“I shall not be here forever,” Mary continued. “I have friends . . . .”
“Your Majesty must keep up your strength,” Jane warned her. “When the time comes to leave this dismal place you will have to be well.”
“You are right, Jane,” answered the Queen. “This is an end of my lethargy.”
They brought her food and she ate it. She called for a mirror and studied her face with more attention than she had bestowed on it since the beginning of her incarceration. She had lost her pallor and her delicately tinted complexion was regaining its beauty; her lovely mouth was no longer melancholy; slightly parted it disclosed her perfect white teeth; there was a sparkle, left by recent anger mingling with new-born hope, in the long, deeply-set hazel eyes; her chestnut hair, hanging over her shoulders, was regaining its luster.
She rose from her bed and walked a little, leaning on Jane’s arm. Then she stood at the window looking out over the lake. She could see the mainland, and caught glimpses of distant mountains and forests. It was such a small stretch of water which separated her from freedom that she wondered why she had felt so hopeless.
“Somewhere on that mainland,” she mused, “are friends who will help me.”
Dusk had fallen. Outside her window the sentinels patrolled. With the coming of night two others would take their places. Lindsay was determined that she should not escape.
She was feeling so much better. She believed she would soon be free. All her life she had recovered quickly from adversity because her optimism had been one of her strongest qualities and, she guessed, always would be. Rarely—and the days and nights which followed Carberry Hill was one of these periods—had she been completely bereft of hope. But to lose a kingdom, a lover and a beloved baby son at one stroke had been too much even for her resilient nature.
Now she could look back on her despair and say: There is always hope. There always must be hope. All through her life—except that gay and romantic period at the Court of France—there had been trouble. And even in France the insidiously powerful Catherine de’ Medici had been her enemy from the moment they had set eyes on each other.
So hope came now. Somewhere in Scotland there were friends waiting to help her. She believed she would find them.
Jane had been right when she had said she must build up her strength. Lying in bed and refusing food was folly. Once she felt quite well again her natural gaiety would return. And when she had recovered her high spirits, her belief in her destiny, she would be happy again. Scotland would be hers once more. And Bothwell?
Now that she was calmer she could look back with a clearer vision at that turbulent period of her life. With him she had reached an emotional climax which she had never attained before. Through him she had known a savage joy and a savage despair. There would never be another like him, and she knew that if he came back tomorrow she would be entirely his slave. Should she say the slave of her own body’s desires? With him she had experienced sensations which she had not known existed: Erotic bliss which never seemed to be without its companions—humiliation and despair.
She had experienced enough of those two to wonder whether anything was worth the price.
Since she had made herself realize that she was a Queen with a Kingdom to fight for, Bothwell’s image had faded a little. Let that suffice. And in due course, if and when he came back to her, it might be that he would find a different woman, a clever woman, a woman of some judgment who, while she welcomed him as her husband, would ask him to remember that she was his Queen.
But Bothwell was far away—she knew not where. And she was a prisoner in Lochleven. Her first duty was to escape, and if she were to break out of this fortalice she would need all her wits to do so. She would not achieve that end by dreaming sensual dreams of Bothwell.
She rose from her bed and wrapped her robe about her. She was growing stronger and now able to walk about the room without the aid of Jane’s or Marie’s arm.
While she was wondering whether they would increase her guards now that she was able to leave her bed, she realized with a little shock that the door of her room was being slowly and cautiously opened.
Startled, she drew her robes more tightly about her and, seeing who the intruder was, she cried: “Ruthven!”
Ruthven came into the room hesitantly. He stood before her and dropped to his knees.
“Your attitude has changed, my lord, since you came here with those fellow-traitors.”
He lifted his eyes to her face and now she understood the expression in them. It angered her, yet at the same time she felt exultant. In the extremity of her grief she had forgotten the power she had always possessed to make men her slaves.
Ruthven rose to his feet.
“Your Majesty,” he said, “if you could but know how I have suffered for my part in this!”
Mary turned from him and took a seat by the window.
Ruthven said: “Your Majesty, do not show yourself to the guard. It would be well if we were not seen . . . together.”
“You have something to tell me?” she asked, rising and moving away to a part of the room which could not be seen from outside. Ruthven brought a stool and she sat down.
“I can go back and forth between the mainland and the castle, Your Majesty,” he said.
She wanted to laugh aloud. Had she not known that some way of escape would be offered her?
“And I have friends on the mainland . . . .” she murmured.
“Seton, Fleming, Herries . . . .” he said.
“Huntley,” she added. “Bothwell.”
“They are in the North, Your Majesty. There are others nearer . . . not far from this island, on the mainland across the water.”
“And you have a plan for helping me to escape from this prison?”
“Not . . . yet, Your Majesty. I wished to talk to you of such a plan.”
“Tell me one thing first. Why have you changed sides?”
Ruthven was silent. He was a connection of Darnley’s and had joined those nobles who had determined to avenge the murder. He had been against the Queen at Carberry Hill. Her adversaries had considered him sufficiently her enemy to put him in charge of her—with Lindsay—on the ride from Edinburgh to Lochleven. And now he was ready to be a traitor to his friends for her sake.
She must be cautious. But because there had been so many men ready to serve her she asked the question of Ruthven merely that he might confirm what she believed she knew.
“It has caused me much pain to see Your Majesty treated in this way.”
“You gave no sign when Lindsay had his sword at my throat.”
“Had he attempted to harm you I should have killed him. I stifled my anger because I thought I could serve you better in secret.”
“And how do you plan to serve me?”
“By obeying your orders.”
“How can I trust you?”
Ruthven took a step toward her. She was amazed when he lifted her from her stool and, putting his lips against hers, kissed her violently.
She tried to draw away in anger, but she was so weak that she found herself powerless in his arms.
“You . . . are insolent,” she panted.
“I love you,” said Ruthven. “I have fought against this without avail. I will bring you out of this prison. I will set you on the throne. They speak true when they say you are the most desirable woman in Scotland. I would say in the whole world . . . .”
“I command you to release me,” she cried.
But he laughed at her. He had heard rumors of the manner in which Bothwell had swept away her protests. She was a Queen, it was true; but she was completely feminine. It was her submission to Bothwell which had brought her to her present state. She was not meant to be a lonely monarch like Elizabeth beyond the Border. She was meant to be a woman first. It was merely by chance that she was also a Queen.