The Highwayman (33 page)

The queen smiled. “I suppose there is truth in what you say. In my hot youth I wanted, and came close, several times, first with Thomas Seymour and later . . .” Elizabeth stopped, as if aware that she had revealed too much.

There was a silence. Then Alex said quietly, “I did not disregard Lord Selby’s honor, ma’am, I swear it. I kept my vows, but I could not help my feelings.”

“No, no one can,” Elizabeth said softly. “And why is it, I wonder, that we always seem to want what we cannot have?”

Alex shook her head.

“Well,” the queen said, rising, “I will think upon it.”

Alex leaped to her feet. “Madam, I . . .” she began.

“What is it?”

“I should very much like to see my baby,” Alex said, her voice breaking.

“You will see your child, Alexandra,” the queen replied. “Very soon.”

And with that, she was gone.

* * * *

The next morning Alex was summoned to the presence chamber. As she walked along the halls between two tall, helmeted yeomen, she wondered if she were about to witness the signing of Burke’s warrant or hear her own sentence pronounced. The guards were silent, and there was no way to tell what was about to happen.

Alex stopped short as she came into the room where the queen was seated on one of her elaborate portable thrones.

Burke was already there, his wrists manacled, an armed guard at his side. He was wearing the same clothes Alex had last seen, and his face was darkened with a new beard.

These were the only people in the room.

“Come closer, Alexandra,” the queen said, beckoning.

Burke’s eyes never left Alex’s face as she advanced toward the slightly raised dais where the queen sat.

“Lady Selby, here is Master Burke,” the queen said with that self-satisfied look that always made Alex nervous.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“It is my wish that he have his full say before sentence is pronounced upon him.”

Alex saw then what the game was. The queen would have Burke lie himself right onto the scaffold.

Alex held her breath. There was nothing she could do.

“So, Master Burke,” Elizabeth said, “tell us how you came to meet Lady Selby.”

“I was hired to work in her stables at Hampden Manor,” he said. “She knew nothing of my desertion from the navy.”

Alex closed her eyes.

“Now, now, Lady Selby has already told me that she knew you in Ireland. It would behoove you to end this dissembling,” the queen said genially.

Burke shot Alex a glance.

“I know about your rebel activity, Burke,” the queen said patiently, tapping a slender forefinger against the jeweled medallion she wore around her neck.

He coughed and looked at the ground. Alex could almost hear him thinking.

“I kidnapped Lady Selby to hold her for ransom in exchange for my brother, who was imprisoned at Inverary Castle,” Burke then said. “She was an innocent party and remained so.”

The queen sighed heavily and sat forward. “I know you are the father of Alexandra’s son, Burke.”

Burke’s shoulders slumped, and then after a slight pause his head came up determinedly. Alex could see him searching for another way to extricate her from the situation.

“You seem determined to talk yourself into a hangman’s noose as long as Lady Selby is spared,” the queen said, voicing Alex’s own thoughts.

“There is no reason she should suffer for my actions.”

“What about her own?” the queen demanded. “She has admitted that she cohabited with you while in Ireland and later concealed the fact that her child was not her husband’s.”

“Many others have done the same,” Burke said.

“Ah, I see you are familiar with court behavior. However, the commonality of disguising true parentage does not alter its iniquity.”

“Her uncle left her no choice in the matter,” Burke said.

“Her uncle! Pray tell.”

“Alex wished to stay in Ireland with me, but while I was away Cummings forced her to marry Selby when he learned she was expecting a child.”

“And what were you away doing?” the queen demanded. “Fighting my troops, the good Englishmen I sent to rout rebellion from your accursed country!”

“My people wish to be free,” Burke said.

“Free from what? Free from good government, free to be barbarians?”

“If Your Majesty would like to hear a catalog of the abuses forced upon my people by your governors—”

“Oh, I’m sure,” Elizabeth interrupted him. “People like you always have good reasons for your unlawful behavior. It never springs from the air, does it? I am well aware of the difficulty of ruling your land from such a distance. I have been plagued with its hazards for many years.”

“Then why not give Ireland up?”

“I will not lose territory passed on to me through my father, and I will not see my empire evaporate before my eyes!” Elizabeth replied, the veins standing out on her forehead.

Alex shrank back, certain now that she and Burke were both doomed.

There was long silence while the monarch regained control of her temper.

“I assume you are not aware that Lord Selby is dead,” Elizabeth said to Burke.

He started but carefully refrained from looking at Alex.

“I see that, like Lady Selby, you are not likely to fall into despair over this news.”

Burke wisely said nothing.

“I have had a letter from Ireland,” Elizabeth went on. “From Lord Carberry at Inverary Castle. It seems your master Tyrone has heard of your difficulties here, Burke. His news travels faster than mine, I must say, his spies surely have wings.”

Alex saw the hope spring into Burke’s eyes, and she felt a glimmer of it in her own heart.

“Tyrone has told Carberry that if I deal harshly with you, I will jeopardize the peace so lately made in your country.”

Burke’s expression didn’t change, but Alex saw the fingers of his bound hands flex and relax.

“So, Master Burke, your friends at home have not forgotten you. You must have done O’Neill some stalwart services. I wish I inspired such loyalty. He wants you to live and prosper, perhaps to strike at my scepter another day.”

“Your scepter was never our goal, ma’am. We wish only to be left alone to rule ourselves.”

“This bog trotter dares to threaten me!” Elizabeth cried, lifting the letter from her lap and shaking it at them.

