Cate of the Lost Colony - Lisa Klein [28]
Sir Walter did not seem offended. He took my chin in his hand and tilted my head upward. “Rather, your coming here shows your courage,” he said. “Many a man wishes to flout the queen’s will in favor of his own, but dares not.”
“Can you be you speaking of yourself?” I asked in disbelief. “I thought your wishes had been gratified by all the favors the queen grants you.”
“Oh, Cat!” he cried, leaping to his feet. “I will confess my ambitions to you. I wish to go to the New World myself and govern it. I would bring all Manteo’s people under my dominion and rule like Caesar during the golden age. I would dig in the earth with these hands and mine its wealth, enough gold and silver to make Virginia the richest colony in all the world. Every man in England would hail the name of Ralegh!”
Sir Walter strode back and forth proclaiming his ambitions while I watched in amazement.
“But Elizabeth makes me stay in England, a toy to entertain her! She appoints me warden of this, captain of that. All her favors, like ropes, only tie me down with heavy duties.”
I could no longer contain myself. “Oh, Sir Walter, I also dream of going to the New World! Ever since I saw the maps in your library and your ships at anchor on the Thames. And the savage, Manteo—seeing his noble bearing and hearing him speak only quickened my curiosity. He is not much older than I am, and he has already traveled far and wide. Since reading Captain Barlowe’s report, I want nothing more than to visit this land where nothing is corrupted and everything is free—” I broke off, breathless.
Sir Walter looked at me with an expression almost like pity. He sank down beside me, then lifted my hair from my shoulders, brought it to his face, and kissed it.
“You, Cat, you sleek, beautiful creature, are more innocent than America herself,” he murmured, dropping my hair and touching my cheek instead. “You don’t know how free you are. How fortunate!”
Moved by curiosity I touched his face, the straight, narrow nose, the furrowed brow beneath his curly hair. It was bold of me, but then I was no longer a timid Cat.
“We are both dreamers, are we not?” I said with a smile. “But you are the innocent one if you think that freedom is my good fortune. No, it is a fearful thing to one who has no family and no wealth. Without the queen’s favor, I will starve.”
Ralegh nodded. Then he looked over my shoulder and began to speak. “Virginia, land of so much plenty, for your bounty I do hunger.” He paused and thought for a moment. “But on your shores you’ve placed a sentry, denying my poor love an entry.”
“What do you mean by these rhymes?” I asked, hoping for a simpler declaration of his love.
“Why, it is the opening stanza of the poem you requested. The land of Virginia is the queen,” he explained. “The bounty is the favor you seek. Write it down.”
From inside his doublet he handed me a pencil and a piece of paper. They were warm from being next to his body. I wrote down the verses.
“This is like a poem you sent me,” I said, unable to hide my disappointment. “Were those meant for the queen, too?”
“No, that is my style, to be allegorical.” He then gave me a hurt look. “What I sent to you, I meant only for you.”
I held his eyes with mine, waiting for him to say more. I wondered if it was easier for him to write of love than to speak it.
“Hold now, I have a second verse coming on,” he said.
I wrote the rest of the lines as he uttered them, though the verses did not suit my circumstances. I would have to rewrite them or the queen would see Ralegh’s style and I would be forced to confess the lines his. That could only lead to greater trouble.
I thanked Sir Walter for his efforts and took my leave with a decorum that belied the turmoil within me. I let him kiss my hand, which gave me not half the thrill of his lips near mine. But the moment for a true kiss had come and gone, because I refused it.
It wasn’t until I was lying in my bed under the eaves, reviewing every moment of our meeting,