The Queen's Lady Read Online Free PDF

the grander palaces of France. Still, they were arriving in a new home and might feel some confusion.
    â€œI believe we can manage just fine on our own,” she assured him.
    He had noticed that she seemed to hold herself slightly apart from the other women, which was, perhaps, natural. She hadn’t left Scotland as a child, as so many sons and daughters of Scotland had, the bonds with France having been long established. Many noble sons of Scotland attended school in France. Trade between the two countries flourished.
    She stared at him now through narrowed eyes, her expression deeply distrustful. And yet so beautiful, as well, he could not help but think. She was well-spoken, certainly well-read and, despite her words, he believed that she shared his concerns for the queen’s safety. At the same time, despite her intelligence and dagger-sharp wit, there was an air of naiveté about her.
    He stepped away from her now, nodding curtly in acknowledgment of what amounted to a dismissal. Striding the length of the hall, anxious to return to James and the new queen, he found himself pausing to look out a window.
    From his vantage point, he could see the great stone edifice of Edinburgh Castle. The sky was as gray as the castle’s stone, the recent weather having been wet and cold, and mist, a common enough occurrence, had settled around the stark battlements. There was a tinge of mauve in the gray, lovely to one who knew this as home. Foreboding, perhaps, for those accustomed to blue skies. He shifted his gaze to the Royal Mile, a fine thoroughfare offering shops that sold goods from around the world. Holyrood was a fine palace, Edinburgh a fine city. Surely the queen would find much to love here and in her people, people who had cheered for her arrival.
    Perhaps he was being too defensive, worrying for naught. And yet…He knew that many members of Queen Mary’s French escort mocked this land. It was cold, they said. Hard, like the unyielding, rugged rock of Edinburgh Castle. French shops were finer, French palaces far more beautiful—even if French laborers had worked on Holyrood.
    Rowan forced himself to look on his city as others might see it. In the gray, foreboding day, the castle rose like a bleak and terrible fortress. The people themselves were as rough and hard.
    Rock versus marble. Wool versus silk.
    He gritted his teeth. They simply needed time. Time would bring the changes the young queen and her entourage needed.
    The ties Scotland had shared with France were long-lived and strong. And yet….
    No alliance was founded purely on friendship. Both the Scots and the French had fought the English, and that shared enmity had made them allies, even friends. But friendship was so often only on the surface, easily broken when more selfish needs intruded. And therein lay the dilemma.
    What really simmered beneath the deeper waters of that alliance now that the French-raised queen had come home?

CHAPTER TWO
    â€œI AM EXHAUSTED ,” M ARY sighed, throwing herself onto the bed in her chamber. She stared up at the ceiling and laughed softly, sounding for a moment like any young woman. “Actually, this is quite lovely,” she said, surveying the room. She rolled to stare at Gwenyth, who was standing nearby. “It is, isn’t it?” she whispered, and Gwenyth knew she was missing France.
    â€œIt is magnificent,” Gwenyth assured her.
    Mary leaned back on the bed again. “Crowns,” she murmured. “They do weigh heavily.”
    â€œMy queen—” Gwenyth began.
    Mary rose to a sitting position, shaking her head. “For now, I beg of you, please drop the formality. We are alone, and I must trust in you. You’ve not been gone so long from here, and you’re not after any reward, nor testing me, weighing me. Use my given name, as if we were nothing more than a pair of friends. For you truly are my friend, and that is what I need