Burke fell silent again.

“Still,” Elizabeth said, “I like a man who values a friend. Tyrone risks much to save your hide, my Irish friend, as you risked much to come here and claim your forbidden lady.”

Alex bit her lip.

“And I am weary, weary, of sending my men across the water to die in your fens, Master Burke,” Queen Elizabeth said. “I will do nothing, however minor, to disturb this truce, which was purchased with a full measure of English blood.”

Alex and Burke remained frozen in place, hardly daring to draw breath. The queen held Burke’s fate in the palm of her hand the way she’d held the golden globe in her coronation portrait, painted so many years earlier.

“Burke, your horse is ready and waiting for you at the royal stables. Take it and go. You have my full pardon and shall proceed unmolested from this court and this realm,” the queen pronounced.

Alex was sure she could hear her thundering heart beating aloud. She looked at Burke. He went down on one knee and bowed his head.

“Thank you, ma’am,” he said.

“You may approach me,” the queen said, extending her hand.

Burke glanced uncertainly at Alex, who nodded.

Burke walked up to the throne and knelt again, taking the queen’s hand in his manacled one and kissing the elegant fingers.

“Rise,” the queen said to him. He did so.

“Take those chains off him,” the queen said abruptly to Burke’s guard, who bowed and then moved to Burke’s side, releasing him from his shackles.

“And now Lady Selby, what shall we do with you?” the queen said, turning her gaze on Alexandra.

Alex swallowed nervously.

“You have been a most suitable lady’s maid, but methinks you would prefer to leave my service and go off with this man. Is that so?”

“That is so,” Alex said, finding her voice.

“So be it,” the queen said, flinging her hands wide. “I shall miss you, but God shield I should be the occasion of keeping two such dedicated lovers apart.”

Alex clasped her hands together, her eyes flooding with tears. “Your Majesty’s clemency will be rewarded in heaven by the only Judge greater than yourself,” she said.

“I pray that you are right,” Elizabeth said, “as I may shortly determine for myself.”

“Your Majesty surely has many years yet to live on this earth.”

“Bah! You talk like Essex and Raleigh and all those flatterers. I had thought you a far more sensible creature. Come here.”

Alex went up to the throne, taking her place next to Burke, and curtsied deeply. The queen leaned forward and took hold of her shoulders, helping her to rise and kissing her on both cheeks.

“My little Greek,” Elizabeth said softly. “Keep up with your reading.”

“I will, Your Majesty.”

“My learning had always been a great comfort to me, as I trust yours will be to you.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The queen sat back and observed the two young people, standing side by side.

“I own it is against my better judgment, but I verily wish you a long and happy life together,” she said, her rheumy old eyes misting. “Now be gone before I rethink myself on the matter.”

Alex curtsied and Burke bowed, then they backed out of the presence chamber as quickly as decency would permit.

In the corridor they turned and looked at each other.

“Let’s run,” Burke said.

“No!” Alex whispered.

Mary Howard came dashing around a corner and thrust a bag into Alex’s arms.

“The queen told me what she was going to do, and I packed some things from your room,” she said. “I’ll send the rest on when you write and tell me where you are. Now go!”

Alex kissed her quickly.

“Good luck and Godspeed,” Mary said.

“This way!” Alex said, taking Burke’s hand and leading him in the direction of the stables. They wound their way through the palace corridors, not pausing until they stepped into the cobbled courtyard and saw the horse barn in the distance.

“Old Dealanach won’t be half-glad to see me,” Burke said.

“No more than I am,” Alex replied, throwing her arms around his neck.

“We’re free,” Burke said, holding her close.

“I can’t believe it.”

“We should get right away from here,” he said, his voice muffled against her hair.

“Yes, yes, time enough for this later,” Alex said, breaking the embrace.

Burke released her reluctantly.

Alex looked over her shoulder. “Now we can run.”

* * * *

They rode hard and by nightfall had reached the inn where they’d stayed on the way in to London. The barmaid looked them over as they came through the door, travel-stained and road weary.

“Come back to us again, eh?” she greeted them knowingly. “Same room?”

Burke nodded.

“A shilling in advance,” she said.

They looked at each other. The background noise from the bar echoed in their silence.

“These are solid silver,” Alex said, ripping the buttons from her sleeves. They had been a gift from the queen.

“Is that so, dearie?” the barmaid said.

Alex handed them to her, and the maid put one in her mouth and bit it, hard.

“Seems all right to me,” she said. She waved them toward the stairs. “Go on up with you. Will you be wanting food?”

“Later,” Burke said.

“She thinks we’re living in sin, that we’re coming here to have assignations,” Alex said as they ascended the stairs.

“Well?” He raised one brow and grinned up at her from the lower step.

“Oh, you’re just as bad as she is,” Alex said, unable to restrain a smile of her own.

Once in the room, Burke stretched out on the bed with a sigh and said, “Come here to me.”

Alex lay down beside him and relaxed in the protective circle of his arm.

“I thought I’d be dead, hung or worse, by this evening, and here I am with you,” he said.

“It’s a miracle.”

“I don’t know if heaven had aught to do with it.”

“When I was summoned this morning I was so afraid, I didn’t know what to think,” Alex said.

“Your queen was trying to trap me with her questions. She already knew exactly what had happened.”

“I told her.”

He looked down at her in surprise.

“In hope of saving you. Needless to say, it didn’t work. She locked me up because she thought I was having an affair with you while I was married.”