“Good day, my lord,” the queen responded politely, but she wondered what he wanted. Probably to cause some trouble, she thought. He really was a bad loser.
“And where has your lover gone, madame?” The voice was cutting.
“My lord is with the king, although that should be no business of yours, my lord,” Jasmine responded, still not bothering to look at him.
“Undoubtedly the king is telling him that your little bastard is to be given away to be raised by someone moresuitablethan yourself,” the marquis said cuttingly. “I, myself, have asked for the child, and would make him an excellent guardian, madame, for I should raise him here at court with his grandparents, and his uncle to influence him, and to be about him. Not remove him into the wilds of Scotland, where he will undoubtedly grow up like a barbarian and not a prince’s son.”
Jasmine grew pale, and she finally turned about to look into Piers St.Denis’s handsome face. “Suitable?You consider yourself fit to raisemyson?You?A man who cannot, I have been informed, obtain pleasure from a woman unless you abuse her? I would kill you, or anyone else who attempted to remove my son, or any of my children from my care!” Jasmine snarled. “You, my lord, are not fit to raiseanychild!”
The marquis of Hartsfield had flushed when she had publicly revealed what he considered his secret vice, but before he could retaliate, the queen’s voice spoke with certain knowledge.
“Jasmine, my dear, do not listen to him. The king is not givinganyof your children to Piers St.Denis. He is more than well aware of the marquis’s foibles and frailties.” She put a handout to comfort the younger woman. Then she turned an angry eye on the marquis. “Sir, you overstep your position!”
Piers St.Denis was astounded by the rebuke, and but angered further, and yet the queen had played into his hands if she had known it. “If not me, madame,” he said, “then perhaps it is the earl of Bartram who shall have the lad. I have, myself, heard him importune the king over the boy’s custody.” He looked again at Jasmine. “Lord Stokes believes you unchaste, madame. He says a woman of mixed blood should not be allowed to raise a Christian prince’s son, no matter which side of the blanket he was born on. He even questions your heritage, for were you not born to your father when your mother was yet wed to the earl of BrocCairn, Lady Lindley? That would make you a bastard, too, wouldn’t it?”
She hit him; and the exquisite, large, oval-shaped Golconda diamond that she wore on the middle finger of her right hand cut the marquis of Hartsfield’s face from the corner of his right eye to the right hand corner of his mouth. “I am a trueborn princess of India, my lord,” she told the bleeding man in icy, even tones that never rose beyond a conversational pitch. “‘Tis you, I fear, who are the bastard! And I say again to you, andanyoneelse who is interested, that I will kill any man who attempts to steal my children,any of my children,away from me. I am their mother. I am their guardian, and there is none fitter than I to raise them!” Now it was she who smiled at the marquis of Hartsfield. “I fear, my lord, that you will never again be as handsome as you were before you accosted and slandered me this day. What a pity.” Then Jasmine turned, curtsied to the queen, and began to make her way from the hall. Her heart was pounding with her anger. How dare James Stuart once again attempt to interfere in her life! She did not hear the queen calling after her, but instead her eye lit upon the earl of Bartram,who was just entering the hall, his normally reclusive wife upon his arm.
Jasmine blocked their entry. “How dare you attempt to steal my son from me, my lord!” she almost shouted at him. “Well, neither you, or your mealy-mouthed Puritan wife shall have him!” Then she pushed past the couple, departing the hall.
Behind her the countess of Bartram fainted, so frightened was she by the turquoise-eyed virago who had just confronted her. She would later swear hellfire had leapt from Jasmine’s eyes. Her husband struggled to keep his spouse from collapsing upon the floor, but Mary Stokes was not quite the slip of a girl she had once been.
Queen Anne wanted to laugh, and she could see that Steenie did, too, but they somehow managed to control themselves. She handed the bleeding marquis of Hartsfield her own handkerchief. His doublet was already ruined. “You will live, my lord,” she said dryly.
“I want her arrested!”he cried, petulantly.
“No,” the queen said in implacable tones. “You deliberately told her something that was not true, my lord. You did it to cause trouble and for no other reason. You are angry that she has refused you in favor of James Leslie, but how could you not have known her feelings even when my dearest husband was foolish enough to offer ye a chance with her. Steenie knew, and was wise enough to avoid the confrontation, but not you. Your greed, not just for Lady Lindley’s wealth, but for the power you thought controlling her children would bring you, has instead brought you the disaster you so richly deserve. You no longer have my friendship, my lord.And,I will be certain to tell the king of your penchant for wickedness. I will advise my husband not to entrust you with any young girl of good family, my lord. God only knows what would happen to her in your care! Now, he gone from my sight!”
