Twilight of a Queen

by Susan Carroll

  But he sneered, “I wouldn’t know about that, not being a religious man.”

  “If you had ever been a slave yourself, Jambe, you would understand,” Pietro put in quietly.

  “Whether Monsieur du Bois understands is nothing to the point.” Xavier subjected his first mate to an icy stare. “As long as I captain the Miribelle, there will be no trafficking in slavery.”

  “All right. All right.” Jambe flung his hands in a gesture of defeat. “So then exactly what the devil are we going to do, Captain?”

  A good question, Xavier thought as he gathered up the money Jambe had scattered across the bed. He frowned, cradling the handful of coin in the palm of his hand. Not much to show for all his efforts to charm that old witch, his weeks of being walled up in this crowded, noisy city.

  He wondered what mad impulse had ever driven him to return to Paris in the first place. Curiosity to see the city of his birth after all these years, to finally put to rest the ghosts of his youth? Some wild notion that he might make an effort to turn respectable, find legitimate financing for the kind of voyage he’d always dreamed of, sailing uncharted seas, discovering lands no European had ever clapped eyes upon. Just like his former captain, Sir Francis Drake.

  But Drake had the good fortune to serve a queen fore-sighted enough to appreciate all the promise, excitement, and opportunity of the New World. He also had the backing of prosperous London citizens.

  There was little prosperity to be found in France these days, a country decayed by civil war and famine, ruled by a half-mad king and an aging sorceress.

  Pietro was right. Xavier had been taking a mad risk by playing out his tricks upon Catherine de Medici, not the least of which was she might have recognized him. Xavier had been told he bore an uncanny resemblance to his late father, a fact Xavier hated. He had no desire to resemble the noble chevalier in any particular manner.

  Was that really what this had been all about? Xavier wondered. He could not pay back his father for all the misery the chevalier had wrought in his and his mother’s lives, so perhaps he had sought vengeance against the Dark Queen instead.

  Xavier shrugged off the notion. Revenge required entirely too much hatred and Xavier considered himself a cold, logical man. Although he had to admit he had enjoyed the thought of making a fool out of the queen.

  It turned out he was the one who had been played for a fool, Xavier thought ruefully. He dropped the coins back into the purse and turned to find his men regarding him expectantly.

  “I reckon we must cut our losses and head for Calais, back to the Miribelle.” He held up the purse. “With some sharp bartering, this should at least get us enough provisions to set sail.”

  Pietro looked relieved and Jambe nodded in grim satisfaction.

  “About time,” he growled. “But then what?”

  “Then we return to plying our trade.” Xavier produced a small flask of brandy. Flourishing it aloft, he said, “Gentlemen, here’s to piracy.”

  Uncorking it, he took a swig before handing it off to Jambe, who grinned and said, “To the Miribelle and to some fat Spanish vessel laden with gold, straying into her path.”

  After taking a gulp, Jambe wiped his lips on his sleeve and passed the flask to Pietro. The Cimmarone drank and added after his own quiet fashion, “And here’s to a smooth sea and a strong wind.”

  Yes, Xavier thought as he took another drink himself, the brandy burning his throat. A strong wind to take him back to Brazil, to the Caribbean islands, to the ends of the earth.

  Anywhere, as long as it blew him far away from France and the Faire Isle.

  Chapter Three

  “THE GIRL IS THE BOOK.”

  Meg whimpered in her sleep, her soft brown hair tumbled across the pillow as she thrashed from side to side, desperate to stop the boy from betraying her to the Dark Queen.

  Meg clutched at Alexander Naismith’s sleeve. “Sander, why are you doing this to me? I thought you were my friend. I loved you.”

  Sander stared at her coldly. “I was prepared to worship you, my Silver Rose. With your magic, we could have been rich, powerful, but you would have none of it. My devotion to you has been the death of me.”

  Shaking her off, Sander turned back to the Dark Queen. “Megaera memorized the contents of the Book of Shadows. She recalls every word, every page.”

  “No, I don’t. I remember nothing,” Meg cried. “No matter what Sander is telling you, my name is not Megaera. It is Margaret Elizabeth Wolfe.”

