Conspiracy (17 page)

Hatton came forward and placed Eric under arrest. Eric looked as if he didn't really care—he was just staring at the Prince with his face full of hatred.

Prince Sven snapped something in Swedish to the Queen, which Lady Helena translated.

“Give him to you?” repeated the Queen incredulously, with Lady Helena's mellifluous voice quietly translating after her. “Give anyone to a murderer? Oh, no, Your Grace, you mistake me. I have arrested him to keep him safe from you. He will stand trial in an English court, but as he has already turned Queen's Evidence, I think he will not be too greatly condemned. We will also take the trouble to bury decently your secret servant, John Hull, which it seems you could not.”

More Swedish from the Prince.

“Your suit to us is at an end,” said the Queen with quiet venom. “We are well aware that we cannot arrest
or try you, no matter how appalling your crime. And appalling it is. You have recklessly caused a child to be injured—a
child
, Your Grace—and now this poor young man has been murdered on your orders. Your antics have offended us. We prefer your room to your presence. Please return to the nearest seaport and take the first ship to Stockholm. I shall be writing to your royal father with a full report of your doings here. You have a week to quit our realm.”

The Prince had the wit to say nothing, perhaps because most of the English gentlemen still had their swords at the ready. He sheathed his blade at last, turned his horse, arid moved off, without the slightest bow or courtesy to the Queen. After a moment's hesitation, his gentlemen followed him.

“A very ill-mannered knave,” the Queen said loudly, taking a deep breath. “Now, will you please come down from that tree?” she said to me.

Once the Queen had seen me safely down from the tree, she ordered everyone to move on before they could recognize me. I was quite shaky from all the strain, but Masou and Ellie came out from their hiding place to help me, and soon I was back in my usual apparel and a perfectly ordinary Maid of Honour once again.

As I got back to our chamber, Mrs. Champernowne waylaid me. “Where have you been, Lady Grace? The Queen commands that you attend her in the garden. Get along with you now, and don't keep Her Majesty waiting,” she said, in her sing-song Welsh accent.

I hurried to find the Queen. She was sitting in a bower with the Earl of Leicester near her. He stared at me as if I had two heads, which made me nervous. The Queen had clearly told him that it had been me in the tree.

I explained how I had discovered John's body— and what I had done to the wheel of the cart—and the Queen listened with her head cocked on one side. When I finished with climbing the tree, she smiled. “I am very pleased with you, Grace, and with your efforts,” she said, “though I feel that climbing a tree like a tumbler is rather too dangerous for a Maid of Honour. Please do not take such risks in future.”

I looked at the ground in embarrassment.

The Queen went on. “I have already righted some of the wrongs thai John Hull caused,” she told me. And I confess I had to blink back tears at the mention of his name, because it grieves me to think that such a nice young man, with such lively blue eyes,
should have wound up dead in a cart for trying to help his lord.

I realized the Queen was still talking and forced myself to concentrate on what she was saying. “Sam Ledbury is returned to his proper duties in the stable, though never have we had a tidier dungheap!” she remarked. “And Master Herron, the firework master, has been paid, and he shall have more work at the Accession Day Tilts.” She paused, turned to the Earl of Leicester and whispered in his ear. The Earl bowed and moved away towards the stables.

The Queen held out her hand and took mine in hers. “I am sorry that your friendship with young John should end so sadly,” she said softly. “And sorry that he should have been led into such wrongdoing, when he was not, I think, bad at heart. But do not be downcast, Grace. Not all young men have such poor manners as to be traitors in very truth.”

I smiled back at her. “At least there will be no more deliberate accidents,” I said. “And you will not marry the Swedish Prince and break my lord the Earl's heart.”

“Do you think I would break his heart?” the Queen asked wistfully.

“Oh, yes, Your Majesty—you should have seen
how he was looking at you when you danced in disguise at the masque.”

She paused for a long time before she spoke again, and I could hardly hear her voice or see her expression, for her face was turned away and shadowed by the bower. “I did see,” she said quietly.

Then the Queen shook herself, smiled, and stood, smoothing out her skirts. At her gesture, I picked up her train and followed her out of the garden.

“Another successful discovery of miscreants and ill-doers by my Lady Pursuivant,” said the Queen, smiling at me again. “Whatever did I do before I had you to investigate for me, Grace?”

Usually, nothing makes me happier than when the Queen praises me, but I was feeling miserable and somehow even her kind words could not lift my spirits—especially as she then sent me straight back to the Maids' chamber to help the others pack, since I had finished my own.

I hurried up the stairs to find that the men of the Removing Wardrobe were there, waiting for all the chests and boxes, while Lady Sarah and Lady Jane argued over whose fault it was neither of them had a complete pair of riding boots. Carmina was looking for a hat she had lost, and I helped Olwen and Ellie, by sitting on Lady Sarah's chest of clothes to make it shut.

