This Heart of Mine (6 page)

“Deirdre is breeding again, Dame Cecily. She has been very tired of late, and I am sure she will welcome my help today. Besides, I really do want to see the queen. I never have, and here I am fifteen!”

Dame Cecily chuckled. “Run along then, child, and have your look at Bess Tudor,” she said. “With your parents still away ’twill not be much of a birthday for you again this year, I fear.”

Velvet almost shouted with joy as she rode the few miles between her home and her sister’s. It was an incredibly lovely morning, a perfect May day, and her big chestnut stallion galloped along easily. She reached the hall without incident and, slipping down from her horse’s back, tossed the reins carelessly to a waiting groom.

Inside, the priory was just as she had expected. Chaos reigned everywhere, and in its midst was Deirdre Blakeley, Lady Blackthorn, looking harassed and forlorn by turns, her fair skin flushed, her black hair half undone from its chignon.

Deirdre’s blue eyes lit up at the sight of her youngest sister, and Velvet felt a twinge of sadness, for Deirdre looked so very much like their mother.

“Velvet poppet, thank goodness you’ve come! I’m at my wit’s end, and the queen is due by two o’clock!” Deirdre exclaimed.

Velvet flung an arm about her older sister. “I came to help, sister. You have only to tell me what it is you need done and I will do it.”

Deirdre lowered her slender form, with its very distended belly, into a chair. “I’m not sure where to begin, Velvet. I’ve never entertained the queen before. I don’t even know how she knew of
Blackthorn Priory
, but her secretary wrote that she had heard of our fine gardens and wished to see them.
How could she have heard of our gardens? We are not a part of the court and neither is anyone else in the family except for Robin, and he withdrew from it after Alison’s death. I doubt Robin made any remarks to the queen about our gardens. Gardens are not our brother’s métier.”

“Don’t fuss so, Deirdre. ’Tis a great honor the queen does you and John. She rarely ventures out of the home counties to come to Worcestershire.”

“Better she hadn’t decided to venture this far!” said Deirdre irritably. “Do you have any idea what it costs to entertain royalty? Nay, how could you? You’re just a child!”

“I wish that Scots earl claiming to be my betrothed understood that,” muttered Velvet, but her elder sister didn’t hear her for she was too concerned with her own problems.

“It will cost us a small fortune to have the queen and her court here. Of course, John wrote to Her Majesty’s household controller, Sir James Crofts, that we could not entertain the entire court. The priory is simply not big enough for all those people. Do you know what he wrote back? That Her Majesty would only expect us to put up fifty or so of her people within the house and that the rest would be housed in tents upon our lawns! Can you imagine what the lawns are going to look like after five hundred people, their horses, and baggage trains have trampled upon them? It will take us five years to restore them!” She shook her head in an agitated fashion. “I don’t mean to sound inhospitable, Velvet, but what will we get out of all of this besides debts—and the privilege of saying that the queen stayed in the Rose Bedchamber, which of course will have to be renamed the Queen’s Room now. She won’t even be sleeping in the bed there since she travels with her own and will sleep in no other.”

Velvet listened to her sister with a sense of growing amazement. She had never known Deirdre to be this way. Deirdre was the serene daughter. She had never fussed like Willow or Velvet herself.

“It’s all too much,” wailed Deirdre, “and I’m sure that we have neither enough food or drink for such a huge gathering. We shall be disgraced, I am certain.”

“Tell me what’s been done so far, Deirdre,” Velvet said soothingly. She could see that her sister was growing more nervous by the minute.

“The whole house has been turned out,” Deirdre began. “The Rose Bedchamber has been completely redone. Heaven only knows where I’m going to put the rest of her attendants! Thank the Lord they will only be here for one night. God’s
bones! I only hope I have enough food for the whole company!”

“What have you laid aside?”

Deirdre furrowed her brow in concentration. “There are six dozen barrels of oysters packed in ice, twenty-four suckling pigs, three wild boars, trout from the river, twelve legs of lamb, another dozen sides of beef, six roe deer, and six stags; two dozen hams, five hundred lark pastries for tonight, capons in ginger sauce, goose, at least three dozen, larded ducks, pigeon pies and rabbit pies, a hundred apiece. Every house in the neighborhood has baked for us.” She stopped to draw a breath. “There will be bowls of new lettuce, cress, radishes, scallions, artichokes in white wine, carrots glazed in honey, and enough bread to feed an army! There are molded jellies; marzipan of every imaginable color; fruit tarts from dried apples, peaches, apricots, and plums; custards; and the first strawberries of the season with clotted cream!” she finished triumphantly. Then her brow puckered. “Will it be enough?” she fretted.

