“We need to marry in haste,” he told her, and wasn’t at all surprised when her eyes grew wide.
“Why?” The single word was tinged with both curiosity and trepidation.
“I must go on this progress, but I am not important enough to be asked, and so must have an excuse. The queen will want you with her. You are her favorite among the maids though you are yourself unimportant. If we are newly wed she will make certain we are not separated, for she is a romantic lady at heart. I will be able to accompany you and the court to France.”
“As an agent of the cardinal, I take it,” Philippa said.
“Aye,” he admitted. “He wants someone no one will suspect, with eyes that are trained to see and ears sharp enough to hear. He did not say it, but I know him well from my many years of service. He thinks he smells a plot of some sort on the wind, though he has yet to learn exactly what it is, or if it even really exists, but his instincts have always been infallible. By chance I came to him at the right time to offer my services, but of course no one must learn I am in his service. And none will suspect that the bridegroom of the queen’s favorite maid is in France for anything more than a summer of love.”
Philippa giggled. She simply couldn’t help it. “A summer of love, my lord? Gracious! You make it sound most salacious, but then that is nothing new at this court.”
He smiled back at her. “Perhaps I did not phrase it properly.”
“Oh, I quite liked your phrasing, my lord,” she assured him, grinning up at him.
He was very tempted to kiss her adorable mouth, but he did not. “The cardinal has said he will marry us himself.”
“Thomas Wolsey would perform the ceremony? Nay, my lord, I think it not a good idea. It will draw attention to us, and if you wish not to be noticed I think it better the great cardinal show no favor to two unimportant people lest others ask why. I am certain that one of the queen’s priests would, with her gracious permission, perform the sacrament of marriage uniting us,” Philippa said.
Again he was surprised by her. “You are right, Philippa!” he said. And then he realized that she had not protested the idea of a quick marriage. “You are willing?”
She nodded. “My lord, I needed time to consider all that has happened. A match between us is a good thing. I ask only one favor of you.”
“And that would be?” What could she possibly want of him?
“I do not really know you, my lord. While I see the advantages to us both in this match, I am inexperienced in the ways of love. I cannot yield myself to you wholly simply because we are man and wife. I would not deny you your rights, my lord. I just want some time to learn more about my husband before we unite our bodies. Can you understand that?” She had looked him directly in the eye while she had spoken.
“Aye, I can understand, Philippa. And I am willing to give you a certain amount of latitude in this matter. We will wed first, and then we will court as lovers do. But the marriage will be consummated on our wedding night for obvious reasons.”
“I do not really understand the nature of courting,” she told him.
“There is kissing, and touching,” he replied.
“Oh, I have heard that, but what else is there to courting?” she wondered. She was purposefully ignoring his statement regarding consummation.
“I am not certain myself,” he admitted. “I have never paid serious court to a girl before, Philippa. We shall explore this mystery together. Now, when shall our wedding day be? I shall leave it to you to choose the date.”
“The queen’s nephew, the emperor, is coming to England at the end of May, and then we depart for France in early June. My birthday is the twenty-ninth of April. Let us wed the day after, on the last day of April, my lord. It will give me time to prepare properly. Would that suit you?”
“Tom says your mother will not be able to come,” he said. “Would you not prefer to go home for your marriage?”
“There is no time. Mama will have a new bairn, and knowing my stepfather, he will not want her to travel even to Friarsgate with it. She nurses her own children, you see,” Philippa explained. “We shall, with your permission, my lord, go north for my sister Banon’s wedding in the autumn. If you are content with that, then so am I.”
“I am content,” he agreed.
“One thing I must tell you before the betrothal is signed, and the marriage celebrated,” Philippa said. “I am my mother’s heiress to Friarsgate, but I have told her I do not want it. Her lands and her flocks are great. She has a commercial enterprise in cloth that she and Lord Cambridge manage. I don’t want any of it. I should have to live in Cumbria, and while I find it beautiful there, I do not want to live there. And an estate like Friarsgate must be watched over by its mistress or master. That is why Uncle Thomas purchased Melville for me. And in addition I have a most exceptional dower portion in gold and silver coin, as well as plate, jewelry, and all the possessions that a respectable girl would have. I am very well dowered, my lord, as you will see. But I renounced Friarsgate, and you must know it before this match is settled between us.”
“I should have little use, Philippa, for a large northern estate that requires tending,” he told her. “You will find Brierewode is more than enough for me.”
“Do you have sheep?” she asked him.
“Cattle and horses, only,” he told her.
“Thank God,” Philippa exclaimed, “for I cannot abide the stink of sheep!”
Chapter 9
Lord Cambridge had managed to catch the queen before the midday meal to tell her of the impending betrothal of Philippa Meredith. “With your highness’s blessing, of course,” he had said, bowing. And the queen had been delighted, and sent him to the king to impart the happy news. He had caught the king at his dinner, and been allowed to stand just to one side of the royal diner while he spoke his peace.