George Villiers manfully struggled to maintain his composure as he watched the marquis of Hartsfield slink from the hall.I have won!he thought gleefully,and I hardly had to do a thing. What a fool St.Denisisto have destroyed himself. Granted, he would never have won the hand of Jasmine Lindley, but he might have come out of this with a rich wife, the simpleminded gudgeon. Now he will have nothing for all his trouble—and I didn’t have to do a thing to accomplish this end!A small chuckle escaped him.
“Restrain yourself, Steenie,” the queen said quietly. “Smugness does not become you, sir.”
“Yes, Majesty,” George Villiers replied meekly, but his heart was soaring with his victory.
Chapter Twelve
“Did I not warn you to silence, little brother?” Kipp St.Denis scolded the marquis of Hartsfield. “You have lost Queen Anne’s favor, and now will probably lose the king’s as well. You have gained nothing from this sojourn at court, which has cost us so dearly. The world was within your grasp, Piers, and you flung it away for the mere chance to torment Lady Lindley because she preferred another husband to you. Father always said you were a childish fool.”
“It was our father who squandered almost all our resources, leaving our mother to die in virtual penury,” Piers St.Denis snarled. “Besides, not all is lost. I can still beg the king’s forgiveness. I have become quite the expert at begging, Kipp. And remember, we have not yet put the rest of our plan into action.”
“You have lost the game,” Kipp replied. “The duke of Lundy will remain with the earl and countess of Glenkirk.”
“Not if it is believed they have murdered Lord Stokes,” the marquis said softly. “And Jasmine has played right into our hands, Kipp, by publicly declaring she would kill anyone who tried to take her children from her care. If Stokes is found dead, she will be the first one who is considered the murderer, and Lord Leslie, too, will be named her accomplice. The child will be removed from their care, and they will certainly end up with Somerset and his shrewish wife in the Tower.”
“Even if you can attain this goal, there is no guarantee that you will be given the duke of Lundy, particularly now that the queen has made clear her dislike of you, Piers. Attempt to mend your fences with the king so you may gain something out of this before we must leave court. Snatch a small victory from this defeat.”
“I will have the child!You should have seen the smug look on that upstart Villiers’s face, Kipp. I could have easily killed him had the queen not been there! I must have the child, Kipp. His income will save us. You know how little money there is left. I don’t want to leave court and return to Hartsfield Hall. I hate the damned country! I want to be here, in the center of the universe, where there is so much excitement happening. To be at court is to be alive, Kipp!”
“We haven’t the money to remain indefinitely, Piers,” his brother reminded him. “If you don’t get an heiress bride out of this, we are ruined! This was why we originally came to court. That you caught the king’s eye was a gift from God. You need a rich wife to restore Hartsfield Hallandto remain at court. Without one we are lost; and the king is your only hope to obtain that wealthy wife. You are angry, and you want revenge upon the earl of Glenkirk and Jasmine Lindley. I understand, and perhaps one day you will gain your revenge,but now is not the time.”
“You have been watching the earl of Bartram, Kipp,” the marquis said as if his elder brother had not spoken at all. “Is he out at night? That would, of course, be the best time to waylay him. We shall do it ourselves, so there be no witnesses.”
“There is no time to plan such a crime, Piers,” Kipp said in a final attempt to dissuade his sibling. “Certainly now that the earl of Glenkirk has returned from Scotland, he will be taking Lady Lindley to her grandmother’s home in Worcestershire for their wedding.”
“We will kill the earl of Bartram tonight,” the Marquis of Hartsfield said calmly. “Glenkirk and his bitch will still be here tonight.”
There would be no convincing his brother otherwise, Kipp St.Denis knew. The plan was surely flawed, but Piers would follow the course set, and Kipp could not refuse to help him. It would be up to him to make certain that the marquis of Hartsfield was never tied to the crime about to be committed, so that the king would award his previous favorite a rich maiden to marry, and they could be saved. Kipp did not believe for a moment that they would obtain custody of the little duke of Lundy. The queen had more influence with her husband than the young men surrounding James Stuart thought. That had been his brother’s error. He had refused to see it, and had made an enemy of Queen Anne in the process. George Villiers, however, had seen how the land lay and used his knowledge wisely. Kipp well knew how arrogant and thoughtless Piers could be. Eventually the marquis would see there was no future for him at court. Then they could go home, taking the wealthy bride with them.
The king had just arisen the following morning and, having peed in the silver vessel held out by one of his gentlemen of the bedchamber for that purpose, was greeted with the news that the earl of Bartram had been found murdered outside his own gates that morning. James Stuart was deeply shocked and demanded an immediate explanation. He was told that no one knew.
