“Most of it, but I don’t know how much to believe. That, too, I suppose, is to be expected.” Then, before I could stop myself, I added, “Why? Why did you do this?”
This time, her smile crept across her lips. “I think you already know. Or if you don’t, Cecil did. It’s why he sent you. He could not have expected me to wait for Renard to put an end to me? I did what I had to. I don’t regret it. I only regret that I put those I care about in harm’s way.” She brought a hand to her throat. “I was saddened to hear of Peregrine,” she said. “I would never have allowed it to go so far had I known the price you would pay.”
“He paid it. I wish it were otherwise.” I met her eyes. “It’s not over yet. Renard is enraged. He will do whatever he can to see you dead. You are still in danger.”
Her gaze turned inward. She reached to her bed for her discarded slippers; their rose silk ribbons tangled about her slim fingers. “I’ve been in danger from the day my sister became queen. Our past is something she can never forgive or forget. If she does not harm me today, she will eventually. Nothing is more certain.”
Differences of faith can tear apart even those who should be closest …
With the echo of Sybilla’s words in my head, I watched Elizabeth move to her tarnished glass to gauge her appearance. “Is that all you want to ask of me? Speak now, for I’ll not tolerate it later. Or have I so disillusioned that you wish to now serve my sister instead?”
“I pledged myself to you. After everything I’ve done, can you still doubt me?”
She turned from the glass. Though she didn’t say a word, I saw in her eyes the momentary fracturing of her reserve.
“I will never leave you,” I told her, “not willingly.”
She bit her lip. “Mistress Parry,” she called out. Her matron bustled in.
“It seems we’ve overstayed our welcome,” Elizabeth said. “I must attend my sister the queen and request leave to depart court. I don’t think she’ll let us get as far as Hatfield,” she added, glancing at me, “but perhaps my house at Ashridge will be acceptable.” She gave a sudden shiver, sole indication of the fear she must harbor deep inside. “I’ll implore on my knees, if need be. Fetch my white gown. I must look … penitent.”
Mistress Parry nodded, hurrying back into the anteroom.
Elizabeth fixed her gaze on me. “We still have time. Robert wouldn’t keep my letter, not because he cares anything for you but because he would not see me harmed. He has many faults, yes, and desires too much, but never my death. If my letter is missing, then someone else must have it.”
I pivoted immediately to the door.
“Wait,” she said. I looked over my shoulder. “Do whatever it takes,” she whispered. “No matter the cost, Renard must never get hold of it. If he does, it will indeed be over-for all of us.”
I strode through the outer chamber, startling Mistress Parry as she went to the princess with her gown. Only once I was alone in the gallery did I let myself pause, leaning against a wall to force out the air lodged like barbs in my chest.
A woman like her-all she can bring a man in the end is perdition …
I knew who had taken Elizabeth’s letter.
A few moments later, the princess emerged. In silver-white satin, with her hair loose under a simple crescent headdress, she looked almost serene. I tried to focus only on escorting her through the palace to the queen’s wing, even as urgency pounded in my blood, making it difficult not to abandon her and begin my frantic search for the woman I now believed had deceived me far more than I could have ever imagined.
Mary waited in her audience chamber, bedecked in a jewel-encrusted gown that swamped her thin figure, surrounded by terse black-robed councillors. After Elizabeth dropped to a curtsy, the queen motioned brusquely and turned without a word to march into the council room with the councillors behind her. Elizabeth did not look at me; she went into that room alone, her chin high, as if she truly had nothing to hide.
The door shut. Immediately, the queen’s women began to whisper. I avoided their questioning gazes. I had already seen Sybilla was still not among them, but she must be somewhere. She couldn’t have escaped yet, not from London. Where would she hide? She must have taken the letter from the folder before she brought it to me; perhaps she thought that as long as she had it, she’d have something to barter with, in case Renard discovered her ploy and her own life was placed in danger.
I had to find her first.
Then I saw Mistress Dormer watching me intently; turning to her without warning, I grabbed her dog’s lead. “Blackie looks as if he needs to relieve himself,” I declared, and I pulled the growling, snapping dog into the gallery, leaving her to hurry after me.
“What are you doing?” she demanded as I began to yank the dog down the gallery. He indeed had to go. At the first corner, he lifted his leg and pissed against the wall.
Jane gasped. “He’s supposed to go outside! The queen warned me if he ever did that in the palace again, she’d make me give him up. She says Whitehall reeks of-”
I whirled to her. “Where is she? Where is Mistress Darrier?”
“How-how should I know?” She recoiled from me, glancing over her shoulder at a pair of courtiers strolling past. “I’m hardly in a position to-”
“Don’t lie.” I stepped closer, dragging Blackie with me. “You told me those things about her for a reason. You deliberately warned me against her.” I paused. “You do realize the princess is still heir to the throne? She’s not been disinherited yet, and the queen is her sister, her family. They might find accord. It would go better for both of us if we were seen to be on the winning side.”
My intimation wasn’t lost on her. “You … you serve her?”
“I serve the Tudors. And I must find Mistress Darrier before it’s too late. It’s a matter of life and death. Help me and I’ll make sure you will not go unrewarded. You still want to marry Feria, yes? I’ll put a word in with the queen, I promise you.”
She arched her brow. I had gone beyond my bounds, and she knew it. I had no right to promise anything. With sudden determination, Jane snatched the lead from me. “I warned you about her because I like you. But I’m starting to like you rather less. You are indeed common as dirt, if you think this is how a gentleman behaves.” She drew herself erect. “I do not know where she is. She does as she pleases. Why not ask Don Renard or the Earl of Devon, if you can find him? He seems to have gone missing as well, much like Mistress Darrier. Perhaps they’re together. Surely one of those men ought to know where she gets to when she should be at her post in the queen’s chambers.”
“Together?” I whispered. “She and Courtenay…?”
“You truly don’t know anything, do you?” she asked. “Before you arrived, Mistress Darrier and the Earl of Devon were quite friendly. Some of us thought she hoped to have him as her spouse, until he was rejected by the queen and turned his attention to Elizabeth. But I daresay that didn’t stop her. A woman who sleeps with an ambassador and an earl, while conspiring to steal another woman’s betrothed, is truly capable of anything.”
Horrified silence descended as I recalled the day in this very gallery when Sybilla had approached me and Elizabeth and Courtenay appeared. My lady Darrier, he had said, if I were you, I’d be more circumspect in choosing those with whom I idle away my time. We wouldn’t want your master to think you’re consorting with the enemy, now would we?
They knew each other. They were more than mere acquaintances.
Jane was regarding me impatiently. “You look rather shocked. I don’t see why. As I told you, she’s not respectable.” She tugged on Blackie’s lead. “Now, if there’s nothing else, I must bid you good day, Master Beecham. I believe we’ve said all we need to say to each other.” She turned about to return to the queen’s chambers, Blackie trotting at her side.