In Defense of the Queen

by Michelle Diener

  “I am not kind. Or so they say.” He lifted a shoulder.

  “I say they are wrong.” She slipped the ring from her finger, and held it out. “And I thank you. I did not need to use it, but there were many occasions on which it would have saved me, had fate not been on my side.”

  “Ah. Fate or your own cleverness, mistress? I think it would be hard to tell.” He took it from her with a smile, and it disappeared into a pocket. No doubt later he would slip it back where he had found it, and no one would be the wiser. Except for her. He had risked a great deal for her.

  “Why do you help me?”

  “I would say that it is merely a whim, but the truth of it is—”

  “Susanna?”

  Parker was suddenly standing behind the King’s Fool, almost invisible in his dark clothes in the gloom.

  She held Somers’ gaze. “The truth of it is?”

  “Nothing. Nothing that cannot wait for another day.” He turned to Parker and bowed. “My congratulations on a rescue of great daring, sir. You are flying high in the King’s favour now.”

  “That could change in a moment, as you know.” Parker watched Somers with a strange look in his eyes. “But it would take a lot for you to be out of favour with me, Fool. I am in your debt for the aid you leant us.”

  “I ask you but one thing, regarding this esteem in which you hold me, and the deed itself.” Somers backed down the passageway.

  “And what is that?”

  “Do not tell anyone of it.” The Fool laughed, a high, mocking sound. “It would quite ruin me.”

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  another proposes the gaining of the Emperor by money, which is omnipotent with him;

  Utopia by Thomas More (translated by H. Morley

  “Lucas?” Susanna slid down from Parker’s horse, and looked from her brother, loading his bags into a cart at the front of the house, to Parker. Parker said nothing, urging his horse round to the stables, giving her a moment alone with him.

  “Your boys told me you were safe, and pardoned.” He placed another trunk in the back of the cart with care. His head was bound, neat and tight, and Susanna knew Maggie must have been round to dress his injury.

  “Where are you going?” She looked from the bags to him to the lamp-holding cartsman, waiting patiently on the driving bench, and then stepped in close, put her arms around him. “I was so worried about you, about your head.”

  He moved back, disentangling himself from her embrace. “Your betrothed doesn’t share your concern.” He spoke without bitterness.

  “Parker told me how you tried to save me. What you risked by giving me that missive.” She paused and then looked straight at him. “What made you go to work for Uncle Louis?” She would never understand that. Why would he risk everything for Louis de Praet?

  “He made is sound like an adventure. A lucrative adventure.” Lucas looked away, at the cart horse, blowing its impatience. “Then Margaret gave me that letter and I made the mistake of not just sending word to Uncle Louis, but Heyman, as well. Uncle Louis asked me to keep up correspondence with him, and as we had been friends, it was easy to do. No one on either side looked twice at the letters he sent, but they were written in pre-arranged code, and I passed his information on the English court along. If I had not sent that letter to Heyman before I left, telling him what Margaret wanted me to do, thinking myself so useful, I would never have caused this trouble. I did not know the lengths Heyman would go to keep that letter out of the Queen Katherine’s hands.” He rubbed his forehead.

  “It is all right. By chance, this trouble uncovered another plot, to kill the King’s son, Henry Fitzroy. It saved his life.”

  Lucas looked up at that. “Then I am glad some good came of it.” He lifted a satchel. “I am going home, Susanna. I am sure you will see us all back here, Father and Mother and I, but later this year. I need to cut my ties with Uncle Louis, and I need to help Father pack his atelier. If he truly wishes to come here, there is much to do before he can leave.”

  She nodded. “I might not wait for your return to marry.”

  He accepted that with a nod. “Do not expect Mother to be happy with that. But I understand. Your betrothed is a better protector than Father or I have ever been.” Lucas leaned forward and kissed her on both cheeks.

  “Going?” Parker was suddenly beside her. She had wondered what was taking him so long but now she wondered how long he had been listening.

  “You will be pleased to know the answer is yes.” Lucas bowed formally. “My apologies, sir. I have not been the best of guests.”

  “No.” Parker shifted, as if relenting. “I spoke with de Praet’s spies. They were acting of their own accord, not under his orders. Your life should not be in danger.”

  “My thanks for that,” Lucas said. “Did you ever find Heyman?”

  Parker shook his head. “He is under suspicion of conspiring to kill the King’s son, so if I were you, I would not associate with him any more. And I am convinced he is the one who struck you on the head.”

  Lucas gave a slow nod. “I would like to think not, but I will be wary of him. He may have fled back to Ghent.” He put out an arm and hugged Susanna awkwardly. “Farewell.” Then, with a look that was pure Lucas, he swung himself up next to the cartsman. “Don’t get too comfortable in my job.”

  As she stood looking after him, disappearing down the lane with his back to her, she realized her hands were tight-clenched fists.

  * * *

  The knock was cautious. Respectful.

  Parker glanced at Susanna and she looked towards the door in dismay. They had gone to Maggie’s before going to bed last night, checking on Kilburne and Will, and it had been well after the bells of St. Michael’s had rung matins before they had gone to sleep.

