The Follies of the King - Plaidy Jean - Страница 53

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She said: ‘I must not stay here. What if we were seen?’

‘It would be noted.’

‘And then we should meet no more.’

‘My lady, we must meet again.’

He had taken her hand and the pressure of his fingers thrilled her. She

thought: I have waited too long. Mortimer is the man for me.

She said in a somewhat breathless voice: ‘I will arrange it.’

???????

She sent for Alspaye.

‘Your prisoner Mortimer interests me,’ she said.

‘Yes, my lady.’

‘When I talked with him in the gardens he spoke very freely.’

‘Prisoners become reckless, my lady.’

‘It occurs to me that I should have further talk with him. I should discover what is in his mind.’

Alspaye bowed his head. ‘Do you wish to go to his cell?’

‘That would create certain speculation, would it not?’ She thought of the

cells, damp on the walls, airless and stuffy. No, that was not the place where she and Mortimer should be together.

‘If I sent for him to my apartments?’

‘He would come with his guards, my lady. The King’s orders were that he

should be very specially guarded.’

‘Yet he walks with you in the gardens.’

‘Twas so, my lady, but the guards were behind the doors which led to the

gardens. It was only because he was with me that they allowed him out of their sight.’

‘And if I sent for him, to have talk with him? here? say in my

apartments?’

‘Then I should bring him and stay within call, my lady.’

‘And his guards?’

‘They would expect to escort him and be at hand.’

She felt irritated. There was no way in which she and Mortimer could be

alone without its being known.

.She did not mind Alspaye’s knowing. He was a man of discretion and had

already witnessed their meeting in the garden. But she must be free to be alone with Mortimer. The desire for excitement and adventure, having been

suppressed all these years, would remain so no longer. She was ready to take any risks.

‘I doubt not the guards take a little wine now and then.’

‘When they are on duty my lady they take very little. There is much

carousing when they have their free time though. Life in the Tower seems to give them a fancy for wine.’

‘Let them be given extra wine and make sure that it is potent.’

‘Drugged, you mean, my lady?’

She did not answer but her smile was enough. ‘When they are asleep let

Mortimer be brought to me? by you. I will be responsible for his safety.’

‘If you will be responsible for him, my lady?’

‘I have told you I will.’

‘Then I will see what can be done.’

‘Not only see,’ she retorted, ‘but do it. I shall remember you with gratitude, Lieutenant.’

???????

He came into her apartment. He looked different. He wore his confidence

like a garment.

He came swiftly towards her and taking her hand, kissed it fervently. His

lips were warm. Then he raised his shining eyes to her face.

She stepped towards him and laid her hand on his shoulders. It was enough.

The next moment he had picked her up in his arms and held her closely against him.

She felt his lips on hers, demanding, certain of himself ? Impertinence! she thought indulgently. Am I not the Queen? She was laughing to herself.

‘Mortimer,’ she murmured. ‘This is part of the vision perhaps.’

‘Nay, nay,’ he said. ‘Since I first saw you it has happened often in my

dreams? now comes the reality.’

‘I? the Queen,’ she began.

‘My Queen,’ he said, ‘my Queen for evermore.’

He was a practised lover. He had known many women, she guessed that.

And what had she known? Reluctant Edward! How she hated Edward, more so

now she knew what it was to lie with a real man.

‘Mortimer, Mortimer,’ she moaned, ‘my dearest Mortimer from the first

moment I knew it was you?’

His answer was in his fervent lovemaking. They lay side by side, fingers

entwined.

‘There is so much we should talk of,’ she said.

But there was no time for talk. They must make love again and again.

Nothing else would satisfy him? or her.

How she wished that she could hold back time! How was she going to live

without Mortimer after this? She was a passionate woman who had been stifling her real emotions for too long. Now they were breaking forth. It was a flood which was bursting the banks; it was flowing over her resolutions, her

ambitions, everything. There was nothing in her life just now but her need of Mortimer.

It was more than consummation of their love. It was the beginning of a new life for her. Mortimer was going to be more than her lover. That was something they both knew instinctively; and she would never forget that although he was aware of this yet he must cast it all aside that they might first shake this fierce desire which possessed them both.

‘Have you any doubt,’ murmured Mortimer, ‘that you and I were made for

each other?’

‘None,’ she answered. ‘Oh my dear one, how thankful I am that I have

found you.’

But they must part. How frustrating that was. If only they could have lain together through the night and talked in between bouts of lovemaking. What bliss that would have been.

‘Yes, at least we have had this. Let us not forget that,’ said Mortimer.

‘And when shall we be together again?’ cried Isabella. ‘Alspaye will know

what has happened.’

‘1 believe we can trust Alspaye.’

‘And the guards? We cannot drug them every night.’

‘Nay, but we must find a means.’

‘How? Where? In the garden? In your cell? No, gentle Mortimer, my love,

we must find a means for I cannot endure to be away from you. You have shown me what I have missed. Oh Mortimer, why were you not the son of the King of England?’

‘My Queen, my Queen! I could never have believed there was such a

woman. I would I could carry you off to my Marcher country. There I would

hold you against all who came to take you from me.’

‘One day, Mortimer? One day. I swear to it. I swear. Oh there is so much

to say. But you are here. We must free you? That is the first thing. We must free you from the Tower.’

‘When can I be with you again?’

‘We must go carefully. There is so much at stake.’

‘But I must see you soon. How can I stay away from you after this?

Knowing that we are both in this Tower together and these thick walls divide us?’

‘I shall arrange something. Dear Mortimer, you must dress now. You must

go back to your dungeon. Alspaye cannot wait much longer. The guards will be awakening from their sleep. Dear Mortimer, your life is the most precious thing on earth to me. It must be preserved? for the future. One day, my love? one day?’

He saw that she was right. They dressed hastily. One last embrace and

Alspaye came in to conduct him to his dungeon.

???????

She was being driven mad. She had seen him in the garden but what could

they do there but touch hands? She could stand close to him, feel the strength of his body. It maddened her, and he shared her feelings. They had wakened such massive floods of passion in each other that it was almost impossible to restrain them.

‘What can we do?’ cried Mortimer in despair.

It was not easy to arrange another night even with Alspaye’s connivance. He had of course guessed the state of affairs and understood the Queen’s emotion.

Poor woman, had she not been married to Edward all these years?

There was one night when it was arranged that a few doors should be

unlocked and the guards drunk again and this time when the lovers had slaked their passion to a certain degree, Isabella insisted that the first thing that must be done was to arrange Mortimer’s escape from the Tower.

‘I will go to the Marcher country and you will join me there,’ he said. ‘We will raise an army against the King.’

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