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Matthew bowed and left the house. Both Livia and Alys followed him to the quayside.
“He can’t be seen with a priest!” Alys raged at Livia. “What if people take him for a papist spy? They’ll tear him apart in the garden.”
“We have to know!” Livia returned fiercely. “This is another civil war, like they had before. And I, and my son—and you—are on the side of the king and queen.”
Alys, terrified, shook her head. “We don’t take sides!” she said. “We’re just making a living here, we never take sides. And if we did… my own uncle—”
“It doesn’t matter what you think, or what side you took in the past,” Livia ruled. “It doesn’t matter about the old Ironside brother in America! We are loyal subjects of King James and Queen Mary.”
“Of course, we are loyal—”
Livia turned and gave Matthew a little push along the quayside. “Go! What are you even waiting for?”
“My ma is under no obligation,” he said hesitantly. “She shall not be—”
“Ah! It doesn’t matter,” she gleamed at him. “This is just a lovers’ quarrel. And you have more important things to do. Go! Quickly! And tell me what Father Mansuet says. Come to me first.”
He glanced at Alys, and at her nod he walked to the river stairs and gave a shrill whistle to a wherryman, feathering his oars in mid-river drifting upstream on the flowing tide. Livia turned, her eyes blazingin triumph to Alys. “I am going to put that boy into the greatest place in the kingdom, and I am going to be the first lady of the kingdom myself,” she said fiercely. “Nobody can stand in my way. Nobody is going to stop me.”
“We won’t take sides,” Alys insisted.
“You’ll take the winning side fast enough,” Livia predicted. “I’m telling you—I am on the winning side and so too is Matteo. If you don’t want to lose him, you’ll stand my friend. If you don’t want to ruin his future, you’ll do as I say.”
“I don’t want to ruin him!” Alys exclaimed, her face flushed with tears. “I’d lay down my life for him! I don’t want any part of this! I don’t understand it! I don’t want the queen here! Why have you come and brought all this to my door?”
Livia gave a little sigh of deep satisfaction, slid her arm around the older woman’s waist, and walked with her back into the warehouse. “Sometimes, I need you,” she explained. “You are my first and my only true friend. And sometimes I will reward you.”
Matthew was back within two hours, soaking wet from shooting London Bridge on the turning tide. He walked towards the parlor as Alys took his cape and handed him a drying sheet. Livia blocked his entrance. “You can’t go in like that,” she said.
“I have to, Father Mansuet told me to tell her at once.” He stepped around his mother, avoided her detaining hand, and bowed to the queen, who had risen from her chair as soon as she heard his voice in the narrow hall.
“The news is true,” he told her. “Father Mansuet knew it, the king himself told him. The rebellion in Scotland is all but over. Argyll is hiding out in the hills, and no more than four score of men are holding out for him. They expect to hear at any moment that he’s been captured.”
“God forgive him,” the queen said. She crossed herself andwhispered a little prayer. Livia immediately copied her, and the three Protestants in the room froze in horror at the illegal heresy. The queen opened her eyes. “It’s over?” she asked. “The rising is over?”
“There’s still Monmouth,” Livia pointed out.
“But now the royal army can march south, and they’ve only got one uprising to face,” Captain Shore reminded her.
“I shall go back to the palace,” the queen decided.
Only Alys saw Livia’s anguished look towards the queen and guessed that she was thinking of the promised reward and wondering if the queen’s gift would hold good if they did not sail.
“I won’t need my berth in your ship, Captain Shore. I’m grateful for your patience.”
He gave an awkward bow. “As you wish, Your Majesty,” he said. He turned to Alys: “I’ll go now then, love.”
“Her Majesty and I are grateful for your service,” Livia delayed him. “And especially grateful to my son, Matteo, who has served the throne so loyally, and done so much at such risk to himself today.”
The queen nodded and gave Matthew her hand to kiss.
Matthew bowed. “Shall I take you back to St. James’s?”
“It’s best if we go back quietly,” Livia advised. “Get us a wherry to Whitehall Stairs and we will take a chair from there.”
Alys and Captain Shore went out to the hall. She helped him into his oiled sailing cape. “Godspeed,” she said to him quietly. “Calm seas and steady winds bring you safe home to me, Abel Shore.”
“Amen,” he said and bent his head for her kiss, and then he went out to his ship.