Ellie was very kind and kept offering to bring me things—I think she could see how unhappy I was feeling. It saddens me that John came to such a sorry end, and I feel it will be some time before I am quite restored to my usual spirits. But I am glad that at least Her Majesty did not think John was entirely wicked. I wish he hadn't been using me, though….

It is most surprising!

Lady Sarah just came over to whisper to me. “I'm so sorry about John,” she hissed. “Even though he was a traitor, I'm sure he liked you really. He carried you all the way up the stairs, didn't he?”

I smiled gratefully at her because I did not really know what to say—it is very unlike Sarah to be so thoughtful, and her words cheered me greatly. I am very pleased that
she
thinks John was not just using me, for she knows a thing or two about young gentlemen.

And now I must put my daybooke away in my embroidery bag. We are going to the next great house, where there will be hardly any entertainments and no speeches—which is
such
a relief.

GLOSSARY

Army Virtuous, Barque Perilous, Black Knight of Melancholy
, and
Giant Melancholy
are all names, invented by the writer, for the masque taking place as part of the Earl of Leicester's entertainments for the Queen. These are the kinds of names that would have been used in plays and masques of the time. The fancy names were inspired by the hugely popular romantic novels of the period. These stories usually featured knights in armor rescuing damsels in distress. So the names and terms used in
Conspiracy
are basically poetic names for characters and things in the play. Thus the Black Knight of Melancholy would have simply been a sad knight who always wore black, the Barque Perilous would have been a dangerous ship, etc.

ambler
—a horse that moves along very slowly

aqua vitae
—brandy
Arcadia—a
paradisal location often featured in Greek pastoral poetry

banket
—an alternative word for a banquet

battledore
—a light flat bat or racquet

Bedlam
—the major asylum for the insane in London during Elizabethan times—the name came from Bethlehem Hospital

Bergomask
—a rustic dance

biggin cap
—a child's hat

bodice
—the top part of a woman's dress

brocade
—a rich, gold-embroidered fabric

bum
—bottom

cant
—slang

caparison
—decorative trappings for a horse

cavalcade
—a procession on horseback

Chamberer
—a servant of the Queen who cleaned her chamber for her—which the Maids of Honour and Ladies-in-Waiting, of course, could not be expected to do

Cloth of Estate
—a kind of awning that went over the Queen's chair to indicate that she was the Queen

cloth of silver/gold
—cloth, woven from silk thread that had been, wrapped in fine gold or silver wire

comfrey
—an herb

coppice
—a thicket of trees, or a copse

damask
—a beautiful, self-patterned silk cloth woven
in Flanders. It originally came from Damascus—hence the name.

daybooke
—a book in which you would record your sins each day so that you could pray about them. The idea of keeping a diary or journal grew out of this. Grace is using hers as a journal.

distempered
-—disordered, deranged

doublet
—a close-fitting padded jacket worn by men

dryad
—a wood nymph

en plein air
—out of doors

falling-band collar
—an ordinary collar as opposed to a fancy one. In fact, the ordinary shirt collars seen today are falling-band collars.

Farandole Snail Shell
—a movement in a particular French dance known as the Farandole

faun
—a half-goat, half-man deity of the fields in classical mythology

fire pot
—a clay pot, filled with material that would easily catch fire, used to carry hot coals

fletching
—the feathers on an arrow

forepart
—the part of a garment that covers the chest

French War
—the ongoing religious war between the Catholics and the Protestants in France. Occasionally, the English got involved in the fighting for political reasons.

Galliard
—a sixteenth-century dance
harbinger
—somebody who went ahead to announce the monarch

heal-all
—a medicinal plant

henchman—a
young serving man, often related to the person he was serving. His work might well involve bodyguard duties.

hose
—tight-fitting cloth trousers worn by men

house-poet
—a poet who lived in a noble's house and wrote poetry for him. Many nobles chose to support poets and playwrights on their staff as a way of showing off their wealth.

in earnest of—to
show the sincerity of

jerkin
—a close-fitting, hip-length, usually sleeveless jacket

kirtle
— the skirt section of an Elizabethan dress

kissing-comfit—a
spice, such as caraway, fennel, or aniseed, which was covered in sugar and eaten to make one's breath smell pleasant

Lady-in-Waiting
— one of the ladies who helped to look after the Queen and kept her company

laudanum
—an opium tincture in alcohol used to aid sleep

lymer
—a bloodhound

madrigals
—beautiful part-songs, which were very fashionable
Maid of Honour
—a younger girl who helped to look after the Queen like a Lady-in-Waiting

manchet rolls
—whole white bread

marchpane subtlety
—a sculpture made out of marzipan and then colored

marmelada
—a very thick jammy sweet often made from quinces

Mary Shelton
—one of Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honour (a Maid of Honour of this name really did exist; see below). Most Maids of Honour were not officially “ladies” (like Lady Grace), but they had to be of born of gentry.

masque
—a masquerade, a masked ball

mead
—an alcoholic drink made with honey