Young Bess Read Online Free PDF Page B

from her in times past, of – would the next word be – ‘Treason!’?
    Bess opened her lips and screamed.
    They all turned towards her, hurried towards her, cried out what was the matter. Now she would have to find an answer. Had she twisted her foot? Seen a mermaid or a sea-serpent? She would only be scolded and sent below, and the King’s rage increased by so momentary an interruption. She screamed again, on a high note of childish excitement, and pointed:‘The French! Their ships – far out to sea – coming up like clouds!’
    So intense was the conviction in her voice that for an instant they believed her. Then, as no confirmation came from the crow’s nest, they said she must have imagined it and taken the white clouds on the horizon for the sails of the French fleet. Her best retreat would be to look childishly stupid and sulky, admit she had been frightened, perhaps even shed a few tears. But she decided to brazen it out. ‘I
did
see the ships – for a moment. They’ve disappeared now. Perhaps they saw us and sailed away.’
    Henry’s infantile eyebrows puckered in his vast face. His just anger had been interrupted by this false alarm, and now surged back, redoubled. ‘The girl’s lying!’ he roared. ‘The French have been reported miles away. She could never have seen them.’
    He looked at his daughter and saw her mother’s face, the big forehead, the clever bright eyes, the silly little rosebud of a mouth that had smiled so sweetly at him – and at others. ‘Take the little bastard away!’ he shouted,
    But at that moment Elizabeth had one of those stupendous strokes of luck that were enough to accuse her as well as her mother of witchcraft.
    A shout came ringing over the sea and was echoed by another. The alarm had been raised in good earnest, the French fleet sighted, sailing straight towards Portsmouth.

CHAPTER TWO
    Elizabeth was disappointed in her first invasion. She had thought they would stay on the flagship, that she would have a first-hand experience of a sea-fight, that somehow she would manage to dress up as a sailor and save Tom Seymour’s life. Then for once he would take her seriously, he would take her hand, and look deep into her eyes and say – what
would
he say?
    It didn’t matter, for it didn’t happen, none of it happened.
    That glittering July sea and the proud ships floating over it all vanished like sea-spray as far as the royal family party were concerned; in no time they all bustled off the flagship and on to a very fast pinnace and made for the shore and then inland. It was not Bess’s idea of the way to take an invasion. She had seen her father ride off to the French wars last year, in a suit of armour that two slight young men could easily have got into together, and hoisted on to an enormous dapple-grey Dutch stallion, seventeen hands high, with white feathered hoofs and flowing white mane and a little angry red eye, not unlike his rider’s. They had needed no army behind them, she had thought, to strike terror into the foe.
    But now – was this the way he had fought when he got there? She was told that Kings and Queens must not adventuretheir persons like common soldiers and sailors. She was not convinced. She told Tom Seymour with a sniff that the flagship had better be re-christened ‘The Great Hurry’!
    He scrutinised her narrowly. ‘How could you, on deck, have seen the French fleet before any lookout in the crow’s nest had seen it?’
    ‘I don’t know. My eyes are better than theirs, I suppose.’
    ‘Even your bright eyes couldn’t see them before they came up over the edge of the horizon. Haven’t your tutors taught you that the world is round?’
    ‘Then they must be wrong, and the world is flat.’
    ‘So that’s flat. You’d shape the whole world differently to suit yourself!’
    ‘Why not? My father does.’
    ‘You’re his daughter, no doubt about that!’ he chuckled.
    ‘
I’d
have stayed and seen the fight,’ said Bess. ‘I’d