Chapter Nineteen
Dominic couldn’t take his eyes off Minuette. Dressed in peasant clothing and with a bruised look about her eyes as though she’d been sleepless for days, she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.
After that first startled moment of being woken in the dead of night, followed by the sweet relief of holding her close, Dominic had himself woken William and sent for Elizabeth to join them.
She was still in the camp because she had doggedly refused to leave.
“Not until Minuette is safe,” she had insisted, and no one dared defy her.
Now the four of them sat together in William’s tent as Minuette related her story.
William held her hand, stroking it as she told them of how Robert had led her out of the castle and through the encampment surrounding the motte.
“Did they strike you as men ready to fight?” Dominic asked.
“They struck me as men I didn’t want to see my face,” she replied. “I don’t know what a force ready to fight looks like.”
“What about Robert?” William interrupted. “What did he say about his father?”
“He said that if he has not brought Northumberland to surrender by nightfall tomorrow, he will leave the postern gate I came through unbarred and Dudley badges cached to get a handful of you through the camp.”
Dominic and William shared a considering glance. That was further than Dominic had thought Robert would take it. Persuading his father to wisdom was one thing—opening a back door to an enemy force was pure betrayal. “Were we wrong about Robert’s involvement in his father’s plots?” Dominic asked.
“When I spoke with him, Robert all but admitted to Alyce de Clare. Although …” Minuette hesitated. “He did seem genuinely surprised to find that someone tried to poison me.”
“It’s irrelevant,” Elizabeth broke in. “All that matters is getting Northumberland out of that castle without bloodshed. If Robert can bring that about, then he’s useful. For now.”
Dominic wondered how much that apparent indifference cost her.
She had left court in the latter part of August and he had not seen her again until one month later, when Northumberland released her.
In those weeks, Elizabeth had aged; though her beauty was untouched, her spirit was darker.
But then again, it had always been Robert who had brought out the lighthearted side of her.
“Right.” William nodded. “Elizabeth, take Minuette to your tent. As soon as the sun rises, the two of you will ride out.”
“No,” Elizabeth said. “Not until it’s over.”
“It is over. You are both safe now.”
“I’m not leaving until Northumberland is in your hands.”
“This is nothing to do with you. If you hadn’t been so stubborn and secretive, you’d never have been caught in this mess at all!”
“And that’s why I’m staying!” Elizabeth shouted back. The siblings were on their feet, glaring at each other. Dominic felt the brush of Minuette’s fingertips against his. He nearly grasped her hand, but William’s distraction wouldn’t last forever.
Elizabeth’s voice cracked once before she got it under control.
“Northumberland might never have taken this stand if I hadn’t made it easy for him.
There are women and children in that castle who do not deserve to be caught between the two of you.
I am staying until the innocent are safe and Northumberland is in your hands. ”
“Are you sure you’re not staying to plead for Robert?”
“I am finished pleading for Robert Dudley.”
William scowled and shook his head, but said grudgingly, “Fine. But only because I expect the rest of my troops tomorrow. The morning after the soldiers arrive, you and Minuette are on your way no matter how matters at the castle stand.”
But as dawn broke just a few hours later, ushering in a misty, chilly morning, one of William’s sentries intercepted a rider from Dudley Castle, carrying a white banner of surrender.
William and Dominic rode to the castle with an impressive contingent of royal guards and heavy cavalry.
More out of respect for Northumberland’s dignity than to intimidate him, Dominic thought.
William had his father’s gift for merciful symbolism once he’d established his authority.
Northumberland waited outside the Triple Gate surrounded by three of his sons: Robert, Ambrose, and Henry.
The duke knelt before William. In a clear, carrying voice, he submitted himself to “the sovereign it is my good pleasure to serve in the name of God and my own conscience.”
Northumberland and his sons were arrested.
The women and children were allowed to remain at Dudley Castle under royal control.
William had named the Earl of Arundel temporary governor of Northumberland’s estates.
Very temporary, Dominic thought. He didn’t know if William was looking forward more to executing the duke or confiscating his lands and wealth.
