Betrayal (34 page)

             
“Eight-oh-five.”

“Then we had better be going,” he said, rolling Lydia onto to her side and gently pushing her out of the bed.  Dressing, Dan looked at the clock again. “If we are to get a bite to eat, it will have to be McDonalds or Burger King; it’s too late for anywhere else.”

              “Why don’t we get something at the airport?”

             
“Airport food, isn’t that an oxymoron?”

             
“There must be a Tim Horton’s nearby.”

             
“Coffee and a doughnut?”

             
“Or soup and chili. They make sandwiches too, you know.”

“Good enough. Now come here and give me one last kiss before we have to leave.”

              The fifteen minute drive to Saint John’s Airport passed in companionable silence with each of the car’s occupants lost in thought.

             
As Dan unloaded Lydia’s suitcase he asked, “What time did you say your flight leaves Halifax?”

             
“Eleven forty-five.”

             
“That doesn’t leave too much time for error.”

             
“None at all,” Lydia laughed. “Thank goodness Halifax isn’t a large airport or I would never make it.”

             
“But you’ll check your bags straight through to London here in Saint John won’t you?”

             
“Yes.”

             
“Good, then at least you won’t have to chase your suitcase in Halifax,” Dan teased, carrying her suitcase into the Airport terminal.

             
After Lydia checked her small suitcase for her flight to Halifax they found a seat overlooking the small airport’s landing field.  Lydia wanted to broach the subject of Dan’s coming to England, but couldn’t figure out what to say. Frowning, she reached into her carry-on bag to check her overseas ticket.

             
Dan stared ahead into the winter’s night; he too wanted to raise the possibility of his going to England, but he hadn’t spoken to George Seeley yet and he didn’t know if he could get someone to cover his patients on such short notice. ‘I just can’t leave,’ he thought. He’d have to talk with George first and George was off on a ski holiday with the family at Sunday River in Maine. ‘Should I call him there?’ Dan wondered. “No,” Dan decided “I shall just have to wait.”

             
“Wait for what?” Lydia asked as she rifled her bag looking for Elisabeth’s diary.

             
“Huh?” Dan said, not realizing he had spoken out loud.

             
“You said you’d just have to wait and I asked what for?”

             
“Oh, George, I have to speak with George.”

             
“Oh,” Lydia said, losing interest.

             
The public address system crackled to life, announcing boarding would begin on Lydia’s flight. Gathering her two small bags Lydia made her way to Security with Dan following.

             
“Well,” Dan said, reaching for Lydia’s arm.

             
“Well…”

             
Taking Lydia in his arms Dan kissed her, leaving her feverish. “Have a good trip and call me when you get to London.”

             
“It’ll be five in the morning here, better if I wait and call you from Totnes tomorrow afternoon. Okay?’

             
“Okay.”

             
Lydia lifted her bags onto the x-ray machine’s conveyor belt, handing the operator her ticket and passport.

Dan turned to wave goodbye. His heart was breaking. He felt as if he were losing her. ‘This trip to England is a mistake, a terrible mistake,’ he thought as he watched Lydia pass through the doors to the tarmac with a heavy heart.

***

             
Lydia crossed the wind-whipped tarmac clutching her coat and bags close. She turned to wave good-bye to Dan, but he was not in sight. Sighing heavily she shifted her bags, bent her head into the wind, and pushed toward the roll-away stairs. Balancing precariously she climbed the stairs into the airplane’s warm compartment. Finding her seat she fastened her seatbelt. Leaning forward to look out the tiny port-hole style window she hoped to see the terminal, but she was on the wrong side of the plane and only darkness greeted her.

             
Lydia was pleased to see that the plane was mostly empty on this holiday evening. She had been hesitant to bring attention to Elisabeth’s journal; she didn’t want to spend precious moments explaining to strangers what the book was and how she came to have it.  Leaning forward she lifted the slim volume to her lap in preparation for reading it on the short forty-four minute flight.  The flight attendant gave her safety demonstration and the plane began its taxi for take-off. Once in the air Lydia watched as the lights of Saint John disappeared and the darkness of the Bay of Fundy took their place.

