“Aye,” the queen replied. “His sons would be almost grown had they not died with their poor mother all those yearsback. Such a terrible thing, Jamie, and they never caught the murderers, did they?”
The king shook his head in the negative. “God knows them, Annie, and they will face his retribution one day, if they have not already done so. He will render a harsher judgment, I think, for those men who attacked a nunnery and burned it to the ground after having raped and murdered the women and children within. ‘Twas a dreadful crime.”
The royal couple were silent a moment, remembering James Leslie’s sweet first wife, Isabella Gordon, and their two sons. Then the queen arose from her husband’s bedside, leaning over to give him a tender kiss.
“Good night, my dear,” she said. “God give you a good rest.” She curtsied to him and backed from the bedchamber. “The king will sleep now,” she told the gentleman of the bedchamber, who remained on duty for the night. “See he is not disturbed except for an emergency.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the gentleman said, opening the door to the king’s apartments so the queen might pass through into her own apartment next door. “Good night, madame.”
“Good night,” replied the queen, not looking back as the door shut behind her.
“Young Villiers is waiting for Your Majesty,” said Lady Hamilton, one of her ladies-in-waiting, coming forward to greet the queen. “I put him in your private closet, madame.” She curtsied.
“Very good, Jane. I will see him first, then I wish to prepare for bed. It has been a very long day.” The queen passed through the salon into the privacy of a small, paneled room, where George Villiers was awaiting her. Seated by the fire toasting his toes, he jumped quickly to his feet as she entered, and bowed. “Well, Steenie,” the queen said with a small smile, “St. Denis may be on his way home before long. You will say nothing tothe king, however, until it is an absolute fact. He is just as apt to change his mind as not, you know.”
“The secret is safe with me,” George Villiers replied, his heart racing with his impending victory. He would not disappoint the king as his rival had; or Robert Carr, either.
“If you behave yourself,” the queen continued, “and I do mean you must be totally loyal to His Majesty, and a total model of decorum; you could be a viscount by Christmas, Steenie. And after that, who knows? The earl of Rutland and his daughter will be very pleased to see you advancing yourself, eh?” The queen smiled coyly.
“I would one day be greater than Rutland,” George Villiers said. His dark eyes danced, and his handsome face bore an intense look.
Queen Anne laughed. “How bad you are, Steenie, for all you look like an angel. I suspect if you continue to play the game as well as you have so far, that one day you may indeed rise higher than the earl of Rutland. So high, in fact, that it will appear as if you did him a great favor to marry his daughter at all,” the queen finished.
“Nay, madame, I should marry Kate one day even if she were not possessed of a great fortune,” George Villiers declared.
“But how fortunate it is for you, my dear Steenie, that she is possessed of a great fortune,” the queen remarked knowingly.
George Villiers grinned. “Aye, madame, it is, isn’t it?”
And they both laughed.
Chapter Eleven
“She has refused me! Most publicly! I am a laughingstock at court, Kipp! The bitch must be punished for her temerity, and, by God, I will see her pain!” The marquis of Hartsfield tore off his coat, flinging it across the room, and taking the large silver goblet of wine his brother offered him, gulped it.
“You knew the chance that she would have you over Glenkirk was slight,” Kipp St.Denis reminded his brother. “Oh, I know you said you would win, but dammit, Piers, you had to know there was next to no chance she would change her mind. You are no fool, brother. Now tell me what the king said.”
“He said he would find me a rich young wife, or rather the queen said it. There’s another bitch, Kipp. Hand in glove with Villiers, if I don’t miss my guess.”
“A wealthy wife, handpicked by the king, is no shabby gift, little brother,” Kipp attempted to soothe his sibling. “Think of the fun we’ll have with her, eh?”
Piers St.Denis gulped down the contents of his goblet and handed it to Kipp for a refill. “Fun with some wellborn, and no doubt pious, virgin? One night, and she’ll be beaten, Kipp. Where is the fun in that? Jasmine Lindley would have been a challenge to break because she has fire, passion, and experience. No virgin can compete with such a woman.”
“You cannot refuse the king’s choice of a wife for you, Piers,” his brother warned him. “Whoever she is she’ll be good for getting your heir on, if nothing else. We will have plenty of other women to amuse ourselves with, as we always have.”
“I asked the king for her son,” the marquis of Hartsfield told his brother. “I told him if he wanted to make me happy, and I could not have Jasmine, I wanted her son to nurture.”
“You are mad!” Kipp exclaimed, astounded by his sibling’s boldness.
“Nay! If I have the boy, I have power over Jasmine even if she won’t marry me. Her weakness is her children, Kipp. She will have to do what I want to protect her child even if she is Glenkirk’s wife. I shall openly make the bitch my mistress and destroy that marriage she so desires.And,as guardian of the king’s only grandchild, albeit born on the wrong side of the blanket, I will have a certain power over James Stuart, too.” His bright blue eyes gleamed wickedly in anticipation of his victory.
“The king will never give you the duke of Lundy,” Kipp said flatly. “Put it from your mind, Piers, or you will suffer another embarrassing disappointment, I fear.”
“The earl of Bartram has asked for the boy, too,” the marquis told his surprised brother.
“And did the king tell him no?” Kipp St.Denis refilled his brother’s goblet a second time.
“The king has not made up his mind,” the marquis replied, sipping thoughtfully now at his wine. “Perhaps we should help him to make up his mind, Kipp, and at the same time checkmate the Leslies of Glenkirk.”
