Elizabeth by Evelyn Anthony Read Free Book Online Page A

his view of her was still coloured by his experience of the nineteen-year-old Princess he had once escorted to the Tower, who wept and seemed so pitifully frail and feminine in her distress. Even the sharp contest of wills in the Council Chamber where Elizabeth overrode some of the toughest men in England had not taught him that she was not the wilting girl he had befriended long ago.
    â€œI’ve been charged by the other Councillors to give you a warning, Madam.”
    He was too gruff and forthright to notice the narrowed eyes, suddenly fixed on him like points of steel.
    â€œIf they chose you to be spokesman, they must have known I should dislike it, whatever it is. Don’t be too ready to be other men’s tongues, my Lord. What is this warning that they dare not give themselves?”
    â€œIt concerns Lord Robert Dudley.”
    â€œYes? What of Lord Dudley?”
    Her voice usually rose when she was angry; she asked the question lightly and again Sussex was misled.
    â€œHe’s bringing scandal on your good name. He is a married man and we have reason to believe that he intends to put away his wife and attempt something which would involve your Majesty in ruin.”
    â€œAnd what,” she asked softly, “do you mean by my ruin, Sussex?”
    â€œHe hopes to marry you himself, may God forgive him!”
    â€œMarry me.…” The thin brows arched with surprise. “What makes you think any such thing—and by Jesus, my Lord, in what way would I be ruined by a man’s honourable intentions?”
    â€œThey are not honourable!” Sussex burst out. “He seeks you from ambition to be King of England! And I tell you, as I shall tell him, that he won’t live to carry out his plan. He’s taken advantage of you, Madam, and for that alone I can never forgive him. Only a base-born dog, the son of a base-born traitor like his father, would dare dangle after an innocent woman and try to advance himself at her expense!—I come to warn you of it, before it is too late. I come to ask that you dismiss him from Court.”
    She swung round on him then, and he was startled at the fury in her face. The deadly, murderous anger of her father blazed up in front of him, and though he had never known fear, Sussex recoiled.
    â€œYou come to ask!—in that language? Take care, my Lord, take care. You talk of my ruin because you suspect that Robert Dudley hopes to marry me. You sit there and you dare to say he seeks me from ambition, as if I were so unwomanly it was impossible that he should love me for myself! Oh, by God, you say I’m an innocent woman, and all you mean is that you take me for a fool; Now you’re united, all you squabbling grandfathers, because you suspect a young man may succeed where these paper princelings fail! And you dare to threaten him and indirectly threaten me. Believe me when I tell you this. If anything befalls Robert, I’ll send a dozen of you to the Tower.”
    â€œThat’s in your power, Madam.” Sussex stood up, his heavy face crimson. “But there was a time when you yourself went there under my keeping, and I showed you more favour than you show me now, when I seek to help you once again.”
    She looked at him, and again it was King Henry, on whose friendship no one could rely once he was crossed.
    â€œYou presume too much on the gratitude of Princes.—You already owe your life and your position in my Government to what you did for me. My debt to you is paid. Remember that. You’ve delivered your message, now go and be my spokesman. Tell my Council that when I marry and if I marry an Englishman might well be to my taste. And thank them; until now I had not thought of Robert Dudley. From this time I shall seriously consider him.”

CHAPTER THREE
    July was the hottest month for nearly ten years; the country baked under a cloudless sky and a brassy sun. The water supplies fell dangerously low in some