Queen of Trial and Sorrow Read Online Free

contrived to capture one of my hands; it was pale and perfect, with slender fingers and manicured nails.  He lifted it to his mouth, touching and tasting with lips and tongue before I gently disengaged it.
    “I think perhaps it is time we returned to the house, your Highness.”
    “A kiss before we must part.”
    “No, Sire,” I said as firmly as I dared.
    The fair brows went up; the blue eyes clouded.  I think he was more surprised than angry or disappointed.  It was a word he was unaccustomed to hearing, especially from the mouths of those upon whom his attention had fallen.  He had, of course, been utterly spoiled by women throwing themselves at him, falling at his feet.  He didn’t have to pursue them; generally a little artful persuasion was enough to coax the object of his lust into his bed. 
    Then he smiled, and it was like the sun coming out. “Are you so bashful because of the spies?”
    “Spies?” I echoed, and he nodded toward the house.  Every window that looked down upon the garden had two or even three faces peering out.
     
    ……….
     
    I cannot deny that I was both flattered and thrilled by the attentions of the king, and my family were, if possible, even more flattered and thrilled, with the exception of Father and Anthony who opined frequently that he ought not to be let loose around decent women.  But what I really wanted was to marry again, and quickly while I still had my looks, for I had little else to recommend me.  What is a woman alone but a useless beggar, a drain on her family’s resources, growing old and bitter without ever having a bowl or spoon to call her own and never being in a position to help her children rise in the world?  There were suitors once my year of mourning was up.  They sighed at my beauty and toasted my eyes, which were like woodland pools, like emeralds, like wells of unending happiness.  But I quickly learned that beauty is a poor substitute for a dowry, and when they discovered my circumstances expressions of undying devotion turned to regret.  Hand over heart, a forlorn wave, and another prospect was gone down the lane.
    Another visit: He was on his way north to conduct the campaign in person.  He was always on his way somewhere or returning from somewhere.  We took a blanket out to the orchard.  It was in the season when the trees were in full flower.  I spread out the blanket in the shade of a tree and he shook the trunk until tiny petals fell like snow.  We were alone, where we could not be overlooked from the house, alone with the bees in the blossoms.
    “Is it true,” I asked, “as I’ve heard, that you are a thriving merchant?”
    Father thought it a scandal, but mother said because he wasn’t born to be king, he tended to be unconventional and what was wrong with that?
    “I must do something magnificently innovative to make the Crown solvent.”
    “The merchants will say you have an unfair advantage.”
    He laughed.  “They might have a point.”
    “There are many who’ll say it’s demeaning; that a king should not involve himself in something as crassly commercial as trade.”  I rather felt that way myself.
    “True.  But only those who don’t know how crassly commercial is the business of running a kingdom.”
    “What do you trade?”
    “Only wool and woolfells so far, but next year I intend to ship some woolen cloths from Coventry to Flanders.  Try as they might the Flemings cannot replicate Coventry’s blue and make it fast.  I want to improve England’s cloth trade and feel I can better understand the complexities from the inside.  Later perhaps I shall ship other things, such as tin and lead, though they aren’t nearly so lucrative as wool.  I intend to make exorbitant profits.” 
    He sprawled out beside me, propping his head on one hand.  “Will you like me better if I’m rich?”
    “I like you well enough now,” I said brazenly.
    I turned my head to look at him through lowered lashes.  It was all