“ ’Tis not elegant, but I suspect ’twill serve,” Velvet teased. “You’ve not forgotten the wines?”

“Nay, there are a full two hundred casks each of both red and white from
Archambault
, bless your grandparents, as well as a hundred barrels of Devon cider, which Robin sent from
Lynmouth.
Then, too, we have our own October ale.”

“Well,” observed Velvet, “if they don’t stuff themselves with all the foods you’re offering, they will most certainly drown in the drink!”

“Oh, how I wish Mother were here instead of in the Indies!” Deirdre wailed.

“You don’t need her, sister. You have done everything just as Mother would have if the queen were visiting her.”

“Oh, Velvet! What would I do without you, little sister? You will stay overnight, won’t you?”

Velvet’s heart skipped a beat. “But where will you put me, Deirdre? I would love to see the queen, but let me just peek at her from among the servants and then be on my way home.”

“No! You must stay with me Velvet! I can’t get through this without you, especially in my present condition. You can sleep in my dressing room.”

“Who is to sleep in your dressing room?” demanded John Blakeley as he came into the sunny morning room where the two sisters were seated.

“Velvet,” replied his wife. “I want her to stay for the queen’s visit, John.”

“By all means, my dear,” replied Lord Blackthorn as he bent to place a kiss upon Deirdre’s brow. “The queen is Velvet’s godmama as I recall, and it would not hurt for her to renew her acquaintance with her now.” He walked over to the table and poured himself a goblet of wine from a crystal decanter. “A friend at court cannot hurt a lass.” He looked up and smiled at Velvet.

“Thank you, my lord, and I believe you are correct in your observations,” Velvet answered demurely, curtsying to her brother-in-law. Lord Blackthorn grinned at her over his wife’s head and winked conspiratorily. God’s bones, thought Velvet, what does he suspect? He can’t possibly know what I plan!
He can’t!
Her brother-in-law’s next words gave her cause for more worry.

“When is the earl arriving at
Queen’s Malvern
, Velvet?”

“His letter only said he would arrive within a few weeks’ time, my lord. It did not give a date. Most thoughtless.”

“Well, I do not imagine it will be within the next day or so, little sister, so you are quite welcome at
Blackthorn Priory
for the queen’s visit. It will do Deirdre good to have you with us.” He turned his attention back to his wife. “Come, my dear, I want you to rest before we must greet our royal guest. I have personally inspected all of your arrangements and, as always, Deirdre, everything is perfection. You are a fine wife.”

“You see!” Velvet crowed with delight. “Did I not tell you, silly goose?”

Deirdre blushed with pleasure at her husband’s words, then said to her younger sister, “Send one of the grooms to
Queen’s Malvern
to bring back proper clothes for you, Velvet.” She stood up heavily, her seventh month of pregnancy weighing upon her. “I think I shall rest, John.”

He escorted her from the room, and Velvet, after writing a hasty note to Dame Cecily, dispatched it with a
Blackthorn
groom. She then sat down to gloat quietly. She felt no remorse at using her sister to gain her way in this matter. Someone had to take the situation in hand, and her Uncle Conn was obviously not about to do so. Despite her logical protests against this marriage, she sensed she would still find herself wed to the arrogant-sounding Earl of BrocCairn before her parents returned from their voyage, by which time it would be too late. She needed a powerful protector, and there was none more powerful than England’s own queen. She smiled at herself, a grin of smug satisfaction.

“Ah, I knew that you were planning some mischief,” Lord Blackthorn said as he reentered the room.

“You imagine it, my lord,” came her quick denial.

“Nay, Velvet lass, I do not imagine it. I hope you do not think to appeal to the queen in this matter of your marriage. Elizabeth Tudor is a firm believer in parental authority and the keeping of contracts.” He looked closely at her, but Velvet’s face was devoid of expression.

