“What?Ye want my grandson’s custody, too?” the king said.
“Too?”Piers St.Denis repeated.
“Aye. Yer the second to ask me for the bairn. The earl of Bartram came to me just the other day with the same request, Piers.”
“Surely you would not give the boy tothatman, my dear lord?” Piers St.Denis felt his pique fading away as his sense of survival and strong ambition took center stage.
“He hae served me well,” the king noted, “and ‘twould be a fine retirement presentifI decide to remove my grandson from his mother’s care, and I hae not yet made that decision, my sweet laddie. Dinna fret now. I will gie ye something verra nice to make up for yer loss.”
“What has St.Denis lost, my liege?” George Villiers asked, coming into the king’s bedchamber.
“Lady Lindley,” the king replied.
“Why, sire, he never had her in the first place,” Villiers chuckled. “‘Twas a question of a rather mangy cat looking at a beauteous queen.”
The king chortled. He simply couldn’t help it. The queen was also helpless to her mirth and giggled, to the marquis’s discomfort.
“Yer a bad boy, Steenie, to tease poor Piers so,” the king scolded him, halfheartedly. “He hae suffered a great loss.”
“Aye, the loss of Lady Lindley’s great fortune!” Villiers mocked his rival, grinning impudently.
The marquis of Hartsfield’s hand went to his sword, and then it fell away. To fight in the royal presence was a treasonable offense. “I harbored a great affection for the fair Jasmine,” he said stiffly.
“And a greater affection for her jewels, I’ll wager,” Villiers riposted. “When you danced with her tonight you looked not at her, but rather at that incredible necklace of sapphires she was wearing.”
“You would not dare to speak to me outside of the king’s hearing in such a manner,” the marquis snarled, “for you know I should avenge my honor, which you are so easily sullying, Villiers.”
“Come, then,” George Villiers challenged, “and let us go outside, my lord. I shall be glad to fight you.”
The king looked genuinely distressed, and the queen,alarmed
“I should not dirty my hands with the likes of you, Villiers. A marquis of Hartsfield does not do battle with a commoner of no standing, such as yourself.” Then he bowed to the king. “With Your Majesty’s permission I shall withdraw.”
“Aye, go home and settle yer nerves, Piers, my darling,” the king said. “I’ll think on what ye hae asked me.”
The king’s gentlemen got him ready for bed, and when he was settled, and they had left the chamber, the queen came and sat by his bedside. “You will not give little Charles Frederick Stuart to Stokes, or St.Denis, will you, Jamie? He should stay with his mother.”
“Aye, and I know it, Annie,” the king told her. “Am I nae called the wisest fool in Christendom?”
“Then why did ye not tell St.Denis that?” she asked.
“Och, Annie, he would only sulk more and niggle at me over it. Ye were right. I should hae nae gien him the opportunity to court Lady Lindley, especially after she had agreed to wed wiJemmie Leslie. I but raised his hopes, then I went and made it worse by sending Jemmie off to Scotland, which distressed Jasmine. He was seriously embarrassed this evening when Lady Lindley said so loudly and so publicly that she would nae hae him for her husband.”
“He deserved it,” the queen said. “I saw him from across the hall mauling her in an alcove. Jasmine was not pleased by his quite boorish attentions, Jamie.”
“Ahh, so that is what set her off,” the king observed. “Well, ‘tis water ‘neath the bridge now, Annie. Dinna fear. I dinna intend taking our grandson from his mam and Glenkirk. They will raise him well. Stokes is a fool with his talk of Lady Lindley’s unchaste life; and my sweet Piers underestimates me in that he thinks I dinna realize that he wants our grandson to revenge himself on Jasmine. He also thinks the bairn will gie him power here at court and over us.” The king laughed, and then he said, “Perhaps he foretold his own future tonight, Annie. I believe I am grown verra tired of being torn between him and Steenie. The latter is far more biddable, do ye nae think? He was wicked to tease Piers so unmercifully. Piers doesna hae a sense of humor where he, himself, is concerned.”
“Then youdointend to send St.Denis away!” Queen Anne could scarcely keep the excitement from her voice.
James Stuart nodded. “I am growing old, Annie. I want an absence of strife in my life. ‘Tis nae an easy thing to be a king. I hae no Parliament to irritate me right now. There is peace wi Spain and France. True, the Puritans and the Scots Presbyterians seek to cause me difficulty, but I believe I hae them well in hand. Bessie and her Frederick seem happy if her letters are to be believed. As for our bairn, Charles, eventually he may make England an king. Not the king our Henry would hae been, God rest his sweet soul, but we hae no other choice, Annie, do we?
“But there are those about me, as there are about all kings, who would make unreasonable demands. Bartram’s time is over, and his usefulness to me finished. He must go wi my thanks, and something that will make it appear that he is nae out of favor, just pensioned off. There is nae doubt in my heart and mind that poor Sir Thomas Overbury was murdered, and more than likely the earl and countess of Somerset were behind it. He and his Frances will remain in the Tower and out of my sight for the present. Eventually I will pardon them, but they will be exiled from my court when that day comes. I dinna want to see either of them again.”
The king sighed deeply, sadly. “Ahhh, Annie, I gie my Robbie so much and look how he hae betrayed me. I now see that Piers St.Denis is cut from the same cloth. He is blindly ambitious, and that, I realize, makes him dangerous. We’ll find him a good wife, then he must go back to the country estate from whence he came. I need a more amenable laddie about me. Och, I know Steenie is ambitious, too, but his nature is sweeter and more obedient. When he hints at me for a wee something, I feel if I dinna gie it to him, he would still love his old da. He reminds me a wee bit of our puir Henry.”
“Unlike St.Denis,” the queen said meaningfully. “You’re a wise old bird, Jamie, to give St.Denis an heiress bride and send him home. You’ll have no peace until you do, particularly once Glenkirk returns from Scotland and marries Jasmine.”
“Jemmie will nae stay at court. He hae told me that,” the king said to his wife. “He says he’ll spend the autumns and winters at Glenkirk and the spring and summers at his wife’s home. There is the young marquis of Westleigh to consider. He needs to be on his holding at least part of the year. And Jemmie wants bairns of his own again.”
