The Highwayman (32 page)

“Lord Selby was aware of my circumstances when we married,” Alex replied. “He accepted the situation, and gladly.”

“That’s not what has infuriated the queen,” Mary said, as if Alex should know.

“What, then?”

“The insult to Lord Selby’s indulgence. Your keeping your lover at Hampden Manor in the guise of a servant whilst Selby was away.”

“But I never!” Alex gasped.

“What do you mean? He was there, was he not?”

“I never lay with Burke after I was married. Never!”

“The queen thinks you were conducting an illicit liaison while acting as Selby’s wife, boldly keeping a roof over your fancy man’s head with your absent husband’s money, and right under the noses of his servants. You know how she feels about such furtive relationships. Nothing irritates her more.”

“I didn’t even know Burke was still in England until I walked into my stable and found him working there! There was no plan to keep him as my lover, you should know that, Mary. What was I supposed to do, throw him out onto the roads? He was going back to Ireland after he left me at Whitehall. It was a cruel misfortune that the queen saw him when we arrived, liked his looks, and told him to stay the night. Markham saw him the next day.”

“I’m not the one who wants convincing,” Mary said.

“I must explain it to her.”

Mary shook her head. “She’s not in a listening mood.”

“But she’s judging me unfairly! Mary, you must ask her to give me another interview. She must not be completely insensitive to my unhappy state, she let you come to see me.”

“I think she is not pleased about keeping you confined like this, as she has always been fond of you. But her disappointment has no other outlet. She must show her disapproval of your conduct.”

“Of my supposed conduct! I had no affair, on my oath. I wanted to, was often tempted, but never succumbed.”

Mary sighed. “Do you think she will believe you?”

“I know not.” Alex looked down at her hands and then up at her companion. “Mary, I must speak to you concerning a weighty matter.”

“What?”

“Lord Selby is dead.”

“Yes, I heard it.”

“If both Burke and I. . . well... if fate is not kind to us, my son will have no one. My uncle will not recognize him, I know that.”

Mary covered Alex’s hands with her own. “Say no more. I will have Michael to live in my house and raise him as my own child. I promise you.”

Alex lifted Mary’s hand to her lips and kissed it. “I can’t think what I’ve done for God to send me such a faithful friend,” she said with tears in her eyes.

“He’s sent you troubles enough to make up for it,” Mary replied sympathetically.

Alex sighed, still retaining hold of Mary’s hand. “Is there any news of Burke?”

Mary hesitated.

“Tell me,” Alex said.

“A warrant is being drawn up for his execution.”

“Has the queen seen it?”

“I think not yet.”

“She’s notoriously reluctant to put her name to any such document. Look you, Essex still lingers, and it took her ministers many tries to get her to sign away the life of the queen of Scots.”

“That is true, but Markham presses his case very vigorously.”

“Yes, I know.”

“But too much pressure on a matter sometimes causes the queen to turn the other way,” Mary added.

Alex nodded.

“It is impossible to say what will happen.” Mary paused. “I’ve overstayed my time,” she said, rising. “You have another visitor.”

“Who is that?”

“Your uncle.”

Alex shook her head.

“The queen has given him leave to see you, and it would not be wise to refuse the interview,” Mary said.

“I suppose.”

“Courage,” Mary said as she left.

She had hardly passed through the doorway when Philip Cummings appeared in it. He was dressed in his usual sober color, a deep gray doublet and hose, and looked much the same as the last time Alex had seen him.

“Uncle,” Alex said.

“Well, Alexandra, it seems you are in a pretty fix.”

“No lecture, Uncle, I cannot abide one.”

“So it seems,” Cummings said, folding his arms. “All my lectures in the past were certainly to no avail.”

Alex said nothing.

“I’m not surprised that your relationship with that Irish blackguard has wound you up in such a case.”

“Must we cover this old ground again?”

“He found you here, in England.”

“Obviously.”

“And you simply could not give him up.”

“I gave him up, in the sense you mean, anyway. He was on his way back to Ireland when the queen saw him with me and asked him to stay to court. He was there spotted by Captain Markham, from whose ship he had deserted.”

“Markham had no knowledge of Burke’s rebellion in Ireland?”

“He does now.”

“And why was Burke on Markham’s ship?”

Alex sighed. “Burke was taken at sea. He was trying to get to England.”

“And you.”

“And me.”

“So,” Cummings said, unfolding his arms and putting them behind his back, “both of you are in this miserable circumstance because Burke pursued you here. If he had remained in Ireland, he would be free, having established his truce with the Crown, and you and your child would still be safe in Selby’s house.”

Alex looked away. “I cannot fault him because his love for me led him here,” she said softly.

“A most determined man. Determined to have you, anyway.”

The comment did not require a reply.

“I own I underestimated him,” Cummings added.

Alex looked up at him. Her uncle rarely admitted a mistake of any kind.

“When he came to Inverary after you, and I told him you were married, I thought he would give you up. I should have borne in mind the long years he fought us in Ireland. Clearly, he is most tenacious about something, or someone, he wants.”

“Yes.”

“What about the child?”

“Pardon?”

Cummings eyed her judiciously. “Alexandra, you must show some responsibility in this matter. Selby is dead. A warrant is being prepared for Burke’s condemnation and you are under house arrest, with a future that could be described as uncertain at best. Have you given no thought to your son?”

