Queen by Right Read Online Free PDF Page A

hornpipe and tabor players ended the carol with a slow crescendo, and the dancers saluted their partners with reverences as the last droned note of the symphonie faded away. But before they were able to leave the floor, they were caught up in a whirlwind of cartwheeling tumblers. They preceded a troupe of mummers enthusiastically shaking bellsticks and shooing the company back to their benches to watch an enactment of the story of St. George and the dragon.
    Soon Cecily’s eyelids began to droop, and the ever-watchful Joan sent the girls’ attendants to escort them up to bed. For once Cecily was too tired to protest. She merely curtsied to her parents on the dais and then climbed to her quarters at the top of the keep. The girls were shivering by the time they reached the room, but a servant stoked the fire, and the red-and-green-painted chamber was soon warm enough for them to be undressed and readied for bed by Nurse Margery and Rowena Gower, a fourteen-year-old gently born local girl.
    “Will you hunt with us tomorrow, Nan?” Cecily asked, although she knew full well what Anne would reply. “Dickon and George are determined to find the white hind, but I hope Father finds it first—or me. I want to find it.”
    Anne made a face and unpinned her long, mouse-brown hair. “How many times must I tell you how much I dislike hunting, Cis? Besides, ’tis likely to snow tomorrow, and I shall stay in where it is warm.”
    Cecily sighed and climbed into bed, watching her sister put on her nightcap.
    “Now, then, my ladies, go to sleep, and God give you a good night,” Margery said sternly as she drew the tester curtains around the bed, leaving the sisters in the dark.
    “How do you like Richard, Cis?” Anne whispered to the drowsy Cecily, whose eyes then opened at the unaccustomed overture. “I confess I like him very much, and I wish ’twas I he must wed.”
    Cecily was now wide-eyed. “You do?” she exclaimed, and turned to her sister. “Why?”
    “I think he is handsome, and he is a great deal richer than Humphrey,”Anne answered. “If only Father had waited a few months before betrothing me, then I might have been the daughter he chose for Richard.”
    “Oh, Anne,” Cecily whispered, patting the shoulder that was turned from her. “I am sorry for you if you are unhappy. How do you know that Humphrey isn’t twice as handsome as Dickon? And he is a Stafford, after all, and he must be rich, too.”
    “Dickon likes me, I know he does,” came Anne’s petulant voice. “And besides, he is the duke of York. Humphrey is but an earl.” She squeezed out a tear and sniffed. “You are naught but a child to him.”
    Irritated, Cecily withdrew her hand: “I am not a child! Besides, we have already talked about being wed. He likes me, too, you know.”
    “Aye, but, in truth, I think he loves me,” Anne replied miserably.
    “Like? Love? What is the difference?” Cecily shrugged. “You are pledged, you are wed, you have children, and you have a pleasant time together. What more is there to marriage, pray?”
    Anne could not suppress a giggle. “You are only eight, Cis, and not near to being a woman, as I am. Love is when your heart aches for someone so much that you think you will swoon. Love is when you want to be with him, when you dream about him night and day. Can you not see?”
    Cecily did not see, but she was not about to admit it. “I love Mother and Father—and I love George—but I do not dream about them night and day,” she reasoned. “Perhaps you are ailing and need a physic.” She was disconcerted to hear another sniff and snuggled into Anne’s back. “What can I do, Nan? We must both do what Father tells us—and you are already betrothed. We cannot exchange husbands—or can we?”
    “Oh, go to sleep. You just don’t understand,” the unhappy Anne complained, leaving Cecily more puzzled than before.
    A NNE HAD BEEN right about the weather. When the cock crowed the next day and the pale