The Virgin's Spy (Tudor Legacy Book 2) by Laura Andersen

Author:Laura Andersen [Andersen, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Goodreads: 25149335
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2015-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

Beneath Pippa’s carefully composed letter were two lines scrawled in a familiar hand.

Every sight, every sound, every taste of Spain reminds me of you. I will have lots to tell you when we return.

Kit

The second letter wasn’t even for Anabel. Madalena, while helping string pearls through Anabel’s hair for an evening reception of London’s mayor and guild leaders, said matter-of-factly, “My grandmother writes that Lady Philippa and Lord Christopher came to see her in Seville.”

Anabel flinched against Madalena’s hands, then stilled. “Did they? I presume they are well.”

Of course they were well. Illness or difficulty would surely have been reported to her mother.

She could never deceive Madalena. “She thought Lord Christopher more astute than she would have expected from such a pretty younger son.”

Pretty? Anabel choked back a laugh. She would never have used that word, but had to admit it fit. At least on the surface.

“Lady Philippa, my grandmother wrote, is troubled. And taking care to hide it from those around her.”

“Did she elaborate on the nature of that trouble?”

“She did not.”

They had been speaking English; now Anabel switched to Spanish just in case one of her other women came into the chamber. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you are also troubled, and like Lady Philippa choose to hide it rather than face it. My grandmother thought it strange that two young women so closely knit would choose to keep their secrets from each other.”

Just how canny was Madalena’s grandmother? Anabel wondered. Could she read her secret from across the seas? A secret she was keeping from herself almost as much as from Pippa.

How do you know when you’re in love? Anabel had asked that question when she was twelve—not of her mother, whom she could not imagine ever having been in love, but of Minuette. It had seemed a very pressing question then, when she was just old enough to realize that love was possible, while still young enough to believe such a question would matter in her life.

Minuette did not laugh it off, or turn her away with a teasing answer. Perhaps she had sensed the trouble behind the question, from a girl who had watched her parents and knew that, whatever they felt, love was not the motivating factor of their relationship.

Only now, at the age of twenty, did Anabel realize how Minuette must have paused at the question—for surely it had brought a flood of memories about a man who had loved her to violent distraction. Anabel’s uncle, the late King of England.

“I can only speak for myself,” Minuette had warned her, “but there were two things that told me I was in love. First, that there was no one else I would rather be with for every moment of my day—not just the romantic moments.”

“And second?” Anabel had prompted, only slightly unsettled by the thought of grown-ups being romantic.

“Second, because he made me want to be better. Not by lecturing me or ordering me—trust me, the few times he tried that ended disastrously!—but simply by being himself.

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