The King's Secret Matter by Jean Plaidy Read Free Book Online Page B

Thomas’s cooks in their scarlet velvet livery and golden chains.
    â€˜The fellows look as royal as myself,’ he said in an aside to Suffolk. But he enjoyed it. He admired Wolsey for living in this manner; it was a credit to his country and his King.
    â€˜We are honoured by the presence of the King,’ said Wolsey to his cooks. ‘Have this food removed; bring in new and scented napery; set new dishes on the tables. I wish for a banquet – not worthy to set before His Grace, for that would be impossible – but the best we can offer.’
    The cooks bowed and with ceremony left the hall followed by their clerks of the kitchens, surveyors of the dresser, clerks of the hall-kitchens and clerk of the spicery who followed the master cooks as Wolsey’s gentlemen of the household followed him on his ceremonial journeys from Hampton to Westminster Hall.
    Then the guests left the tables and Wolsey led the King to another apartment; the banquet was postponed for an hour that it might be made worthy of the King.
    Nothing could have pleased Henry more, for the climax of his game was that he should receive the homage due to him as King. Buckingham might grumble to Norfolk that the butcher’s cur was vulgar in the extreme; but there was not a man present who did not know that it was the red-clad figure which led the way and that which was clad in jewelled cloth of gold followed, because it was pleasant and easy to do so.
    So it was with Wolsey that Henry walked in the hall of Hampton Court, his arm laid heavily on the shoulder of theChancellor so that all could see – if they had ever doubted it – that he looked upon Thomas Wolsey as his friend, that he rejoiced in the Cardinal’s possessions because they were a symbol of how high a humble man could rise in his service, that he saw Thomas’s glory as a reflection of his own power. Nothing the jealous near-royals could do would alter that.
    And when the food was prepared and the company reassembled in the great banqueting hall, Henry took his place under the canopy of state and all were merry as it pleased the King to be; but Henry would have, seated on his right hand, his host and friend, Thomas Wolsey.
    He wanted all to know that he had great love for that man.

    The next morning when Knyvet again asked for an audience with the Cardinal, Wolsey received him.
    The Cardinal, in crimson damask on this morning, sat at his table, his hands – very white in contrast to the crimson – spread out before him.
    â€˜You have something to tell me?’ he asked.
    â€˜My lord Cardinal, I have wrestled with my conscience . . .’
    How they always wrestled with their consciences! As though it was not the desire for revenge which so often brought them to him!
    â€˜I am listening,’ said Wolsey.
    â€˜It concerns my Lord Buckingham.’
    â€˜In whose service you are.’
    â€˜In whose service I was, Your Eminence.’
    â€˜So you are with him no longer?’
    Wolsey’s face was impassive but he was chuckling inwardly. So the fool Buckingham had dismissed a man fromhis service after having been indiscreet before him. The trouble with Buckingham was that he felt himself too important to need caution. It might be that the time was near when he would learn that he misjudged that importance.
    â€˜A little difference between us, Your Eminence. The Duke has a hasty temper.’
    â€˜I am sorry.’
    â€˜Your Eminence, it is a matter of relief to me to be free of him. Although he is my cousin I must say that.’
    There was venom there. It might be usefully employed.
    â€˜And why have you come to see me?’
    â€˜Because I felt it my duty to do so.’
    â€˜You wish to tell me something about the Duke?’
    â€˜Yes, Your Eminence.’
    â€˜I am listening.’
    â€˜I would have Your Eminence know that it is my duty to King and State which impels me to lay these matters before