To Shield the Queen Read Online Free PDF Page B

conference with her treasurer, William Paulet, and we were gathered with our books and needlework in a large room through which other people could wander at will. The Spanish ambassador was wandering through it at that moment, though he was still, fortunately, out of earshot, talking to Kat Ashley by the window.
    “Yes. About Sir Thomas’s real work in Antwerp. Oh come on, Ursula. Tell us.”
    “Sir Thomas,” I said, “is a financier who is in the Netherlands to raise loans for the queen from the banks of Antwerp and Brussels.”
    “ I’ve heard that he’s also raising funds by any means that he can think of—including bribing or blackmailing people and forging requisition documents, all so that he can spirit gold and silver bullion out of the Antwerp treasury and into the holds of ships bound for the Tower of London.”
    “You know more than I do,” I said in cool tones.
    “If it’s true, it’s a strange way to behave in a country where he’s trying to make friends with important people,” Lady Catherine said.
    “No, it isn’t,” said Lady Jane Seymour, kindly extending a hand for the needle which Catherine had allowed to come unthreaded, and putting the silk back through the eye for her. “You know how religion gets into everything. It’s like an oil flask leaking into a saddlebag.” There was a ripple of laughter from the other ladies. More careful than Catherine, Jane glanced round and made sure that de Quadra was still at a safe distance before adding, “The Netherlands are a Spanish province and Spain is Catholic. That makes the Netherlands treasuries fair game.”
“And this is not the right time or place to discuss such things,” I said abruptly. “You gossip too much, Lady Catherine, and I fear you invent half the things you say.”
    “Gently, Ursula, gently,” said Lady Katherine Knollys reprovingly.
    “I am sorry,” I said. Here at court, neither curiosity nor an acid tongue were well regarded. On these occasions, I longed most terribly for Antwerp and for Gerald. Gerald had loved both my acerbity and my enquiring mind.
    However, it was important to silence Catherine Grey, because she was, of course, quite right. I was sorry that gossip about Gresham was evidently abroad in the court. He had indeed robbed the Netherlands treasuries, and while he was about it, he had also learned more about King Philip of Spain’s intentions and resources than King Philip would have wished either Gresham or Queen Elizabeth to know. Information about Sir Thomas’s activities would greatly interest Philip’s representatives in the Netherlands.
    I knew about those activities because Gerald had been caught up in them. Not highly placed enough to be informed of such things? If that remark hadn’t been so obviously intended to sting, it would have been funny. My open-faced, friendly husband had a remarkable talent for finding out who was vulnerable: who was in debt, who was hiding a record of embezzlement from a current employer, who was concealing a mistress from a wife he didn’t want to hurt or a wealthy father-in-law he dared not offend. Gerald, in fact, had been making his way as one of Sir Thomas’s recruiting officers for collaborators and spies.
Lady Katherine Knollys had probably heard the whispers about Gresham, too, and despite her rebuke I think she knew why I had been so sharp with Lady Catherine Grey. She now soothed me with a smile. “But I can’t fault your discretion, Ursula,” she said. “For that, I commend you.”
    De Quadra and Kat Ashley were approaching. Katherine Knollys began a harmless topic of conversation. Catherine Grey bent over her work, looking sullen.
    I returned to my own work, admitting to myself that in a way, I enjoyed the need for caution and being aware of people like de Quadra, with their amiable expressions and their ever-open ears.
    If only, I thought, I could find a way of earning just a little more, I would in time, when I had grown used to being without