Read Online Murder at Whitehall by Amanda Carmack - Free Book Online

fireplace. A maidservant brought pitchers of spiced wine and platters of warm beef pies and ginger cakes, which everyone snatched up amid much laughter and declarations of how hungry they were after the exercise.
    Everyone but Kate. She slid onto a seat at the end of the bench and tried to let the cheerful fire warm her, yet the heat of it wouldn’t quite reach her numb fingers and toes. The merry scene around her couldn’t erase the image of Anthony and that pretty young lady on his arm.
    Kate took a deep drink of the wine, hoping it would wash away her foolish feelings. She hadn’t seen Anthony in months; certainly she had no claim on him, nor he on her. They had been friends once, when they both lived near Hatfield House while Elizabeth was a princess and Queen Mary on the throne, and he hadoften helped Kate when she needed to find documents to help the queen. His law studies took him where she could not go. Once, she had even imagined . . .
    But nay, that could not be. Anthony needed the right sort of wife to help him. Someone quiet and pretty, who knew how to run a fine house and entertain patrons. A wife like Mistress Hardy, in fact.
    Or like Mistress Hardy’s niece.
    Kate had always known
she
could not be that sort of wife. She liked the changing scene of the royal court, the excitement and movement, and even the intrigue. She loved her music, and the chance to play it for the queen and her courtiers, people who knew and appreciated the art of it. She had never learned how to run a household, as most ladies did. Nor did she really want to learn.
    But sometimes—just sometimes—life was lonely, and someone to laugh with next to the fire after a long day would be nice.
    She took another sip of her wine, and the warmth at last began to seep into her heart. She listened to the laughter around her, the chatter about the Christmas season at court, and it made her laugh, too. This was the life she had been raised to, the life she had chosen. She just needed to remind herself of that sometimes.
    She suddenly felt a gentle touch on her arm, and turned to find Lady Catherine smiling at her. Lady Catherine had scarcely taken her gaze from Lord Hertford since he arrived, and her eyes still glowed with a happiness she couldn’t conceal when she was with him, yet her smile was concerned.
    â€œAre you quite well, Mistress Haywood?” she whispered.
    â€œI am very well,” Kate answered. She made herself laugh again, a careless laugh she had learned from the queen, and hoped she was becoming better at courtly concealment than Lady Catherine was. “Merely cold, I think.”
    Lady Catherine frowned. “But that man we saw by the river, the one you spoke to. I thought he might be your—well, he was very handsome.”
    â€œI told you, Lady Catherine, he is an old friend. I knew him when I lived at Hatfield House. I haven’t seen him in a long time.”
    â€œAre you sure that is all?”
    Kate nodded firmly. “Quite sure, Lady Catherine.”
    Lady Catherine looked as if she wanted to say something more, but Lord Hertford claimed her attention. “I fear the wine is gone, my dear Lady Catherine,” he said. “How shall we play a game of snapdragon without it?”
    â€œI will go fetch more,” Kate said quickly. Her concealing smile could be held for only a few moments longer, she feared. An errand would give her a quiet moment.
    Before Lady Catherine could stop her, Kate slid away from the table and made her way through the crowded room. She heard snatches of all sorts of languages as she passed the crowded tables, German, Spanish, French, Dutch. She found the maidservant in a long narrow dark hallway leading to the stairs. Thegirl seemed rushed and red-faced, but she cheerfully stopped to take Kate’s order for more wine.
    â€œOf course, mistress, right away,” she said. “I do like it when the queen’s own courtiers come