The Betrayal (22 page)

‘I was there when she said she found them in my room!’

Of a sudden he seemed to come to a decision, and took up my hand. ‘We must go to the palace!’

‘
What?
’ I was horrified.

‘’Tis the only way. We must go to the palace, speak to Mistress Juliette and clear up this matter. We must hear what she has to say about it.’

‘I cannot,’ I said, shaking my head and backing away.

‘You must,’ he said. ‘Or you will have a charge of treason on your head – for you must know that a violation against one of the queen’s ladies is a violation against the queen herself.’

‘No!’ I protested.

‘And if such a charge was brought, you and I would never be able to meet again.’

As I heard these words and understood them, my eyes filled with tears. I looked at him. ‘Then I must go with you,’ I said.

Tomas gave me the choice of going to the palace as I was, in my boy’s garb, or going back to the house on Green Lane to change.

Vanity won the day, for I could no more have entered the palace and faced Juliette unkempt and dressed as a boy with torn hose and dirty knees, than I could have ridden on a hog to Bartholomew Fair. So, in spite of the seriousness of my situation, it was with the required amount of all-boys-together conviviality to fool the guard that the three of us went back towards the house.

Seeing him standing outside with his halberd I felt nervous as we approached, but he seemed more interested in chatting to a buxom street-seller who was crying fresh mackerel than in checking who was going in and out of the house.

I went through to the kitchen, surprising Mistress
Midge, who gave a scream when she saw me. ‘Lucy!’ she hissed. ‘Lord above, what a risk to take! The guards have been all over the house turning things upside down, and are sure to return.’

‘I had to come back here to change my clothes …’

‘They even looked inside my skillets – though what they hoped to find
there
the Lord only knows.’

‘Tomas says I must go to the palace to try and make things right,’ I said, ‘and I can’t go looking like this.’

Only then did she look me up and down and take in my dishevelled appearance. ‘No more you can,’ she said. She pulled a horrified face. ‘But – to go to the
palace
. Is that wise?’

Tomas appeared from the hall. ‘It takes a fool like me to know that it
is
wise, Mistress Midge,’ he said, bowing to her. ‘I think Lucy must face her opponent, so that each can say their piece.’ He clasped her hand and kissed it. ‘I’m sure you agree, do you not?’ he said, and smiled so winningly that Mistress Midge did no more than give him a simpering nod.

I went to the courtyard to draw some water, then washed my face, combed my hair and put on my best gown of green velvet, the one given to me by Charity Mucklow, the Puritan’s daughter. It seemed, for good or ill, that things were coming to a head and I needed to look my best for whatever was going to happen. I was very scared, but knew myself to be honest and loyal to our queen, and determined that I would not be overpowered without a fair fight. Leaving the house, I took
the same route as before: out of the house by the back door and through the courtyard, while Tomas went ahead and waited for me in Milk Street.

We began to walk towards Whitehall, each deep in our own thoughts. My ankle pained me somewhat, making me limp, but this was the smallest of my worries and I didn’t even mention it. After all, I thought, a sprained ankle could be treated with herbs and simples, but a crime against a member of the queen’s household was treated by putting you on the rack.

Tomas, seeming to sense my unease, began to tell me of the new banqueting hall the queen had erected in the gardens of the palace. It was, he said, made of white sailcloth fabric, lit by candle-holders and decorated with swags of fresh flowers. It looked exceedingly lovely and had much pleased the queen.

‘And is Her Grace in good spirits?’ I asked.

He gave a wry smile. ‘Not really. At the moment her mind is much taken up with the problem of Mary of Scotland.’

‘There is still much discord?’

‘There will always be discord. And trouble, disorder, plots and counter-plots from those unhappy people who think our queen is not the rightful monarch.’

I went to touch my groat for luck when he said this, but of course it wasn’t there.

‘The queen has been talked into signing Mary’s death warrant, but I fear she will tear it up at any
moment. She doesn’t seem to appreciate the danger she’s in.’

Once this conversation was over we fell into another silence and, beginning to lose my earlier bravado, I started to fear the confrontation ahead. Would Juliette prove too clever for me? Who else did she have on her side? Was it just a scheme to remove me from London – because of my friendship with Tomas, perhaps – or was there more to her plotting? We went past a glove-maker’s shop, which made me muse on home, and I wondered momentarily if Ma might possibly be wrong about Lady Ashe. Could she have muddled the facts? Just supposing, with the trauma of my father’s death fresh upon her, she’d got the details wrong. Perhaps it was not a niece who had died, but a cousin, or godchild.

By the time we went through Holbein Gate and crossed the roadway towards the palace, I’d become deeply afraid and felt I could no longer trust my own memory. Suppose I’d somehow taken the jewellery without realising it? What if I’d placed a handful of shiny treasures in my pocket and carried them to my room? Was such a thing possible? At that moment, I feared the worst.

We entered the palace. I’d thought that every guard and parish constable in London might be looking out for me, but of course this was not the case, and Tomas (for they knew him, of course) and I passed through door after door without being apprehended. The deeper
we went into the palace, however, the more nervous I became, until I felt such sickness and dread in my stomach that I felt I might vomit. For a pin, I thought, I would run out of there, go back to Hazelgrove and live in peace all on my own.