             
Leaning back in her seat Lydia opened the journal randomly and read the next entry. The entry was dated August 31, 1535

             
‘Oh joy, the Queene is with child again. She miscarried of the babe she was carrying when I was sent to Eccleshall last year.  It is said three times a charm, I pray so. What joy to be back at the Royal Court.  Perhaps in her happiness I can ease my pain. George is at Beaulieu.  He has gone to bring Lady Rochford back to Court. Would that she would stay away forever. But it is not to be, she is to return by month’s start, but even that news cannot lessen my happiness to be home. My months in the north were so long and lonely living amongst strangers.

My lady Queene fears for her child and I have begged her accept my little blue cross as a talisman. I had thought to give it to Sarah before she left York Place. Now I thanke you, Lord Jesus, I have it to give my lady. Mother Mary Agnes said, ‘this will keep you safe,’ when she gave it to me so many years ago, and aye, it has. Now Lord, I beg you let it keep my lady and her son safe.  She must bring him to safe delivery. His
birth will mean my redemption; my shame is to be lifted, for my dearest says he will claim our son when the Queene bears hers, and I will hold my babe in my arms once more.

Lydia’s eyes burned so she closed them to relieve the stain. Her mind wandered over Elisabeth’s words as a scene formed in her mind’s eye.

TWENTY-FOUR

SEPTEMBER 1535

             
Elisabeth raised her skirts and jumped off the skiff before it was tied to the dock. “Sarah,” she shouted, as she raced up the stone stairs to the gate. She pushed past a yeoman warder who called to her to stop. Heedlessly, Elisabeth ran up the stairs. Master Kingston, the governor of the Tower of London stopped her with a shout.

             
“Halt, girl, go no farther!  Your lady has need of you, go to her.”

             
Red-faced, Elisabeth turned to see the Queen struggling to gain her footing on the floating dock. She ran back down the slippery steps to take her lady’s hand, as the Queen stepped off the bobbing quay.  “Pardon my lady,” Elisabeth said, as she tried to curtsy on the narrow staircase.

             
“Bide your time, Elisabeth; it is Sarah that you see. Soon you will have time together, but for now I have need of you.”

             
“Yes, my lady, of course, my lady,” Elisabeth replied, excited to have seen Sarah.

             
Elisabeth was so excited to see Sarah she couldn’t believe her eyes.  She was happy to see that Sarah joined the Queen’s entourage as it made its way to the same apartment Anne had stayed in the night before her coronation. Elisabeth waved to Sarah and was pleased as the child waved back. ‘My, but she has grown,’ Elisabeth thought, as she walked along the outer wall of the Tower complex. ‘It’s been…how long, since we have been parted?  Three, no four, years! Quite the young lady she is. Oh my, but she is beautiful.’

             
“Heed your step, Elisabeth, lest you trip on the cobblestones,” the lady Elizabeth Boleyn chided. “The Queen is tired from her trip from Hampton Court; do not tire her further by being slow in your attendance.”  Lady Boleyn straightened her belt as she walked beside Elisabeth. “Where were you?” she asked Elisabeth sharply.

             
Elisabeth frowned; turning to face the older woman, she asked, “Madam?”

“These many months you have been missing from my cousin’s service. Where were you?  You disappeared just after the announcement of your engagement. Did you go with your husband to be properly married? My cousin must have been disappointed not to be included in your nuptials. There is a glow about you, are you pregnant by any chance?”

              Elisabeth blushed wildly.

             
“You are; I was sure you were. When is to be the happy…“

Elisabeth interjected quickly. “Oh no, my lady, you are wrong. I was in Oxford; my grandfather was ill. I tended him until his passing on,” Elisabeth lied. “You are wrong my lady, I am not married.” Elisabeth half bowed to the Queen’s cousin, eager to leave her company.

