Bothwell grunted and sat down heavily on a stool. "It grieves me to
know she has so many enemies," he said. He gestured to the other stool
and James sat. Bothwell picked up his wine flagon and poured out two
cups without asking James if he wanted any.
James took one. "Yet she does. In many places." He took a sip of the
wine.
Silence hung between them, with only the sound of the wind outside
catching in the great stone windows.
"My sister the Queen " James finally continued, "at last regrets her
marriage with her cousin, the Lord Darnley. She admits this openly.
She has received a letter just today that makes her weep. "How to be
free of him," she said, "I see no escape." And "Would that I had died
at Jedburgh!" "
" "Will no one rid me of this meddling priest?" " Bothwell leaned back
and threw one of his arms across the back of the chair. It smarted.
"The Queen would give anything to be free of the young fool and proud
tyrant."
"Anything except give a direct order for achieving this freedom. Tis a
prerogative of royalty to suggest the deed and then make others take
the blame." He shot a look at Lord James, the craftiest man in
Scotland. Only once had James come out in the open, in the Chaseabout
Raid, and been severely trounced. It was not a mistake he would make
again. He had taken care to hide all traces of himself in the Riccio
affair. If he thought he could engineer a removal of Darnley in like
fashion, using Bothwell as cat's-paw, he was mistaken.
"What do you want from me?" asked Bothwell bluntly.
"Only that you use your brains to devise some way that sRe can shed
him. There is annulment, divorce, censure by Parliament, trial for
treason he did hold her prisoner and dissolve Parliament on his own
usurped authority mishap on the way to imprisonment.. .. Your own
parents were divorced. Perhaps you can persuade her to "
"No. That was a different case."
"We mean to approach her and discuss all this. Maitland, Argyll, your
wife's brother Huntly, and myself. We need you to join us. She needs
our help."
Bothwell grunted again and took another draught.
"This is not treason! We mean to sign a bond and pledge to obey only
the Queen. Darnley has forfeited all rights "
"To live?" A bond always had do with death, eventually.
"To be her husband, and to bear the title of King, even in courtesy."
The five men stood before Mary, their faces shining with nervousness
and sincerity. Mary herself, more slender than ever after her illness,
stood very white and still, looking from one face to another.
"Your Majesty, we are gathered here out of love and concern for you, as
loyal subjects," Lord James began.
Mary looked dreadful, Bothwell thought. Her face showed all the strain
of her situation and the demand of her recent illness. The colour of
her skin was gone, replaced by the dull sameness of chalky paste. Her
voice was weak and sounded resigned.
"Shall we sit?" she asked, and Bothwell realized she did not have the
strength to stand for any length of time.
She and the five men took their places in a circle of chairs near the
fireplace, which housed a good fire. The heat felt good. Craigmillar
was a very drafty castle, and its thick stone walls seemed to hold in
the chill.
Lord James flipped up his cloak and sat down carefully. Just as
carefully he opened his mouth and spoke.
"We here" he gestured to the others "wish to help you in your dilemma.
The Lord Darnley has proved unworthy of the high position to which he
was called, and for the sake of Scotland some remedy must be found."
"Divorce," said Maitland, "would seem to be the solution. Certainly
there are grounds. His "
"My faith does not permit divorce," said Mary in a small voice. "And
nothing must be undertaken that would prejudice my son the Prince's
royal rights."
"My own mother and father were divorced," said Bothwell. "Yet it did
not hinder my rights to succeed to my father's titles at his death." He
felt duty-bound to speak.
"Titles are not the same as a throne. And perhaps even a throne in
another' realm as well," said Mary pointedly.
"An annulment is certainly a possibility," said Maitland. "The close
relationship half first cousins would raise questions. And "
"No! An annulment is worse than a divorce! An annulment means a
marriage never legally existed, and the offspring are left in no clear
state!" Mary spoke in a surprisingly loud, clear voice.
Maitland looked abashed.
"There can be no prejudice, no impediments, to his title! Else all was
sacrificed in vain! And think not to have some evil befall him, as did
Riccio! No, although such things happen regularly here in Scotland, I
will not have my conscience stained, nor my honour blotted, with such a
crime! For I must face God and be able to look Him directly in His
face!"
"Aye, aye," said Argyll soothingly. "Then perhaps he should be
arrested and tried for treason by Parliament. The other conspirators
in your servant's death were condemned and banished, while the head of
the conspiracy and mischief went unpunished."
"Everything will be done aboveboard, lawfully, all approved by
Parliament," said Maitland. "And although the Lord James is as devout
a Protestant as Your Grace is a Catholic, he will put his fingers in
front of his eyes and look the other way. That we promise you."
