My Enemy, The Queen by Victoria Holt

Author:Victoria Holt [Holt, Victoria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-07-30T18:03:14+00:00

"They are untrue."

"She was first his mistress and then his wife, some say."

"She was never his wife. That is a story circulated because she had a child by him."

"And you find this acceptable?"

"I would accept a great deal if Robert went with it."

"And now you have put yourself in a similar position to that of Lady Sheffield."

"Indeed I have not. I am married to Robert."

"So she thought. My child—for so you seem since you can be so easily deluded—it is clear that he went through a form of marriage with Lady Sheffield—a mock ceremony. Then when he wanted to, he could discard her. Don't you see he has put you in a similar position?"

"That's untrue!" I cried, but it was hard to prevent my voice trembling. It had been a secret ceremony, and Douglass Sheffield must have been deceived because she was clearly a woman who could not easily lie.

"I am going to see Leicester," said my father firmly. "I am going to find out exactly what this is all about, and I am going to see the ceremony performed before my eyes, and with witnesses. If you are to be Robert Dudley's wife, you must be so surely so that he cannot discard you when he wishes to turn his attention to someone else."

My father left me then and I wondered what the outcome would be.

I was soon to discover.

My father came to Durham House and with him were Robert's brother, the Earl of Warwick, and a close friend, the Earl of Pembroke.

"Prepare yourself to leave at once," said my father. "We are going to Wanstead. There you are to be married to the Earl of Leicester."

"Has Robert agreed to this second ceremony?" I asked.

"He is eager for it. He has convinced me that he is devoted to you and has no wish but that your union shall be legal."

By this time I was heavily pregnant but delighted to make the journey.

When we reached Wanstead, Robert was waiting there with Lord North, who had always been one of his greatest friends.

He embraced me and told me that my father was determined on this ceremony and he himself was nothing loath. He would not have any doubt his great desire to marry me and live with me as my husband.

The next morning we were joined by my brother, Richard, and one of Robert's chaplains, a Mr. Tindall, who was to perform the ceremony; and there in the gallery at Wanstead, my father gave me away to the Earl of Leicester, and the ceremony was conducted in such a manner and with such witnesses that it could never be denied that it had taken place.

My father said: "My daughter will soon give birth to your child. Then there will have to be an acknowledgment of the marriage in order to preserve her good name."

"You may safely leave that to me," Robert assured him, but my father was not so easily set aside.

"It must be known that she is truly married and the Countess of Leicester.

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