  Will was already sitting up, complaining about being bed-bound, whereas Kilburne was still pale and weak. But he would recover, Maggie had told them.

  They had slept late, and neither felt inclined to do much more than sit and contemplate their good fortune. Parker knew Susanna wanted to get back to painting Fitzroy’s portrait, but he wanted just half an hour longer of peace in her company.

  The knock came again.

  Parker pulled himself out of his chair and went through to the hall. He swung open the door, not sure who he expected. It certainly wasn’t Jehan de la Sauch. He stepped back to allow the diplomat in.

  “Master Parker.” De la Sauch extended his leg and made a bow. “I have come to enquire after Mistress Horenbout. Since your visit I have thought of little else but her imprisonment and could stand it no longer. I need to know if she fares well.”

  “She was pardoned last night. But come in and see for yourself.” Parker showed him into the study, where Susanna stood next to her chair.

  “Mistress Horenbout?” De la Sauch bowed deeply. “Your father painted my family—”

  “I remember the picture. He caught your likeness well, sir. I recall him working on the piece.” Susanna curtsied. “Parker told me you made efforts on my behalf to have Uncle Louis declare my innocence to King Henry. I thank you.”

  “Any letters from de Praet have not even been received yet, so any help I gave was useless, but I am pleased beyond words to see you have managed to untangle this knot on your own.”

  “It is my good fortune to be in good standing with the King.”

  De la Sauch looked away at that, as if embarrassed. Parker gestured to a chair. “Can we offer you refreshment?”

  “No, no. I will not stop long. I wished only to know if Mistress Horenbout was still a prisoner. I shall write again to de Praet. Let him know the change in circumstance.”

  “You can tell him that Heyman has fled, and so has Jules, the Frenchman he turned. Renard, the other Frenchman, is dead by the hand of the French Crown, and the Emperor’s lack of pay to those in his service caused some of them to take on the job of attempting to murder the King’s son.” Parker did not hide the coldness in his voice, and de la Sauc
h took a step back.

  “You know far more of my business than I do, sir. More than I truly wish to know.” He fingered the gold buttons of his doublet. “But there is one thing I might tell you, in exchange for the information you have given me.”

  Parker waited.

  “I have the Emperor’s envoy staying at my house. He is freshly arrived from Spain, and carries correspondence for your King.”

  Parker stood straighter, and saw Susanna was leaning forward a little, her hand on the back of her chair.

  “He passed through the court of Margaret of Austria on his way, and she ordered him to suppress one missive, which the Emperor had wished him to convey to King Henry.”

  “What missive is that?” Susanna gripped the top of the chair.

  “One in which the Emperor tells the King he is desperate for money, and if Henry will not relinquish Princess Mary’s dowry to him now, and send her to be married and live in his court, he will have no choice but to renege on the betrothal and marry Isabella of Portugal.”

  “That is precisely what de Praet’s men were trying to prevent me telling the King,” Susanna whispered.

  “No doubt the Emperor wished to convey the information himself, through an official missive.” De la Sauch shrugged. “But whatever the reason, Margaret has managed to get her way. She took the missive away from the envoy, so he cannot give it to King Henry, in any event. She wants more time, so between her and Katherine, they can persuade Charles that he must still marry his English princess.”

  “Do you think they will succeed?” Parker watched de la Sauch carefully.

  The Lowlander shook his head. “There is no money in the Emperor’s coffers, and Isabella of Portugal comes with a million pounds. Henry would be mad to relinquish Mary’s dowry so soon before she can marry Charles, and Charles knows it. He will take the bride who is of age to marry him, and comes with cold, hard cash over the child who comes only with promises. A child who could die before she is old enough to marry him, anyway.”

  “I think you are right.” Parker knew he was. No matter how much time Margaret had bought with her scheming, she would not sway her nephew from the only course a cash-strapped leader could take.

  De la Sauch drew himself up, his arms stiff and formal at his sides. “I must be away. I have taken enough of your time. But I would like to have you to dinner at my residence, both of you. I miss talking of art and home, some days, as I’m sure you do, too.” He bowed to Susanna.

  “I would like that.” Susanna smiled at him and then stepped forward, and kissed him on both cheeks.

  Parker showed him out and watched him walk down the path to the lane, and thought de la Sauch’s walk was a touch too light to be that of a man weighed down by a job he did not want.

  He also thought of what Jules had said in the alley at the end. How he’d approached de la Sauch for funds, and been denied, although de la Sauch had denied any knowledge of the turned French spies.

  If Charles’s ambassador wanted Henry to know that the Emperor was not trying to hide his motives, that it was Henry’s own wife and the Emperor’s aunt whose hand was at play, preventing information getting through, he had picked the perfect courtier to confess his secrets to.

  The taste of being used lay on Parker’s tongue. Bitter and cold, unpleasant as a slug.

  When he returned to the room, Susanna was staring out the window, as grim and implacable as the carving on a ship’s prow. “Princess Mary will be cast aside.”

  “I think that is a good possibility.”

  “It isn’t fair.”