Robert, uncharacteristically, was completely silent save for one question. “Is Lord Rochford marching with your troops or does he remain in London?”
William studied him for a minute before replying. “Rochford’s in London. As Lord Chancellor, he will oversee your reception at the Tower.”
And just like that, it was over. Dominic spurred his horse ahead of the rest, to see Elizabeth and Minuette on their way before the prisoners were brought into camp.
Both women were dressed for riding in the princess’s clothing that Northumberland had sent to the camp upon Elizabeth’s release.
Meant for riding and hunting, the gowns were less elaborate than the typical court wardrobe: dressed so similarly, Elizabeth in red and Minuette in blue, they almost looked as though they could be sisters.
“It’s done,” Dominic informed them tersely. “William wants you away before the prisoners get here.”
Elizabeth nodded once in acknowledgment, then turned away to mount her horse. The women had an escort of one hundred armed men—no chance of being waylaid or changing their minds along the way. Elizabeth was returning to court. But Minuette had persuaded William to let her go to Wynfield.
As Dominic moved to help her mount, she asked appealingly, “You will come, won’t you?”
“It’s not wise.”
“I don’t want to be wise any longer. I want to be honest. Come to Wynfield and we’ll decide how to tell William the truth.”
The truth … “I’ll come.”
Minuette tried to persuade Elizabeth to stay at Wynfield with her for at least one night.
But Elizabeth declined. She was not in a companionable mood, and as gentle and perceptive as her friend was, Elizabeth was far too raw to even touch on the subject of Robert.
They rode next to each other in heavy silence the last hour before their roads would separate, and finally Elizabeth asked the question that had weighed on her. “Did he kill Alyce?”
Elizabeth had not been able to get the dead woman’s face out of her head for a week now.
Although she’d hardly paid any attention to Alyce de Clare while the woman was alive, they had crossed paths on the very night of Alyce’s death.
I should have seen it then, Elizabeth thought heavily.
The way she looked at Robert, her insolence in acknowledging me, the hint of pity in her voice …
I should have known she’d been Robert’s mistress.
And on that very night, Alyce had been found at the bottom of a staircase with a broken neck. Accident—or deadly intent?
Minuette said decisively, “I’m sure it was an accident. I suspect Alyce confronted him, no doubt they argued. But I do not believe Robert would intentionally kill a woman.”
Neither did Elizabeth believe it, but she was beginning to see that she was not the best judge of anything where Robert Dudley was concerned.
What had John Dee warned her? Even the clearest eyes cannot see straight into the sun. Robert had been her sun, and she had been blind. Never again.
They reached the branching of the road where a third of the guards would continue with Minuette to her home near Stratford-upon-Avon. Elizabeth and the remaining guards would take the road to Oxford.
Minuette reined up next to Elizabeth. She looked smaller than usual, as though the captivity had diminished her. For one moment, Elizabeth felt that she was looking at a stranger and her friend’s remoteness smote her conscience.
“Are you sure you want to go to Wynfield?” Elizabeth asked. “Perhaps it is not ideal for you to be alone just now.”
“It will be good for me.” Minutte smiled, and the familiar vivacity of it eased Elizabeth’s heart. “There are things I must put in order at home. I won’t stay away long.”
“William won’t let you.” Elizabeth laughed softly.
Minuette’s smile was sad. “Goodbye, Elizabeth.”
It sounded like more of a farewell than it should have.
William and Dominic were on the road two days later.
It was the last day of September and the skies hung low with sullen clouds.
Northumberland and his sons were somewhere ahead of them on the road to London, under the personal guard of the Earl of Sussex.
Dominic was glad to be riding freely with William rather than guarding prisoners.
He was unsure how to broach the subject of Minuette and Wynfield Mote.
They passed the branching road to her home the first day, but Dominic still said nothing, afraid that if he proposed going immediately, William would seize the same opportunity.
And figuring out how to tell William the truth didn’t mean throwing it in his face at the first opportunity.
Minuette had always been right that it would need to be tactfully and carefully done.
So Dominic rode on to Oxford with the king, reaching the university town just before dusk on a sullenly wet evening that gave full promise of a bitter winter to come.