“I have. Mary Howard has promised to take him, and it is my heartfelt wish that he should go to her.”

Cummings nodded. “I see. Well, I should not be surprised that you wouldn’t want me to have him.”

“You?” Alex said, shocked.

“Why not? He is my blood.”

“And he is Burke’s blood! As I recall, you came near to apoplexy when you heard of his impending arrival. Why are you interested in him now?”

“I am ready to do my duty by my brother’s grandchild.”
 

“Please,” Alex said. “I have had enough of you doing your duty, Uncle.”

“Very well,” Cummings said briskly. “I will take my leave of you, wishing you the best.”

“Is that so?”

“Certainly.”

“You cannot be unhappy that all of your dire predictions concerning me have come true.”

“I never wished you ill, Alexandra,” he said in so sad a tone that she came near to believing it.

“I pray that is so,” she said. She folded her hands and asked, “What is the news of your friend, Lord Essex?”

“His day has passed. His house has become a gathering place for grumblers and malcontents, it will come to no good in the end.”

“But you, of course, are now allied with the other party.”

“Of course.”

“So you survive.”

He smiled thinly. “Always.”

“I admire your agility, Uncle.”

He held out his arms. “Enough of this banter. Embrace me.”

Alex went to him and endured the touch of his dry lips against her cheek.

“I will do what I can to procure your release,” he said, stepping back from her.

“Really?”

“As much as I can without endangering my own position,” he said, and Alex smiled. It was the most straightforward thing he had ever said to her.

“Good-bye, Uncle.”

“Good-bye.”

Cummings left the room. Alex sat once again on the deep chair that had become her roosting place since she had been under guard.

* * * *

Burke sat up in his bed of straw and propped his back against the rude stone wall behind him. His manacled hands allowed him freedom of movement as long as he kept his wrists close together, as there was a foot-long chain linking them. He drew up his legs and rested his arms on his knees.

Something had happened to Alex. She had said she would come back, and he hadn’t seen her since her first visit. He didn’t believe that she had taken him at his word and abandoned him. Her vehemence on the subject was proof that she meant to return. So where was she?

Burke watched as the guard paused in front of the iron door and rattled the lock. The other men in the communal cell looked up and then away, their expressions as hopeless as his.

Burke spent all his time formulating an escape plan he was loath to use for fear that his flight would reflect badly on Alex. This was her country, and she would have to live here with their child long after his fate had been decided. He didn’t want the mercurial queen to punish Alex for her servant’s escape.

And so he sat and thought, wishing he were back in Ireland, free to bathe in the streams and wander among the trees.

* * * *

Alex was trying to interest herself in a sampler when her door swung open and the guards in the hall snapped to attention.

“Lady Selby,” the queen said briskly.

Alex curtsied. The queen was alone.

“I do not wish to be disturbed,” Elizabeth said to the guards, who closed the door. This was followed by the sound of their axes banging on the floor.

“Rise,” Elizabeth said.

Alex did so.

“I am here because your relatives have been plaguing me to converse with you again.”

“My relatives, ma’am?”

“Your cousin, Mary Howard, and that unctuous uncle of yours, Lord Stockton.”

Alex said nothing.

“Well? There is something you wish to say to me?” Elizabeth asked.

“I think Your Majesty may have . . . misunderstood something about my situation.”

“Misunderstood?”

Alex lost her nerve and fell silent.

Elizabeth stared hard at her for a moment and then looked around the room. Her dress, the same brilliant orange as her wig, stood out like a flaming sun against the background of the dark carpet.

“I mislike this, Lady Selby,” she said softly. “I know very well what it is like to be a prisoner. During my late sister’s reign I was under guard and in fear of my life many long and lonely days.”

Alex said nothing, too wary of disturbing the queen’s softening mood to speak.

“But what other am I to do when confronted with such blatant wickedness?” the queen demanded.

“What wickedness?” Alex asked.

“You kept your lover on your husband’s estate whilst honest Selby, that good man, was away on my business!”

“Burke was never my lover after I was married!” Alex responded with equal heat, forgetting herself. “That was the subject I wished to broach with you ... Your Majesty.”

Elizabeth’s eyes widened.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, for speaking so impetuously,” Alex said hastily. “But I fear I have been misjudged and would set the matter right with you.”

“Go on.” The queen sat and gestured for Alex to follow suit.

Alex briefly explained Burke’s presence at Hampden Manor and how he had come to be with her at Whitehall.

The queen listened without expression, and then finally said, “So this man Burke remained working in your stables for months after you had thought him gone.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And your only contact with him after your marriage was merely a friendly one.”

“Well...”

“More than friendly?”

“I still loved him, ma’am, as I do now.”

“So you wanted him.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And acted upon it?”

“To a degree.”

“Oh, stop fencing, Lady Selby, and come out with it! Did you lie with him or no?”
 

“No.”

“But you came close upon it.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Hmmph. The Bible says that lusting in the heart is the same sin as the act,” the queen said.

“Oh, of course it isn’t!” Alex replied. “Begging your pardon, ma’am, but if wanting to do something were the same as doing it, half the citizens of London would be locked up fast in the Tower this very minute.”