Chapter 33 #2
Elizabeth’s thin face colored. “There was much to talk about. And Blanche was there. I wasn’t alone with him.”
“I was.” Blanche did not look up from her needlework.
“That’s as may be, but it’s given rise to a lot of talk that you will marry him. People are beginning to seek his favor.”
“Pshaw! It was just my way of rewarding an old friend whom I was glad to see again after an absence of so many years.”
Kat did not look convinced.
“I have no intention of marrying him,” Elizabeth said.
“Well, you’d better tell him that, because it’s gone to his head.
He’s spending a fortune to fund his estate as a future king, giving himself airs and graces and entertaining on a grand scale, just as if he were royal.
The London bookmakers are giving odds of twenty-five to a hundred that you will soon wed him. ”
Elizabeth just laughed. “Well, I won’t!”
Kate was thinking that if these matters were not of such great importance, things would be verging on the ridiculous. For Arundel, not to be outdone, was now swaggering about the court. One day, he ran to catch up with her in a gallery and thrust something at her.
“Lady Knollys, for this consideration, please convey my worthiness to the Queen!” he pleaded.
She stared at the glittering brooch in her hand. It must have cost a king’s ransom.
“I don’t take bribes,” she said. “You may rest assured, my lord, that her Majesty knows your merits.”
Things reached such a pass that Arundel challenged Pickering to a duel, but Pickering declined to fight, publicly declaring that Arundel was the weaker man. A furious Arundel then went about protesting that if Elizabeth married Pickering, he would sell all his estates and live abroad.
And good riddance to him! Kate thought.
—
When she and Kat were alone in the Queen’s bedchamber, sorting out her jewels into new caskets, Kat said suddenly, “This business with Arundel and Pickering is all a front, you know.”
“I do,” Kate replied. “What could they offer compared with the Archduke?”
“No, I mean a front to divert people from what is really going on. Have you not noticed that Lord Robert Dudley is often about the Queen?”
Lord Robert, the Queen’s Master of Horse?
He was the handsome son of the late unlamented Duke of Northumberland, and his saturnine dark looks had many women gazing lustfully after him.
“Yes, I have, but only as one of the many gentlemen who frequent her chamber for merry pastimes. Surely you are not saying—”
“Oh, indeed I am.” Kat laid away the last of the pearls.
“She has seen him in private, too. She visits him in his chamber day and night. I have tried to talk to her about it—but it was like trying to get blood out of a stone. I fear Lord Robert has come so much into favor that he can do whatever he likes with public affairs. She even consults him on politics. I’ll wager Master Cecil would have much to say about that! He cannot stand him.”
Kate was astounded and hurt that Elizabeth had not seen fit to confide in her.
“But he’s married,” she said.
“Yes, although his wife has a malady in one of her breasts.”
“You mean she is dying?”
“Some say so. There is gossip. I’m clean amazed that you haven’t heard it.”
So was Kate, but she was so often with the Queen or contriving to spend time with Francis and their daughters that she had no leisure for gossiping with courtiers, unless it was at the gatherings in Elizabeth’s chamber—and of course no one had mentioned Lord Robert there, while he himself had not appeared to be paying any more attention to the Queen than the other men present, although they all behaved as if they were dying of love for her.
“I’ve heard nothing.”
“They are saying that she is only waiting for Lady Dudley to die so that she can marry Lord Robert.”
“No wonder they are being discreet! But to carry on with a married man…So much for all this talk of wanting to preserve her virginity and not wanting to wed. Surely she has not compromised her honor?”
“I doubt it has gone that far, although they’ve had plenty of opportunities! And he’s a very handsome young man. I’d bed him myself if I were twenty years younger!”
“But you, Kat, would not pursue a married man, and neither would I. I can’t believe it of the Queen. She dare not risk her reputation!”
Nevertheless, it soon became obvious to Kate that something momentous was going on between Elizabeth and Dudley.
Overnight, it seemed, he had risen to great favor.
The Queen showed him overt affection, which he no less ardently reciprocated.
