Constant Heart by Siri Mitchell Read Free Book Online Page B

simple arrangement of hairs, and the netted cord that would gather my tresses in back was dotted with pearls.
    A second chambermaid parted my hairs in the middle as I sat on a stool. She twisted them away from my brow and then captured them in the net. After she finished, she curtsied. But before she left my presence, I stopped her.
    “This morning, I will want vermillion.”
    “My lady.”
    Joan found the casket and lifted the lid for the maid as she painted my lips and dabbed at my cheeks. After she had finished, Joan held a mirror for my viewing.
    I surveyed the results and was pleased. I looked sober. The vermillion paint had made my skin seem paler. No one would accuse me of being a gypsy.
    I was ready for whatever the day might hold.
    Upon leaving my chambers and asking for the earl, I was told he had already left for the palace and had taken Nicholas with him. Unsure of what I was to do, I stood there at length until Joan made the decision for me.
    “My lady will want a horse to take her to the palace and twenty of the earl’s men to ride with her.”
    I would? I turned toward her, brows raised. Had she gone mad?
    She smiled. When I said nothing in response, she inclined her head ever so slightly toward the front hall. And then, when still I had not moved, she curtsied before me, straightened, tucked her hand around my arm, and dragged me forth.
    “What have you done?” I was furious with her. What did I know of commanding twenty men? And what was I to do with them once I reached the palace?
    “I have done nothing but asked for an honor due someone of your rank.”
    “And what am I to do with them?”
    “Whatever you please.”
    Whatever I pleased. I contemplated that thought as we waited for my horse to appear. I could probably have saddled her faster myself. I began to wish of a sudden that I had not been so set on upholding my position at court. For surely no one cared whether I made an appearance. No one but the earl, of course. And perhaps then not even him. I sighed. “What is the earl to say?”
    “Whatever it is, certain I am that he will not be so hasty in leaving you behind next time.”
    I frowned at her.
    She crossed her eyes at me.
    An unseemly giggle threatened to bubble from my throat, but at that instant we heard the sound of a great thundering of hooves.
    The earl’s men rode into the courtyard in formation, a vision of azure and red, wrapped in dust. The man in the lead was holding the reins of my horse.
    None of the men looked overly happy at having been summoned from whatever it was they had been doing.
    “I wish . . . Could you not accompany me?”
    “ ’Tis not my place. ’Tis yours. And you had best be about the taking of it.” Joan raised her chin and looked toward the men. “They await your order.” She nudged me forward with an elbow.
    I descended the steps and walked to my horse. The man holding on to her reins dismounted, and I allowed him to help me mount.
    “My lady.” He bowed deep in gracious homage.
    I looked one last time at Joan, wishing for all the world that I might stay by her side.
    She frowned.
    I cleared my throat to find my voice. “I would go to the palace.”
    The man made no move.
    Was there some secret word? Some special phrase that would make them do my bidding?
    “You would go to . . . Whitehall, my lady? Or to Greenwich?”
    I looked at him sharply to discern if he was making sport of me.
    But he was not. He only wished to fulfill my command.
    “To Whitehall.”
    “My lady goes to Whitehall!”
    The men rode their horses round the courtyard and waited in formation in front of the gate. But what were they waiting for?
    The man who had helped me mount gestured that I should go first. “My Lady Lytham.”
    I felt a blush spread across my cheeks. They were waiting for me. But I did not remember how I was to get there. “I should be quite . . . grateful . . . if I did not have to think too hard upon where it is that I am going.”
    “Perhaps you