Within her bedchamber the Queen dismissed her ladies, setting them to seek more formal robes than those she wore, leaving her alone with Quire. She stretched her huge frame upon the sheets and let her head fall into his lap. He stroked her with familiar tenderness. She sighed. “Oh, Quire. Montfallcon’s determined to destroy our idyll. He refuses to believe that I shall return to full Duty in time.”
“What’s so urgent,” casually asked Quire, “that he needs to call a sudden meeting?”
“He’s afraid of war.”
“With Arabia?”
“With everyone. He fears that the Empire must dissolve if present events continue in their courses. The Tatars are ready to make use of any opportunity. There have been disputes for some while concerning Cathay’s borders. There have been reports that the Afghanians seek an alliance with the Tatars, with whom they believe they have more in common. The Perrotts, in order to take their vengeance on Arabia for the killing of their father, are now likely to spark off a dozen different wars. We’ve Poland to consider, and the war they plan. The Tatars will overrun Arabian borders, given the chance, for they know Arabia would attack them. So Montfallcon sees the Perrotts as central to the scheme and would make me marry one of them.”
“Perhaps you should,” said Quire.
She became alarmed. “We would be separated!”
“But our happiness cannot be considered here.”
“It would be stupid to sacrifice my person. You have told me that yourself. Quire-you said that I should not give my soul or my body to the Realm, merely my presence and my brain!” She craned to look, as a small, frightened child might look, into his saturnine face.
He reassured her. “Aye. I think Montfallcon’s mistaken, anyway. Who’s to say the Perrotts in their angry mood would agree to any match? They want vengeance. Besides, I doubt if a marriage could stop war now. Unless it be marriage to Hassan himself.”
“I could not marry Hassan.”
“Marriage to him would at least leave us free to be lovers,” said Quire with a quiet smile. “He would be glad to encourage us, if we were discreet.”
She put a hand to his lips. He kissed the fingers. She stroked his heavy jaw. “No cynicism. Besides, Hassan would demand too much. There are many nobles, I know, who favour the match, for he’s seen as strong and manly. My master.”
Quire nodded. “If you were ever to make a sacrifice-and I say that you should not, as you know-then you should consider marriage to Hassan. It would be the only sane decision.”
She drew him down to her. “Stop. I’ll have too much of this talk later. I love you, Quire.”
His voice contained a note he had never heard in it before as he steadied himself against her passion and said to her: “I love you, too.”
She was Gloriana Regina now, in all her conventional magnificence, the orb in one hand, the sceptre in the other, two gauzy collars behind her back, like fairy wings, a massive starched ruff, stomacher and farthingale, varicoloured brocade and embroidered silks, huge pearls covering her person like tears, diamonds encrusting sleeves and breast. He removed the sombrero and kissed her hand. She was returned from the Council. He took the sceptre and the orb from her and handed them to a footman to replace in their cabinet. He brought her a glass of wine, which she sipped, smiling down on this courteous dwarf.
“You are pale,” he said. He went behind her to loosen her stomacher, barely able to reach over the frame of the farthingale. He fumbled with the laces and she laughed, calling in her ladies.
“There was more to the meeting than I had anticipated,” she said to him.
He sat down in a chair as she was stripped. The ladies smiled at him a great deal. He was a success, for he made the Queen so womanly, which was all they desired for her.
“War’s with us?” he suggested.
“Not yet. Montfallcon spoke much of you.”
“He continues to accuse me?”
“He believes he’ll find evidence. Did you know that these apartments are built upon far older structures? Of course, I told you of my adventure with Una. The one which has given me so many nightmares. Which you, my dear, have banished with so many of my other fears.”
“Aye. She blocked the entrance.”
“Well, Montfallcon thinks there are other doors-in the old wing-near my father’s Throne Room. I told you of what happened to me….”
He raised a hand to stop this drift. “What of these entrances?”
“He says that you were living there for many months before you first appeared at the Tilt. He says that you were the killer of all those who have died or disappeared. He has fallen in with Lord Kansas-who is a good man and a brave one-and together they mount an expedition to hunt out witnesses who’ll testify against you.”
Quire smiled. “Were these murders, then, committed before an audience of rats?”
“It distressed me, Quire, my love. I do not want the walls disturbed. I…” She hesitated. She was in her shift now and was kicking free her shoes. “They are the past.”
“You think they’ll find your father still alive?” He let her come to him, in soft white, to sit at his feet while he stroked her neck and shoulders, waving the women from the room. The door was closed. He mocked her, but was kind.
“His spirit,” she said. “There are demons there.”
“Demons, eh?”
“I told you. Such wretches. I felt sorry for them, but I could not bear to consider them. They are my father’s victims. Living in dungeons. Living like vermin.”
“Then forbid Montfallcon to enter.”
“I tried, but I could give him no reason. I know, too, that it is my own weakness which says to forget the walls and what’s within them. Therefore I cannot indulge myself…. Oh, Quire!”
“I have told you-it is not indulgence to admit weakness. And, once admitted, weaknesses must sometimes be indulged. That is rational, my dearest heart. You must protect yourself or you cannot protect the Realm.”
“You have said so many times, aye. Yet I gave him permission. He dared me to refuse. To show that I had faith in you, I had to let him mount the expedition.”
“How many?”
“Montfallcon, Kansas and a few men-at-arms-members of the City Guard. And I think they have a guide. I am not sure. Montfallcon was somewhat mysterious.”
“A denizen of the walls?”
“We met one, Una and I. Perhaps it is the same.”
She could not see Quire’s face, so he permitted himself a little wistful smile. “Well,” he said, “do you think they’ll come back with a hundred people who saw me try to poison the Rhoones?”
“You saved the Rhoones. It is well known.” She stroked his leg. “Do not fear, my love. They shall not be allowed to accuse you further. Even now Montfallcon makes statements my father would have called unquestionable treachery. But he will calm, as he forgets his grief. And so will the others who spoke against you.”
“I have other enemies?” He was ostentatiously merry. “I’m flattered.”
“And many friends. Doctor Dee respects you and speaks for you at the Council. Sir Thomasin Ffynne, who serves there now, thinks you a rogue but a good-hearted one"-she smiled-"as do I. And Sir Amadis will hear no harm of you. Or Lord Gorius-and it’s well known how much those two dislike one another these days. And Master Wallis. And several more are, at very least, rational concerning you. Of the Council, only Hawes is firmly with Montfallcon, while Sir Vivien tends to that position. They share certain qualities of temperament.”
“I am surprised by the attention,” mused Quire.
“Why so? They are jealous. They see a commoner usurping power that they feel only the nobility should own.”
“Power? What power have I?”
“They think you rule me-and therefore could come to rule the Realm. It has happened with the mistresses of kings, they argue.”
“Who argues?”
“Well, Sir Orlando, mainly But he’ll be persuaded of your reasonable nature in time.”
“Perhaps they are right,” said Quire, as if he struggled with a conscience. “Do I help you in your decisions? Subtly, I mean? When I argue for your good health, your sanity, your privacy, am I not arguing against the security of the Realm?”