But I did not run, and soon we were in the apartments of the royal ladies. Here Tomas, asking a passing servant of their whereabouts, was told that a dancing master was in attendance in the music room and the queen and her ladies were all gone to be taught a new galliard. This, Tomas said to me, was always the queen’s way of forgetting her troubles. ‘She loves to dance – and is more sprightly on her feet than women half her age,’ he told me, and though normally I would have been charmed by this insight, I could not take any pleasure in such things at that moment.

Tomas hesitated in the hallway outside Juliette’s bedchamber, then recalled the servant and asked that a message be taken to her, requesting that she return there.

‘You and I will wait for her within,’ he said to me. ‘Perhaps the three of us can talk quietly and have the whole thing settled without recourse elsewhere.’ He took my hand and squeezed it, as if to give me courage. ‘And then things can return to normal and we may go on as before.’

I looked at him bleakly and did not return the pressure of his hand, for I was afeared in my heart that we would
not
be going on as before, and that after today
everything would change. I wanted to pause a moment and tell him this, but I could not for, believing Juliette to be in the music room, Tomas was already opening the door of her chamber and ushering me inside.

Thus it was that my enemy and I came face to face, and it would have been difficult to say which of us was the more shocked.

I stopped dead. I didn’t believe in her any longer, thought her to be false, yet I’d been brought up to show respect to my betters and instinctively lowered my head and curtseyed.

‘Juliette!’ Tomas said. ‘I’ve just sent you a message. I thought …’ He stopped suddenly and looked to the bed, and I did the same. What we saw were several leather saddlebags filled to the brim with her gowns and petticoats, their frills and lace showing at each buckled opening. The room behind Juliette was almost bare: there was no jewellery box nor any of those little items that a lady might display on her dressing table. This lady, it was clear, was going away – although I knew the queen had no progress planned.

‘You’re leaving us?’ Tomas asked. ‘Does Her Grace know?’

She didn’t reply.

‘Or is this, perhaps, a private progress of your own?’ I asked boldly. On her still not replying, I added, ‘We’ve come here today to clear up various misunderstandings. And just in time, it seems.’

She smiled then, seemingly perfectly composed.
‘Indeed. Do come in.’ She ushered us further into her room and closed the door behind us.

‘Lucy has the idea that you are not who you say you are,’ said Tomas. ‘I told her that she must be mistaken, but seeing this …’

I suddenly felt so angry that it overcame any predisposition to be respectful to my betters. ‘I am
not
mistaken!’ I said. ‘I know that Lady Ashe’s niece is dead, so you cannot be her! You are therefore false and no doubt an enemy to the queen. What’s more, I did not steal your jewellery.’

There was a silence, then a strange smile spread across Juliette’s face. I could not think why this was, but a second later became acquainted with the reason: someone had come silently through the adjoining door and was standing behind us. I immediately turned – but alas, too late, for this person had their arm tightly about my waist, and I felt the cold point of a knife at my throat.

‘Do not move, or I assure you my maid will not hesitate to use that dagger,’ Juliette said. ‘We have not come this far to be stopped at the last moment.’

Tomas nodded slowly and thoughtfully. ‘So, Lucy was right …’

‘Yes, she was,’ Juliette said, with a hard look at me. ‘Once I knew of her role as your helper and found that she knew my aunt – my so-called aunt – then I knew I’d have to discredit her. As she managed to evade capture yesterday, I thought it was time that we left.
Especially as I have what I came for.’

I moved slightly, testing the grasp of whoever held me, and felt the point of the blade nick my skin. I couldn’t see the woman, but had the feeling that it was the same burly maid who’d discovered me the previous day. ‘Shall I tie her up, Madam?’ I heard.

Juliette nodded. ‘Tie them both up. Don’t hesitate to use the knife on the girl if either of them make a move.’

She took two stools and placed them next to each other, then her maid pushed me down on to one and told Tomas to sit on the other so that we were back-to-back. Using a length of rope found in one of the panniers, they lashed us together, bolt upright and very tightly, so that the rope cut into my upper arms. Only then was the knife against my neck removed.

‘The other ladies-in-waiting will be downstairs for perhaps two hours,’ Juliette said, ‘which will enable us to make our escape with some ease.’

‘The queen will send armed men after you,’ I burst out. ‘The queen will …’

‘
The queen!?
’ Juliette interrupted. ‘Do you mean that tawdry puppet who does naught but dance on the strings pulled by her ministers? That is no queen.’

I was shocked to silence.

‘Madam,’ Tomas said, ‘I now perceive your true colours. You are a follower of the Scottish queen, are you not?’

‘I am a follower of the
rightful
queen,’ Juliette
corrected. ‘The legitimate queen who follows the true religion.’

‘And I presume you are set now for Fotheringay?’ said Tomas.

‘So we will know where to find you!’ I cut in.

‘I am able to disguise myself quite as well as you.’

‘But you will never succeed in putting Mary of Scotland on the throne!’ Tomas said.

‘Do you not think so? Even now, her loyal soldiers are gathering to overthrow those who keep her prisoner.’

‘But not
enough
soldiers …’ said Tomas.

‘Soon there will be many more.’

‘I doubt that.’

‘Do you?’ She smiled, opened her jacket and pointed to a pocket sewn into the embroidered belt she wore. ‘With what I have here, I can pay a hundred – nay, a thousand men!’

‘So you’ve stolen money,’ said Tomas. ‘Is that why you came to Court?’