but I also think you’ve got your father’s proud spirit. I am not certain it is right for such a lovely young woman to cloister herself with a gaggle of old women such as we have become,” the queen continued, sweeping her hand about to include Lady Dudley, Lady Howard, and Lady Scrope, all of whom were in the room with her. “Still, I have promised you a place, and you shall have it. The mistress of the maids of honor will be dismissed from her position for this latest scandal. You will take her place, Lady Barrows. It will be your task to keep order among that pack of scatterbrained, wanton jades. I will have no more scandals!”

“God help you,” Willow said with heartfelt sympathy when they were alone back at Greenwood later. “The queen has set you a Herculean task. I hope you are equal to it.”

“I shall need your help to succeed, Willow,” came the reply. “You know the court. I do not. How can I keep order among a group of maids who are far wiser in the ways of the world than I am? I wonder at the queen that she would assign me such a duty.”

“Perhaps she feels that being young, you will be quicker to catch on to the little games her maids of honor play. It is usually a much older woman who rules those naughty wenches. At least my Gabrielle will give you no trouble. She may even be of help to you. Oh, I am so pleased at having been with you today just as Mistress Fitton was sent away for her misdemeanors! I do not think I would ever have gotten Gaby settled otherwise. What luck! Just wait until I tell James!”

“Tell James what?” demanded Padraic Burke as he entered the salon.

“I have managed to obtain a place for Gaby with the queen’s maids of honor. The Fitton girl has been disgraced. Is that not simply wonderful?”

“That the Fitton girl has disgraced herself?” said Lord Burke. “I do think that is rather uncharitable of you, Willow.”

Valentina laughed.

“Of course I am not pleased that the Fitton girl has ruined herself,” snapped Willow, outraged. “That would not be very Christian of me, and I hold myself to be a most Christian woman, brother. I am simply pleased that I was in the right place at the right time. I have been trying to get Gaby settled for over two years.”

“I thought the purpose of your visit to the queen was to settle Valentina,” he remarked dryly. He swung about to face his cousin. “Did you get settled, Val?”

“The queen has appointed me mistress of the maids” came the calm reply.

“God’s foot!”

“Padraic, please don’t swear! You sound like Mama!” Willow scolded him.

“What the hell was the queen thinking to make a greenhorn like Val the mistress of the maids. Those little wantons will run rings about her!”

“I thank you, my lord, for your great confidence in me,” Lady Barrows said tartly.

“Bah!” he said impatiently. “Do not get all feminine and offended, Val. You have lived your entire life in the country. You know nothing about court or the people who live their lives attached to it. You are, my dear, a country bumpkin who has been put in charge of a group of very worldly wise little girls who are going to
make your life hell
. Could you do nothing to prevent this, Willow? Where is your much-vaunted common sense?”

“What was I to do, Padraic? Tell the queen she was wrong? Perhaps you would like to hurry off to Whitehall and tell her yourself. She was verbally flaying the Fitton girl alive when we arrived. After she had been introduced to Valentina and she understood her place within our family, the queen had the idea to make Valentina the mistress of the maids. She fretted about our cousin being incarcerated with a group of old women as she is wont to call herself and her ladies. Despite Valentina’s inexperience, I am not certain that it was not a fine idea. Perhaps a younger woman can control the maids of honor better than an older one, being closer to them in age and temperament. I shall be nearby and I will aid our cousin if she needs me. I am not far away.”

“I shall stay too,” said Lord Burke.

“
You?
” Willow was greatly surprised. “You have spent virtually no time at court since your days as a page in the Earl of Lincoln’s household.”

“Valentina will need a male friend, for gentlemen are just as apt to gossip as women, dear sister. It cannot hurt to have someone in the enemy camp.”

“Men
gossip
?” Willow pretended amazement.

“I cannot believe it myself,” added Valentina mockingly.

“Worse than women sometimes,” he agreed cheerfully, and they laughed. “When are you due back at court to take up your duties, coz?” he asked.