The Tudor Conspiracy

Chapter Six

Dwarves tumbled in. The entertainment had begun, and Mary’s entire countenance lightened. She clapped her hands in delight as the dwarves, clad in spangled suits and belled caps, wrestled each other with abandon, slapping each other’s buttocks and exchanging ribald jests. I’d not have thought she’d enjoy this rambunctious display, but she seemed thoroughly pleased, shouting encouragement and tossing coins from a purse held by Lady Clarencieux even as the knot of black-clad Spaniards gathered about her frowned at such undignified behavior.

I retreated to the cover of a shadow-drenched wall and seized a goblet from a passing wine server. I drank it down in a gulp, my hand trembling. Elizabeth had my note; now all I had to do was get through my appointment with Renard. It was clear to me that whatever was happening at court, the princess was indeed a prisoner. Mary had denied her leave to depart and treated her with a palpable disdain. I didn’t know for certain that Renard was responsible for all of it, but I’d seen him whisper in the queen’s ear moments before Elizabeth arrived. He’d alerted Mary to her sister’s absence, knowing it would infuriate her.

Shifting my thoughts from the princess, I turned my attention to the company, focusing on Sybilla. She had glided to Lady Lennox’s side to exchange polite conversation, leaving Jane with her dog, now fully leashed and curled, exhausted, under her stool. Sybilla seemed at ease with the sour-faced Lady Lennox, whose Tudor blood made her someone of importance at court. It stood to reason Sybilla was therefore in high favor with the queen herself, as Lady Lennox seemed unlikely to squander her time on menials.

Yet Sybilla had just helped me. Audentes fortuna juvat, she had said. Fortune favors the bold.

My curiosity burned. She had expressed compassion for Elizabeth’s plight and somehow guessed what I was going to do, of that I was certain. She had known I needed to create a distraction so I could get close to Elizabeth, and it was why she had alerted me to Renard’s jealous scrutiny, warning me I didn’t have much time.

Did she know something of the ambassador’s intent toward the princess?

Was she a potential ally?

My ruminations were interrupted by the sight of Courtenay. He had remained at the hearth, insolently leaning against the lintel, nursing a goblet, but now he was bowing low before the queen, as if requesting her leave to depart. I straightened up. I had deliberately stayed in the hall to ease any suspicions, but as the earl strode past me with a scowl plastered across his face, I realized the time had come for my next engagement.

I beckoned Peregrine. “Go back to our rooms. I’ve some business yet to conclude.”

He gaped at me. “Business?”

“Yes. Now do as I say.” I had started to move past him when he suddenly grasped my arm. I stared at him. “I know what you’re going to do,” he said. “You’re going to follow Courtenay, aren’t you? Well, you shouldn’t. It’s not safe.”

“Peregrine, let go of me-”

“You don’t understand! While you chased after that stupid dog, I saw someone!”

I paused, lifting my gaze to see Courtenay vanish through the same doors that Elizabeth had gone through. “Who?” I asked, returning to Peregrine. “Who did you see?”

“There was a man watching you from that corner by the pillars. He’s wearing a black cloak and hood. He’s huge. I couldn’t see his face, but he didn’t seem friendly.”

A shiver went through me. The shadow I’d glimpsed earlier: I was being watched. Was it someone in Renard’s pay? Had he already sent an agent of his after me?

Had I been marked?

“Where is he now?” I pried his fingers from my arm. “Stop acting so alarmed or everyone will notice. Pretend to look around, as if you forgot something.”

Peregrine glanced about us. “No, I don’t see him. He’s not there. But he was!” His voice quavered. “I swear to you, he was watching you the entire time.”

“I believe you. I do. But this can’t wait. So do as I say. Go back to our room and stay there. Don’t answer the door. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I pushed him toward the opposite entranceway. “Go. Now.”

