To Shield the Queen Read Online Free PDF

they cry! And let us also, while we are about it, swallow up the rich pastures, the fine wool and creamy cheeses, the tin and iron of England! Faith? Bah!”
“Ma’am, I meant only . . . ”
    “I know you did, Arundel. I know. You wished to reassure us. We are not unmindful.” Having embarrassed him, she had evidently decided to soothe him. As he bowed and murmured his thanks, she turned back to the messenger. “A reply to our ambassador will be made ready for you to take back to France. We will thank him for the pains he takes to keep us informed. You may withdraw.”
    The messenger retired with obvious relief and the queen beckoned to Dudley, and began to talk to him. The anxious crowd of onlookers, seeing that the queen had recovered her temper, relaxed.
    Lady Katherine Knollys whispered to me, “You know about Mary Stuart, of course?” and I nodded.
    Lady Catherine Grey was known as the Protestant heir for the very good reason that until Elizabeth married and had children, there was an alternative successor in the Catholic Mary Stuart.
    Mary Stuart was another descendant from one of King Henry’s sisters. Ever since Elizabeth came to the throne, she had been claiming—to the indignation of Elizabeth and most of the council—that she ought to be our ruler instead, because King Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn hadn’t been legal and therefore Elizabeth was not legitimate.
    Fortunately, so far her claim was mere words, with little prospect of ever being anything else. Even the crown she did possess, the Scottish one, wasn’t secure. The Protestant Scots were in arms against her regency and although Elizabeth considered that for a people to rise against their sovereign—even an impertinent chit of a sovereign with designs on Elizabeth’s own crown—was a terrible thing, she had sent help to the rebels. England was beleaguered by Catholic powers, such as France and Spain. We could do without a Catholic Scotland. It was already well known that Sir William Cecil had threatened to resign as Secretary of State if Elizabeth wouldn’t help the Scots, and in the end she had agreed.
Mary Stuart evidently hadn’t taken the hint. This was scandalous and worrying; but to me it was not only that. Like a warhorse which hears a trumpet, I found myself excited, pleased to be back in the heart of political affairs, just as I had been in Antwerp. I grieved for Gerald and ached for Meg, but nevertheless, in coming to court I had done the right thing, for I had somehow or other come home.
    • • •
    I settled down. I laid out a little money on a messenger to take my instructions to Bridget about buying hens and planting onions, and quietly sold a few pieces of jewellery. Lady Katherine Knollys was right: if I were known to be hard up, it would damage my standing among the other ladies. Lady Catherine Grey, in fact, sniffed my problem out almost at once and made several edged remarks, but fortunately I got on quite well with the rest and even gained a little admiration when I enlivened some of our sedentary hours of embroidery by telling them stories of life in Sir Thomas Gresham’s service in Antwerp. Lady Jane, who didn’t share Catherine Grey’s haughty attitude towards me, and often tried to jolly her out of it, was particularly enthusiastic. “Oh, do listen to Ursula!” she would cry, when I started an anecdote.
I was careful what I said about Gresham, though. Most of my tales concerned amusing domestic panics behind the polished and expensive Gresham hospitality; or salty items of gossip about notables whose reputations did not matter in England. It was Lady Catherine Grey, whose vocabulary did not include the word “discretion,” who one day said, “Why don’t you tell us some of the real stories about Sir Thomas, Ursula? Or were you and your husband not highly placed enough to know them?”
    “Real stories, Lady Catherine?” I spoke lightly but I frowned at her. We were waiting for the queen to finish a