Waking Elizabeth (17 page)

“Totally
not the same,” I argued.

“The
only thing you need to worry about is being ready at 8am.
 
Don’t let him come up to this room, unless
you are prepared for the consequences.
 
You are like a lit fuse of dynamite girlie.”
 
Jess got up and grabbed her coffee.
 
“I’ve got a meeting at 8:30.
 
What’s with the computer?
 
Were you trying to dig up information on
Romeo?”

“No,
I was digging up information on the man Elizabeth was with,” I answered,
reaching for the laptop.

“Who
was that?”

“Robert
Dudley.”

“Her
husband?
 
Wait, she wasn’t married, her
boyfriend?” Jess took a sip of her coffee.

“Her
favorite, as he was called,” I corrected her with a word I had read a thousand
times over the last 2 hours.

“Her
favorite … like her lover?”

“You
could say that.”

“But
wait, wasn’t she supposed to be the Virgin Queen?” Jess asked me, cradling her
cup of coffee in both hands.

I
was impressed by her knowledge.
 
Who knew
she was into history? “That’s what they called her, but if my visions are
anything remotely like what actually happened.
 
She was definitely
not
a
virgin.”

“Oh,
well, good for her.”
 
Jess turned to walk
into her bedroom, “Don’t get obsessed with this guy, Ellie, you have your hands
full with Ronan.
 
Don’t you neglect a
fine specimen of a man like that.
 
The
Gods won’t be pleased,” she called over her shoulder with a wave of her arm as
she closed the door.

I
looked at the computer, staring into the face of the man I had been studying
for the past 2 hours.
 
If the man from my
vision was indeed the man from the painting, they had certainly not done him
justice in depicting his looks.
 
I looked
up at the clock.
 
7am.
 
I had an hour till Ronan showed up at my
door.
 
I smiled and my stomach fluttered
with excitement.
 
I showered and dressed,
drying my hair carefully until it was sleek and hung down my back.
 
I had checked the weather so I could dress
accordingly.
 
I was still in my jeans and
a tank top when Jess peeked in the room to say goodbye.

“Be
good today,” she winked at me, “Or, be really really good at it.”

“Go,”
I told her, rolling my eyes, “Have a good day.”

I
heard her on her way to the door as her heels clicked on the tile in the foyer
of our suite.
 

“Oh,”
I heard her say, “You’re here!”

I
glanced at my watch.
 
It was eight on the
nose.
 

“Ellie,
you have company.
 
I know you’re decent
so I’m letting him in.
 
He looks pretty
harmless to me.
 
You guys have a great
day.”
 

Not
stopping to grab my sweater from the bed I rounded the corner and headed
straight into the living room to greet him.
 
Jess was still in the doorway and had whispered something to Ronan on
her way by which had caused him to look perplexed and grin.
 
I wondered what she had said and was about to
ask but she dashed through the threshold and out of sight within seconds.
 
Ronan turned to me, shutting the door behind
him.

“Am
I early?” he asked, standing just inside the door with one hand resting in the
pocket of his jeans and the other on the doorknob.
 
He was striking in his jeans and a light
cream colored shirt.

“No,
you’re perfect,” I answered, taking in every inch of him.
 

He
smiled in return and started walking directly towards me, a look of pure
determination on his handsome face.
 
I
knew what was coming, his body language oozed it.
 
I opened my mouth to suck in a ragged breath.
 
Within seconds he was there, right in front
of me.
 
One arm encircled my waist, his
other hand buried in my hair, “Good Morning,” he whispered not giving me a
chance to respond before his lips brushed against mine.
 
At first it was gentle, a tender kiss as if
he were testing the waters.
 
I raised my
hands and buried them in his hair, pulling him closer, just as I had done in my
head a few hours before.
 
I heard him
groan deep in his chest and felt his body press hard against mine.
 
His mouth opened and I complied equally, his
tongue sweeping inside of my mouth in a delicious rhythm that had me shaking
with need.
 

He
pulled away and I took that second to take a shallow breath, “Good Morning,” I
answered, smiling against his lips.

“I’ve
been thinking about that all night,” he growled in a low voice that made me
shiver.

I
couldn’t help but chuckle, “Well then, you are better off than me,” I answered
without thinking.

He
pulled away, “Why is that?” the smile still on his face, “Does this have
anything to do with Jess telling me ‘Good luck Romeo, you’re going to need it’
when she walked out the door?”

I
laughed and shook my head, “Possibly.”

“What
have I missed?” his arm was still around me, his hands kneading my hair.

“I
had another vision last night, this one was much more … vivid than the others,”
I wasn’t sure how I could explain it without it sounding x-rated.

“Vivid?”
he arched a beautiful brow, “How so?”

