LIBERTINE in the Tudor Court: One Night in Paradise / A Most Unseemly Summer. Juliet Landon

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СКАЧАТЬ Sir Nicholas’s part in getting her home. The pain worsened as her mother kindly lectured her on the dangers of allowing a man too much familiarity. How did she know about the journey home? ‘Because I pay my chamberlain to tell me what’s going on in my own house,’ she replied. Unfortunately, it was not possible for Adorna to discover exactly what the chamberlain had implied, or how much her mother suspected, or indeed how far Sir Nicholas had gone. And having no one but herself to blame for her determination to drink too much undiluted wine, she realised that she must get herself out of this situation with the same defiance she had used to get into it.

      Neither the pain nor her temper was improved by Hester’s somewhat ill-timed opinion that Sir Nicholas would make a good husband. ‘For you?’ Adorna said, wincing at the sunlit garden.

      ‘Well, yes. My inherited wealth and his inherited title would go together rather well, I think. And Sir Nicholas has noticed how much I’ve changed. Isn’t that nice?’

      ‘Very nice,’ Adorna murmured, watching a butterfly head off towards a gaudy marigold. ‘That makes all our efforts worthwhile.’ Secretly, it rankled that the plan she had been so eager to put into action only a short time ago had now begun to look as if it had Hester’s approval and, what was worse, that it might actually work. The only comforting thought she could find was that, one day quite soon, Sir Nicholas and Peter would both be gone up to Kenilworth with the Earl of Leicester to prepare to welcome the Queen.

      Adorna had missed the Sunday-morning service in the Queen’s royal chapel, but felt obliged to attend the evening one at which she hoped Sir Nicholas would not be present. Her hopes were soon sent packing. He came in with the earl’s household only moments before the Queen herself, fitting into a space on the bench immediately behind her. It was Hester and Lady Pickering who turned to smile at him, but the unkind lurch of Adorna’s heart had already responded to some strange telepathy, and from then on it was all she could do to keep her mind on course instead of on his presence at her back, his hands so close, his eyes taking in every detail.

      She devised a series of strategies for evading him afterwards, but her father and Hester demolished them by keeping her between them as they turned to speak to Sir Nicholas, compelling her to respond to his query about her health. His ‘You are well, I hope?’ was accompanied by a lack of gravity in his eyes that suggested he might already know the answer.

      She had no intention of telling him the truth. ‘Well enough, I thank you, sir.’ Against her will, her eyes evaluated the impeccable green silk doublet and matching trunk-hose, its surfaces slashed to show long puffs of pale gold silk beneath. A small white ruff sat neatly beneath his chin, but her examination stopped at his mouth, lacking the courage to meet the laughter in his eyes.

      Hester, apparently, felt that Adorna’s response was sadly wanting in detail. ‘She is now,’ she said, in the awkward silence that followed. ‘She’s been unwell all morning with a terrible headache. Poor Adorna.’ She looked pityingly at her cousin, trying to imagine what a headache felt like.

      ‘Hester!’ Adorna said through her teeth. But the damage was done.

      ‘Really?’ Sir Nicholas replied, adopting an expression of extreme concern. ‘Is that so, mistress? Now what could possibly have caused that, I wonder?’

      Sir Thomas came to the rescue, dismissing the problem with his usual bluffness. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘anyone who has to dress eight noblewomen as Water Maidens all at the same time is entitled to a headache, I’d say. It gave me one just to think about it. Hah! Now, Sir Nicholas, I believe I owe you our thanks for escorting Mistress Adorna home last night. Very thoughtful. Mighty good of you. I was tied up till the early hours, you know.’

      Sir Nicholas’s response was a slight bow, though his eyes and voice still denied a proper seriousness. ‘No thanks are necessary, Sir Thomas, I assure you. It was a great pleasure to escort your daughter to her bed…er…room. In fact, it was the highlight of the evening for me.’

      But any deeper meaning of Sir Nicholas’s words was quite lost upon Sir Thomas as his attention was caught by another friend, and he began to move away. Not so with Hester, who appeared to be getting the hang of social chit-chat with a remarkable degree of clumsiness. ‘Oh, you didn’t tell me that,’ she said to Adorna, ignoring the bright pink flush that had risen in her cousin’s cheeks. ‘Did Sir Nicholas…er…did you really…?’

      ‘Sir Nicholas is jesting, Hester dear,’ Adorna almost snarled, looking daggers at the man to warn him not to say another word. ‘Remind me to tell you how some men enjoy making ladies blush, will you?’ She took Hester’s arm in a firm grip to steer her away.

      Hester, however, had taken the bit firmly between her teeth. ‘But Sir Nicholas would not do that, would you, Sir Nicholas?’ she said, resisting the pressure.

      ‘Yes, he would,’ Adorna said, under her breath. Her glance across at her parents gave her even more cause for concern, for now there were eyes flickering in her direction as snippets of gossip were passed back and forth by their friends, heads nodding, smiles of surprise, grimaces of shock. She could not doubt that she and Sir Nicholas were the topic of their conversation.

      Sir Nicholas himself offered her little consolation. ‘Yes, I would,’ he said to Hester. ‘But you should also ask Mistress Adorna to explain that a blush of embarrassment doesn’t necessarily imply guilt. Ask her about it, Mistress Hester.’

      This was getting too deep for her. ‘Yes, sir,’ she said, looking as if she had already lost the thread. ‘Yes, I will.’ She bobbed a curtsy, glanced once more at the rosy signs of Adorna’s extreme vexation, and moved away to join Lady Pickering, presumably to hear the details with which Adorna had not supplied her.

      Adorna herself would have left Sir Nicholas at that point had he not kept hold of her arm. ‘No, sir,’ she hissed. ‘Let me go now. How could you have begun such a conversation before my father and Hester? Now they’ll think—’

      ‘What will they think?’ he said, close to her ear. ‘Are you pretending that your parents will never hear that we were together at the masque? That they’ll never know how you stood in for Lady Mary? Of course they will. Look at that crowd. They can hardly wait to talk about it. What d’ye think they’re saying, then?’

      The temptation to look was strong, but she could not do it while the embarrassment was so plainly written upon her face. She could not even meet Sir Nicholas’s eyes as she replied, ‘How could I possibly know what they’re saying?’

      ‘Well, I’ll tell you.’

      ‘Don’t.’

      ‘They’re talking about the Water Maiden who refused to be caught. About how she—’

      ‘Stop!’

      ‘How she wore a gauzy bodice everyone could see through and—’

      ‘Please!’

      ‘And how the Deputy Master of Horse kissed her there before them all, while she struggled in his arms. Then they danced with each other and no one else. Can you hear that roar of laughter? Your father. Your mother and Hester are looking shocked. Well? Would you prefer to go and join them and be invited to explain, or would you rather leave with me and not have to explain anything?’

      There appeared to be no choice left to her. The blush, now intensified, was certainly not what she wanted to exhibit to anyone, nor did she wish to see their expressions of shock and amusement. She could guess what they would be saying. ‘Adorna Pickering caught at last? Do explain…she СКАЧАТЬ