Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth, England's Most Passionate Queen -- and the Three Men Who Loved Her by Susan Kay

Author:Susan Kay [Kay, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Nonfiction, History
ISBN: 9781402238680
Amazon: 1402238681
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Published: 2010-07-02T04:00:00+00:00

mered in the light of thousands of perfumed candles, all supported in

glass candelabra, while within the company dined from a choice of three

hundred dishes served on plates of crystal.

One sultry evening, Elizabeth stood on the long drawbridge which

spanned the castle moat and watched the Lady of the Lake float towards

her on an artificial island lit with tiny lights. A mermaid drew a tail

eighteen feet long through the dark water and on the back of a giant

mechanical dolphin Arion prepared to address his Queen. A hush fell over

the watching court for the climax of this spectacular water extravaganza,

but Leicester’s hospitality had been generous, even to minions, and Arion

was gloriously drunk. At some critical point in his speech he forgot his

lines and pulled off his mask, waved it at the Queen, and informed her

that he was none of Arion.

“Not I, ma’am—honest Harry Goldingham, that’s me!”

The Queen glanced at Leicester’s murderous face and went into

paroxysms of laughter, from which she eventually emerged sufficiently to

inform honest Harry that he was the best part of the show.

Leicester was aggrieved as they strolled back into the gardens in the

summer dusk.

“That fool—that village idiot!—I’ll hang him fort his!” he grumbled.

Elizabeth glanced sideways at him with amusement.

“Would you hang a man for making me laugh?”

“The man was drunk in my employ! Madam, do you have any idea

what it cost to build that dolphin?”

“What dolphin?”

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Susan Kay

He had pulled up short, on the verge of an angry retort, when he saw

her smiling.

“Well,” he muttered, laying her hand on his arm, “you can’t expect

me to be best pleased. Not when I can see Hatton and the rest sniggering

like schoolboys—”

Elizabeth laughed. “If Hatton had paid for that dolphin wouldn’t you

have sniggered too?”

Leicester smiled faintly and conceded the point—it had suddenly

dawned on him that this trivial incident had put her in a remarkably good

mood; it might be that honest Harry had not failed him after all.

The Queen’s attendants had dispersed discreetly to the pleasure ground

beneath the terrace, leaving Elizabeth alone with her host. The parapet

was dotted with stone effigies of Leicester’s crest—the white bear—and

she stood looking down over the gardens, idly patting the cold head of

one of them. She felt suddenly relaxed and happy, as though all the tension

of these last troubled years was flowing out of her on this balmy evening.

Beyond this haven of peace, the outer world of documents and treason

seemed strangely unimportant. Sometimes it was good to forget reality…

“It’s so beautiful here,” she remarked after a moment. “You should

not make me too comfortable, Rob—I may outstay my welcome.”

“Impossible, madam.” He came to stand beside her. “If I entertained

you for eternity it would seem too short a time.”

“To serve you is Heaven, to lack you is more than Hel ’s torment,” she mocked.

Leicester glanced at her jealously.

“I suppose Hatton said that to you!”

Elizabeth shook her head. “He wrote it. I imagine some would say it

reads rather better in reverse.”

He said, with a sudden catch in his voice, “Don’t count me among

them! I despise the man, but I envy his gift with words.

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