“Well,
let’s just say, our Virgin Queen … not so much a virgin,” I could feel my face
turning red as I lowered my head into his shoulder to hide my embarrassment.

“Ah,
that kind of vivid … now I get it.
 
So,
you’re vision was Elizabeth with a man?” he asked, cradling my head in his
shoulder.

“Yes,
not just any man, the man from the picture I saw last night.
 
Robert Dudley.”

I
could feel his body go tense but his hand still stroked my head, “How do you
know it was him?”

My
arms were wrapped around him, my fingers toying with his belt loops, “I could
see him, hear him when he spoke to her … I could taste him when he kissed
me.
 
I’ve never had a dream that real
before.”

His
fingers lightly stroked my bare arm, “And … what happened?”

“I
woke up and got myself together, then I tried to go back to bed, but it just
got worse,” a little voice inside my head was cautioning me to stop there.
 
Why go
any further?

“Worse?”

“Well,
I tried to go back to sleep but every time I closed my eyes I would see …
something.”

“The
same vision again?”
 

“Yes,
well, no … not exactly.
 
It was the same
scene … same bed, same actions, but
he
was different.”

Ronan
pulled away from me and lifted my face with his hands, “Different?
 
Who was with her?”

I
shook my head, trying to avoid his gaze, “It was you.
 
He turned into you.”

“Is
that why you refuse to look at me?” I could hear the smile in his voice.

“I
have no control over what I see, it’s extremely … frustrating,” I tried to bury
my face again but he refused.
 
He tilted
my face towards his and leaned down to kiss me again.

“What
was I doing in this dream?” his lips brushed mine as he spoke in a whisper.

“Everything
was the same, I could feel everything that she felt, see the room, the bed,
everything … him and then you.
 
He just …
turned into you.
 
I don’t know how else
to explain it.”

“What
time was this dream?” he asked.

“4am
… I’ve been up since 4am,” I answered.

He
laughed, “You should have called me.
 
I
was up as well.”

“That,”
I tapped his chest with my finger, “could have been extremely dangerous.”

His
smile was languid while his eyes devoured me, “You don’t frighten me.”

“But
you scare the hell out of me,” I answered, my voice weak, “Come on, take me
somewhere,” I said, rising up to kiss him, “I’m starving and loaded with
caffeine!”

“I’m
sure you are.
 
A dream like that would
certainly leave me hungry,” he winked at me and turned me loose, “Go finish
getting dressed.
 
I’ll ring and get us a
table downstairs.”

Chapter
18

I
threw on my
sweater and ran a brush through my hair and grabbed my backpack off the
dresser.
 
On our way down in the
elevator, Ronan’s hand rested casually on the back of my neck, his fingers
grazing my hairline.
 
I leaned into him,
enjoying the feeling of him so close to me.
 
Downstairs we sat at a table by the window and quickly ordered a
meal.
 

“Why
were you up at 4am?” I asked him as I put cream in my coffee.

“Dreams,”
he smiled, and I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, “So what did you do
once you were up?”

“Oh,
I got out the computer and started digging up everything I could about Dudley,”
I was proud of myself and I thought he would be too, being the history person
he was.

Ronan
looked surprised, “Really?
 
And, what did
you find?”

“Well,
I know that he and Elizabeth were childhood friends, just like you said they
were.
 
From what I can gather they met
when they were about 8 years old.
 
He was
strong and handsome, which of course I already knew because I saw him, and he
worshiped her, even before she was queen.
 
She called him Robin and once she was queen he was never far from her
which caused quite the scandal at court.”

Ronan
was casually leaning back in his chair and nodding in agreement as I spoke.

“Oh,
and they might have actually had a child together.
 
There were rumors that she had a baby and
that he was the father and they took him to live somewhere in the country so
that no one would know.”

“Rumors.
 
There was never any evidence of that.
 
Just hearsay,” Ronan said, “Go on.”

“Anyway.
 
He asked her to marry him and she wouldn’t,
something about the mysterious death of his first wife, Amy.
 
Everyone suspected that he was involved
somehow.
 
That he killed her on purpose
so he would be free to marry Elizabeth.”

Ronan
shook his head, “He was far away from home when it happened.
 
Again, rumors.
 
But you are right, the queen was always
worried about how it looked.”

I
tapped my cup, trying to remember everything I had read in my caffeine induced
research session, “Oh, he married again, years later and Elizabeth was furious
because they did it behind her back.
 
She
banished him from court for a little while but then she invited him back.
 
She could never be away from him for too
long.
 
But I didn’t understand that
really, why did he marry someone else?”

Ronan
shrugged, “He was a man growing older.
 
He wanted companionship and he had asked Elizabeth a hundred times to
marry him.
 
She denied him but publically
courted other foreign dignitaries in front of him.
 