  The queen smiled. “Ah, my dear, I know this boy speaks truth on one point. You are Megaera, the Silver Rose.”

  “The rest is true as well,” Sander insisted. “That book is stored inside of her.”

  “I have nothing inside me. Nothing.”

  “I fear there is only one way to be sure of that, child.” The Dark Queen stalked closer, her voluminous black skirts engulfing Meg. She reached for the golden scissors attached to the fob at her waist. “We shall just have to cut you open and see.”

  “NO!”

  Meg sat bolt upright in bed, panting, her nightgown soaked in sweat. Moonlight filtered through the branches of the tree outside her window and raked dark claws of shadow across the wall as though Catherine de Medici’s grasp stretched all the way to Faire Isle.

  Meg shivered, fighting the urge to pull the covers over her head. It was only a dream, she reassured herself, another of her stupid nightmares. She hoped she had not cried out in her sleep, rousing anyone else in the household at Belle Haven.

  She peered over the side of the bed toward the figure stretched out on the pallet before the hearth. Agatha Butterydoor did not stir. The elderly servant was half-deaf, her deep slumber punctuated by soft snores.

  Meg listened for any sounds coming from beyond her room. As the seconds ticked by and she heard nothing, she tried to relax.

  She had disturbed no one with her cries. That meant that no one would rush to comfort her either. But she should no longer need that, Meg told herself fiercely. Having just turned thirteen, she was a woman grown.

  She curled on her side, cuddling her pillow, seeking to reason the dream away. Alexander Naismith was dead. The treacherous young actor could betray her to no one. He had perished in the same fire that had destroyed the Book of Shadows.

  The book was gone forever or so everyone else believed. Meg wished she did not know better. The retentive memory that had once been her pride had become her curse. She rubbed her temples.

  The Book of Shadows was now lodged in Meg’s head. It was as if she could feel those ancient brittle pages pressing against the inside of her skull. If the Dark Queen ever found out—

  But there was no way the woman ever could. The queen was old. She was ill. She no longer had much power or influence over anyone, not even her own son, the king.

  Ariane Deauville assured Meg that the Dark Queen was no longer a threat to her. Meg so desperately wanted to believe Ariane. The Lady of Faire Isle was exceedingly wise, but she had not experienced what Meg had, seen the things that Meg had seen. Those frightening visions that insisted a confrontation between Meg and the Dark Queen was inevitable.

  Meg trembled and groped beneath the coverlet for the object she kept hidden there. She stole another nervous glance in Aggie’s direction to make sure the woman was still asleep before Meg drew the small glass orb out from beneath the covers.

  Even in the night-shadowed darkness of the bedchamber, the crystal sparkled with its dark temptation. So many times Meg had resolved to rid herself of the scrying glass, consult its strange power no more.

  But if she had been able to light a candle without wakening Aggie, Meg would have succumbed to the crystal, delving deep into the glass’s depths even though the images she found there could only result in more nightmares.

  Meg tucked the scrying glass back within the folds of her blankets. She wanted to close her eyes, drift back to sleep, but she was too fearful of her nightmare rising up to claim her again.

  After tos
sing and turning for several minutes, Meg swung out of bed and stumbled, stubbing her toe against a wooden stool. Wincing at the pain, she suppressed her outcry.

  It was disconcerting how clumsy she seemed to have become this past year, her body changing so much, sometimes it no longer felt like her own. Her arms and legs had become awkward, alien things, her budding breasts a source of both wonder and embarrassment.

  Meg limped to the window and eased open the casement, welcoming the fan of crisp autumn air against her flushed cheeks. Below her, the moonlight sketched a scene of bucolic serenity, the frost-struck gardens, the solid comforting shapes of the stables and barn, the distant outline of the apple orchard.

  Belle Haven was a snug manor nestled in the heart of an island. What could be more secure than that? Meg was supposed to be safe here.

  She sighed and rested her head against the casement. The initial waft of cool air that had felt so soothing penetrated her thin nightgown, raising gooseflesh on her arms. Meg started to close the window when she caught a glimpse of movement below.

