A Dangerous Love (5 page)

You must look your best.” She walked to the door of the little guesthouse and, opening it, let the dog out. Then, undoing the bundle she had packed for Adair, she drew out a gown of soft jersey, crimson in color. She spread the garment out on her cot, smoothing the wrinkles from it.

Then she poured a little water into a brass basin and directed her charge to get up and make her ablutions.

When Adair had washed her face and hands and 
scrubbed her teeth with the cloth, Elsbeth slipped the gown over the sleeved camise in which the child had slept. The garment was cut with fullness from the neckline, and without any waist emphasis. The neck opening was square, and the sleeves tight from shoulder to wrist.

The gown had a small train and the hem was trimmed with a darker red silk ribbon. Elsbeth sat her little mistress back upon the cot and brushed her long, dark hair until it was shining. She fit a pair of dark leather shoes upon the child’s feet, and set a narrow jeweled band above her forehead. Around her neck she hung a thin gold chain with a small crucifix.

“There!” she said, standing back and viewing the girl.

“You are ready to meet the queen and make your case for protection, my precious. Now sit down while I hurry and dress. The duke has promised to come to see you before we go.” She hurriedly washed herself in the basin and drew on a dark blue gown similar in design to Adair’s. Braiding her nut brown hair, she pinned up the plait and tucked it beneath a soft white cap with a stiff turned-back brim. Then she slid her feet into a pair of worn but still serviceable round-toed leather shoes.

Hearing Beiste whining at the door, Elsbeth hurried to let him inside again. He nuzzled her hand with a wet nose as he reentered the guesthouse.

Shortly afterward a young monk came bearing a tray with two small bread trenchers filled with hot oat cereal, and a goblet of cider. “The duke says he will be with you shortly, my lady,” the monk addressed Adair.

He drew a large bone from his robes. It was yet thick with scraps of meat. “For the animal,” he said, and offered the bone to Beiste, who took it from the young man’s hand, even allowing the monk to pat him. Then the monk hurried off without another word.

“Do not get your gown stained with food,” Elsbeth warned as they began to eat.

They devoured all the hot cereal and ate every bit of the stale bread trenchers, sharing the cider between them.

“Who knows when we will eat again this day?” Elsbeth said. When they had finished she quickly packed up the few things she had unpacked the previous evening.

Richard of Gloucester arrived, and was pleased to see them ready to depart. “How pretty you look, poppet,”

he complimented Adair. “Crimson is a color that suits you, as it did your mother.” He knelt so they might speak face-to-face. “Now, you will remember to make your parents proud, my lady Countess of Stanton. You will behave with grace and dignity no matter the situa
tion. Some at the court are high-flown with reason. Others have little reason. Your mother always spoke gently no matter, and you will make me proud if you do as well.” The duke slipped a little gold ring with a tiny green stone from his smallest finger. He placed it upon Adair’s middle finger. It just fit. 

“My gift to you, my lady Countess of Stanton. I will see you again soon.” He stood up and spoke now with Elsbeth. “The queen and her household will remain at Westminster for a few more weeks until all is finally settled. It is safer. Make certain Adair reminds the queen publicly of her promise to Jane Radcliffe. Elizabeth Woodville is most careful of what she considers her good name and good word. And my brother, the king, will not deny Adair. He is an honorable man. You may not see him for several weeks, for we are yet mopping up pockets of Lancastrian resistance. I have assigned two of my own soldiers to escort you to Westminster. You should reach there by late afternoon today.”

“Thank you, my lord,” Elsbeth said. “I do not know how we would have managed without your kind inter-vention.” She curtsied to him. Then she handed him her money pouch. “This is my mistress’s fortune, my lord.

You wished to put it with the Jew in Goldsmith’s Lane,”

Elsbeth reminded him.

“You managed quite well yourself, mistress,” he complimented her. “I am amazed you got this far without incident. You are a brave woman.” He took the pouch from her. “You have counted it?” She nodded in the affirma-tive. “I will place it with the banker,” he told her. Then, turning away from her, he picked the little girl up. “I must go, Adair. Be a good little maid, and I will see you soon.

Will you give your uncle Dickon a kiss, poppet?”

Adair wrapped her arms about his neck and kissed him twice on both of his ruddy cheeks. “I will give you two kisses,” she told him. “One for now, and one for later to remember me by.”

Richard of Gloucester chuckled. “I can see you are a 
minx,” he told her as he set her down. “You must not be so free with your kisses with anyone else but me, my lady Countess of Stanton.”

