The Boleyn King (41 page)

“Your Highness?” He made it a question, but she would have wagered he knew what she was going to ask.

“What did you not say, doctor?”

“Many things, Your Highness.”

“Why? What is so bad that it could not be told?”

“Why must it be bad? Even glorious futures do not come without cost. And as I believe I said before, this is not exact. God made the stars as he made men, and only He can read them perfectly.”

“What did you see?” Robert’s wife dead? Elizabeth married for love as William meant to do? Civil war as another Tudor king set aside wisdom for desire? Elizabeth far from England for all the rest of her life as the wife of another royal? As she thought that, Elizabeth pierced with pain and knew that would be the worst future for her of any—to leave England and never return.

Dr. Dee was silent for a long time. Then, unexpectedly, he took her right hand, letting her fingertips rest in his palm. “This is the hand of a woman, Your Highness. But it is also the hand of a ruler. The king, your father, spent much effort and pain to secure a worthy heir for England. If he had been able to see beyond your woman’s body, he would have found the heart of the heir he sought.”

He pinned her with his eyes, an urgency to his gaze as though there was more he could say but wouldn’t. Elizabeth could almost feel words forming along her skin where he touched her hand and if she stayed here another moment she would know something she had never dreamed of …

She snatched her hand way. “Good night, Dr. Dee.”

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