Philippa by Bertrice Small Read Free Book Online

not hurt Millicent’s feelings.”
    “Just a short walk,” Sir Walter said, taking her arm, and moving off with her.
    Bessie Blount chuckled. “Why, the wicked baggage,” she said, grinning.
    “What is she up to?” Tony Deane wondered aloud, gathering his winnings, and leaving the dice to the next player.
    “I don’t know,” Bessie said, “but I can assure you that neither she nor Millicent would do the other a kindness. Millicent is always as rude as she dares to be towards Philippa Meredith. But I know who will know. Your betrothed, Cecily FitzHugh. She and Philippa are the best of friends.”
    “I think it better I don’t know what mischief is about to transpire,” Tony said. He was a tall young man with ash brown hair and mild blue eyes, with an estate in Oxfordshire.
    Bessie laughed. “Well, I for one am perishing from curiosity. I shall go and find Cecily right now.” She hurried off, leaving the young man to his own devices. She came upon Cecily who was now with the queen. Millicent was there too. She sidled up next to Cecily. “What is Philippa Meredith doing?” she murmured softly.
    “Getting even,” Cecily said low. And then in a voice heard by all around them, “Millicent, isn’t that Sir Walter walking by the river with Philippa Meredith?”
    “It cannot be,” Millicent replied. “What business would he have with her?”
    The women about them laughed, and even Queen Katherine smiled.
    “Well, it most certainly is Philippa,” Cecily insisted. “And look how close they are, and how he bends down when he speaks with her. Ohhhh! I think he kissed her! No, wait. He didn’t. He is just speaking with her, but my, their lips are very close.”
    Millicent glared angrily in the direction of the river. “I do not believe it is Sir Walter at all,” she said, but she knew it was, and worse, everyone else knew it was too. The wretch was embarrassing her before the entire court! How could he? She would tell her father! He would not allow her to marry a cad. But then Millicent thought of Sir Walter’s estates in Kent, and his beautiful house, and the fact that he had a great deal of gold with the London goldsmiths. She knew what her father would say to her. That men needed to sow their wild oats, and a wise woman looked the other way. But how could she look the other way when Philippa Meredith was flirting so outrageously with Sir Walter? She would smack the shameless wench the first opportunity she got. Her eyes went to the riverbank again, and she scowled.
    Philippa was laughing up at Sir Walter. “You, sir, are an outrageous flirt. I wonder if your Millicent knows it,” she teased him.
    “A man’s entitled to admire beauty, Mistress Philippa,” he said.
    “You would kiss me, wouldn’t you?” Philippa responded provocatively.
    “To have the honor of your first kiss would please me,” he agreed.
    “I must think on it,” she told him. “I saved that kiss for the man I was to wed, and now he has deserted me for a life of celibacy. Should I not continue to save my kisses for him who will one day be my husband?”
    “While I admire your virtue, Mistress Philippa, and I do not believe a comely maid should be free with her lips, a wee bit of experience in the art of kissing cannot be considered wrong, or put you in disrepute. Would you tell me that all of the queen’s maids are as innocent as you are? For I know it not to be true.” He smiled a smile at her that was almost a leer.
    “You argue your case well, sir, but now I wonder if kissing a man I know to be soon betrothed a wise thing. Would I not be thought a bold baggage to do that? I must consider carefully the man I will give my first kiss to, Sir Walter.” She smiled at him sweetly and teasingly. “Now I think it wise we return to the others. I should not like any gossip to ensue over this interlude.” And picking up her skirts Philippa ran back up the lawn leaving Sir Walter Lumley alone, and most dissatisfied.
    Cecily came