He left reluctantly, glancing at me over my shoulder. My night’s intake of wine turned sour in my belly. Pulling my cap lower on my head, I plunged through the hall doors and into darkened corridors that smelled of stale perfume and candle smoke. By exposing myself to reach Elizabeth, I’d taken a significant risk and heightened Renard’s suspicions even more, but I wasn’t going to let that, or any henchman of his, stop me. On the dais, the queen herself had singled Courtenay out, about to send him like a lackey to fetch Elizabeth from her rooms, but then he and Elizabeth behaved as if they’d never met. The sheer distance they’d kept from each other in the hall was enough to confirm that he was more than a mere companion she went riding with. He and Elizabeth were involved in something, and I intended to find out exactly what that something was.

In the long gallery, bejeweled courtiers flittered past me. I feigned a drunken stagger that elicited a woman’s giggle and a man’s angry “Out of our way, sod!” As soon as the courtiers passed, I quickened my pace. Courtenay must have taken this gallery, but as I moved out of it, down a flight of stairs into a narrower passageway, I began to think I’d taken a wrong turn. Whitehall was a labyrinth I’d barely mastered, and I realized I was actually heading into the bowels of the palace, the damp rising off the stone flagstones.

I cursed under my breath. I started to turn back and retrace my steps. I had surely lost Courtenay by now, and-

The faint echo of voices reached me.

I inched back toward where the passage rounded a corner. Two figures stood partially illumined by icy light coming from a poorly fitted postern door. The taller of the figures had his back to me, but I identified at once the distinctive black-and-white-draped arm at his hip, dangling silver points. The other figure was lithe, shorter by a head and swathed in a black mantle. A jolt of recognition set my blood to racing when I saw the alabaster oval of her face, framed by her fur-trimmed hood.

I pulled out of sight, my heart pounding.

It was Elizabeth, alone with Courtenay.

“We must be careful,” I heard her say, the passage’s low vaulted roof amplifying her voice. “This game has become far too perilous.”

“Game?” Courtenay gave a brusque laugh. “It’s gone far beyond that. We’re in a fight for our lives, now that your harridan sister means to set the Spaniard over us.”

“You forget that my sister has not announced anything yet,” she countered. “It may be that this betrothal to Philip of Spain will never come to pass. Such affairs take time. There are a hundred complications that could interfere and-”

“The only consideration is whether she’ll take your head before or after the wedding,” he cut in, with a callousness that chilled me. “Didn’t you hear how she spoke to you in the hall? She warned you before her entire bloody court! Elizabeth, you cannot play both sides anymore. Mary will move against you. She’ll see you to the scaffold even if she has to execute every Protestant from here to Dover to achieve it.”

“Careful, cousin.” Elizabeth’s voice turned hard. “You speak of my sister. Besides, she has not done anything to me yet. I am still in the succession by our father’s will.”

Courtenay laughed. “Henry also named your aunts and their children after you. Mary will see you dead or disinherited, and put that sour bitch Lennox in your place, until she gets with child by Philip. You know it and so do I. Are you going to submit? Will you sacrifice your very right to be queen to Mary’s unholy Hapsburg alliance?”

“God’s teeth, I’ve heard enough!” Elizabeth exclaimed. She paused, lowering her voice to a hiss. “What would you have me do, eh? I’m watched day and night by her spies, by the ladies she’s set in my chambers, by the very laundress who washes my linens! Since I came to court, I’ve been on the edge of an abyss. I do not intend to submit. But neither do I mean to lose my head over it. If it comes to it, I’ll do what I must to survive.”

“Meaning what? You’ll kiss the pope’s arse, and Philip of Spain’s, too?”

His tone was so taunting, I had to brave another look. I saw him reach for her, as if to take her hands, and she recoiled. “You would have me build my own scaffold.”

“I do not force you to anything,” he replied. “But you heard your sister: The time for prevarication is over. Trust in Dudley and me, if nothing else. Only we can see you safe.”

My entire being froze. Dudley: He spoke of Robert Dudley, my former master, Northumberland’s favored son and Elizabeth’s childhood friend, whom Mary had confined in the Tower with his brothers-Robert Dudley, who stood condemned of treason.

