The White Queen Read Online Free PDF

hair.”
    In answer I untie the tight bindings of my tall conical headdress and lift it off.
     I put it carefully on the ground and turn to him. Gently as any maid-in-waiting, he
     puts his hand to my head and pulls out the ivory pins, tucking each into the pocket
     of his doublet. I can feel the silky kiss of my thick hair tumbling down as the fair
     cascade of it falls over my face. I shake my head and toss it back like a thick golden
     mane, and I hear his groan of desire.
    He unties his cloak and swings it on the ground at my feet. “Sit with me!” he commands,
     though he means “Lie with me” and we both know it.
    I sit cautiously on the edge of his cape, my knees drawn up, my arms wrapped around
     them, my fine silk gown draped around me. He strokes my loosened hair and his fingers
     penetrate deeper and deeper until he is caressing my neck, and then he turns my face
     towards his for a kiss.
    Gently he bears down on me so I am beneath him. Then I feel his hand pulling at my
     gown, pulling it up, and I put both hands on his chest and gently push him away.
    “Elizabeth,” he breathes.
    “I told you no,” I say steadily. “I meant it.”
    “You met me!”
    “You asked me. Shall I go now?”
    “No! Stay! Stay! Don’t run away, I swear I will not . . . just let me kiss you again.”
    My own heart is thudding so loud and I am so ready for his touch that I start to think
     I could liewith him, just once, I could allow myself this pleasure just once . . . but then I
     move away and say, “No. No. No.”
    “Yes,” he says more strongly. “No harm shall come to you, I swear it. You shall come
     to court. Anything you ask. Dear God, Elizabeth, let me have you, I am desperate for
     you. From the moment I saw you here . . .”
    His weight is on me; he is pushing me down. I turn my head away but his mouth is on
     my neck, my breast; I am panting with desire, and then I feel, unexpectedly, a sudden
     rush of anger at the realization that he is no longer embracing me but forcing me,
     holding me down as if I were some slut behind a haystack. He is pulling up my gown
     as if I were a whore; he is pushing his knee between my legs as if I have consented,
     and my temper makes me so furiously strong that I thrust him away again and then,
     on his thick leather belt, I feel the hilt of his dagger.
    He has my gown pulled up, and he is fumbling with his jerkin, his hose; in a moment
     it will be too late for complaints. I draw his dagger out of the scabbard. At the
     hiss of the metal, he rears back to his knees in shock, and I wriggle away from him
     and spring up, with the dagger unsheathed, the blade bright and wicked in the last
     rays of the sun.
    He is on his feet in a moment, weaving and alert, a fighter. “Do you draw a blade
     on your king?” he spits. “Do you know treason when you do it, madam?”
    “I draw a blade on me, on myself,” I say quickly. I hold the sharp point to my throat
     and I see his eyes narrow.“I swear, if you come one step closer, if you come one inch closer, I will cut my
     throat before you and bleed to death here on the ground where you would have dishonored
     me.”
    “Playacting!”
    “No. This is not a game to me, Your Grace. I cannot be your mistress. I first came
     to you for justice, and then I came tonight for love, and I am a fool to do so and
     I beg your pardon for my folly. But I too can’t sleep, and I too can think of nothing
     but you, and I too could only wonder and wonder if you would come. But even so . .
     . even so, you should not—”
    “I could have that knife off you in a moment,” he threatens.
    “You forget I have five brothers. I have played with swords and daggers since I was
     a child. I will cut my throat before you reach me.”
    “You never would. You are a woman with no more than a woman’s courage.”
    “Try me. Try me. You don’t know what my courage is. You may regret what happens.”
    He hesitates for a second, his own heart hammering in a