The Virgin's Daughter (44 page)

BY LAURA ANDERSEN

The Boleyn King

The Boleyn Deceit

The Boleyn Reckoning

The Virgin’s Daughter

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

L
AURA
A
NDERSEN
is married with four children, and possesses a constant sense of having forgotten something important. She has a B.A. in English (with an emphasis in British History), which she puts to use by reading everything she can lay her hands on.

www.lauraandersenbooks.com

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@LauraSAndersen

THE VIRGIN’S DAUGHTER

Laura Andersen

A Reader’s Guide

FROM THE DIARY OF MINUETTE COURTENAY

30 August 1561

Wynfield Mote

Elizabeth’s summer progress has brought her to Warwick Castle for a fortnight, a visit that might very well bankrupt Ambrose Dudley. It is, of course, a mark of great favour to host the queen—but the wretched man apparently had to build an entirely new timber structure in which to house her, seeing as the castle itself is in such poor repair. Perhaps that is why our queen never chooses to stay with us at Wynfield Mote—she knows that we would not go to such lengths to impress her
.

But as Warwick is only ten miles distant, Elizabeth has come to us for this one night only
.

There have been rumours, of course, since almost the moment she made her wedding vows last December. But I said I would believe none of them until Elizabeth herself told me. And so she did, as we sat alone together after dinner
.

“I am with child.” She delivered the news as abruptly and matter-of-factly as though she were commenting on possession of a new book or piece of art. But I know her too well to be deceived
.

“I am glad of it,” I replied, with real pleasure. “Have you been ill? Tired? Uncomfortable?”

“I cannot afford to be ill, breeding or not.”

“Philip must be pleased.” I called him by name deliberately, to separate the husband and father from the King of Spain
.

“Naturally he is pleased. It means he has done his duty. Now he can return to Spain for the winter.”

“I do not think you are only a duty to him, Elizabeth. And nor will his child be.”

But my friend has refused to be sentimental since the death of Robert Dudley. “We cannot all be as fortunate as you, Minuette, with your adoring husband and perfect brood of children. For it is no secret in this household that you are also set to deliver another before spring.”

There is no such thing as perfect, I wanted to snap. What does Elizabeth know of the price Dominic and I continue to pay for our past sins? Does she know how my husband retreated to Tiverton after Stephen’s birth last year and did not communicate for so many months I began to think he had left me? He loves me, I know, and he loves Lucette equally with Stephen—but love does not preclude pain
.

As Elizabeth knows well
.

—

27 February 1562
           

Tiverton Castle
           

Elizabeth is safely delivered of a daughter
.

She is named Anne Isabella, for her Boleyn grandmother and her Spanish great-grandmother. If there is disappointment that the newborn is not a son, it is masked for now with relief that the queen is clearly capable of bearing healthy children. King Philip will return in the spring to meet his daughter, yes, but also to begin the business of the next child
.

But I can care about Elizabeth only in brief snatches between my own joy and exhaustion. Three days ago I was also delivered, almost a month before my expected time, and gifted by God with two beautiful children. A girl and a boy. Philippa, we have called our daughter, after Dominic’s mother, who died last year in blessed peace. We considered naming her twin Jonathan, after my father, but Dominic kept looking between the two babies with a crease in his forehead as he pondered
.

“Christopher,” he finally announced
.

I blinked, somewhat surprised, for there is no Christopher in either of our
near families. But then Dominic gave one of his rare, open smiles and said, “I like the way they sound together. Pippa and Kit. What do you think?”

I think I love you so much my heart is near to breaking, I thought
.

—

3 May 1562
           

Tiverton Castle
           

The children and I leave for Wynfield Mote next week. Dominic will not be with us. He has been summoned to court. Elizabeth has tried summons before this, but Dominic has always ignored them. What can she threaten us with? Taking away Tiverton and the duchy of Exeter? It would be no punishment, for Dominic serves his people from duty rather than ambition
.

This time, Elizabeth took another tack
. Please,
she wrote to both of us
, I have great need of a friend. Not for myself. For my daughter.

—

The closer he came to London, the more tense Dominic Courtenay grew. He had not been anywhere near the city since his imprisonment in the Tower five years before. At least Elizabeth had sense enough not to summon him to Whitehall. Indeed, he did not actually have to enter the city at all, for the queen awaited him at Nonsuch Palace, fifteen miles southwest. The distinctive octagonal towers rising before him made Dominic catch his breath before he ruthlessly banished memories of previous visits. Visits when Elizabeth was merely Princess of Wales and William…

Tension made him curt, but he had never been a man of many words and Elizabeth’s guards and stewards passed him along swiftly enough to the queen’s privy chamber. To his surprise, she greeted him alone.

