The Dragon and the Rose by Roberta Gellis Read Free Book Online

that I can give her will make her happy, she will have it."
    Francis shook his head and smiled. "I believe she will be content with my choice, but now it is more to the point to seek a way to make my vassals content with it. Fortunately, there will be time. Anne is only two years old and need not be affianced for a while. This plan must remain our secret until we can teach my lords that it is better to have a noble ruler who loves Brittany than one who, a Breton himself, would raise his kin higher than is meet and rule his country ill."
    While Henry studied one child with interest, Margaret studied another. During her first few years at court, she had hoped the struggle between the queen's kin and the king's would disrupt the country again and give Henry a chance. That had not happened, although Gloucester, Clarence, and the Woodvilles seemed to live in a constant state of enmity. Margaret now believed the balance would hold and that Henry's chances for a return to England and his release from penniless obscurity rested in the offer of one of the king's daughters as a wife.
    Edward was growing more and more secure as he realized there was no diminution of the people's love for him. They forgave him his dissipation, his drunkenness and lechery, the greed of his courtiers, everything, for the sake of his kindliness to the commons and his interest in the monetary prosperity of the land.
    In fact, Margaret was not sure that Edward had been insincere in his proposals to Henry. She knew of the negotiations with France, but there had been little hope of agreement there at the beginning, and another princess, only a year younger than Elizabeth, was available.
    Of course, Elizabeth would be best. Margaret looked across the queen's reception chamber to where the fourteen-year old princess was playing the virginal and singing softly. If the marriage could be achieved, it would be no bad thing. The girl bid fair to be as beautiful as the mother—more beautiful, in fact, because she lacked the sharpness of feature that betrayed the queen's meanness. Perhaps the oval of the face was not so perfect and the nose a trifle too short, but the mouth was far lovelier, full and generous with a tilt to the lips that betrayed the princess's readiness to laugh. The eyes, too, were a softer blue and held a twinkle of mirth in their depths.
    The queen, who did not care for music and cared even less for a daughter who was beginning to rival her attractions, made an impatient exclamation, rose and withdrew. The room waited in perfect stillness, Elizabeth's hands frozen on the keyboard. Five minutes passed, ten. A page scurried across the room, one ear bright red where it had been cruelly tweaked.
    Another ten minutes and the door opened to admit the queen's brothers, Rivers and Grey. A soft sigh ran through the chamber. Elizabeth's uncles kissed her hand and passed on into the queen's inner chamber. The tableau of ladies waiting stiffly against the walls hung with fine cloth of Arras broke up as soon as Rivers and Grey disappeared. The queen would be busy with them for some time. There was a trifle of uneasiness, of wondering whom they were planning to destroy now, but the queen's absence generated a feeling of relief.
    Margaret trod across the red carpet, aware of the contrast it made with the brocade skirt of the princess's blue gown. "Your playing is wonderfully improved, my lady," she remarked.
    Elizabeth smiled. She liked Lady Margaret in spite of the fact that many of the other ladies made fun of her piety and prim ways. At least Lady Margaret did not mouth proprieties and then sleep with Elizabeth's father like half the other ladies at court. It was interesting that in spite of her beauty, which seemed to the princess completely unchanged from the first time she had seen her, the king never looked at Lady Margaret with other than respect.
    "Thank you," Elizabeth replied. "I dearly love music." Then a shadow darkened her eyes. "But it is wrong of