Mary Queen of Scotland & the Isles (55 page)

If I had made him up, I would have included all these features, Mary
thought. Even to his being Catholic .. .

In the cold December days just before her twenty-second birthday, Mary
opened Parliament at the Tolbooth. She had convened it expressly for
the purpose of restoring the Earl of Lennox to his honours and estates,
and she marched slowly up the Canongate from Holyrood in procession,
with Lord James bearing the crown, as the Hamiltons who should have
done so refused to participate in the restoration rites for their
political enemy. The Earl of Atholl bore the sceptre and the Earl of
Crawford the sword of state.

Once inside the dark building, Mary stood and addressed the Three
Estates of the Realm as to her purpose in forgiving the Earl of Lennox.
Then Maitland rose and gave a second address.

"Dear countrymen," he said, "you know full well the noble descent of
Matthew Stuart, and his further affinity with the Queen by way of his
marriage to her aunt. Our Queen, with her tender heart, does not wish
to see any noble house come to ruin; she wishes the ancient blood to
continue to be revered. In the three years that Her Majesty has
governed us, we have had proof of her frank and magnanimous dealings,
and many notable examples of her clemency. We have been most
fortunate...."

Afterwards, at the banquet at Holyrood in which Lennox was feasted,
Maitland had the opportunity to seek out Lord James, who had been
glaring at him all day.

"Not only did you not prevent this, you had to laud it!" he hissed.

"I was powerless to prevent it," said Maitland. "You know that."

Riccio and his musicians had left off playing, and the men had to turn
to general conversation until the instruments could once again provide
a background to cover their voices.

When the strains of "Adieu, O Desire of Delight" were struck up, Lord
James said, "Now we can expect the worst! I have heard that she
exhibits great curiosity about this Damley, her cousin. Next he will
be here, following his father's trail like a puppy."

"It could be worse. At least Darnley is Elizabeth's subject, and not a
foreigner."

"No, it could not be worse, if she takes a fancy to him! A whole party
will be created; the Lennox Stuarts will reign supreme. And there will
be no place for anyone else." Lord James looked grim. "At least not
for this generation."

"Darnley is a boy. He might prove easy to rule. Once he is here, he
may suit our purposes exactly." Maitland sighed. "One must look for
opportunities," he said. "One must always look for opportunities."

The music had risen louder, and Mary and Melville were dancing a
galliard alone on the floor. Soon Lusty and John Sempill had joined
them, the dancing becoming more vigorous and abandoned. Now even
Randolph and Beaton were making their way toward the others.

"I have heard reports about this 'boy," " said Lord James. "When he
was in France, away from his mother who rules him in all things I heard
he was not so well behaved. He has a taste for wine, too much of it,
and pranks."

"So he's silly and rebels against his mother. What lad does not?" said
Maitland. "Did you never do anything you would not want your mother to
know? I'll warrant even John Knox did."

SEVENTEEN

Henry, Lord Darnley, sat as straight as he could in the saddle and
craned his neck. They were approaching the border of Scotland; soon he
would be able to see his native land for the first time. The remains
of the Roman wall had been left behind at Newcastle. He had looked
forward to seeing it had even composed a poem in advance about it, a
fine one too but the wall had proved disappointing, just a moss-covered
mound wrapped in mist. Perhaps once it had been mighty, had served as
some sort of barrier, but now it could not stop even a grazing flock of
sheep from passing to and fro. Nonetheless he whispered the refrain
from his poem as he and his five attendants passed through the gap:

"Hold fast thy guarded mission, Though the fates assail thee; Thou host
the charge that we would wish on To stand, to keep, and not to flee."

From the time he was a child he had heard stories of the fabled wall,
built to keep the barbarians at bay. Now the wall lay engulfed in
civilisation, and barbarism had been pushed farther north north to
Scotland, where he was going, although farther north than Edinburgh and
Glasgow and Stirling.

There had been jolly times on the road since he had left court stopping
at inns to sport, and even drink too much. With each flagon he had
toasted his mother, who customarily oversaw every morsel he ate, every
costume he wore, every letter he wrote.

"Here's to you, Mother dear, Mother most watchful, Mother most grave,"
he cried that first day out, lifting his tankard. Then he giggled and
rattled off, "Mother most pure, Mother most chaste, Mother inviolate,
Mother undefiled, Mother most amiable, Mother most admirable, Mother of
good counsel, Mirror of Wisdom, cause of our joy well, that's true, she
arranged all this. And now, I'm a young man going off to seek his
fortune. Spiritual vessel, singular vessel of devotion, Mystical Rose"
he laughed uproariously at the image of his stout mother as a mystical
rose "Gate of Heaven, Morning Star "

"Watch your tongue, you sot ten puppy!" cried a burly man seated
nearby. "If you insult the Virgin once more "

"Insult the Virgin?" asked Darnley. "I am speaking of my mother, my
blessed mother, not the Blessed Mother."

"You're perverting the Litany to the Virgin, and we don't take kindly
to it. Be warned." He raised a bushy, tangled eyebrow, and the eye
that stared out was like a marble.

