Philippa Gregory 3-Book Tudor Collection 2: The Queen’s Fool, The Virgin’s Lover, The Other Queen. Philippa Gregory

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      ‘Will it be fruitful?’ she asked.

      He drew a line across the thin columns of dizzying numbers. He drew another downward, and where the lines intersected he leaned forward to read the number.

      ‘I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘But I can’t be sure. There will be two pregnancies.’

      Elizabeth drew a little gasp like the hiss of a cat. ‘Two? Live births?’

      John Dee consulted the number again and then another set of numbers at the foot of the scroll. ‘It is very obscure.’

      Elizabeth held herself very still, there was no outward sign of her desperation to know.

      ‘So who will inherit the throne?’ she asked tightly.

      John Dee drew another line, this time horizontally, across the columns. ‘It should be you,’ he said.

      ‘Yes, I know it should be me,’ Elizabeth said, reining in her impatience. ‘I am the heir now, if I am not overthrown. But will it be me?’

      He leaned back, away from the pages. ‘I am sorry, Princess. It is too unclear. The love that she bears him and her desire for a child obscures everything. I have never seen a woman love a man more, I have never seen a woman long more intensely for a child. Her desire is in every symbol of the table, it is almost as if she could wish a child into being.’

      Elizabeth, her face like a beautiful mask, nodded. ‘I see. Would you be able to see more if Hannah would scry for you?’

      John Dee turned to me. ‘Will you try, Hannah? And see what we can learn? It is God’s work, remember, we will be seeking the advice of angels.’

      ‘I’ll try,’ I said. I was not very eager to enter the darkened room, and look in the shadowy mirror. But the thought of bringing Lord Robert the news that might release him, of bringing the queen the news that might give her the greatest joy since her coming to the throne, was a great temptation for me.

      I went into the room. The candleflames were bobbing either side of a golden mirror. The table was covered with a white linen cloth. As I watched, John Dee drew a five-sided star on the linen with a dark spluttery pen, and then symbols of power at each corner.

      ‘Keep the door shut,’ he said to Elizabeth. ‘I don’t know how long we will be.’

      ‘Can’t I be inside?’ she said. ‘I won’t speak.’

      He shook his head. ‘Princess, you don’t have to speak, you have all the presence of a queen. This has to be just Hannah and me, and the angels if they will come to us.’

      ‘But you will tell me everything,’ she urged him. ‘Not just the things you think I should know. You will tell me all that there is?’

      He nodded and shut the door on her eager face and then turned back to me. He pulled a stool before the mirror and seated me gently, looking over my head to my reflection in the mirror. ‘You are willing?’ he confirmed.

      ‘I am,’ I said seriously.

      ‘It is a great gift that you have,’ he said quietly. ‘I would give all my learning to be able to do it.’

      ‘I just wish there could be a resolution,’ I said. ‘I wish Elizabeth might have her throne and yet the queen keep it. I wish the queen might have her son and Elizabeth not be disinherited. I wish with all my heart that Lord Robert might be free and yet not plot against the queen. I wish I could be here and yet be with my father.’

      He smiled. ‘You and I are the most unhelpful of conspirators,’ he said gently. ‘For I don’t mind which queen is on the throne as long as she will allow the people to follow their faith. And I want the libraries restored and learning allowed, and for this country to explore the seas and spread outward and outward to the new lands to the west.’

      ‘But how will this work bring it about?’ I asked.

      ‘We will know what the angels advise,’ he said quietly. ‘There could be no better guide for us.’

      John Dee stepped back from the mirror and I heard his quiet voice pray in Latin that we should do the work of God and that the angels would come to us. I said ‘Amen,’ heart-felt, and then waited.

      It seemed to take a very long time. I saw the candles reflected in the mirror, the darkness around them became darker and they seemed to grow more bright. Then I saw that at the core of every candle there was a halo of darkness, and inside the halo of darkness there was the black wick of the candle and a little haze around it. I grew so fascinated with this anatomy of flame that I could not remember what I should be doing, I just stared and stared into the moving lights until I felt that I had fallen asleep, and then John Dee’s hand was gentle on my shoulder and I heard his voice in my ear saying: ‘Drink this, child.’

      It was a cup of warm ale and I sat back on my stool and sipped it, conscious of a heaviness behind my eyes and weariness, as if I were ill.

      ‘I am sorry,’ I said. ‘I must have fallen asleep.’

      ‘D’you remember nothing?’ he asked curiously.

      I shook my head. ‘I just watched the flame and then fell asleep.’

      ‘You spoke,’ he said quietly. ‘You spoke in a language I could not understand, but I think it was the language of angels. God be praised, I think you spoke to them in their language. I copied it down as best I could, I will try to translate it … if it is the key to speaking to God!’ He broke off.

      ‘Did I say nothing that you could understand now?’ I asked, still bemused.

      ‘I questioned you in English and you answered in Spanish,’ he said. He saw the alarm in my face. ‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘Whatever secrets you have, they are safe. You said nothing that could not be heard by anyone. But you told me about the queen and the princess.’

      ‘What did I say?’ I demanded.

      He hesitated. ‘Child, if the angel who guides you wanted you to know what words were spoken then he would have let you speak them in your waking state.’

      I nodded.

      ‘He did not. Perhaps it is better that you do not know.’

      ‘But what am I to tell Lord Robert when I see him?’ I demanded. ‘And what can I say to the queen about her baby?’

      ‘You can tell Lord Robert that he will be free within two years,’ John Dee said firmly. ‘And there will be a moment when he thinks everything is lost, once more, at the very moment everything is just starting for him. He must not despair then. And you must bid the queen to hope. If any woman in the world could be granted a baby because she would be a good mother, because she loved the father, and because she desired a child, it would be this queen. But whether she will have a son in her womb as well as her heart, I cannot tell you. Whether she will have a child from this birth or not, I cannot tell you.’

      I got to my feet. ‘I shall go then,’ I said. ‘I have to take the horse back. But, Mr Dee –’

      ‘Yes?’

      ‘What СКАЧАТЬ