  Someone else was obviously having a bad night. A woman clad in a gray cloak wandered the garden, moonlight limning her pale skin and light blond hair.

  No, not a woman, only a ghost of one. Lady Jane Danvers was so quiet, so self-effacing, and there was a sorrow in her eyes that haunted Meg.

  Meg tensed as she watched Jane vanish down the garden path. Suddenly the night shadows no longer seemed quite so peaceful or the rustling of the trees so friendly. Jane shouldn’t be out there, wandering alone. But then Jane did not know what Meg had seen in her last vision, because Meg had never warned her.

  With a wary glance at Aggie, Meg tiptoed about the bedchamber, scrambling into her boots and fumbling for her cloak.

  JANE DANVERS DRIFTED DOWN THE GARDEN PATH, TWIGS AND dead leaves crunching beneath her feet. She could almost hear the echoes of her old nurse’s voice scolding her.

  “Mind your shoes, Mistress Jane. Don’t stray from the path.”

  Despite how exhausted she was, Jane’s lips tipped in a sad smile. Sarah’s advice had always been sound, full of a simple wisdom. Don’t stray from the path … perhaps if she had heeded Sarah’s warning, she would not be in her present predicament.

  Exiled. Penniless. Alone.

  The chill of the autumn morning penetrated beneath her cloak, causing Jane to shiver. The bed she had recently quitted had been warm, but it still held no inducement for her to return to the house. She was unable to sleep, her head far too full of unwanted thoughts, as crowded as an overstuffed wardrobe chest. What a pity that troubling reflections and memories could not be as easily discarded as worn-out garments.

  If she had experienced such an uneasy night in her house in London, she would have lit a fire in her antechamber and tried to lose herself in a book. Or retreated down to the great kitchen and allowed the old cook to fuss over her, prepare her a soothing cup of mulled wine.

  But Belle Haven was not Jane’s home no matter how often Ariane Deauville begged her to consider it so. Not wishing to be any more of a burden to Ariane’s household than she already was, Jane preferred to keep her restlessness to herself.

  She roved farther down the path until she found the bench tucked behind the massive oak tree, well out of view of the house. Brushing aside a scattering of damp leaves, Jane settled upon the bench, wincing at the feel of cold, hard stone beneath her.

  She wrapped her cloak tightly around her, consoling herself that it could only be another hour before dawn, the beginning of a new day in which to arrive at some sensible plan for her future.

  Her future … Not that she expected much from that. By the age of thirty-two, most women were settled in life, with a hearth, husband, and family. She was childless, twice-widowed, and what family she had remaining were most reluctant to claim her.

  As Jane shifted on the bench, seeking a more comfortable position, she heard the crackle of the letter she had thrust into her cloak pocket. She wondered why she had not just tossed the missive into the fire. It had been humiliating enough to write to her cousin Abigail begging to be allowed to join the Benton household in Paris without the sting of Abigail’s repeated refusals.

  At least this time, Abigail had been honest enough to offer an explanation.

  My dearest Jane, as much as I feel for you in your present difficulties, there is little I can do to aid you. It is not convenient to receive you at this time. Our house here in Paris is overflowing with other English Catholic émigrés and frankly, cousin, you have acquired a most unfortunate reputation.

  No one minds that you were imprisoned in the Tower and accused of conspiring to assassinate Elizabeth. Indeed, you would have been acclaimed a heroine if you had succeeded in ridding England of its heretic queen.

  It is the fact that you were accused of sorcery that many, my own dear husband in particular, find so disturbing. You were fortunate not to have been burned at the stake, but George feels you cannot be all that repentant. Else you would not have spent this past year dwelling on Faire Isle, which everyone knows is an island inhabited mostly by witches.

  Jane experienced a rare spark of anger as she thought of the contents of the letter, Abigail’s last remark particularly rankling. Jane would never have spent the last year on Faire Isle if she had had anywhere else to go.

  She ought to write back to Abigail, protesting her innocence. She had never plotted to assassinate the queen, and as for the charge of witchcraft, Jane would have been the last woman in the world to dabble in sorcery. Not after an obsession with alchemy was what had destroyed her younger brother.

