Harper, Karen - [Elizabeth I 02] by The Tidal Poole (v1)

Author:The Tidal Poole (v1) [rtf] [Poole, The Tidal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-07-13T18:49:22+00:00

Chapter The Tenth

THE QUEEN MET WIH JACK ST. MAUR IN the apartments below hers, which she had taken to using as her center for working on this crime.

"I am eternally grateful you have consented to see me on such short notice, Your Majesty," he said, his voice somewhat muffled as he had not yet risen from his deep bow. But the bow itself suggested he'd been practicing. Her heart went out to him --until she hardened it by recalling how Cecil had worded Jack's request to see her.

"Rise, Jack. My Lord Cecil says you have a confession to make to me alone."

"I do indeed, and--Oh, Your Majesty, you did not think I came to say I harmed Penelope?"

"It had crossed my mind."

"Then you do not believe I am wrongly accused," he said, looking entirely crestfallen. The setting sun gilded his teary eyes.

She began to pace. "But," she said, "when one hears the very words "confession to make" ..."

He dared to keep in step with her back and forth until she stopped. "You know, Your Majesty, I have thought of confessing to her murder, I swear I have."

"Stand away from me."

He backed off two steps but threw his arms out in supplication. "But only so that you would not suspect those I love, who, unlike me, have things in this life and hopes to build on, such as the Haringtons or Edward. I swear to God it is not that I am guilty."

She sighed so hard her shoulders slumped. She leaned her elbows in the deep window ledge as if to watch the last of the day's watercraft on the gray Thames. "You are so naive, Jack, even to come close to admitting such a dire thing," she warned. "If you are innocent, and I pray you are, you must stand firm, you must declare it always to the skies." She spun to face him so fast her skirts belled out. "What confession will you make, then?"

"That I would do anything to serve you. And I implore you if there is aught I could do to clear my name that I might be your liege man until I die. And not just to compensate for my father's vile actions--"

His voice broke. Now she blinked back tears.

"All the wealth," he went on with a sweep of his arm toward the window, "the power of this vast kingdom lies in you, Your Majesty, and so I beg you to forgive that this token of my admiration and eternal esteem is so meager. But like the widow's mite in the Holy Scriptures, it is all I have to give and so my everything."

Why had she ever thought this man could not express himself? He went down on one knee again and extended his hand, palm up. A filigreed gold brooch set with a rectangular-cut topaz leaped with amber light, struck through by the last rays of sun.

She was grateful for the window ledge behind her or her knees would have buckled. Once his father

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