Read Online Lady of the Roses by Sandra Worth - Free Book Online Page B

for each month you have been here. Only Elizabeth can match that tally, but she is not my ward, and so it does me no good.” She threw a warm smile in Elizabeth’s direction, which Elizabeth returned with one of her own, as dazzling as sunlight.
    Stunned at the news, I stared at the queen.
    She patted my hand kindly. “ Vraiment , perhaps you didn’t know? I thought everyone knew everything that happened at court before it happened, but not this time, I see. In any case, the suitors are of no import. You were not informed, because they offered too low a price.” She bent near and lowered her voice. “You will fetch a great sum for the royal treasury, my dear. For that you should be proud.”
    I didn’t know how to respond to this, so I mumbled my thanks.
    “It must sound quite banal to you, so fresh from the nunnery, this talk of money, but you should regard it as performing a great duty to the king. God knows, I myself was happy to bring him a treaty of peace. I was fifteen, you know, when I arrived on these shores, quite alone.”
    Not a treaty, but a truce, I corrected mentally, promptly chastising myself for the disloyal thought. “Aye, my queen,” I murmured. Fifteen was too young to be married off to someone you had never seen, sent off to a foreign country, and torn from family, friends, and all that had been familiar and dear to the heart.
    She threw me a glance. “Are you sure you have no French blood, like Elizabeth?”
    I shook my head.
    “ D’accord , I suppose you need not be French to be beautiful…or lonely.”
    My heart went out to her, for I had a sudden appreciation of her plight. She was a woman thwarted at every turn: an outsider who could never belong, a woman married but with no husband, and no love, and no true hope of happiness, except her child. The smile I gave her must have shown my sympathy, for she gave my hand a squeeze. “There is something about you très charmante. I think we shall be friends, Isabelle, don’t you agree, Elizabeth?”
    At these words, Elizabeth turned her bright green eyes on me for the first time, and her full gaze held warning. I knew then that she regarded me an interloper and would protect at all costs what she viewed as her territory.
    “I have made a decision!” Queen Marguerite announced suddenly. “You shall be my lady-in-waiting, Isabelle. Just like Elizabeth.”
     
    “WE HAVE AN HOUR BEFORE SUPPER,” URSULA said kindly, placing a gentle arm around my shoulder. “Shall we seek out a wisewoman? Perhaps she can bring you comfort with good tidings.”
    Gazing at her from my bed, where I had been playing my lyre and dwelling on thoughts of Sir John Neville, I shook my head sadly. “I have no faith in prophecy, Ursula. If my fortune is good, I shall hope too much and be fearful lest it proves wrong. If I get a bad fortune, I shall dread my future. ’Tis best to keep away from wisewomen.”
    “Then what say you to a stroll along the river to see the sunset?”
    Perhaps Ursula was right, and fresh air would banish my melancholy. In any case, I was to take up my duties as the queen’s lady-in-waiting when she returned from Kent, where she had gone to attend the trial of a group of rebels. Soon enough I would have little free time to spend as I wished.
    We took the path down to the riverbank. The palace grounds were quiet, and we met few people along the way. The rains had ceased, and the late September wind swept through the gardens, rustling the autumn leaves that still clung to the trees and stirring the sweet, damp smell of evening. Turning a corner, we stepped through an arched stone gate. Abruptly the palace walls gave way to the sky, offering up a sunset without boundary. The Thames was dotted with gilded private barges, and its rippling currents caught the crimsons and golds of the sky, which soaked the water, dazzling my eyes.
    “God has surely designed His seas and rivers as mirrors to catch and reflect His glory,” I whispered to Ursula