“John, you must think me appallingly ill-bred to believe that I should attempt to involve Her Majesty in a family matter,” Velvet said tartly. “I have no intention of discussing my marriage with the queen. I came to
Blackthorn
today to help Deirdre if I could; and, if I may remind you, my sister promised me months ago that I could come to see the queen when she stopped here. If you think I seek to cause some sort of scandal, however, then I shall tell Deirdre that I have a headache and go home to
Queen’s Malvern.”

Lord Blackthorn could not rid himself of the feeling that his young sister-in-law had some scheme in mind, but Velvet was not a liar, and if she said she would not discuss her marriage with the queen then he believed her.

“Nay, lass, I want you to stay. I simply don’t want to find myself in the middle of a family argument. I don’t want to endanger my position with your parents. You know that they worried at first that I was not right for Deirdre.”

Velvet felt a small twinge of guilt at his words. Her family had come to
Queen’s Malvern
when she was barely two years of age. Deirdre had been eight then, and John Blakeley twenty-eight. His first wife was still living and his life was a misery. Maria Blakeley was totally mad, and had been since the stillbirth of her only child ten months after her marriage. For the past eight years, she had been confined to her apartments where she raved and wept but showed no signs of either recovering or dying.

At first Lord Blackthorn was drawn to Deirdre because the child his wife had miscarried was a girl and would have been Deirdre’s age. Deirdre’s own life had been a rather topsy-turvy one, and though it had finally become settled, she who had been fatherless for most of her life suddenly discovered that she now had two father figures. Adam de Marisco was a loving stepfather, but he was unable to conceal that Velvet, his only child, was the light of his life. Had John Blakeley not been there for Deirdre, her life would have been a sadder one. When his love turned from paternal to passionate, and her love grew from a child’s to a woman’s, neither was ever sure.

Maria Blakeley escaped from her captivity and drowned herself in the estate lake at the priory when Deirdre was thirteen. A year and a day later, Lord Blackthorn asked Deirdre to be his wife and was joyously accepted by her.

Deirdre’s mother and stepfather, however, were not pleased, and at first refused their permission. They felt John Blakeley was far too old for Deirdre Burke. Lord Blackthorn pleaded desperately, for he was a man in love. Deirdre pined away as more suitable suitors were paraded before her, only to be weepingly rejected. In the end the lovers’ persistence won out, and they were married four months after the bride’s sixteenth birthday. For a time afterwards Skye and Adam de Marisco worried that Deirdre might not be happy. Only just before they had sailed had they become convinced that John Blakeley was the perfect man for the gentle Deirdre.

“I swear to you, John, that I shall cause you no trouble,” Velvet promised him now.

“Go along then, lass, and see to your sister. She’s too excited to sleep, but she’s lying down.”

With great control, Velvet walked calmly from the room, then fled up the staircase to Deirdre’s apartments. To her great relief, her sister had finally fallen asleep, and Velvet settled herself quietly in the dressing room. Mama and Papa weren’t going to be angry at her for avoiding a quick marriage to the earl.
They
would understand why she had done what she was going to do. After all, she hadn’t said she wasn’t going to honor her betrothal. She simply wanted time to get to know the earl, and she wanted to wait until her parents returned from their voyage to make her decision. It wasn’t a great deal to ask, despite what her uncle and her brother-in-law thought. Velvet closed her eyes and dozed.

She was awakened by a maidservant bringing her clothing into the room. “Is it time to dress?” she asked groggily.

“Aye, Mistress Velvet. Lodema has prepared baths for both you and m’lady.” Lodema was Deirdre’s fiercely protective tiring woman.

Velvet arose and the servant girl helped her to disrobe so that she might wash. Deirdre was already happily splashing in her oaken tub by the fire in the other room, while Lodema grumbled fussily at her.

“All this washing, and in your state. ’Tis unhealthy, I tell you, m’lady.”

“Nonsense!” The nap had restored Deirdre’s good humor and confidence. “Hurry, Velvet, or your water will be chilled,” she called to her younger sister.

Velvet came shyly from the dressing room, somewhat embarrassed by her nudity. She quickly got into the tub, then wrinkled her nose in delight. “Gillyflowers! Oh, Deirdre, you remembered!”

“Hyacinth for me and gillyflowers for you. Of course I remember. I was twelve when Mama gave me my own scent, and you cried and cried until she chose one for you also, even though you were much too young for a fragrance.”