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Walsingham grasped the arms of the chair, his watchful gaze sliding over the room. “And the Irish grow more agitated with the queen’s support of Protestantism. ’Tis Lord Burghley’s main goal to take complete control of that green isle to our west.” He shook his head. “Making him as much disliked as Her Majesty.”
Walsingham cleared his throat. “And you say, you’ve never met Lady Lucy before today?”
“I have not,” Greer said. Which made the fact that he’d lied for her, both at the Bear Garden and here to Elizabeth Tudor’s spy master, that much more surprising. Greer made it a point to stay away from intrigue when he visited the court in Edinburgh. Lies only ended up tangling around the perpetrator until they eventually hanged themselves. Lady Lucy seemed like trouble, and he’d avoid her while he was on this mission.
“You’ll want to keep an eye on her,” Walsingham said.
“Lady Lucy?” Greer’s hands fisted where they sat perched on his knees. “Why is that?”
“Because Lady Lucy Cranfield could be your assassin,” Walsingham said.
Chapter Three
“Lords of Misrule, ever contending without quarrel or offence, who should make the rarest pastimes to delight the beholders. They provided fine and subtle disguisings, masques and mummeries, with playing at cards in every house, more for pastime than forgain.”
John Stow’s 1598Survey ofLondon
“Please William,” Lucysaid as she held one of the pups. “I can’t get them both to Cranfield House alone.”
“You should have thought of that before you brought them here,” William Darby said, frowning at her in the lantern light of the stables.
If she hadn’t needed to bring Greer Buchanan to Whitehall, she would have taken them directly to her family home. “Well, they are here now, and I need to save them before Walsingham finds them.”
“He already suspects you,” William said. “That’s why I followed you out here. He’s tasked me with keeping a close eye on you and Cordelia.”
“He suspects me of everything,” Lucy said, rolling her eyes. “Because of my mother.”
“No,” William said. “Because you can’t seem to stay out of trouble.”
She frowned at him, her lips pinched tight. “I care, William Darby, about animals and the poor. Does that make me a criminal?” She set the wiggling pup down and glanced around for a rope to leash him.
“It does when you…” he indicated her masculine clothing, “dress outside your station and steal the queen’s dogs,” he whispered.
“Well, a lady can’t be seen sneaking around the London streets at night,” she said, pushing her hair once again up under the cap, but it tumbled right down her back. She snatched it off her head and began braiding the mass.
William was tall and some would say handsome. Although Lucy couldn’t think of him as much more than the brother of her best friend who’d moved with her new husband to Scotland. “And you are a lady,” he said, “so you shouldn’t be doing any of this.”
“Come now, William. I’m only trying to save some pups from being torn apart in the ring. Surely you can help me.”
“Then I will be an accomplice,” he said.
“An accomplice to treason?” The deep voice made Lucy gasp and spin around to stare down the dark aisle.
Out from the shadow stepped Greer Buchanan, a short sword held in his hand.
*
The tall, thinman standing before a strangely dressed Lucy Cranfield seemed sturdy enough but unarmed from what Greer could see.
“God’s teeth,” Lucy said, her hand to the tie of her tunic. “My heart is pounding, you startled me so.” She flapped her hand at them. “William Darby, this is Master Greer Buchanan from Edinburgh.”
“Exactly how many costumes do ye own, lass?” Greer asked. Even in the hose, tunic, and short breeches, there was no disguising that Lucy was a woman. She had a softness about her, and her glorious hair lay over one shoulder, half plaited.
Lucy looked down at herself as if to see what she happened to be wearing. “’Tis easier to move around in town dressed as a lad.”
“Especially at night when ye are involved in some covert actions,” Greer said.
“Yes, I mean no,” she said. “I mean to say, I am merely taking Pip and Percy to my house in town, and William was about to help me.”