  As for Abigail’s beloved George, the man had not found Jane inconvenient in the past when he had needed to borrow money from her to settle his gaming debts.

  But that was a bitter thought and Jane did her best to suppress it. She could not entirely blame her cousins for shrinking from her. Only a year ago, Jane herself would have been leery of anyone coming from this island of witches.

  Not witches, Jane reminded herself. Daughters of the earth, that is what Ariane and the other women who inhabited Faire Isle preferred to be called. After dwelling among them, Jane had discovered much to admire, especially in Ariane. The Lady of Faire Isle was learned and astonishingly skilled in the healing arts.

  But Jane was wary of the Lady’s pagan beliefs and her ability to penetrate one’s thoughts was far from natural. No matter how kind Ariane was to her, Jane feared she would never be comfortable remaining on Faire Isle.

  Life as a Catholic in England had its own perils and uncertainties, but at least there, Jane’s role had been clearly defined. Widow of a prominent London merchant, mistress of a great household, devoted sister. Now that all that had been torn away from her, she was no longer certain who she was meant to be, where her duties lay.

  “I am a stranger in a strange land,” she thought, recalling the passage Ariane’s niece had read aloud from her Huguenot Bible yesterday eve.

  Young Seraphine Remy had a fine voice, passionate in its intensity, but as a Catholic, Jane knew she should not even have been listening.

  Guiltily, she fingered the gold cross suspended about her neck, starting a little at the sound of snapping twigs. Peering round the oak tree, she caught the flash of a lantern in the distance. Someone had entered the gardens from the direction of the house. Coming in search of her? One of Belle Haven’s servants, perhaps, or even worse—the Lady herself.

  Jane’s cheeks heated as she thought of trying to explain why she was creeping about Belle Haven’s grounds at this hour like some kind of thief.

  “Your ladyship?” Someone called in a low tone as the lantern bobbed closer. Jane breathed out a sigh of relief as she recognized the voice of Margaret Wolfe.

  Faire Isle’s other exile. Although Jane supposed it odd that she should think of Meg that way. The girl was French-born and had strong ties to the daughters of the earth that should have made her better suited to life on this island than Jane was. And yet Jane sensed that
Meg felt as lost as herself.

  “Jane!” Meg called again, louder and more urgently. She held the lantern aloft and glanced about so frantically she was in danger of darting past where Jane sat concealed beneath the tree.

  Jane stood up and replied, “Meg, I am over here.”

  Meg spun about, the light from her lantern illuminating her face that appeared ice-white amidst her tangle of cinnamon-dark hair. She vented a tremulous breath, the depth of her relief astonishing to Jane.

  The girl hurled herself at Jane, wrapping one arm around Jane’s neck. Jane blinked in amazement. Meg tended to be reserved, rarely given to such displays of emotion.

  Although surprised, Jane returned the embrace, murmuring, “Bless me, child. What is all this?”

  She cradled her close and felt Meg’s thin shoulders shake. “What’s wrong, Margaret?”

  “N-nothing. I saw you disappearing into the garden and I thought… I feared something might—”

  Meg sank down upon the bench Jane had vacated, setting down her lantern. “The air is very raw. I—I was worried you might take a chill.”

  Jane regarded Meg quizzically. She had a feeling that was not at all what Meg had meant to say, but Jane let that pass as she observed how Meg shivered.

  Jane had sensibly taken the time to dress before pursuing her nocturnal ramble, donning her warmest gown. Meg had merely flung a cloak over her nightgown and thrust her bare feet into a pair of boots.

  “You are far more likely to take a chill than am I,” Jane said. Bending down, she tucked the hem of Meg’s cloak snugly about her legs. “What are you doing awake at such an hour?”

  “I might well ask your ladyship the same thing.”

  “Jane. Merely Jane. There is no more ladyship,” Jane reminded her. She ventured to touch the girl’s cheek. Her skin was so cold.

  “Were you alarmed by another of your bad dreams?”

  Meg shook her head in quick denial. “Nothing so childish. I—I just couldn’t sleep. You know how it is when one reads just before bedtime. Your head becomes stuffed full of words, too many ideas.”