Intrigued by Bertrice Small

Author:Bertrice Small
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2011-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

In the months that followed it was obvious that the Marquis and Marquise d’Auriville were a love match. Charlie Stuart remarked upon it to his mother, pleased that his sister had found happiness. The English king had finally escaped Cromwell’s men to arrive in France. His adventures—hiding in an oak tree beneath the noses of the Roundheads and riding pillion disguised as a servant—were widely recounted. The main thing was that he was safe, to the relief of the many English nobles who had joined his mother in exile.

All of this information came via a letter to the not-so-royal Stuart from his friend, Lord Carstairs. Charlie knew he would have to join his royal cousin sooner or later, and open his purse to help support the king. The royal Stuart was quite impoverished upon his arrival in Rouen, where he had come ashore. At first he had been taken for a tramp. Even his old tutor, Dr. Earle, failed to recognize him, so gaunt and thin had the king grown in the six weeks since Worcester, while he had been on the run from Cromwell and his men. The young king was depressed, but despite all that had happened his spirit had not been broken. He tried hard, Lord Carstairs wrote, to be cheerful, but the situation was so grim that it kept returning to haunt him.

He could not speak of those who had aided him in those very long six weeks. Most were still in England. King Charles thought it a poor form of gratitude to endanger them. His friend, the Earl of Derby, who had been with him when he had escaped through the north gate at Worcester and had last been seen at Whiteladies, a safe house, had been caught and executed. Now the king found himself forced to accept the charity of his mother, who was accepting the charity of the archbishop, Gondi. It was a difficult situation. The French-born English queen was so poor that she made an account of what it cost to feed her son each time he ate at her table. By the time the French government had decided on what they could afford to give their own king’s cousin, he owed it all to his mother, and found himself even poorer than she.

“At least our assets are available to us,” the Duke of Lundy reminded his mother.

“Only because we are wise enough to do business with the Kiras and do not hold their faith againt them,” Jasmine said sharply. “Your royal relations, Charlie, never considered the possibility that they might be driven from England. Why did not King Charles the First make provision for his wife and children when she fled? The queen has been gone from England several years now. Louis was not in control when she came, and he has still not gained a firm grip on France. He will, of course, but what will happen between now and then is a moot point. What is our king to

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