“Will you come to see me?” Adair asked him, her young voice anxious.

“I will visit with you each time I am at court,” he promised her. “Now go and bid Prior Peter farewell, and thank him for his hospitality,” the duke said. He set Adair’s cape about her shoulders, pulling the hood over her dark head.

Adair curtsied to him, then took Elsbeth’s hand, and they hurried off to find the cleric before terce began.

Beiste walked by Adair’s side, carrying the large bone in his jaws. The prior was just breaking his fast, but he received his two guests. Adair thanked him nicely for their shelter and the food he had given them.

“And Beiste thanks you too for his fine bone,” Adair said sweetly.

Prior Peter looked at the great dog. He was a fine animal, if perhaps a bit scrawny. “The dog wants fattening up,” the prior remarked.

“He has had to hunt for his food as we journeyed,”

Adair explained.

“Indeed,” Peter Neville said. “Come now, child, and kneel. I will give you my blessing.” He looked to Elsbeth. “You, too, woman! You’ll both need my prayers.”

And when they knelt before him he prayed over them and blessed them.

“Thank you, my lord prior,” Adair said, rising, and she kissed the cleric’s outstretched hand. “I hope you will remember my parents, and the good folk of Stanton so grievously slain, in your prayers. They were good people.”

“I will pray for them, child,” Prior Peter promised.

Outside of the prior’s dwelling they found their horses and two men at arms awaiting them. They helped Adair and Elsbeth to mount their animals, and then with Beiste alongside them the little party departed the monastery and turned in the direction of Westminster.

They rode for the next four hours, and then stopped to rest the horses. The prior’s cook had packed a basket of delicate foods for the two women. The soldiers carried oatcakes and strips of dried meat for their own fare. After an hour they were on the road again, and by three the towers of Westminster came into sight. The duke’s men knew exactly where they were going, and brought Adair and her companion to the queen’s dwelling within Westminster’s vast compound as the darkness fell.

The queen’s majordomo was called forth. He looked haughtily upon the duke’s men, for he knew his mistress liked her husband’s brother no better than the duke liked Elizabeth Woodville. “What is it you want?” he demanded.

“Our master, the Duke of Gloucester, asked that we deliver my lady the Countess of Stanton into the queen’s care. He found her yesterday with her servant on the high road seeking the king, who is her natural father. Her family has been slain by Lancastrians, and she is alone in the world.”

The majordomo raised a skeptical eyebrow, but the duke’s man did not budge. “Who is her mother?” he demanded to know. “I have been with the queen since before the days of her marriage to King Edward.”

“My mother was Jane Radcliffe,” Adair spoke up quietly.

Suddenly the majordomo softened his attitude. “Lady Jane Radcliffe?” he said. “Yes, I remember her well. Unlike some, she treated my mistress with the greatest respect.” He stared at Adair. “You are your mother’s image, my lady. Come in! Come in!” He waved a dismissing hand at the duke’s men. “You may go. You have done your duty, and I will see that my lady the Countess of Stanton is presented to the queen.” He looked at Beiste. “Take the dog to the kennels as you leave.”

“Nay, Beiste remains with me,” Adair said in a commanding tone. “He is mannerly, sir.”

The majordomo shrugged. “Very well,” he replied.

“Come along now, my lady.”

Turning a moment, Adair thanked the duke’s men for their service. Then she, Elsbeth, and Beiste followed after the queen’s majordomo as he led them into the house, up the stairs, and into the queen’s hall, where Elizabeth Woodville was seated with her women and two eldest daughters listening as a minstrel sang. A fire burned in a large stone hearth. The high board was set with plates of cold meats, bread, and cheeses. There was a bowl of both apples and pears.

Elizabeth Woodville looked up as her majordomo came into the chamber. Seeing the woman, the child, and the wolfhound accompanying him, she cocked her head to one side. “What is this, Roger?” she asked him as he came before her.

“Your Highness, may I present to you Lady Adair Radcliffe, the Countess of Stanton. It is not my place to tell you her tale.” He stepped back.

Adair came forward and curtsied prettily. “Your Highness, I beg that you give to me the friendship that you once promised to my late mother, Jane Radcliffe, who served you loyally. My parents have been slain by renegade Lancastrians, and I was forced to flee for my life with my servant and my dog. Before they sent me to safety my parents told me the truth of my birth.”

