Read Online In Defense of the Queen by Michelle Diener - Free Book Online Page B

start. She had not heard him coming up the stairs, and by the panicked looked on his men’s faces, they hadn’t either.
    “Merden.” Susanna said the name softly, and the guard turned away, a flush on his cheeks.
    “What happened?” Kilburne hardened his tone.
    There was silence.
    “Your men were jostling me, forcing me along. Some were groping me.” She turned to him. “I refused to walk any further.”
    Kilburne blinked. “Lewis?”
    A guard stepped forward, tall and well muscled. She remembered he’d been near the front, leading them, and the men around him would not look at him, now.
    “You are second-in-command.”
    “Aye.” Lewis cleared his throat. “Aye.”
    “And are you deaf?” Kilburne’s words were soft.
    Lewis shifted, uncomfortable. “No, sir.”
    “Are any of you deaf?” He waited them out as they shook their heads.
    “Then you would have heard the Queen of England giving a direct instruction on the treatment of this prisoner. You would have heard me give my word of honour to obey it.”
    A few faces paled. Heads nodded.
    “Then, by God, follow it, or you will be held accountable.” His shout made them flinch. Susanna could not help flinching, herself.
    “And the other? What of his instructions?” Merden spoke with a soft hiss, like a trapped grass snake.
    Kilburne stared Merden down. “I cannot have a man under my command who will not follow my orders, Merden. If you would rather ask the Cardinal for a job in his household, by all means . . .” He swept his arm towards the stairs, and Merden shifted his eyes from his captain to the way out. Hesitated. Stepped back in line with the other men.
    Kilburne gestured for her to continue down the passage, and his men shuffled aside to let them pass.
    As she came abreast with Merden, she flicked him a glance and stumbled at the look in his eyes.
    “Careful, the going is uneven.” Kilburne held out his arm.
    Susanna took it, glanced back at Merden, her heart leaping in her throat. “So it would seem.”

 
    Chapter Thirteen
     
    and this is all the success that I can have in a court, for I must always differ from the rest, and then I shall signify nothing; or, if I agree with them, I shall then only help forward their madness.
    Utopia by Thomas More (translated by H. Morley)
     
    W ith every step he took away from her, Parker’s failure weighed heavier on his shoulders. She was so vulnerable, at the mercy of too many who meant her harm.
    He needed Peter Jack in those rooms with her. Knife in his boot and eyes open.
    He was running by the time he reached Crooked Lane, his chest heaving as he pulled himself up the back stairs. A clawed fear-demon held fast to his lungs, squeezing them, piercing them mercilessly.
    Harry, Peter Jack, Eric and Mistress Greene were on their feet as he stepped into the kitchen. White, fearful faces turning to him in expectation.
    “She is in the Tower.”
    Mistress Greene let out a single, whooping sob, then choked back the ones that would follow it. “What is the charge?”
    “Wolsey accuses her of treason.”
    At Harry’s shout of protest, he held up his hand.
    “He has no proof. Absolutely none. He has moved against her too quickly, and that is at least one thing in our favour. That and she has the support of the Queen.”
    “How will that help her?” Peter Jack’s voice cracked.
    “It already has. The Queen bade the Tower Wardens take her to the royal apartments in the Lieutenant’s Lodgings, to the rooms she once gave to the Duc de Longueville. Susanna is in comfort, not in the dungeons, as Wolsey would have her.”
    Mistress Greene sank down on the bench by the fire. “Thank the Good Lord.”
    “What do we do?” Harry moved closer to the door, as if to leave immediately, and Parker felt a lift in the crushing weight that dragged at him.
    “I persuaded the Captain to allow her a servant. I need Peter Jack there to keep watch on her, and to warn me if Wolsey makes any move. The Warden has