The Slaying of the Shrew by Simon Hawke Read Free Book Online

clever and spirited than I."
    "She sounds rather arrogant to me," said Smythe. "And rather graceless and ill-mannered, too."
    "You
see)'"
Elizabeth said, breaking away from him. "You have just given the very proof of her perception!"
    "I see nothing of the sort," he replied, angrily, feeling the color rising to his face. "What I see is that this girl has been filling your head with all sorts of arrant nonsense. I have never met Catherine Middleton, nor has she even laid eyes upon me, and yet despite this, she apparently deems herself fit to sit in judgement over my character, and not only mine, which is presumptuous enough, but all men in general. Would that I had such wisdom at the age of seventeen! Odd's blood! With such sagacity, by now I could have been not only a gentleman in my own right, but a privy counselor and doubtless a peer of the realm! Indeed, perhaps we should recommend your friend Catherine to Sir William, so that he, in turn, can recommend her to the queen, for 'tis clear that she should be advising her along with Walsingham and Cecil as one of her chief ministers."
    "Oh, now who is spouting arrant nonsense?" Elizabeth retorted. 'You are speaking like a simple, addle-pated fool!"
    "Well, you might recall that 'twas this 'simple, addle-pated fool' to whom you turned for help when you were in your desperate hour," Smythe replied, stung by her words. "And when all else seemed convinced that you were taking leave of your senses and would soon be bound for Bedlam, 'twas this 'simple, addle-pated fool' alone who listened to you and believed in you and helped you. Well, fool I may be, milady, but I shall tell you who is the greater fool, and that would be the man whose supreme folly shall be to say 'I do' to Catherine Middleton, for in his 'do-ing' shall come his undoing, mark my words."
    "He shall be marrying a shrew, is that your meaning, then?" asked Elizabeth, archly.
    " 'Twas you who said it and not I!"
    She shook her head. "You sorely disappoint me, Tuck. I expected rather more from you. But then 'tis I who am to blame for having expectations. Women who have expectations of men are often doomed to disappointment."
    "And did your clever friend Catherine say that, too?" asked Smythe.
    "As a matter of fact, she did," Elizabeth replied. "I disagreed with her in that, as well, and told her that
you
lived up to
all
my expectations. 'You will see,' was all she said. And so I have. Would that I had not. Good day to you, sir."
    She abruptly turned and walked away with a firm, purposeful stride.
    Smythe was so taken aback, he simply stood there motionless, staring after her, caught in the grip of indecision and conflicting emotions. A part of him wanted to go after her, but he was not sure if it was to apologize or else continue the argument until he could make her see his side of it. Yet another part stubbornly resisted, telling him to let her go and let the devil take her. He felt very angry, but at the same time, he was filled with regret and self-reproach. And he did not understand what had just happened.
    They had never argued like this before. Elizabeth had never behaved like that before. It was a side of her that he had never before seen. Granted, she was willful and possessed of strong opinions, but he had never known her to be so utterly unreasonable, so stubbornly obstinate, so… shrewish.
    The corners of his mouth turned down in distaste as he thought of Catherine Middleton, a young woman whom he did not even know, but whom he already disliked intensely. She appeared to be trying to poison Elizabeth's mind against him. And apparently, she was succeeding.
    "Oh, you were so right, Catherine!" Elizabeth said. "He behaved
just
as you predicted!"
    "Well, that is because men are so utterly predictable," Catherine Middleton said dryly, as the tailor and his apprentices busied themselves with the fitting of her wedding gown. "
Ow
! Have a care, you clumsy oaf. You stuck me again!"
    "Forgive me, mistress," said the