Roses Have Thorns: A Novel of Elizabeth I

PROLOGUE

There once was a strong, benevolent lady who was walking through a frozen rose garden in the grievous chill of winter when her slipper brushed against something on the cobbled path. She saw that it was a snake, stiff with cold and nigh on dead, having run the fool’s errand of leaving its own nest to seize a better one.

Forswearing her initial hesitation, the lady placed the serpent close to her bosom, where it quickly warmed. When it revived, the serpent resumed its natural nature, bit its benefactress, and poisoned her with a wound unto death.

“Why have you done this?” she cried. “I have sought only to assist you!”

“You knew full well what I was when you drew me close to your heart,” replied the cunning viper.

“I am justly rewarded, then,” the lady sorrowed, “for pitying a serpent.”

—A retelling of Aesop’s fable