"I cannot stain my conscience!" she kept repeating, hysterically. "I
cannot, I cannot "
Bothwell dared not look at her.
"Leave it all to us," Lord James said smoothly.
THIRTY-NINE
Madame Rallay carefully placed the calvados-and-cream posset before her
mistress as she sat at her little inlaid desk, not working, just
staring off into space.
"Happy birthday, my dear Queen," she whispered.
Mary looked up and smiled in a preoccupied way. "Thank you," she said.
Then she actually noticed what had been placed before her, and a
genuine smile broke over her face. "You remembered," she said,
touched.
"Indeed, yes, Madam. How could I forget?"
"I am four and twenty today. Yesterday was the Lord Darnley's
birthday, and he is twenty-one. Yet we are not celebrating together,
and although or perhaps because he is so young, dissoluteness has him
in its grip. I fear he will never be delivered from it."
"You must stop brooding," said Madame Rallay. "If ever you hope to
recover your spirits, you must stop thinking on these unpleasant
things. Now, as to the baptism when do the godparents arrive?"
Mary smiled. "Once again Elizabeth declines to meet me. Evidently she
is not very curious to see me. She sends the Earl of Bedford, governor
of Berwick, with her christening gift, a huge gold font. But of course
everything is political for the Earl, being a staunch Protestant,
cannot actually attend, so he himself has to choose a proxy a proxy for
a proxy!" She could not help laughing.
"And the French?" Madame Rallay looked on approvingly as Mary drank
the posset.
"The Count de Brienne will represent Charles IX; he is travelling from
France. And dear Monsieur du Croc, the regular French ambassador, will
have to stand in for the Duke of Savoy's own proxy, Moretta, who seems
to tarry overlong in Paris." She could not help feeling slighted; even
the glittering ceremony she had planned, and the accompanying honours,
seemed not sufficient to lure people north. She hated the implied
slight to her country, even though she herself had imported French
people and trappings to this land. Still, that was different.. ..
"He will be sorry to have missed it, when he hears it described."
"I am having three contingents of the Lords, each wearing a different
colour, to serve in the ceremony. The Lord James and his men will be
in green, Huntly and his in red, and Bothwell and his in blue."
"The colour of loyalty."
"He has been loyal. And I need to speak with him. Pray, tell Nau to
summon him."
"Indeed, Madam. And are you finished with the posset? I shall have
the glass taken away."
Bothwell came straightway. She saw immediately that he was walking
briskly, and complimented him on his recovery.
"It was partially thanks to your fine physician, Bourgoing," he
admitted. "He babied me, made me treat myself like a French whore,
almost, with stinking perfumes, hot cloths but I enjoyed it. I trust
you are recovering likewise."
"My wounds are not as treatable as yours," she said.
"I presume we speak now of the Lord Darnley?"
"Yes," she said, bowing her head in shame at referring to her husband
as a wound. "What have you .. . decided? What is to be the plan? I
left it all in Lord James's hands. I have not even received any
letters from Darnley since the one at Craigmillar."
"I know not to what you refer, save the Lord James said you had
received one that made you weep."
"In it Lord Darnley threatened not to attend the baptism at all. He
said that since the foreign ambassadors would not address him as King,
especially the English one, he declined to attend. Of course it will
throw doubt on the Prince's legitimacy, when his father does not
attend! Oh, Bothwell, what am I to do?" As soon as she said it, she
regretted it. She did not want to make him uncomfortable, or make him
feel she thought of him as anything other than a councillor whose
advice was sometimes necessary. She did not want to chase him away no,
not when just being in his presence was her most treasured thing in all
the world. He must not be allowed to know or even sense that or he
would go away. She knew it. She had known it after the kiss at
Exchequer House. This was all she would have, all she should have; and
it must suffice.
Bothwell looked perplexed. "You have no choice but to proceed as ever.
Write him and try to persuade him to attend. But do not beg, or he
will take pleasure in rejecting your plea. As for what we have decided
to do ... nothing, for the present. All must be suspended until after
the ceremony. It would not do to have a fracas or a scandal or an ...
accident to the Prince's father while the foreign dignitaries are
gathered here."
"There may not be as many foreign dignitaries as I had hoped," she
admitted. "They seem to be avoiding Scotland."
Bothwell exploded. "Then they're fools! And I am weary of Scotland
being slighted! They know not what they do! Why, this country "
His outburst gave her the first happy feeling she had had in days.
"Your loyalty is touching," she said. "And that is why I selected blue
as the colour you and your men should wear for the baptism and
afterwards. You are to serve at the banquet, presenting the ceremonial
dishes to me."
"I am to act as a servant?"
"Not as a servant, it is an honour "
"To present dishes, flourishing trays about?"