To Shield the Queen Read Online Free Page A

red-headed heretic’s court, I don’t doubt!”
    I took my leave of her coldly and led Meg away.
    Now, sitting on the window seat in my room at Richmond, I thought grimly that I would survive somehow. I would keep myself decent; I would make my way at court, and I would keep Meg out of Faldene’s clutches, too.
    But to prosper at court apparently meant hiring a lady’s maid. Dear God, how was I to afford that? It would take half my stipend! Feverishly, I tried to think of ways and means. There was a small garden with the cottage I had found for Bridget and Meg. Bridget could read, though only just. I would write her a clear, simple letter, telling her to grow vegetables and keep hens, and try to sell things—eggs, pullets, onions, lettuces. It wouldn’t be enough, but I must just do my best.
    The door opened and back came Lady Katherine Knollys with her woman. “Would you believe it? I’ve already heard of someone who might suit you!” she announced. “One of the maids of honour is being sent home for being caught in compromising circumstances with a young man, and leaves court tomorrow. She comes from the North, but her tiring woman is a Londoner and doesn’t want to go with her. She intends to seek another position. I suggest that you interview her in the morning.”
    “Thank you,” I said tonelessly. “You are very kind.”
• • •
    I was presented to her majesty later the same day. I had changed into a black velvet gown, decorated only with a few seed pearls. The gown had a small farthingale and a little white linen ruff and with it I wore a silver net for my hair, and a silver pendant. It was a becoming ensemble, which was fortunate because it gave me confidence. Being presented to Queen Elizabeth of England was quite an ordeal.
    To begin with, Lady Katherine gave me a terrifying list of dos and don’ts. I must curtsy thus, and speak only if invited to do so but then must speak clearly and without stammering. And although I was here, as much as anything, because my mother had served the queen’s mother, I must not allude to Anne Boleyn in any way, or even to Kate Howard, Anne’s cousin, who had also been married to King Henry, and had been beheaded, like Anne, for adultery.
    “Her majesty never speaks of them. She may well think of them privately, especially her mother,” said Lady Katherine. “She has shown great kindness to the Boleyns and their kin, of whom I am one—my mother was Queen Anne’s sister—but the past is never mentioned. You must also . . . ”
    I felt positively frightened before I even entered the room where the queen was to receive me. With Lady Katherine, I had first to cross a crowded antechamber, and then pass through an inner door with guards who placed their pikes across it until Lady Katherine gave our names, when they let us pass with a clash of pike-handles on the floor as they set their weapons upright again.
    Inside, was a big room with an ornately painted and gilded ceiling and tapestried walls. This too was crowded, with courtiers male and female, and my sovereign was seated on a dais at the far side of an immense expanse of floor, across which I must walk, at Lady Katherine’s side, under the eyes of what seemed to me like an audience of several hundred.
Quaking inwardly, I tried to keep my head up and my gaze fixed on the glittering figure of the queen. Viewed from afar, that was all she was: just a sparkling effigy on a chair with a high, pointed back. The odd thing was that as we approached, she did not become more human. Yet she was only a young woman, not yet twenty-seven, only months older than I was myself. It was extraordinary.
    At the foot of the dais, Lady Katherine and I sank into our curtsies. A cool, even voice told us to rise, and as we did so, Lady Katherine began on a formal introduction, while I took my first good look at my sovereign.
    I saw . . .
    An astounding dress of ash-coloured satin, iridescent with gold embroidery, the waist so tiny,