“Did they?” Elizabeth Woodville said softly. Had the child looked anything like her sire the queen knew she would have hated her on sight. But Adair Radcliffe looked exactly like her mother.
Perhaps
, the queen thought,
I should still hate her
. But she couldn’t. Jane Radcliffe had done everything she could to keep from the king’s bed. In the end it was her husband who had sold her for an earldom. Not that it had actually cost Edward a ha’penny, for his leman’s husband had land aplenty. “I remember your mother well, Adair Radcliffe. The king must decide what is to be done with you, but until that time you are welcome in my household.

Your servant and dog as well,” Elizabeth Woodville said with a smile. “How old are you?”

“Six, Your Highness, this August past,” Adair answered.

“Elizabeth, Mary, come here to me,” the queen called to her two eldest daughters. “Come and meet her ladyship the Countess of Stanton, who will now be in the nursery with you.” As the two little girls came forward the queen introduced them. “This is the Princess Elizabeth, who will be seven in February. And Princess Mary, who was five on the sixth of August.”

“Oh!” Adair said excitedly, “we share the same birthday, my lady.”

Mary of York looked haughtily at Adair. “I do not share my birthday with anyone,” she said in a hard little voice. “I am a king’s daughter.”

“So am I!” Adair snapped back, and then she clapped her hand over her mouth.

Elizabeth Woodville laughed softly. “You do not look like your sire,” she remarked, “but you have his pride, I see. Well, the cat’s escaped the bag, and there is no help for it. Adair was sired by your own father, my daughters, which is why she will have our aid and comfort, for she is your blood kin. Where is Mags?”

“I am here, Your Highness.” Lady Margaret Beaufort came forward. She was a tall woman in her late twenties with chestnut-colored hair that showed from beneath her headdress, and fine dark blue eyes. Although her son was the heir to the house of Lancaster, she was nonetheless a trusted member of the queen’s household, and the royal governess. Her intellect and serene manner were much admired.

“This is Adair Radcliffe, the Countess of Stanton, Mags. She’s one of Edward’s bastards. Her family has been killed, and she has been sent to us. She is a bit younger than Bessie. I’m putting her in the nursery with the girls. You will have charge over her,” the queen said.

“She has her own servant.”

“Very good, Your Highness,” Lady Margaret Beaufort said. She looked at Adair. “The dog is yours?”

“Yes, my lady.” Adair’s little hand rested on Beiste’s head.

“He goes into the kennel. I will not have a dog in my nursery,” Lady Margaret said in a no-nonsense tone.

“Then I shall go into the kennel with him,” Adair said stubbornly. “I will not be separated from Beiste. He is my best friend, and all I have left of Stanton.”

“You will not like the kennel,” Lady Margaret remarked dryly.

“Probably I will not,” Adair admitted, “but I will not send Beiste away. It would be cruel. And I am all he has left of Stanton.”

Margaret Beaufort looked down at the little girl standing so politely but defiantly before her. There was something about this child that reached out and touched her heart. “There are cats in the nursery,” she pointed out.

“Beiste loves cats,” Adair quickly assured her. “There was one who slept with him in my father’s hall. And he does not shit indoors but goes out. Even in the rain. And he is a wonderful watchdog as well.”

The queen laughed. “I think, Mags, that my lady the Countess of Stanton has made a good case for her wolfhound, don’t you?”

Margaret Beaufort allowed a small smile to turn up the corners of her mouth. “I suppose a good watchdog would be a fine addition to the nursery,” she agreed.

“Very well, child. The dog may come with us. Bessie, Mary, it’s time to return to our quarters.” She looked at Elsbeth. “You have a name?”

“Yes, my lady. Elsbeth, although my lady calls me Nursie.”

“You will continue to have charge over your mistress, but now and again I may ask service of you. Do you understand?”

“Yes, my lady,” Elsbeth said.
No nonsense with this
 
one
, she considered. She was yet young, but she was tough.

Adair took her leave of the queen, thanking her for her gracious welcome and curtsying politely. Then she and Elsbeth followed Lady Margaret back to the children’s quarters of the house, Beiste trotting along beside them. The nursery was made up of several chambers. The infant prince, Edward, had several of his own rooms for himself and his attendants. Adair was assigned a sturdy pallet cot in a bedchamber with the three princesses, who slept in a large curtained oak bedstead. Cicely, the littlest princess, was between two and three years of age. She was not considered old enough to visit her mother in the hall. The queen came now and again to coo over Cicely and her baby brother. The children’s personal servants slept in a small adjoining room.