The Betrayal (19 page)

‘Excuse me, are you Barbara?’ I asked, although of course I knew full well who she was.

She didn’t know me, however. Not as I was then. ‘I am, it please you,’ she said, looking at me curiously.

‘Then I have something for you.’ I held out my small offering. ‘My brother bade me bring you these.’

She moved away from the window and peered inside the paper and then looked at me curiously. ‘Do I know your brother?’

I took a deep breath, just like the one Mr James had instructed me to take before I went on to the stage. ‘He’s an actor with the Queen’s Players and has also worked here in the stables as an ostler.’

She frowned, looking at me closely.

‘He told me you were very nice to him, and might consent to do me a favour.’

Her face suddenly lightened. ‘I see the resemblance now! Your brother’s name is Luke, is it not?’

‘It is.’ I was lying and had been taught that to do so was wicked, but as I was only doing it to aid Her Grace, surely I might be forgiven, I thought.

She blushed pink, took my hand and led me into a little antechamber, saying, ‘If I can help you, then I will.’

I took another breath. ‘I cannot tell you all the details
of my undertaking, but first let me tell you that I mean no harm to the queen, nor to anyone who loves her.’

‘This all sounds of some import,’ she said curiously. ‘What might the favour be?’

‘I have to discover whether one who is close to the queen is a true friend to her or not.’

‘You are a spy?!’ she asked, suddenly excited.

‘I’m not of Sir Francis Walsingham’s band,’ I said, smiling, but she looked so disappointed that I added, ‘but I suppose I am a spy of a type.’

‘And what do you want from me?’

‘I don’t want to incriminate you in any way,’ I said, speaking very serious now, ‘so I’m not going to tell you what is behind this request. I merely want to borrow a laundress’s cap and apron, and to be told where I may find the bedchambers of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting.’ On her gasping, I added quickly, ‘I promise you on my life that I mean no hurt or disrespect to anyone loyal to the queen!’

She asked in a whisper, ‘Your brother was asking about Mistress Juliette. Is it her whom you seek?’

‘It is.’

‘I thought it was because he had a mind to woo her!’

I smiled. ‘I can assure you that that was the last thing on his mind.’

‘Then I’ll help you. Our clean aprons and caps are kept there,’ she said, pointing to a monstrously sized cupboard, ‘and I have the very excuse for you, for sometime in the afternoon one of us has to go around the
apartments of the ladies-in-waiting and change their washstand cloths.’

‘Then today, by your leave, that can be me,’ I said. ‘And are you able to tell me where to find the room of the lady we have spoken of?’

Barbara shook her head. ‘Telling you the way would be impossible, for there are hundreds of rooms here and you’d never find your way.’ As my heart sank, she added, ‘It would be best if I took you there myself.’

‘I don’t want to put you in any danger.’

‘You won’t,’ she said. ‘The guards are used to me and if I’m accompanying a new servant, they’ll think nothing of it.’

I squeezed her hand. ‘Thank you a hundredfold! If what I suspect is true, then those who are close to Her Grace may also thank you.’

‘And your brother?’ she asked, smiling.

I smiled back, though it jolted my conscience to do it. ‘Of course,’ I said. ‘He too.’

Barbara tied my apron correctly, set my cap upon my head and piled my arms high with sheets and towels so that I could duck behind them if necessary. We set off briskly along the passageways, with me keeping to my plan to try and remember the way whenever possible. This was difficult, however, because the palace was beyond large, stretching in all directions and seeming to be the size of a village.

For three quarters of our journey along the passageways we were in the servants’ quarters, with stone
underfoot and the walls bare of all but rusty candle-holders and spots of damp and mould. When Barbara opened a door lined in green baize, however, we entered a higher realm, for here there were clean rushes on the floor and expensive Turkey carpets, and tapestries and painted canvases on the walls. The candleholders here were of brass, and the candles proper wax instead of cheap tallow.

‘We are now in the quarters of the queen’s ladies,’ Barbara said, after going through several doors. ‘A little further are the chambers of the maids of honour, and then the apartments of the queen. And here …’ she said meaningfully, pointing in turn to three doors ahead of us ‘… are the rooms of Mistresses Penelope, Vivien and Juliette.’

I mouthed a silent thank you and said that she should go now.

‘I will wait beyond the green door,’ she whispered. ‘Take care.’

I watched her retreat down the corridor. I knew I was on dangerous ground now; that if it was discovered that I was there under false pretences, being found in the quarters of the queen’s ladies was probably a treasonable offence. Fearful as this thought was, however, I was sure in my own mind that Juliette was not who she claimed to be. If she posed a danger to the queen, then it was only right and proper that I should try to expose her.

It was, as far as I knew, about three o’clock, so the
ladies-in-waiting would be in the needlework room with the queen, or perhaps listening to a minstrel in one of the music rooms. I tapped at the first two doors. No reply came from either, so I went inside and changed each lady’s washcloth from the pile I carried. I then tapped at the door to Juliette’s chamber and, as before, there was no reply. I knocked again and, leaving the door open behind me, went in, my stomach a hollow of fear.

It was a small room, its walls prettily decorated with painted-on trellises bearing full-blown roses which looked so realistic that you could almost imagine you were standing in a garden. There was a four-poster bed draped in soft muslins, several velvet-covered stools and a line of hooks holding Juliette’s gowns. There was a dressing table with a circular mirror in a wooden frame, a silver-topped hair comb and matching silver jar, a deep wooden jewellery box and a leather writing folder. There was also a painted washstand on which two towels hung. Neither looked as if it had been used, but I changed them nonetheless, for they were my reason for being there.

