“Farewell, Hal,” she replied softly. “I will miss you, but if I do not get a full night’s sleep there are those among the women who will know I have taken a lover and wonder who. You know what your wife’s women are like.” And she laughed low.
“Vixen!” he said with a grin, and then he was gone.
When Annie came to wake her shortly afterward Rosamund could not get up. She simply couldn’t. She was utterly exhausted by the delicious excesses of their passion. She had never imagined that such a lover as the king existed. He was unstoppable, and his energy was inexhaustible. And he needed her. He really needed her, and she was amazed by the realization that a man as powerful as Henry Tudor could need the love and caring of a simple woman as herself. But Rosamund did not fool herself. He would in time become bored with her. And she would move graciously away because he would need her to do that, too, for the king did not cope well with guilt.
“Go to the queen,” she instructed Annie. “Tell her that I am ill with a flux that has afflicted my bowels. Say that I beg her indulgence, but I must keep to my bed this day.”
Annie nodded, and then she said, “This mysterious man who visits you, m’lady, must be magical that he could reduce you to such a state. Are you certain that he is human and not some creature from the dark world? I have heard of demons taking human form and then choosing lovers. They saps the life from ’em, I’m told. Are you certain that this man is not one of them?” She looked very worried.
Rosamund swallowed back her laughter. “My lover, Annie, is the most human of gentlemen, I swear it. Now hurry to the queen. If you run you can catch her before the mass. Leave me to sleep until the afternoon, and then bring me something to eat, for I shall be ravenous by then. And tell my cousin that I have decided to remain in my bed.” She turned over, pulling the coverlet over her shoulders as Annie went from the bedchamber.
Rosamund was awakened by her cousin who had himself brought her a tray with sweet wine, beef, bread, butter, and cheese. “Arise, you slugabed!” he teased, smacking at her coverlet-covered rump. “It is almost four o’clock of the afternoon. Her majesty sends her best wishes for your recovery and hopes to see you on the morrow. His majesty gave me a rather broad wink, which I pray was not observed by any but myself. I have not seen him so jovial since his son was born. These little nighttime excursions of his obviously agree with him.”
“He is inexhaustible,” Rosamund muttered sleepily. “Turn your back, Tom, but hand me that smock at the foot of the bed first. We must talk.” She took the garment from him and pulled it over her head and down her body. “Can you hand me my hairbrush, cousin?” She took it from him and began to brush the tangles from her tresses. “He remains practically the entire night, and I get no rest. I cannot serve the queen and service the king! What am I to do?”
He took the brush from her, for she was struggling with a knot. “There is little you can do but caution your lover to be more circumscribed in his enthusiasm. Is he coming tonight?”
“He said not, and I pray it is so!” Rosamund responded.
“Ah, yes, the Venetian ambassador and his wife have arrived at Greenwich today. The king and the queen will be entertaining them until the wee hours of the morning. There is to be a pageant of some sort involving Robin Hood and Moors in gold turbans, and God only knows what else. The king has a most fertile imagination. It is up to his friends to see that his ideas are put into reality, such as reality is at the court.” He unsnarled the tangle in her hair and continued to brush her long locks. “If he told you he would not come, then he will not. Is that why you stole the day for yourself, dear cousin?”
“Aye! And tomorrow I shall request the queen’s permission to depart the progress somewhere in the north. Have you heard when we are to leave Greenwich yet?”
“Mid-June, or so the rumor goes, and usually the rumors about a progress are accurate, for those fortunate ones to be visited by the king’s August presence need to depart for their homes to prepare. A visit, even a short visit, from the king can beggar a man. In another week you will see a small exodus begin,” he chuckled. “There! Your hair is now like a swath of silk, dear girl.” He lay the brush aside, and stood up. “I shall join my friends at court tonight so I may view this elaborate spectacle that has been planned to honor the Venetians. The Italians adore such elegant charades.”
“I am sorry to miss it, but I dare not appear until the mass tomorrow, lest it be suspected that I have indulged in a bit of playacting myself,” Rosamund told Lord Cambridge.
“Do you think, dear girl, that before you ask the queen for her permission to go home, you might ask the king?” he queried. “You are Henry’s new toy. He will not relish the idea of giving you up and will be very annoyed if it comes as a surprise to him.”
“He must give me up sooner rather than later,” Rosamund said, “but perhaps, cousin, you are correct. I will tell Hal before I tell my mistress, the queen.”
“I believe you have made a wise decision,” Lord Cambridge said to his cousin, and then with a wave he was gone.
Rosamund appeared at court the following morning, mingling among the queen’s women to take up her duties once again. The queen had several letters to write that day, and Rosamund was kept busy. Late that night the king arrived at Bolton Greenwich to be with his secret mistress. After they had made passionate love for the first time in two days, Rosamund told him what she was planning.
“I shall ask the queen’s permission to leave the progress when it reaches its furthest northern point, Hal. I have been away from Friarsgate for many months now. My daughters need me. I am not the kind of mother who willingly leaves her bairns in the care of others. I want to go home. I need to go home.”
“I forbid it!”he exploded angrily.
“My lord! While we are at Greenwich you and I may enjoy a sweet idyll and keep our liaison a secret from all. Even my dear Annie does not know it is you who visits me. She wonders if myloveris not some demon taking human form, for she believes that only someone like that could have lured the lady of Friarsgate from the path of virtue. Only my cousin Tom knows your identity. Perhaps we can keep our secret while we reside at Greenwich, but once we begin your summer progress it will be difficult for us to meet at all, let alone in secret. I will not willingly harm the queen, who has been my friend, who is my daughter’s godmother. Nor should you hurt her, for she is devoted to you and is a good wife. If you have any tenderness of feeling for me, Hal, you will let me go. We both know I cannot really ever be a part of your life.”
“Do you love me, fair Rosamund?” he asked her softly.
“Aye, I believe that I do,” she answered as softly.
“Then how can you desert me when I need you so very much?” the king said plaintively.
He was her king. He was a man to be sure, she thought, and yet he was still a boy. “How can you jeopardize what we have, even knowing that it cannot be forever?” Rosamund countered. “How can you consider hurting your queen yet again when she loves you with all the devotion that is in her heart and soul? I adore you, Hal! But I am ashamed of my behavior, for it does disservice to a woman who has been kind and generous to me, and is completely loyal to you.”
“You reason like that city lawyer, Thomas More,” he grumbled at her. “Dammit, fair Rosamund, I am your king!”
“It is because you are my king, and because I love you, that I speak frankly to you, Hal. If you refuse to allow the queen to let me go home, what excuse can you make for it that will not arouse suspicions? Even if Kate does not consider it, there are those among her women who will consider it. And then they will begin their spying and seeking out in order to protect the queen. If it becomes public knowledge that you took a northern lady of no great family to be your mistress, you will become the butt of mockery not only in England, but in France and Spain and in the Holy Roman Empire, in the Low Countries. You are young, my lord, but you will be a great king one day. I know it!”
“You are a far wiser and more clever wench than I had anticipated,” he said, tumbling her back among the bedclothes.
“Did you learn nothing from our first encounter those years ago, Hal? I told you then that you should not seduce me until I chose to be seduced. I was but fourteen then, and a virgin. I had my good name to protect, and that of my betrothed husband’s to consider. This time I chose to allow your seduction, for my obligations have changed and I found I could not resist you.” She reached up and stroked his cheek. “You know I am right.”
He bent and slowly kissed her lips. “Aye,” he admitted. “You are, my fair Rosamund. Ask the queen for your release tomorrow, and I will not stand in your way. Indeed I will approve my good wife’s request, but you, in turn, must promise me something.”