Elizabeth had gone utterly still. The moments passed like years, weighted with her unspoken reflection. Then she said quietly, “Here it is.” She parted her cloak. From within its pocket, she retrieved a small package and handed it to him. Drawing her cloak back about her figure, she gestured to the postern door. “Now call for your man to accompany me to my rooms. I feel a headache coming on. I need to rest.”

My mind keeled as Courtenay avidly thrust the package into his own cloak. I stood as if paralyzed, trying to make sense of what I’d just seen, barely registering the figure that came through the postern door. It stepped forth purposefully, a gloved hand held up, detaining Elizabeth. Then it pointed that same hand to where I lurked. The princess turned to Courtenay, frowning. In that instant, I recalled what Peregrine had told me. He’s wearing a black cloak and hood. He’s huge. I couldn’t see his face, but he didn’t seem friendly.

I took one look at the man’s bulk, at the shapeless cloak and cowl that concealed him from head to foot, and realized I had been mistaken. Renard hadn’t set a man to trail me. The shadow watching me in the hall, the figure standing there now, pointing at me, was a hireling of Courtenay’s. As I heard Courtenay curse and Elizabeth gasp, I spun around to race back the way I’d come, my footsteps like thunderclaps in my ears.

The long gallery was dark, a lone cresset sputtering oily flame high on a far wall, throwing more shadow than light. I was gasping for air, had to make myself breathe through my nose as I pitched myself headfirst into the nearest recessed window bay.

Moments later, Courtenay appeared, Elizabeth close behind him, her hood drawn up over her head. “Are you sure?” she asked anxiously.

“Yes, he was there!” Courtenay was turning to and fro, peering furiously into the gallery. “By all the devils in hell, he was eavesdropping on us, and now we’ve lost him!”

“Who are you talking about?” asked Elizabeth. “I didn’t see anyone.”

Courtenay’s voice edged. “That nobody from the hall, who made such a show of rescuing Jane Dormer’s dog, He must have followed us.” Without awaiting the princess’s response, he swung about to his henchman, who lumbered up with a distinctive limp, an unsheathed dagger in his fist. By the looks of it, the earl had hired a mercenary. “You idiot,” spat Courtenay, “you were supposed to keep watch!” He lifted a hand as if to strike the man, but Elizabeth interposed herself between them.

“Enough,” she declared. “You told him to wait behind the postern door for our privacy, remember? How could he have kept watch?”

“He’s a miserable whoreson,” snarled Courtenay. He stabbed his hand at the henchman. “Get back to the hall and find him. If he overheard enough to tell Renard or, God forbid, the queen, we won’t need Philip of Spain to come and burn us. Mary will do it for him.” Courtenay’s voice twisted, his lips drawn back to show his teeth. “I’ll take Her Grace back to her chambers. You do what I pay you for and get rid of that mongrel-come-out-of-nowhere before he ruins everything!”

My breath shattered in my throat as I heard Elizabeth start to protest again; then her voice faded as Courtenay steered her away. In the silence that fell at their departure, I discerned footfalls starting toward me. I shouldn’t have chosen the first place I saw to hide. The hall lay in my direction. The earl’s man was going to walk right past me.

I eased my poniard from my boot, keeping it pointed inward so the blade wouldn’t catch a stray reflection from the meager light. I had no illusions. He was big enough to smash me to splinters, even if I somehow managed to evade his dagger. Nevertheless, I was going to give it my best. Maybe if I put up enough of a fight and shouted loud enough, he’d not have time to kill me. The earl wouldn’t want his man embroiled in a public murder at court.

My skin crawled as his shadow loomed, inches from where I crouched. He wasn’t quite as large as he’d first seemed, though more than enough to make me wish I had my sword. I couldn’t see anything of his face save for a misshapen nose peeking from his cowl. Time stopped. My heart thudded like an anvil. He paused, so close I might have reached out and touched his cloak. His head swiveled slowly toward me. My hand closed on the hilt of my poniard as I prepared to raise it and strike-

He moved on.

