The Queen's Lady Read Online Free PDF Page B

now.”
    â€œMary, I believe your arrival here was a complete success. Your people are delighted to have their young and beautiful queen returned.”
    She shook her head. “These people seem so forbidding”
    â€œThey’re…” Gwenyth paused, not sure what to say. She shrugged. “They’re forbidding,” she agreed. She hesitated, then went on. “It’s due to John Knox and the way they have embraced their church.”
    â€œRight. They can’t follow the English, heaven forbid, but they don’t want to believe in the old religion, either, so they must have their own church.” She sighed, then patted the side of the richly canopied bed to urge Gwenyth to join her. As soon as Gwenyth sat down, Mary gave her a fierce hug. “It’s cold here, have you felt it?”
    â€œThere’s a lovely fire burning,” Gwenyth said.
    â€œYou’re right. And it will be warming soon. This is so strange a place, though. In France, while my husband lived, there was such a marvelous sense of security in being queen. And here…it is as if I am being tested because I am queen.”
    â€œYou must remember, your half brother, Lord James, has been the power behind the throne since the death of your mother. Time has passed, and things have changed. But now, both lords and churchmen have gathered to welcome you home. You must remember that. Everything is going to be wonderful.”
    â€œIs it?”
    Mary rose and walked toward the fire to warm her hands. For a moment she looked lost, even tragic. “If only…” Then she steeled her shoulders and swung around. “I have barely arrived, we’re all dressed in the grays and blacks of our mourning, and do you know what was on the mind of those great and noble lords who greeted us and rode as our escort here to the palace?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œMy remarriage.”
    Gwenyth smiled. “My dear queen—”
    â€œFriends, we are friends here tonight.”
    â€œMary, I’m sorry to say this, for I know your heart and know that you were deeply grieved by the death of your husband, but from the instant the king of France died, nobles and monarchs across our world were discussing your next marriage. You are a queen, and your alliances, both personal and political, can change the face of history. This is a sad truth to face when the soul is in pain, but it is the way of the world.”
    â€œI am a commodity,” Mary said softly.
    â€œYou are a queen.”
    Again, Mary paced. “You are right, I know. I scarcely had time to bury my husband with the honor that was his due before I, too, realized my future had to be decided. Today, when we stepped ashore, I had to wonder if perhaps I made a grave error. There were offers, you know, offers from Catholic royal houses. There is no right step to take, I fear. Were I to marry into such a house, I would turn Scotland against me. But here, today, I learned the minds of these men. They want me to choose one of their number as consort, a man who honors all that is Scottish, who bleeds pure Scottish blood, who will compensate for what they consider the disadvantage of my upbringing. Oh, Gwen, what is the matter with the people? How can I be anything less than true to what I have been taught all my life, to what I have read, to God as I know Him?”
    â€œNo one expects that of you.”
    Mary shook her head in denial, and Gwenyth thought that, sadly, she was most likely right.
    â€œThey expect everything of me. But I am not an inconstant queen. I will honor and worship God as I see fit. But…” She turned away, lowering her head.
    â€œBut?” Gwenyth started to smile. She thought she had seen something in Mary’s face.
    â€œWell…” Mary inhaled deeply. “I loved him, but my late husband…he was never well.”
    â€œThere was no romance,” Gwenyth whispered.
    Mary spun and rushed back to