The Thistle and the Rose (39 page)

I thought very well of it. At last I was going to Court.

How happy I was on that October day when I sailed along the river to Hampton Court, most sumptuously attired as befitted one who was to take part in such an important ceremony.

There lay the palace, majestically beautiful seen from the river. Small wonder that my father had said when it had belonged to Cardinal Wolsey that it was too fine a residence for a subject and had taken it for his own. I was enchanted by its enormous gatehouse, its privy gardens, its tennis courts, and its fireplaces, each of them large enough to roast an ox. It was in settings such as this that I belonged.

Copyright © 1973 by Jean Plaidy

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Originally published by Putnam, New York, in 1973

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Plaidy, Jean, 1906–1993

The thistle and the rose: a novel / Jean Plaidy.

1. Margaret, Queen, consort of James IV, King of Scotland, 1489–1541—Fiction. 2. Scotland—History—James IV, 1488–1513—Fiction. 3. Queens—Fiction. I. Title.

PR 6015.I3T455 2004

823'.914—dc21

2003050730

eISBN: 978-0-307-49828-1

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