  Parker shook his head. “No. But I am willing to give the Queen as much time as she can to change Charles’s mind. Even if it seems an impossibility.”

  Susanna nodded. “Yes. Of course we will.”

  Parker looked back at the door. “De la Sauch hopes we will tell Henry that Margaret is trying to suppress the information about him considering marriage to Isabella.”

  Susanna frowned. “Why would we?”

  “Because we are loyal to the King.”

  Susanna stepped toward him, slipped her arms around his waist and brought him close. “Every involvement I have with Henry’s court makes my loyalties clearer.”

  “And where do they lie?” He let his lips brush the top of her head.

  “Only to you.” She lifted her face to his. “Only, my love, to you.”

  Author’s Note

  This is a work of fiction, but as in my previous two novels in which Susanna Horenbout and John Parker appear, I have tried to incorporate as much real history as I can into my plot.

  Henry VIII’s illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy, whom he called ‘his worldly jewel’, was accepted into the Order of the Garter on June seventh, 1525, and shortly thereafter was given numerous titles and positions. Henry was clearly displaying him, and showing his nobles and the rest of England where Fitzroy stood in the pecking order. At the ceremony of the Order of the Garter, Fitzroy was placed at Henry’s right hand. A rather clear signal. And this did not go down well in all quarters.

  The Queen was watching the ceremony from the gallery above. One can only image what she thought, although, to her credit, she never bore Fitzroy himself any ill-will. She kept it all for Wolsey, who she considered the architect of her husband’s plans.

  As for Jan Heyman, I based the idea of a musician spy on a real musician in Henry’s court who was a double agent, Pierre Alamire. Alamire (not his real surname, which was most likely Imhoff, or something similar, but rather made up of the musical pitch A and then the solfege musical notes la, mi and re) was supposedly spying for Henry VIII and Wolsey on Richard de la Pole, posing as an instrumentalist, composer and dealer in manuscripts and crossing between England and the Continent between 1515 and 1518, bringing back information for his English masters. But it turned out he was in fact de la Pole’s agent, and wisely did not return to England once the secret was out.

  Double-agents, it seems, were a common problem in the courts of Renaissance Europe. I had a real stroke of luck while doing my research on the Emperor’s spies and ambassadors in London for this book. Louis de Praet had been arrested and tossed out of England by Wolsey in complete breach of the diplomatic rules just months before the action in this novel takes place. The Cardinal wanted to be rid of the meddling ambassador, even if he had to resort to breaking the rules of diplomacy to do it, because he knew de Praet was sending the Emperor Charles missives which urged the Emperor not to trust either Henry VIII or Wolsey.

  It was perfect for my purposes.

  An ambassador banished too fast to have any real replacement put into place, and what is more, he had at one time been mayor of Ghent, the town where Susanna and Lucas Horenbout were from. What a wonderful coincidence for me.

  Most of the places mentioned in this book are real. Or were real, some are no longer in existence, like the Lieutenant’s Lodgings in the Tower of London. Durham House was the place where Henry put Fitzroy, Croke was his tutor, and the administrator of the Hospital of the Savoy really was Wolsey’s surveyor, and thus not a place Parker would have wanted to go.

  I drew heavily from Brewer’s Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 4: 1524-1530, Alison Weir’s Henry VIII: A King and His Court, and various online sources for this book. My thanks to Sword Forum International’s posting of the Belgium Longsword rules of play and the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts’ website for their fascinating articles on the art of longsword fencing. All and any errors are my own.

  Michelle Diener

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading IN DEFENSE OF THE QUEEN. If you enjoyed it, please consider writing a review to let other people know about it. I also love hearing from readers, so you’re welcome to contact me through my website. To be the first to learn about any new releases, and for special giveaways, please go to www.michellediener.com and sign up for my newsletter.

  Best wishes

  Michelle Diener

  Praise for Mi
chelle Diener’s other books

  Luxury Reading: Diener has set a standard for what good historical fiction ought to be . . .

  Chicago Tribune: With its richly detailed historical setting and intrigue-filled plot, “In a Treacherous Court” is simply irresistible.

  Affaire de Coeur Magazine: Awesome! History woven flawlessly into riveting fiction.

  RT Magazine, August 2011 issue: Just when readers think there is nothing new to be learned about Henry VIII, debut author Diener delivers a taut suspense . . . that will keep you turning the pages.

  Readers Entertainment: Diener’s writing style is beautiful, to the point, vivid and exciting. The characters are going to hook you first, and the intrigue will keep you turning the pages.

  Publishers Weekly: Diener (Keeper of the King’s Secrets) delivers a rousing read …

  Also by Michelle Diener

  In a Treacherous Court

  Keeper of the King’s Secrets

  The Emperor’s Conspiracy

  Daughter of the Sky

  Banquet of Lies

  About the Author

  Michelle Diener was born in London, grew up in South African and now lives in Australia with her family. She was bitten by the travel bug at a young age and has managed to feed her addiction with numerous trips to exciting places all over the world. She writes historical fiction, and loves travelling to other times as well as places through the pages of a good book.