I held my breath, my body tense, braced for a lethal spring. I couldn’t believe it. How had he not seen me? It wasn’t that dark. Was he night-blind? I didn’t move, listening to his footsteps fade away. Maybe he thought to stalk his prey by pretending to let it go. The moment I slipped out, he’d charge me like a bull, seize me from behind to throttle me … but as the minutes passed with agonizing slowness, nothing happened. I heard only the cresset flame sizzling in its sconce, the clamor of music and laughter drifting from the hall.

Finally I dared to look. The gallery stretched into darkness.

Empty.

I slipped from the window seat. Sheathing my poniard, I hurried to my room.

Peregrine was waiting for me, Urian on the bed. The tallow was lit. As I entered, Urian growled. When he recognized me, he thumped his tail.

“Good dog.” I reached down to pet him. Only now that I was in my room did the impact of what I’d just been through hit me, tying such knots in my stomach that I felt I might be sick.

“Did you find the earl?” asked Peregrine. His eyes widened. “You look awful.”

“Yes, well, it hasn’t been an easy night.” I started to unclasp my belt. “I found him, but then I nearly fell afoul of his henchman.”

“Henchman?”

“Yes. It seems that man watching me in the hall is a beast the earl hired as a bodyguard.” I yanked off my doublet, raking a hand through my damp hair. Despite the cold, I was sweating, and, as usual, I had lost my cap somewhere. Peregrine was quiet, taking my doublet and folding it.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on here. I saw Her Grace give Courtenay something, and judging by the way they spoke, the things he said-whatever is happening, he’s knee-deep in it, and it’s more dangerous than any of us thought.” I paced to the coffer. “Maybe I should send you back.”

“Back?” Peregrine gaped in dismay. “Back where? To Hatfield?”

“After what happened tonight, it would be safest. I won’t put you in harm’s way, and now it seems I am a target. Renard suspects me, and Courtenay wants me dead. The only saving grace in all this is that neither of them is likely to tell the other anything.”

“Then let me help you!” He took an imploring step to me. “I know this palace like the back of my hand. I can find out things you need to know. You can’t do it all, not if it’s as dangerous as you say, and I…” His voice drifted off as he took in my expression. His mouth set in a stubborn line. “No.”

I eyed him. “If I tell you to go, you will.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then I’ll strap you to your horse and send you back with an escort.”

“To Hatfield?” He scoffed. “I don’t think so, not unless you want them to know that’s where you came from. Besides, I can’t go back. I … I promised Kate.”

My heart sank. “You promised her?”

“Yes. It was the only reason she let me accompany you. I told her I’d keep watch over you. But I can’t do it, can I, if you won’t let me?”

“You can’t do it anyway. She should never have asked it of you.”

“She didn’t. I offered.” He dragged his foot back and forth on the floor. “I heard her talking to Mistress Ashley one night. She sounded so worried. She said danger follows Elizabeth like a curse, but the princess in turn curses everyone who serves her with the need to save her. And you’ve got it worst of all, she said. You’ll do anything to protect her.”

“Kate said all that to you?”

“Not to me. She didn’t know I was there. I was hiding in the pantry. Besides, what does it matter? She’s right, isn’t she? You love the princess more than anyone.”

Urian whined from the bed, sensing the tension between us. I went to Peregrine and set my hand on his shoulder. He went still. “Peregrine, look at me.” When he didn’t, I cupped his chin. Tears brimmed in his eyes. “It’s not true,” I said. “Yes, I love Her Grace and I am sworn to serve her, but it’s not the kind of love I bear for Kate or for you. You are my family.” I resisted the guilt of my own deceit. I couldn’t explain to him that my service to the princess was bound by more than a pledge; that we shared the same blood, though she didn’t know it. Elizabeth was my kin.

“You … you see me as family?” he whispered.

