A Love for All Time by Bertrice Small Read Free Book Online

know,” Conn said.
    Her pretty face stared down into his, her red hair tumbling about her shoulders. “Conn, please! Yer not just a good fuck, yer a friend, and frankly the only friend I would trust with this information. I need to tell someone! ” she finished desperately.
    He sighed. He had always had a tendency to be softhearted, and her plea touched him. Nay, it flattered him, if he were to be totally honest with himself. “All right, Lettice, I swear I will not reveal either yer plans or the bridegroom’s identity; but I warn ye that if the queen learns of what ye’ve done, and asks me, I shall deny ye ever told me!”
    “Fair enough, Conn.” She paused, and then announced dramatically, “I am marrying Robert Dudley!”
    “Jesu Christus!” Pushing her away he sat bolt upright in the bed. “I did not hear ye, woman! D’ye understand? I do not hear ye! God in his heaven, Lettice, are ye totally mad? The Earl of Leicester? The queen’s very own beloved? Do ye have a death wish then? Bess will not bring a swordsman in from France to sever yer head from yer shoulders, she’ll wield the bloody ax herself!”
    “I love him!” Lettice cried dramatically.
    “If ye love him then why are ye here in my bed? Love Dudley ? Only Bess can see anything lovable in that snake! Whether ye’ll admit to it or not, Lettice, yer marrying the queen’s passion in order to spite her!”
    “He wants children!”
    “Then he’d have been wise not to murder his first wife, but poor Amy Robstart had to be disposed of in order that Dudley might marry the queen. Fortunately for England the man lacks finesse, and caused such a scandal with the deed that even Bess didn’t dare defy the world to wed with him.”
    “It was never proven that Robert killed his first wife!” said Lettice Knollys angrily. “He wasn’t even at their home that day, and hadn’t seen her for weeks. She was dying of a canker in the breast, and killed herself rather than suffer any longer.”
    “Whatever the truth of the matter is, Lettice, Robert Dudley is Elizabeth Tudor’s personal and private property. If ye marry him ye risk both of yer lives. Bess may not be able to wed him herself, but she doesn’t want him to wed with anyone else either.”
    “We’re being married tomorrow, Conn. Robert wants an heir. An heir I am already carrying!”
    “He’s got two by Lady Douglas Sheffield if he’d but acknowledge their marriage which she claims took place several years ago.”
    “Robert doesn’t love Douglas Sheffield,” Lettice Knollys said smugly. “He loves me! Loves me enough to defy that dragon on the throne to wed with me! Besides, he swears to me that he did not wed Douglas Sheffield.”
    “He’s hardly defying Bess if she doesn’t know about it,” Conn observed wryly, “but then Dudley was never one for doing anything straight out in the open.”
    “Yer opinion is formed by yer sister Skye,” said Lettice. “She never forgave Robert for casting her aside.”
    “Lettice, if ye believe that then yer a bigger fool than I think ye are for even considering to marry the Earl of Leicester. Yer husband-to-be raped my sister while she yet mourned her third husband. The queen knew it, and allowed him to get away with it in order to keep him happy because she yet believed then that she might wed with him herself.”
    “I’ll not stay here and hear my betrothed insulted, ye upstart of an Irishman!” Lettice shouted at him indignantly.
    “Nay,” said Conn with a wicked smile upon his face, “but ye’ll stay because no one, ye ginger-haired vixen, makes love to ye like I can, and yer right! This is the last night we’ll spend together unless yer widowed quickly. I’ll not fuck Dudley’s leavings, but it delights me that he’ll never know he’ll be fucking mine!”
    “Whoreson!” Lettice screamed, and hit him across the face as hard as she could.
    He smacked her back, and grabbing at her they wrestled violently across the great bed.