“No counselors today?” he asked her. “No clerks or ambassadors begging your attention for the great matters of state?”

“There is no matter of greater importance to me than what I am about to ask you.”

“Why bring me all the way here simply to tell you no? I am finished with courts and royals, Your Majesty. You know that.”

“But you are not finished with loyalty. Nor will you be so long as you draw breath.”

“What do you want, Elizabeth?” If she was going to pluck at all the most painful chords of his past, he would treat her not as queen, but as the girl he’d known since childhood.

She matched his tone. “I need you, Dominic, to stand as Protector to my daughter.”

All the breath left his body. He’d known a Lord Protector once, and no way in hell was he going to follow in the footsteps of George Boleyn, Lord Rochford.

Elizabeth didn’t wait for his refusal. “I am not asking you to run the government, Dominic. You are entirely too honest for such a task…although I suspect Minuette would be quite good at it.”

“That is not—”

Elizabeth overrode him. “Let me be frank. My life is all that stands between security and chaos in England. My life—and now that of my infant daughter. An infant whose father would gladly seize whatever power he could in this nation.”

Dominic had learned a few things from his wife, including sarcasm. “That is only occurring to you now?”

Her eyes darkened, and he realized that there was real fear beneath her royal composure. “For a man so eager to keep apart from politics, that is a rather piercing opinion to voice.”

He raised a hand in conciliation. “I apologize. What is it you want from me?”

When she spoke again, it was entirely as Queen of England. “If I should die during my daughter’s childhood, England will have need of a strong government during her minority. That responsibility would lie in the hands of Lord Burghley and Sir Francis Walsingham, as well as a carefully composed council of
men I trust. I am not asking you to protect England in such a case—I am asking you to protect Anabel.”

It was that last word that moved him, the realization that Elizabeth had given her daughter a pet name. Even though he suspected her of using sentiment against him, it worked. There was only one thing more she could try, so Dominic asked before the queen could. “May I see her?”

He followed Elizabeth to a separate suite of painted and gilded chambers attended by soft-footed ladies who looked more suited to royal feasts than caring for a baby.

Anne Isabella, the Princess of Wales, lay in a cradle beneath a cloth-of-gold canopy embroidered with her mother’s personal falcon badge. The baby looked a little bigger to him than did his own twins, but the plump cheeks and finely pursed mouth were familiar childish traits. The infant had her mother’s distinctive red-gold hair and stared up at him with a curious intelligence he told himself he was imagining.

“She’s a pawn, Dominic,” Elizabeth said softly, next to him. “A Spanish pawn. If I die young, Philip’s men will spare no effort to lay hold of her. She must not fall to Spain. Promise me, Dominic. Promise me that if anything happens to me, you will take Anabel into your care. I trust few men with my government—but only one man do I trust with her life.”

The last royal who trusted me with his life is dead, Dominic thought bleakly. In the end, it was the memory of Will, as much as Elizabeth’s plea, that decided him.

“I will protect her, Your Majesty. As though she were my own.”

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

1.  Discuss Elizabeth’s marriage to King Philip. Can you envision any scenario in which their marriage might have survived? Or were their religious differences and political responsibilities insurmountable?

2.  What do you think motivated Elizabeth’s revelation about her suspicions regarding Lucette’s true parentage? Was her choice political or personal? How might she have handled the situation differently? Discuss the long-term impact of her decision on Lucette and the Courtenay family.

3.  Which character surprised you the most? Why?

4.  In what ways are Anne Isabella and Elizabeth similar? In what ways are they different? Compare and contrast the two, both as women and as leaders.

5.  Discuss the relationship between Minuette and Elizabeth. In what ways has it evolved, and in what ways has it remained the same?

6.  Elizabeth plays many roles—that of wife, friend, mother, and queen most notably. Discuss these different facets of her personality. Do you see a difference in her behavior in each of these contexts, or does the monarch necessarily overshadow the other roles?

7.  At one point, Lucette asks, “Should not love between spouses be absolute? How could one ever love a second person as much as the first?” Do you agree with this sentiment? Is it possible to feel romantic love for more than one person in a lifetime?