Daughters of Spain Read Online Free PDF

you, Angel.' She offered a silent prayer of thankfulness because, whoever else was taken from her, Angel would always be near.
    Catalina was leaning against her knee, dreamily happy. Poor defenceless little Catalina, who was the baby. Isabella remembered well the day the child had been born, a miserably cold December day in Alcala de Henares. Little did she think then that this, her fifth child, would be her last.
    Juana could not cease chattering. 'Mother, what are the women like in Flanders? They have golden hair, I hear ... most of them. They are big women with great breasts.'
    'Hush, hush!' said the Princess Isabella. She was sitting on her stool, her fingers caressing her rosary. The Queen believed she had been praying. She was constantly praying. And for what? A miracle which would bring her young husband back to life? Was she praying that she would not have to leave home and go once more as a bride to Portugal? Perhaps that wouldbe as much a miracle as the return to life of Alonso would have been.
    'But,' cried Juana, 'the Queen said there was to be no ceremony. There never is ceremony when we are together thus.'
    'That is so, my daughter,' said the Queen. 'But it is not seemly to discuss the size of the breasts of the women in your future husband's country.'
    'But Mother, why not? Those women might be of the utmost importance to me.'
    Has she been hearing tales of this handsome philanderer who is to be her husband? the Queen wondered. How could she? Has she second sight? What strangeness is this in my Juana? How like her grandmother she grows ... so like that I never look at her without feeling this fear twining itself about my heart like ivy about a tree ... strangling my contentment.
    'You should listen to your sister, Juana,' the Queen said. 'She is older than you and therefore it is very possible that she is wiser.'
    Juana snapped her fingers. 'Philip will be a greater King than Alonso ever could have been ... or Emanuel will be.'
    The younger Isabella had risen to her feet; the Queen noticed how she clenched her hands, and the colour flooded into her pale cheeks.
    'Be silent, Juana,' commanded the Queen.
    'I will not. I will not.' Juana had begun to dance round the room while the others watched her in dismay. None of them would have dreamed of disobeying the Queen. Juana must be bordering on one of her odd moods or she would not have dared.
    The Queen's heart had begun to beat wildly but she smiled, outwardly serene. 'We will ignore Juana,' she said, 'until shehas learned her manners. Well, Angel, so soon you are to be a husband.'
    'I hope I shall be a satisfactory one,' he murmured.
    'You will be the most satisfactory husband there ever was,' said Catalina. 'Will he not, Mother?'
    'I believe he will,' answered the Queen.
    Juana had danced up to them. She had flung herself at her mother's feet and now lay on her stomach, propping her face in her hands.
    'Mother, when shall I sail? When shall I sail for Flanders?'
    The Queen ignored her and, turning to Catalina, she said: 'You are looking forward to the festivities of your brother's wedding, eh, my child?'
    Juana had begun to beat her fist on the floor. 'Mother, when ... when ...?'
    'When you have apologised to your sister for what you have said, we shall be ready to talk to you.'
    Juana frowned. She glared at Isabella and said: 'Oh, I'm sorry. Philip will be as great a King as Alonso would have been if he had lived. And I'll be as good a Queen as you would have been if Alonso's horse had not kicked him to death.'
    The Princess Isabella gave a little cry as she went to the window.
    'My dear child,' the Queen patiently said to her wild daughter, 'you must learn to put yourself into the place of others, consider what you are about to say and ask yourself how you would feel if it were being said to you.'
    Juana's face crinkled up and she burst out: 'It is no use, Mother. I could never be like Isabella. I don't think Philip could ever be like Alonso either.'
    'Come