My eyes scanned across the room;
what was I looking for?

Under my breath I cursed a little at my own rashness. Had I really expected Juliette to be careless enough to keep something in her room that could get her hanged? Walsingham and his spies were everywhere, so surely an enemy of the queen would not take
any chances of being discovered.

I took two steps across the soft rug to the wooden box and, shifting the pile of towels to one arm, lifted the lid. This was a girl who loved jewellery, I knew, and to confirm this a huge array of jewels of different colours met my eyes: brooches, necklaces, bangles, rings and a tangle of pearls and gold chains. I was not an expert on such things but, at a glance, it didn’t seem to me that any had great value, for if they had, surely they would be under lock and key, and not left in such disarray.

My eyes went past the box to the leather folder. I couldn’t hope that she’d left anything obviously damning in there, but it might, perhaps, contain a secret compartment – and as soon as I’d satisfied myself on this point, I’d go. The whole undertaking had been dangerous and stupid. I’d have to find some other way of proving that Juliette wasn’t Lady Ashe’s niece.

I opened the folder. It contained several letters, but they were in Latin, that strange language that Dr Dee sometimes wrote in. They could have been incriminatory, but if they were there was no way of telling. Disappointed, I replaced them. And then, before I could look for any secret compartments, I heard a scream behind me.

‘A thief! A thief in Mistress Juliette’s room! Guards, come quickly!’

I thanked providence that I had the wit to keep turned away from whoever had shouted. I raised the pile of towels I carried so that my face was concealed, gave this person (a stout maidservant, I thought) a push to the shoulder that knocked her sideways on to the bed, then picked up my skirts and ran out of the door and down the corridor. The guards, luckily, were coming the other way, from the apartments of the queen. They had not yet turned the corner, but I could hear their footfall and the metallic clanking of their breastplates and halberds.

‘Guards, quickly!’ I heard shouted from Juliette’s room. ‘Catch her!’

I ran on and didn’t stop to look behind me. After, perhaps, twenty paces, the corridor divided to right and left with, on the facing wall, a large Venetian mirror, possibly placed so that the ladies-in-waiting
could check their appearance on the way to a Court gathering. I saw my reflection, a blur of white as I passed, then pounded on, exhibiting much more vigour than is seemly for a girl.

At the next corner the corridor divided again and I turned right, remembering correctly that I’d come past a large portrait of elderly clerical gentlemen. Here were more doors and, as the guards didn’t seem to be gaining on me (for I could no longer hear their heavy progress along the corridors), I slowed slightly so that, if anyone appeared, I didn’t appear a harum-scarum runaway. At the bottom of the next length of corridor I was relieved to see the green-backed door, and I went through this, pulling off my cap and undoing my apron as I did so.

I found Barbara waiting and was so pleased to see her that I flung my arm about her and kissed her cheek before hurrying along. (Such familiarity must have seemed odd to her, for she, of course, thought we’d only just become acquainted.)

‘I fear I was discovered,’ I said breathlessly. ‘Will you show me to the quickest way out?’

She turned and looked at me, alarmed. ‘You were
seen
?’

‘Only by a maid – whom I am sure didn’t see my face,’ I said. ‘And I think I must have shaken off the guards, for they no longer seem to be pursuing me.’

‘The guards have given up?’ she said, hurrying onwards. ‘That’s most odd, for they love a chase. They have been known to follow a mouse for a mile.’

‘Perhaps they took a wrong turning and lost me.’

She shook her head, frowning, but did not say more. At a set of stone steps she took my apron and the pile of laundry. ‘There’s no need for you to come all the way back to the laundry rooms; if you go down here you’ll eventually come to the palace brewhouse and then you can find your way out.’

‘I am most gr—’ I began, but she held up a hand to stop my speech and bade me go with all haste.

After some moments – following my nose – I found myself in the brewhouse. I thought it best to walk through briskly, as if I was on an errand, and so this is what I did, ignoring the men working there and passing through vaulted cellar after vaulted cellar containing malt, shovels, casks, barrels and all the paraphernalia for the making of ales, and every bit of the route suffused with the sickly smell of hops. Being made almost nauseous with this aroma I was more than happy to reach the outside yard, and when I did so, blinking in the sunlight, could not help a smile of relief crossing my face. Perhaps I’d not yet managed to catch out Juliette – but then I hadn’t been caught out myself, either. I lived to try another day.

Walking briskly right around the palace yards, past tennis courts, a chapel and a line of shops built into a gatehouse, some minutes later I found myself close to the spot where I’d left Sonny. His tray was empty of mice now, and he was standing gazing anxiously at the door where I’d entered.

I touched him on the shoulder, making him jump mightily.

‘God’s teeth, Missus, I was thinking that I’d never see you again!’ he said.

I sank down on a low wall nearby, waiting for my heart to stop pounding. ‘But here I am, Sonny, and perfectly well, as you can see.’

‘I thought: well, she’s got in there but she’s never goin’ to get out!’

I was about to give a careless reply when there was a stir amongst the crowd, a murmuring and some movement, and I thought for a moment that the queen was riding in (for many of the people came every day with the sole desire of catching a glimpse of her). It was not Her Grace, however, but ’twas a grand sight all the same, for a lavishly equipped and plumed gentleman galloped into the square on a magnificent black stallion, accompanied by at least fifty gentlemen outriders, two by two in matching red livery.