“My lady cousin is pleased with your surprise at finding Sarah de Roche here,” Lady Boleyn said, changing the subject. “The child’s father arrived in April from Winchester to work on the White Tower. The Queen has known for months that the girl was here.” The lady paused dramatically to see the effect of her words on Elisabeth. When she heard Elisabeth’s heavy sigh, she smiled. “The Queen requests you accompany the musician, Smeaton, in singing the Prayer of Saint Francis at the feast tomorrow night. Do you know the words?”

             
“Yes, my lady, I learned all my prayers from the sisters at Saint Michael’s. I will need to practice though, as I have not sung the prayer in many years.”

             
“There will be time to practice tomorrow.  Tonight you must see to my lady Queen’s every need.”

             
“As always, my lady,” Elisabeth replied bowing from the waist. She glanced forlornly over her shoulder to see Sarah, but the girl was not in sight.

             
Elisabeth was assigned a bedchamber near the Queen’s apartments. As she put away her few things she wondered where in the huge Tower complex Sarah and her father were housed. The afternoon dragged on into evening, but Elisabeth had no time to seek out her former charge.

             
The Lady Jane Rochford, recently arrived back from her exile at Beaulieu, arrived with the King’s party. Elisabeth looked for George, but he was not there. She stopped on the stair and cringed when she heard the lady’s shrill voice. “You, Elisabeth, show me to my quarters.”

             
Elisabeth hastened down the stairs and crossed the courtyard to where the lady waited. She heard Henry Norris call to a servant “No, boy, not the Lanthorn apartments! Our lord King will not stay in old Edward’s moldering rooms. To the White Tower, my boy, and be quick about it.” Elisabeth drew breath as she watched the young boy struggle to balance his heavy load as he hurried back across the courtyard to follow the others unloading the King and his courtier’s supplies from the wagons to be carried up the steep hill to the White Tower. Suddenly she realized that Lady Rochford was standing at her shoulder.

             
“A nice looking boy, but much too young for you, Elisabeth; are my chambers to be the same as before?”

             
“Yes, my lady, if you will follow me I will take you to your rooms. I hope my lady and her husband had a good trip from Westminster.”

             
“George is not with us. He had business to attend to. He will arrive by horseback tomorrow.”

             
Elisabeth turned to hide her disappointment. But Jane sensed it and taunted the girl. “When will your husband return from Cornwall?  You were wed, were you not while

I was away from Court.  You must miss his warm embraces and be hungry for his company,” Lady Jane paused for effect, “by now.”

              Elisabeth’s cheeks burned, she fisted her hands and wanted to scream, ‘it is not he I hunger for,’ but she bit her tongue. Releasing her fisted hands she answered sweetly “We are not wed, he is only my betrothed.” But Elisabeth knew that betrothed was as good as married and that before long Master Tremayne would try to claim his bride. ‘I am the Queen’s servant,’ Elisabeth said to herself. ‘I am but a link in the Great Chain of Being and I must not question nor respond to her ridicule or I stand to lose my place in the Queen’s household.’ Elisabeth straightened her skirt in a bid to gain more time before she had to respond to Lady Rochford. “If my lady will follow me I will take you to your apartments. This way, my lady,” Elisabeth continued as she led Jane up the sweeping staircase of the Queen’s House.  After having left Lady Rochford, Elisabeth paused on the stair to remember how Mother Mary Agnes explained the Great Chain of Being, how each person no matter how rich or how humble had a place designed by God in the grand story of life.  God stood at the head of the chain, next came the King, below him the nobility, the Great Families of England, then the Gentry, Yeoman farmers, Husbandmen, Cottagers, laborers, and lastly, the poor, each and all having their particular place in God’s plan. Elisabeth flushed to remember her desire to challenge that orderly plan. She was called from her reverie by Lady Boleyn.