“Like a brother.” I ruffled his hair. “Now wipe your nose. Not with your sleeve. That’s a new jerkin, remember?” He searched his bag and came up with a nose-cloth; I sat on the bed and scratched Urian’s head as Peregrine dabbed his face.

“I slipped her that note, telling her we should meet tomorrow at the stables,” I said, “but I had a sense tonight that she knew I was there. Hopefully she can tell me exactly what Courtenay is concocting.”

“What if she doesn’t?” said Peregrine. “She hasn’t exactly made it easy thus far, has she? I mean, she didn’t ask for anyone’s help though she’s been in danger.”

I went quiet. He was right. Elizabeth had told Courtenay that she dwelled on the edge of an abyss, but none of us who cared for her-not I or Kate, Mistress Ashley or Cecil-had received a single request for help from her. I knew she was proud, and overly secretive, but now I also knew that Robert Dudley played a role here, and I did not trust Robert Dudley with anything.

Could Elizabeth be protecting the very man who could be her downfall?

“If she doesn’t tell you the truth,” Peregrine said, “I can get you Courtenay instead.”

“What did you just say?”

His words tumbled out in haste. “After the princess left the stables this morning, my friend Toby-that stable boy who told me she goes riding with Courtenay, remember? — he said Courtenay pays him extra for one of the palace horses to be kept at his disposal at night. I could find out why. I mean, most noblemen don’t take out anonymous horses for rides in the dead of night, do they?”

“No, they don’t,” I said. “This Toby is a veritable well of information. I suppose he knows how Courtenay likes his shirts hemmed, too?”

Peregrine gave me an exasperated look. “Did you think stable help survives on the mere pittance they’re paid, if they get paid? Most of the lads take on additional work whenever they get the chance. I did it myself. Those extra coins can make the difference between a meal and scrounging in the ditches with the beggars.”

I winced. All this time he’d endured my treating him as if he were an irresponsible adolescent, when he’d experienced more in his short lifetime than I could possibly imagine.

“God’s teeth, I am an ass,” I said.

He shrugged. “How can you know what it’s like to be alone?” His remark stabbed through me, sharp with the memory of my own difficult childhood. Before I could say that actually I did know what it was like, he said, “So, are you going to let me help you? You need help, even if you won’t admit it. You can’t do all of this on your own.”

I couldn’t believe I was actually considering it after I’d just had a man the size of an ox come after me, but he was right. I had no idea when or how, but I had no doubt that given enough time, Courtenay’s henchman would find me. I had to get to the earl first. This might be my only means. After tonight, I couldn’t take anything for granted, including Elizabeth’s cooperation, especially if she had something to hide. Moreover, I couldn’t convince Peregrine to return to Hatfield. I’d have to gag and tether him, and he’d still worm his way back. I knew that look on his face. He was determined to be of service, and better I set the rules. At least I could keep my eye on him.

“I don’t like it,” I said begrudgingly, “but yes, for now you can help.” I reached into my pouch and tossed him a few coins. “See what you can find out. Take this, too.” I removed my poniard from my boot. “I don’t want you going around without a weapon.”

He nodded eagerly, stashing the dagger and coins in his bag.

“Just don’t let the other grooms know. I wouldn’t want…” My voice faded as he rolled his eyes. At that moment I was very glad to have Peregrine as my squire.

“Now let’s get some rest,” I said, chuckling. “I have to deal with Renard tomorrow while you arrange everything with Toby.”

Peregrine grinned and started setting up his makeshift bed on the floor. As he stripped to his shirt and bundled up on the floor in his cloak, I said, “We need to get you a cot,” and blew out the tallow. He grunted in response.

I had barely settled into my bed when I heard his soft snore. He had fallen into deep sleep as only the truly young can, exhausted by the day’s events.

I stared into the darkness. The day’s events unspooled in my mind in disjointed fragments, along with Peregrine’s words: You’ll do anything to protect her.

Much as I wanted to deny it, I feared that I just might.