The Miracle at St. Bruno's by Philippa Carr Read Free Book Online

Tower where the King would be waiting for her.
    The Queen’s barge had passed by; a passing boat rammed us and the water shot up soaking me to the skin. Kate burst into peals of laughter.
    “We’d better go straight back,” said Tom nervously.
    “Certainly not!” cried Kate.
    “The Queen’s barge has gone.”
    “ I shall say when we shall go,” retorted Kate.
    I was surprised that Tom was so meek. I had not noticed that he was before.
    But Kate seemed suddenly to realize that everything she could see now after the passing of the Queen would be dull in comparison so she said: “Very well, we’ll go now.”
    I was shivering in spite of the warm weather. I said: “We could have seen them pass from our privy stairs.”
    “We could not have seen the Queen so close,” said Kate, “and I wished to see her close.”
    “I’m surprised they gave us permission,” I said.
    “ I gave the permission,” retorted Kate.
    “Do you mean my parents did not know that we were on the river?”
    Tom looked uneasy.
    “But who said Tom might row us out on such a day?”
    “I did,” said Kate, and she was looking at Tom as she spoke. I wondered that she should have such power over him.
    We were seen disembarking and my mother came hurrying out; when she saw my drenched clothes there was a great fuss. I was shivering! Where had I been? On the river! On a day like this! What had Tom been thinking of!
    Tom scratched his head. “Well, Mistress,” he said, “I didn’t see the harm….”
    My mother said nothing but I was hustled off to my bedchamber with instructions to take off my damp clothes and drink a posset.
    Kate came up to tell me that Tom had been questioned and he had said that the young ladies wanted to go and he had thought there was no harm in taking them.
    “Didn’t you tell them that you made Tom?”
    “So you know I made him?”
    “I couldn’t understand why he took us. He didn’t really want to.”
    “You are right, Damask. He didn’t. But he dared do aught else when I commanded.”
    “You talk as though you own him.”
    “That’s what I’d like to do…to own people. I’d like to be the King or the Queen, with everyone afraid of offending me.”
    “That shows an unpleasant nature.”
    “Who wants a pleasant nature? Does that command people? Does that make them afraid of you?”
    “Why do you want them afraid of you?”
    “So that they do what I say.”
    “Like poor Tom.”
    “Like Tom.” She hesitated but she was so anxious that I should be aware of her cleverness that she blurted out: “I heard him coming out of Keziah’s bedroom early one morning. He wouldn’t want anyone to know, would he? Nor would Keziah. So if they want me not to tell they have to do as I say.”
    I stared at her in amazement.
    “I don’t believe it,” I said.
    “That they sleep together or that I have discovered them?”
    “Neither.”
    “You get on with your Greek and Latin. It’s all you can do. You know nothing…nothing at all. And I’ll tell you something else. We are going to see the coronation. We are going to have a window in your father’s house of business.”
    “Father would not wish us to see it.”
    “Oh, yes, he does, and I’ll tell you why. I have made him.”
    “You are not going to tell me he dares not obey you?”
    “In this he dare not. You see, I said: ‘Uncle, why do you not wish us to see the coronation procession? Is it because you don’t believe the Queen to be the true Queen?’ Very innocent…I was…none could look more so. And he grew pale for there were servants there. You see, he dare not keep us away now and I knew it because if it were said that he would not allow his family to see the coronation, people would say he was a traitor and so….”
    “You are wicked, Kate.”
    “The way to get what you want,” said Kate, “is to make people afraid of not giving it.”
    She was right. We did see the procession pass through the city. Father and Mother took us and we sat