The Plot to Kill a Queen by Deborah Hopkinson

Author:Deborah Hopkinson [Hopkinson, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2023-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

I closed my door, slinging my lute strap over my shoulder. Alice picked up the satchel. “I can carry this for you, at least part of the way. I’ll show you where to go, but then I’ve got to hurry back to the kitchen. I’ll come back tonight with more food and some scraps for Mouse and you can tell me all about it.”

“Have you ever been in the queen’s presence chamber?” I whispered as our footsteps echoed in the dark stone corridors.

“No, the queen’s Scottish housemaids tend the fires there.” Alice turned a corner and beckoned me forward. “This way is shorter.”

I followed, wondering if I’d ever learn my way around. “The queen seems to have a large staff.”

“They say when she first arrived in England, Mary had money to pay them, but that’s run out,” Alice whispered. “At one point she had sixty; now I think it’s about thirty people.

“The gossip downstairs is that the earl would like to be stricter with Mary and make her cut costs,” she went on. “But he’s afraid to be too stingy or mean. If something should happen to Elizabeth, there’s still a chance Mary would become Queen of England.”

“If something happened?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

“Anything.” Alice shrugged. “Perhaps a fever or the plague.”

“What about other possibilities? Like assassination plots,” I whispered. “Do you hear talk of them here?”

Alice turned to me, eyes wide. “Plots? You’re not … a secret Catholic who’s against Elizabeth?”

“No! I only meant that, sometimes in London one hears about plots against Elizabeth. And some say those plots start here.”

“I know nothing,” Alice murmured. “It’s best not to talk about this. Someone might get the wrong idea.”

“I won’t mention it again,” I assured her. And I wouldn’t. I hadn’t really expected Alice to know anything about smuggled letters. After all, she hadn’t been at Sheffield long and was one of the youngest servants here. I didn’t want her to think I was anything other than a lute player. And I definitely didn’t want to cause her trouble for befriending me.

We’d reached a long corridor and Alice stopped. “Walk down this hallway. About halfway, you’ll see a guard, or maybe two, posted outside the presence chamber. Just give your name and say that Mistress Curle sent for you.”

Alice grinned, her blue eyes bright with mischief. “Be prepared to be surprised. It’s not at all like your turret room.”

She hurried off with light footsteps, while I made my way along the corridor. I gave my name to the guard and he opened the great wooden doors.

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