"Aye." Darnley returned to his beer. The freedom, the freedom from
her had quite gone to his head. It was that, rather than the liquor.

To be free of her at last! Of her meddling and lecturing and conniving
and counselling. Our Lady of Constant Counsel. He giggled, and the
man next to him gave another baleful stare.

Even as he had been standing in his bedchamber trying to remember if he
had packed what was needful, she had come in and brushed his hair.

"Like a shining crown of gold," she had said dreamily. "Make sure when
you wash it you rinse it with chamomile water to keep its colour."

"Mother!" He had clapped his hat on in disgust.

"They say she is partial to golden hair," she said.

"I heard she preferred black hair," he said, just to argue.

"No, I have it on the best authority "

"Bah!" He fastened his cloak sooner than he had planned to, in order
to leave. The open road beckoned, the high road to freedom. What
mattered what waited in Scotland? Its most compelling charm lay in the
fact that his mother was forbidden to enter. He could go where she
could not follow.

As a result, he had not thought enough about Scotland itself; it had
been an escape rather than an entity or reality in itself. And now
that reality was lurking just a few miles away, and he felt ignorant
and unprepared.

Why did I not read more about it, study more? he bewailed as they
approached Berwick and the border.

Because she assailed me so constantly I had no leisure or privacy, he
answered himself. But it was no comfort.

They passed through Berwick, the border city that had once been
Scottish but had been won by the English in 1482 and remained in their
hands. The Earl of Bedford, watchdog for the area, greeted them
ceremonially and then escorted them to the very border itself, where
the Lord James and Maitland and a company of horsemen received them.

"In the name of Her Majesty Queen Mary, we bid you welcome to
Scotland," said Lord James.

His speech was perfect London English, and Darnley was disappointed.

"You sound like Englishmen," he said.

"Inth' name o' Her Majesty the Queen, we bid ye welcome tae Scotland,"
said James. "Ken ye this better?"

Darnley laughed. "They are almost two separate tongues, then."

"Two. lei ds confirmed James.

And I have not learned it! thought Darnley with a grey feeling. They
will be able to talk, and I not understand.

"I will learn," he promised. "For it is the language of my family."

"Ye are tae bide i' Holyrood for a space," said James. "An tak yer
ease at Edinburgh. Yer fait her is at Dunkeld, but will soon join ye.
The Queen, she is at Wemyss Castle."

It sounded like Dutch to Darnley, and it quickened his unease.

"Slowly, sir, slowly. I am but little learned in Scots as yet," he
said.

"Ye'd best leave quickly, then," James advised, and his voice was
cold.

EIGHTEEN

Mary shivered even in her woollen undergarments that were supposed to
keep the cold at bay. They were woven of fine light wool and were
close-fitting, so they would not show under regular clothes.

She had had them made up in France, and if they proved satisfactory,
she planned to order a trunkful both for herself and her Marys. But
they offered scant protection against the peculiar, seeping wet chill
of this February, which did not produce honest ice and snow, but white
mists and creeping damp that left fingers stiff and made one shiver
continually.

Throwing on her thickest mantle, fastening her beaver-fur hat, and
pulling on her gloves, she decided to walk about the garden. Fight
fire with fire, cold with cold, she thought. If I go outside, properly
dressed, it may feel warmer than staying inside the cold stone rooms of
Wemyss Castle. And walking will stir my sluggish blood.

She descended the spiral stone staircase of the corner turret of the
old castle, and pushed open the thick iron-and-oak door into the
garden. It was deserted in this dead time of year, its hedges bare,
its flowerbeds covered in straw and burlap. Frost lay on the mounds of
mulch and made a coating on the statuary. Cupid with his arrow, poised
on one chubby foot, had ice on his rounded buttocks.

And tomorrow is Valentine's Day, thought Mary. Poor cold lad, you'd
best cover yourself.

Strange how we forget that Cupid grew up to be a handsome god. He was
as beautiful as a male Venus, and Psyche fell in love with him at one
glance. Instead we cling to the dimpled child instead of the man. Why
is that, I wonder?

She smiled as she thought of the little celebration she had planned for
her company Valentine choosing in the traditional manner, games,
tokens. The Marys would enjoy it, particularly Mary Livingston, whose
suitor John Sempill was close to hand. They would marry soon, all of
them. And it was time. They were all in their twenties and had
already waited long enough out of deference to their mistress.

It is good that we are here out of eyesight and spy-sight of Knox, she
thought. Wemyss Castle is not a place he'll come, nor any of his
fellows, for all it's just across the firth from Edinburgh. He has
become more vociferous of late, more demanding.

She turned down the avenue of cypresses that formed a double row in the
centre of the garden. The tall, sloping green trees kept a watch over
the rest of the garden, almost bidding it be silent. And silent it
was; no birds sang, no noise was heard, except the chafing of the water
on the rocks far below. The dash and slither of the cold sea made an
icy, mournful sucking sound as it pounded and withdrew, pounded and
withdrew.