She stood up on tiptoe and strained to see past the people pressed in all around her. Time grew shorter. Soon all these vessels would slip their moorings and head one by one to the sea, and Rob would be on one of them.
‘Where are you?’ she whispered.
Then, as if to answer her, the crowd before her parted for an instant. In that space she caught a glimpse of Rob, clad in his black leather doublet and breeches and purple short cloak, hurrying past. It looked as if he, too, searched for something, with a fierce frown on his face.
‘Robert!’ she called. ‘Robert, wait for me. I beg you!’
She pushed the people out of her way and ran towards him, dodging around crates and coils of rope. Don’t let him vanish, she thought frantically. Don’t let him be my imagination.
Her prayers were answered when she saw him again. He was hurrying towards her, and she dashed to him to throw herself into his arms. His embrace came around her, hard and fierce, and he lifted her from her feet.
She wound her arms around his neck and held on tightly, relieved he had not pushed her away or run from her. She—they—had this one chance.
‘Anna, why are you here?’ he demanded. ‘Did you come alone?’
‘Lady Essex wanted to send a footman with me, but there was no time to wait.’
‘Lady Essex?’
‘I was at Seething Lane, looking for you, and she found the name of your ship.’ He slowly lowered her to her feet but they still held on to each other. ‘I had to find you before you left—to ask you…’
Anna swallowed hard before she plunged forward. This was no time to hesitate, no time to be scared.
‘To ask you to stay,’ she said quickly. ‘Or to beg you to take me with you. Either way, Robert, let me be with you.’
He stared down at her for a long, silent moment and her heart began slowly to sink. Then he laughed, and lifted her from her feet again to twirl her around.
‘Anna, you have read my mind,’ he said. ‘I had come to the ship only to turn back again. I tried to be noble, to leave you—but I cannot. I’m too selfish. I need you too much.’
Anna laughed in giddy, heady relief. All her fears vanished like a spring storm banished by the sun. ‘Then we are both selfish creatures, for I couldn’t let you go. I had to know how you truly felt—if these days together meant anything to you.’
‘Fairest Anna, they meant everything. All is changed for me—you have changed it. I never thought to know joy or peace again, and you brought them to me.’ He kissed her tenderly, and in that soft touch of his lips on hers she tasted the truth of what he said.
All was changed for both of them. They had found the whole world with each other, and that was all that mattered.
‘I love you, Anna,’ Rob said. ‘And if you will let me I will spend all my life striving to be worthy of you.’
‘Robert Alden, I believe you have not said anything so poetical before,’ Anna said with a happy laugh. ‘I love you, too, and I promise you I will follow you wherever you go. To Paris, or Turkey, or an island jungle—you will never be rid of me.’
Rob grinned and kissed her again as they clung together against the world. ‘That is a promise I will assuredly hold you to, my fairest Anna.’
Epilogue
‘I will race you to the top, Mistress Alden!’ Rob called.
Anna laughed and tugged on her horse’s reins as she followed Rob up the slope of the grassy country hill. She had lost her hat, and her hair whipped around her shoulders, but she didn’t care. It was a glorious high summer day, the sun warm and golden in the cloudless sky, bright green fields spread around them as far as could be seen. Hart Castle, which Elizabeth and Edward had loaned them for their honeymoon, loomed in the distance—their own private sanctuary for this precious time.
And she was on her way to a picnic with her new husband. She glanced at Rob as they galloped along the path, dirt and grass flying with their speed. He looked more handsome than ever, his skin darkened by the country sun, his hair tousled and waving over his brow, his leather doublet open over his unlaced shirt. He laughed with her, light-hearted and happy.
Since he had left Walsingham’s service and they had married, it seemed as if a great burden was lifted from them—a rock rolled away to let light and fresh air stream in. Living in the Southwark house behind the theatre was not ideal, but Rob was writing his poetry and they were together.
It was wondrous to Anna—the way the more they were together, the more she learned about him, the more she loved him and wanted to be with him.
They drew in their horses at the crest of the hill, and as Anna caught her breath she studied the landscape before them. The summer fields were as rich and green as a velvet counterpane, promising a good harvest in the autumn. Off in the distance one way was the little village, where they often walked to visit Mary Alden. Anna could see the church spire there, the curl of smoke from the bake-shop chimney.
And the other way lay the old Carrington estate—empty and abandoned since Thomas Sheldon had been arrested and his lands seized by the Queen. The gates were closed and padlocked, but she could make out the tall brick chimneys of the grand house, the rich gardens and groves of trees.
‘It’s a pretty prospect, is it not?’ Rob asked.
‘Very pretty, indeed,’ Anna answered. ‘I think it will be hard to go back to the soot and stink of London.’
‘What if we did not have to?’
‘Did not have to?’ she said in surprise. She twisted in her saddle to look at her husband, who gave her a mischievous grin. ‘What do you mean, Robert?’
‘I have a surprise for you, wife. I received confirmation of it today, when the messenger came from London.’ He swung down from his horse and reached up to take her by the waist and lift her to the ground beside him. ‘Walk with me for a moment.’
Anna looped her arm through his and let him lead her down the other side of the hill. ‘I’m not sure I can bear any more surprises.’
‘I think you might like this one.’
‘Tell me, then, before I burst from curiosity!’ she demanded. He had already given her so, so much. What else was there in the world she could want?
‘Walsingham has been persuaded that I should be rewarded for my good work,’ he said. ‘And he has at last agreed—I am to be given a portion of the Carrington estate.’
‘The Carrington estate!’ Anna stopped suddenly, staring down at the abandoned woods behind the locked gates.
‘Not the house, of course,’ said Rob. ‘Not that we would want the cursed place. That’s to go to some crony of the Queen’s. We are to have the hunting lodge, along with a caretaker’s cottage for your father and a portion of the farm. If we can learn to be farmers, there should be a fine living in it. And I can finish my new sonnets.’
‘This is ours? Our home?’ she whispered. ‘Is this some sort of dream?’
Rob laughed. ‘No dream, Anna dearest, and no trick, either. This is our home now, if you wish it to be. I will show you the letter for proof.’
‘I need no proof, Robert, for I feel it in my heart. This is our home,’ Anna said, her throat heavy with happy tears. She twirled round to her husband and rested her head on his shoulder as the fresh, sweet air of their new home wrapped around them. A beloved husband, a home, a place for them—it was all she had once thought could never be hers, and her heart was bursting with it all.
‘And we will be happy here together for always?’ she said.
Rob laughed and held her close. ‘Yes, my love. For always.’
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459227507
Copyright © 2012 by Ammanda McCabe
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