The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [80]
‘I mean,’ Philippa said, ‘that she believes that for the devout, all things are possible. And that for nine months she has prayed for a miracle.’
‘Poor lady,’ said Jane, and cried in Philippa’s arms while, dry-eyed, Philippa stared into the new world she had discovered in London and begged, with a grimness unknown to the Marian shrines, to be vouchsafed the means to endure in it, and even, one day, to mend it as it needed.
The Queen’s doctors announced that an error of possibly two or three months had been made with Her Majesty’s pregnancy, and that delivery was now likely to take place in August, or even September. Two gentlemen who indulged in ribald remarks as a consequence were sent to the Tower. And the King sent a note to his dear friend, Ruy Gomez da Silva: Let me know what line I can take with the Queen about leaving her, and about religion. I see I must say something, but God help me.
The Emperor Charles received a letter. The King his son and Ruy Gomez wished to leave England for Spain. King Philip desired above all to escape from the great and continual distress in which he found himself, but was intent on two things: to leave the Queen feeling convinced he would always continue to love her most dearly, and that he would come back shortly to remain with her—she showing that she would not consent to his departure either mentally or verbally otherwise. Also, to devise means of returning without trouble to England, so as not to have thrown away so much money, time, toil and repute.
There was another uprising in Warwickshire: Pembroke dealt with it.
Exhausted, the Queen’s ladies continued to give her their care and their comfort. The Queen rose from her bed, and moved through her rooms slowly, undertaking no business. Then plans were announced to move the whole Court briefly to Oatlands, four miles farther from London, and Philippa along with the others was plunged into lists and planning and packing. The Queen, sitting erect in her carved chair, a counterpane over her knees, issued the orders, and, when the time came, was placed in her closed litter and taken through the green summer park to her barge, and from there to her palace.
Hampton Court emptied, for cleansing. The ladies brought for the accouchement, unable to find rooms in the bijou restrictions of Oatlands, were advised quietly to withdraw and vanish. And a cradle, carried out and locked in a storeroom, lay on its side so that this time its poorly scanned legend had only the mice to be witness: The child whom Thou to Mary, O Lord of Might has send …
Ten days later, the King and Queen were back in Hampton Court, and the watchers and Ambassadors saw that the Queen no longer walked with her ladies alone, but had her statesmen for the first time around her, and was giving audiences once again, her manner affable; her face stiff; half-shorn, half-crumbled, like sandstone, and only the small, tightly-rimmed eyes liquid and suffering. Philippa heard then that the Emperor had sent a peremptory summons to Philip and that the Queen had agreed he should go.
He left for London in less than a fortnight, and the Queen, staying by his side at the last moment, unexpectedly shared his public farewells in the City, acclaimed in her open litter by the crowds who ran and shouted along the long road, and who had seemingly considered her dead. Then together, the Crown and the Court moved on downriver, to where Philip’s ships waited at Greenwich.
And at Greenwich, the Queen summoned Philippa and at last gave her leave of absence. ‘You have been my sweet servant, and you deserve rest from your labours. Your mother must lack you. Take your way home to the north, and comfort her, and on my good lord’s return we shall see you.’ And dismissing her, had given her a brooch and a chain; while from Lady Lennox there had emanated a kind smile and a message for her good lady mother.
Philippa retired to her room, wanly aghast. She did not want to go north. She could not face her own mother, and how could she avoid visiting Midculter, when all that she knew must be