The Queen's Rival by Diane Haeger Read Free Book Online Page A

Chamberlain,” she said, curtsying properly, as she knew her father would wish her to do, even as she wondered what he was doing here so suddenly.
    “You may call me uncle, Elizabeth. It may smooth your way around here a bit.”
    She was relieved by the courtesy he was showing her in spite of her surprise at his appearance here. She thought about asking him, in return, to please call her Bess, as the rest of the family did, but she decided against it. Perhaps that was just as well. Mountjoy was a stranger to her really, and a forbidding presence. He was only doing a duty having her in the queen’s chamber. And when her mother returned to court, Bess was likely to be sent home to Kinlet. She had only a brief chance to make an impression, and she must not do that by being too familiar with the man who held so much power over her.
    “So, who put you up to it, Mistress Bryan or young Master Tailbois?” Mountjoy asked as they began to walk.
    Bess was surprised that he knew. Then again, Mountjoy did oversee the queen’s entire household. “I do not believe they were being malicious,” she carefully replied.
    He shook his head. “I should have known. Those two are as thick as thieves, and together they are twice as dangerous.”
    “But they seem so pleasant.”
    “Few at court are as they seem, Elizabeth. You must be vigilant about that, constantly assessing. Our king and his queen may be spirited souls, but they take loyalty seriously.”
    Hearing him speak of loyalty, she thought then about mentioning Wolsey’s apparent midnight theft from the king, but she decided against it, at least until she knew the players better. When Mountjoy walked her in the opposite direction from the one she had intended, it was a symbolic reminder that, at the moment, she really was in need of all the guidance she could get.
    Her father’s uncle then bid her a good night at the door to her little room above the queen’s apartments and informed her that she must rise early the next morning to attend matins with Her Highness. In spite of the objectionably early morning hour, it was an honor, doubtlessly one he had secured for her, and she must not be late. While Bess still found her very formal uncle an extremely intimidating man, now she felt a tiny glimmer of relief that there was an adult here at court upon whom she might actually come to depend.
    When she opened the door and went inside, Bess was surprised to find Elizabeth Bryan sitting alone on the bed, her skirts pooled around her and her face bright with a smile.
    “You abandoned me,” Bess declared angrily.
    “Yes, well I am sorry about that, but it was unavoidable. The king’s Almoner, who is also Gilly’s benefactor, Thomas Wolsey, returned to court unexpectedly today, so Gilly was called upon immediately to attend him.”
    “At this late hour?” she asked skeptically.
    Elizabeth Bryan chuckled. “You shall learn soon enough that courtiers—particularly important statesmen—have little sense of time, or duty to it. We all serve at the pleasure of our masters.”
    Bess closed the door, moved forward, and slipped off her shoes and cloak. Her entire body ached, and her mind was still spinning. “Why has Master Wolsey returned from France without the king?”
    “Apparently our sovereign wished a trustworthy accounting of the queen’s health, and of her pregnancy. The queen badgered him into naming her regent while he is away, but since there has been so much trouble bringing a royal child to term, the king is said to have realized the gamble. He trusts Wolsey to the exclusion of all others to tell him how his wife truly is.”
    “My father said Wolsey battles for place with the king’s childhood friend, Charles Brandon.”
    “In truth, he does. But Wolsey’s advantage is his tie to the Church. Where Brandon feeds his spirit, Wolsey feeds his soul, and he does it with aplomb.”
    “You doubt the cleric’s devotion?”
    “It is more that I understand his