Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon Read Online Free PDF

away from her. Something happened to his face; it seemed to harden slightly, to become less pliant. Was he angry with her? But surely he would want her to speak her mind on something so important.
    â€œI’m like the queen in this,” she said. “I do not think I will ever marry again.”
    â€œAnd now you compare yourself to the queen?” he said. “Really, you have got above yourself. Perhaps you would like some jewels for your gown, or ladies-in-waiting?”
    â€œPlease—this doesn’t become you.”
    â€œIt’s not I who have declared myself England’s new sovereign.”
    â€œThat was but an example.”
    â€œA treasonous example. And blasphemous too—only God can appoint a monarch.”
    â€œNow you’re being foolish. I said only that I am like the queen in this one thing.”
    â€œThe queen is free to choose in this matter because she has been appointed by God. We who are her subjects cannot judge her actions. You are only a woman, chosen by no one. It’s not right for you to remain unmarried.”
    â€œIf that’s all you have to say to me,” she said, “then I’ll go back to the churchyard. Good day.”
    By the time she had shouldered her way through the crowd to her station she wondered if she had made the right decision. George had been right; he could teach her much about the stationer’s trade. And it was hard being a woman and living alone; George could help her there too.
    â€œHave you had ill news?” Edward Blount said as she opened her stall. “You look melancholy.”
    â€œI feel well enough,” she said, not quite sure if she lied or not. “Only—George has asked me to marry him.”
    â€œAnd do you want to marry George?”
    â€œI don’t know. I don’t think so.”
    â€œWell, then,” he said, as if that settled the matter.
    She would have talked longer with him, but at that moment a man came by asking for a copy of Holinshed’s Chronicles and by the time she had directed him to the right stall Edward was deep in conversation. Could it be as simple as Edward made it seem? She didn’t think so; she thought that George might end their friendship because she preferred to live alone, and she was loath to give up one of the few friends she had made in the churchyard. And perhaps it went deeper than that; perhaps she had struck at his pride. Whatever happened she knew she could not go back to the old comfort that had existed between them. She could only go on as best she could, the way she had gone on after John died.
    Edward was motioning her over to his stall, and when she came he indicated the man he had been talking to. “This is Walter James,” he said. “The new member of our company.”
    Membership in the Stationers’ Company was limited to fifty-three people. She found herself angry that they had never elected a woman; it would have been good to have someone in the churchyard she could open her heart to. But had any woman ever applied for membership? She felt in a foul mood today. Edward had been wrong: the humor that possessed her was not melancholic but choleric.
    She nodded to Walter James, not feeling civil enough to speak. He was small and thin, and seemed to be put together out of knobs: nose, chin, Adam’s apple, knuckles. His straight brown hair made a sharp angle across his forehead. She thought he was about fifty, her age.
    â€œAs I was telling Master Blount, I’ve changed my profession late in life,” he said. “I ran an inn before I learned the bookseller’s trade.”
    She felt surprised; she had never known anyone besides herself to learn a new trade at so late an age. “So you must come to my aid if I falter in my new profession,” he said.
    Was he having a jest at her expense? No one had ever asked for her help before. But he was smiling winningly at her, and she realized that he had not