“There was no betrayal.” Any lightness left him. “What I did was meant to happen, though I can say no more of it here.”
“You seem determined to draw me into dangerous intrigue. Why do you trust me?”
Colby sent me another glance, this one assessing. “You have proved yourself. Elizabeth told me of the ladies in her household she put her faith in, and you were the first she mentioned.”
“She spoke to you?” I asked in surprise. I was equally surprised that my name had been at the top of her list.
“The princess granted me a short audience with herself and her estate manager, Cecil. She knows where my loyalty stands.”
Elizabeth had not mentioned this to me, nor had Uncle John. Who Elizabeth had in her household was her business, I told myself, but for some reason, this omission of information about Colby rankled.
“But do I know where you stand?” I asked in a hard voice.
“I serve the princess,” Colby answered without heat. “I have been told you do as well. Mary is very much of the old religion, and Elizabeth sees that danger. Mary can be fair-minded, but when her religion is challenged, she is blind. I have seen this.”
I had seen it as well, in a distant sort of way, throughout my life, though I’d never paid much attention. I’d expected Edward and his sons to rule for many years, and Mary’s beliefs not to matter. Now everything about Mary was of severe and sharp importance.
Colby sent me another of his assessing stares before he nodded at me and rode on, as though finished with my company. The man made me impatient, though I was not certain why.
Rude, I told myself. I was simply bothered by his abrupt comings and goings and his high-handed demands.
I caught up with the other ladies and tried to push Colby from my thoughts.
Not long later, we arrived in London.
Our large retinue had to slow as we entered via Aldgate and paraded through the cheering City to Fleet Street. We passed Temple Bar and flowed into the Strand, following it a short way to Somerset House, the huge estate that had been granted to Elizabeth after Somerset’s downfall.
This manor was enormous, with large grounds and a pile of buildings backing onto the Thames.
My lodgings were high in the rear of the house, the damp and stink of the river wafting into my chamber. It could not be healthy, I thought, but we’d not linger here long.
Indeed, we rode out of London again the next morning to meet Mary north and east of the city at Wanstead.
I stayed near Elizabeth for this leg of the journey, keeping my eye on Colby. Elizabeth had not brought her entire entourage today, but I spied him with us, dressed in her colors as one of her gentlemen.
I did not know what to make of Colby, nor could I decide whether he truly had Elizabeth’s best interests at heart. I could not help but wonder whether he and Robert Dudley worked schemes of their own, using her for their gain. Sweet Robin, in his own way, could be as canny and manipulative as his father.
I drew a breath of relief once we were free of London again. While life in Town could be entertaining after long stretches of rustication, I preferred the air of the country. Too many bodies pressed together in the city, and the air was thick with the stench of privies plus animals living without the sun or the grass beneath their feet.
I thought the country air more salubrious, my belief justified by the fact that plague gathered mostly in cities.
Mary waited for us at a great house near Wanstead. Once she’d won the battle against Northumberland, she’d traveled to London to be proclaimed queen before retreating here to meet her sister.
I did not know what to expect of Mary now that she’d come into power. She’d been a bitter and angry young woman when I’d first arrived in Elizabeth’s household, commanded to wait upon her small half-sister, and I hadn’t really blamed her.
She’d been much criticized at both Henry’s and Edward’s courts for her religious leanings and her Spanish heritage, and she’d turned a frosty demeanor to the world that disapproved of her.
Edward’s rather stiff-necked ladies and gentlemen had found fault with Mary’s expensive costumes and jewels as well as her stubbornness. They’d also disparaged her short stature, deep voice, and dark brows drawn too often over her piercing eyes.
Mary had felt their disapprobation keenly and had responded by becoming more pious and disagreeable than ever.
All that seemed a long time ago as Mary greeted Elizabeth in the middle of a great hall festooned with garlands that must have been hastily hung. Mary was very royal in an ensemble of golden velvet with large pearls decorating her bodice and seed pearls lining her French hood. Rubies and sapphires glinted on Mary’s plump fingers, and a diamond crucifix hung from her neck.
She waited for Elizabeth to glide to her and curtsy, then Mary caught Elizabeth’s hands and pulled her to her feet, beaming her a wide smile.
Elizabeth, at least a foot taller than her older sister, stooped so that Mary could kiss her on both cheeks. When they straightened and stood toe to toe, hands clasping, the contrast between the two women was remarkable.
Elizabeth was twenty, Mary thirty-seven. Mary had an almost rectangular body, her shoulders, waist, and hips nearly the same width. I noted that her seamstress had padded her bodice to emphasize her chest and likewise her hips to make her waist seem smaller in proportion. Mary’s face was rectangular also, barely curving at her chin, her eyes wide-spaced, her mouth small.