When they were together, which was increasingly often, he would lay a proprietorial hand on her arm and even kiss her on the mouth.
Kate longed to warn her that such behavior might well have consequences, but Elizabeth made it clear that the subject was not one for discussion.
No longer was she confiding in her loving cousin about her suitors; when Kate tried to speak to her about Lord Robert, she was abruptly cut off.
Elizabeth was going her own sweet way to Hell.
Francis was appalled when Kate told him of the latest intimacies between the Queen and her paramour. They were sitting up late in Francis’s lodging, sharing an ewer of wine, but their pleasure in each other’s company had become muted by his urgent concern.
“How far has this gone?” he asked. “The councillors are very worried because the most scurrilous rumors are circulating. He is married, and many are rightly shocked that she should show him such favor. Cecil is furious. He despises Dudley and sees him as a threat to his own power. The Queen consults Dudley on state affairs, yet he is not one of her ministers. Cecil says he has influenced her opinions on matters that are not within his remit.”
“She doesn’t talk to me about men anymore,” Kate said. “She must know that I cannot approve. I’m assuming that the Archduke is now out of the running?”
“No. The Spanish ambassador is still cherishing hopes, but he has not found it easy trying to negotiate anything with her Majesty because she is so changeable. For my part, I fear she will never make up her mind to anything that is good for her.”
Kate sighed. The nausea had eased, but she was still quite tired with her advancing pregnancy and had been wondering how soon she could decently crave leave of absence from court.
She longed to see her children—no matter how often she wrote to them, letters were no substitute.
Their absence was an ache in her heart, a constant, urgent, painful need.
She had not yet told Elizabeth about her condition, and in fact she dreaded doing so, but she would have to say something soon, once her belly became obvious. The sooner the better, she thought, because she was weary of all this rumpus about her mistress’s courtships.
“Sometimes she says she wants to marry and that she will only accept a great prince, which puts Lord Robert’s nose out of joint, and which he doesn’t try to hide. Then she acts as if she is in love with him and keeps him at her side. In truth, I’m sure he has no idea of where he stands with her.”
“Is she in love with him?”
“Looking at them together, it seems obvious. His duties bring him into daily contact with her. They ride out together most days since they share a passion for hunting. I can see what attracts her: he is cultivated, witty, charming, and attractive—stimulating company.”
Francis frowned at that. “If I did not know better, I would wonder if you were in love with him yourself.” He was only half joking.
“Not I! There is only one man for me, and it is yourself,” she assured him.
“But I understand why she loves him. She can relax in his company, and they share the same mischievous sense of humor—he knows well how to amuse her. He has the gift of teasing her without giving offense. They have known each other since childhood, and he sold lands to support her during her sister’s reign.
I think he knows her better than anyone. ”
“Except you, perhaps. That’s as may be, but he is not free and she should not be consorting with him.”
“No. And she has abandoned all discretion. She makes no secret of her affection for him and never misses a chance to praise his talents as a horseman or in arranging tournaments and entertainments. She dances galliards with him, leaping high into the air with abandon. Everyone is astonished.”
Francis shifted in his chair, looking deeply concerned. “For someone who claims to set a high value on the good opinion of her people, it seems she cares not a jot what they think of her.”
“I don’t believe she has bedded with Lord Robert. She is attended round the clock by us ladies and her maids-of-honor, and we would know. And she is too canny to risk an illicit pregnancy.”
“Great God, think of the scandal! I hope you’re right, Kate.”
A distant clock sounded. “I must go,” Kate said. “It’s my turn to sleep in the Queen’s chamber.”
“Oh, no,” Francis groaned. “This is intolerable. Does she not realize that we have a married life?”
“She prefers not to realize,” Kate said, kissing him yearningly. “She is jealous. She wants me to herself.”
She parted from him with a heavy heart. They never knew, from day to day, when they would be with each other again. At times like these, she hated Elizabeth. But then the Queen would show her some kindness or declare how much she cherished her, and Kate would love her all over again.
—