It killed him to see that, even though he
knew it was all a rouse.
 
She never
intended to marry anyone, if she had, it would have been him.”

“Why
wouldn’t she marry him?
 
It couldn’t be
the excuse of his dead wife, Amy.
 
Everyone would have eventually forgotten that.”

“Elizabeth
was way ahead of her time in her expert use of the power of feminine
charms.
 
As long as she was single she
could actively court other countries which would strengthen alliances.
 
She had a love for her country that came
before anything or anyone else.
 
In the
end, she swore she was married to England.”
 
Ronan looked down solemnly, “She would have been happy with Robert as he
would have been with her, but she put her country first … and he couldn’t fault
her for that.
 
The day that she became
queen, her body, mind and spirit were not her own to give.”

It
was incredibly sad to hear Ronan describe it in that way.
 
Elizabeth had sacrificed her own happiness
for the wellbeing of her country, “I ran out of time before finding out what
happened to him.”

“He
died, 16 years before she did.
 
He was
56.
 
His health had not been good for
some time and he died quite suddenly which threw the queen into a great
depression.
 
She locked herself in her
rooms for days with no food or drink.
 
William Cecil had to break the door down in order to care for her.”

I
felt hollow inside as he told me the story.
 
I could feel her heartbreak and I wondered how she managed another 16
years without him.
 
“How did she go on?”

Ronan
smiled, “There were others after him.
 
None that took his place, but she was close to other men.
 
Some she ran off and one she had executed
after he tried to form a rebellion against her.
 
But she never loved anyone they way she loved him.
 
When she died there was a box beside her bed
that held the last letter he sent to her a week before he died.
 
She had kept it all those years.
 
And it’s said that she whispered his name
before she died.”

A
single tear slid down my cheek as I listened and I rushed to wipe it away and
focus on something else.

Ronan
noticed this and attempted to lighten the mood, “She was fickle though.
 
She would get angry with him when he flirted
with other women and send him away and then get twice as angry when he didn’t
return fast enough.
 
She wanted him, and
wanted him to only want her and yet she was not willing to give herself to him
completely.”

I
raised my brows at him, “Oh yes she did.
 
She gave herself to him completely, I can promise you that.”

He
laughed, “Not what I meant, but touché …”

Ronan
finished his breakfast and leaned back in his chair to study me, “Do you still
want to see Dr. Cross?”

“I’d
be mortified to tell him what I told you this morning.”

“I’m
sure he’s heard worse,” Ronan grinned.

I
thought about it for a few minutes, “I’m just trying to think of what I would
ask him?
 
I mean, what do I want to
know?”

“That’s
up to you,” Ronan answered while he quickly signed our check, “Yesterday I took
you because you had a terrible episode in the Tower and you were frightened.
 
If these visions scare you or if they become
too strong then it might be wise to speak with him about it.”

I
almost laughed at his use of the words too strong?
 
What constituted too strong?
 
Having a dream about someone else’s sexual
experience where you were able to feel everything that was happening to
her?
 
It was invasive, appallingly
invasive, but I wasn’t too sure what good ole Dr. Cross could do about
that.
 
Could he hypnotize me to forget
about it and her all together?
 
And if he
could, did I want him to?
 

“You’re
over thinking it, I can tell by looking at you,” Ronan reached across the table
and squeezed my hand, “Think about it and let me know.
 
He’s always amenable to an unscheduled
appointment.”

“You
remind me of Jess.
 
She tells me I over think
things all the time,” I smiled.

“It’s
true,” Ronan rose and tossed a few bills down on the table, “How about Windsor
and maybe something fun and light hearted today?
 
Perhaps a museum?
 
You can think about seeing Dr. Cross and if
you decide you want to, I can set it up.”

I
reached for my bag, “I’ll think about it.
 
Though the thought of telling Dr. Cross that I had a sex dream about
Elizabeth and her man last night that was so realistic it left me reaching for
the phone to call someone over to put me out of my misery feels a little
overwhelming.”

Ronan
held out his hand, “Hand me your phone.”

I
blinked and gave him a strange look before reaching into my purse and pulling
out my pink phone, “Why?”

“I
want to make sure all my numbers are programmed in there,” he grinned.

My
face turned bright red and I laughed and snatched my phone back, “Oh, you’re in
there alright.”

“Good.”

“What
about Westminster?” I asked him as I put on my sunglasses and headed out the
main door.

“I’m
not so sure that’s a good idea,” Ronan placed a gentle hand at my back as he
led me outside, “Elizabeth is buried there.
 
I’m not quite sure what images that will conjure.”

“She’s
only as powerful as I allow her,” I reached for his hand as we left the
restaurant secretly wishing I felt as confident as my words portrayed.