Traitor's Kiss by Pauline Francis Read Free Book Online

letting through flashes of lightning, scattering sheltering deer. It would have been good hunting.
    But I was the hunted.
    A man ran from the trees, a gnarled-faced man in an old cloak. I thought nothing of it as he ran towards me. I am used to it. It is the part of being a princess that I like best, for I like to be recognized – even though I know that one day it might be somebody who bears me a grudge, somebody who might want to harm me. Lights glimmered in the trees and I thought there must be woodmen or charcoal burners sitting out the storm and one of them had come to offer his assistance.
    â€œWe heard the Boleyn bastard was riding today,” the man called.
    Too late, I recognized the smell that I knew from my sister Mary – the cloying scent of incense that is forbidden by the new faith. Too late, I saw the crucifix around his neck. I whipped the man away from me, but he risked death by clinging to my reins and staring deep into my eyes. “Look at your devil eyes,” he hissed. “Just like the witch she was. Like mother, like daughter.” At last, he let go.
    My heart thudded in fearful rhythm to his vile words as I galloped across the waterlogged meadow, scattering poppy heads and calves, until we came to the back entrance of the palace. Thomas Seymour was there, ordering his servants and groomsmen.
    â€œIt seems that Lady Catherine’s added another parrot to her menagerie,” Kat said.
    I smiled in spite of my distress, for my stepfather was wearing scarlet and green velvet and yellow hose to match the feather in his cap. “An old parrot,” I added. “He’s almost forty, yet he struts like a young man.”
    Within seconds, Thomas Seymour was holding me around the waist and lifting me down as you would a child. “Ah, the wild women of the woods,” he roared, laughing.
    I was close to tears. “Not as wild as the men,” I shouted. “Did you know there are Catholics living in the woods? They’ve made an altar in the trees and hung candles from the branches. How can you let them worship so close to your house? It’s against the law.”
    â€œThey were probably celebrating morning Mass when you rode by,” he said. “They cause us no trouble. It’s the sight of you that has inflamed them.” He wiped mud from my cheek. “You would do that to any man, Bess. Your father gave up the old faith to marry your mother and they have never forgiven her.” He could see that I was close to tears, but he did not spare me. “And they might never forgive you.”
    â€œOne of them called me vile names,” I said. “Words hurt. They enter your mind like maggots make their way into decaying flesh…”
    Behind me, Kat tut-tutted at my choice of words. “Don’t exaggerate,” she said. “You’re overtired.” Her creased skin softened and flushed like a young girl’s as she asked my stepfather where he was going.
    â€œTo Devon, Mistress Ashley, to inspect the King’s navy. Look after Bess well, for I’ll not be back before November.”
    I breathed deeply for the first time since my birthday. Tomorrow, I thought, and the day after…and the weeks after that… I can lie late in my bed.
    We celebrated Jane’s tenth birthday. Then my brother’s, born a few days after her. Church bells pealed for him at dawn, waking Kat into a quarrelsome humour.
    Lady Catherine was in fine spirits as we ate breakfast. “My three little autumn leaves,” she said, laughing.
    â€œLet’s hope we don’t fall like them,” I said.
    At noon, we journeyed to Whitehall Palace for Edward’s celebrations. I loved my little brother, even though his mother had taken the place of mine. But it was not the same now that he was the King. Before, we had played games. Now I could not turn my back on him when I left his presence chamber, but I had to walk backwards towards the