The Anne Trilogy by Posie Graeme-Evans

Author:Posie Graeme-Evans
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria
Published: 2012-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-nine

Once she was dressed Anne made sure that tonight she would be among the first of the duke and duchess’s guests to arrive.

Tonight, also, she would do her best to be inconspicuous; masks were to be worn—they would help her in the task. So, clothing herself with a confidence she did not feel, she was carried to the Prinsenhof in Mathew Cuttifer’s own litter.

The tented wedding hall was crowded with many of the guests from the previous evening, but tonight the focus was on the wedding gifts burdening the press of liveried servants as they tried, in vain, to push through the milling, excited, overdressed throng.

It might have been Anne’s intention to be inconspicuous this evening, but the cream silk dress was a lamp lit on a dark night. Its very simplicity brought a ripple of comment as Anne arrived to join a happy crowd of her own friends: merchants from the Italian community of Brugge, gold dealers and jewelers, principally, with their wives and sons and daughters. They might all be masked, but the brilliance of the group—flashing dark eyes behind the masks, white teeth, and the Florentine style of their opulent clothes—made them a center of attention.

Envy is a powerful underground river in human affairs and it was flowing strongly tonight; Maud Caxton was not the only woman to cast hostile looks at Anne. Intense, unacknowledged fear provoked and fed Dame Caxton’s anger, and Anne caught an almost physical sense of it as she looked up to find Maud glaring at her across the throng of guests from behind an eerie white half-mask that gave an impression, disturbingly, of the bones of her skull surfacing through the skin.

Anne nodded graciously and then turned away, anxiety flooding her gut. Such concentrated spite was a wild force loose in her life. How many others felt as Maud did? And how could she bear their implacable opposition, year after year, if she continued to live in Brugge?

The king had said he wanted her to return to England with him; she and Deborah could go home maybe, to her mother’s lands—her lands now—the place she’d never seen, and bring little Edward up decently in peace, in quiet obscurity; if the queen could be persuaded to let her be.

And if she could bear to part herself from the king.

She had no time to think further as the courts of Burgundy and England processed together into the great space of the banqueting hall, stepping gracefully and rhythmically to music from a gallery filled with the members of the Guild of Minstrels; they alone had license to play at public events of this kind.

Edward, his face impassive, walked forward ahead of the duke with his sister, the new duchess, on his arm; following them was Duke Charles, conducting Elizabeth, while Duchess Cicely brought up the rear escorted by the cardinal, the papal nuncio to the court of Burgundy, who had officiated at the marriage only yesterday.

The king was careful not to let his glance

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.