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A roar of approval went up in the crowded room, the men calling for Sir Nicholas, the women calling for Adorna to do something. But it was obvious who would win with the net tightening about her, pinning her arms helplessly to her sides and, unlike the others who had been carefully drawn towards their captors, she was hauled unceremoniously across the floor to the slow clap of the guests, totally unable to resist the strength of his arms.
‘Now, my beauty,’ Sir Nicholas said loudly as she drew nearer, ‘are you going to reward my efforts? What’s it to be this time?’
In the Queen’s presence, her answer would have been totally inappropriate. His taunts infuriated her, as did the guests’ enjoyment, nor did the concealing comfort of her mask last long when he pulled her close and lifted it to reveal her flushed and angry face.
‘Mistress Adorna Pickering,’ he laughed. ‘I would have recognised your…er…face anywhere.’ His eyes were not on her face. Then, as if she had indeed been a netted mermaid, he picked her up in his arms and brought her head slowly up to his and, before his lips met hers in this public and humiliating display of mastery, she saw the gleam of exultation in his eyes, the white flash of his teeth.
‘No!’ she whispered, angrily struggling against his wicked grip. ‘You are making it look as if I am…we are…’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I am, aren’t I?’
Even here, in the worst of circumstances, when his kiss was the very last thing she wanted, there was a moment when she became deaf to the yells of approval and heard only the way her heart danced to a rhythm of its own. He kissed her through the net as if no one else had been there, as if the reward he took was no paltry thing but worth all the discernment he could give to it, and it was only when the kiss ended that her other senses returned, with her anger. By then, it mattered nothing to anyone except herself, for the crowd were dispersing and making ready for the dance, still laughing at the rough diversion, both men and women envying the two masquers.
The Earl of Leicester slapped Sir Nicholas on the back as Adorna was carried to one side, his lazy and open examination of her dishevelled attire adding to her chagrin by his unconcealed approval of the contest. ‘I see what you mean, man,’ he murmured into his ear. ‘Time for some lungeing then, eh?’
‘Put me down!’ Adorna snarled, hating them. ‘How dare you manhandle me in this way before Her Majesty, sir?’
He placed her upright within the shadowy window-recess that opened immediately on to the River Thames, admitting the night air that helped to cool her flushed face and neck.
‘Her Majesty is as much amused as everyone else.’
‘Except me!’
‘And you cannot go before she does. That would be a breach of etiquette. Besides,’ he said, easing the net away from the tangle of fringes and stars, ‘the masquers have to dance together first.’
She tried to step away, but he pulled her back and held her against the wall while he untangled her hair. ‘Stand still,’ he said, ‘or I’ll have to hobble you.’
‘Don’t dare to speak to me as if—’
His kiss was meant to be a gag and, in that, it was more effective than even he had expected, given Adorna’s fury. He did not allow her to recover herself, but seemed intent on keeping a firm hold on the authority he had won. ‘As if you were a filly?’ he said, holding her eyes and beating them down with the unflinching brown jasper of his own. ‘You believed that a box on my ears would bring me up short, did you, lass? Well then, just recall that day you sat up there so safely in your saddle and asked me about fillies, and I said I’d tell you someday. Ah, I see you remember that. Well, I’m telling you now, Mistress Adorna Pickering, and we’ll take it in easy stages, shall we?’ He removed his mask at last. ‘The introductions are over. Your education begins here. Now, the musicians are starting up again, the galliard, and you must dance with your captor.’ He stood back to release her, holding out his hand.
She shook with outrage, more than ever aware that, for all her plans, this was going disastrously wrong. She would not give him the satisfaction of her immediate obedience; instead, a myriad of schemes fought for the right to make her as difficult, rebellious, intransigent and downright impossible as any woman had ever been or could ever be, just to show the arrogant savage what he was up against. Seething with vexation at her own lack of opportunity, she ignored his hand just long enough to see a slight movement of his body, a warning that she had better give in.
Haughtily, she placed her hand in his and felt his warm fingers close over hers. She had never seen him look so handsome. Or so dangerous. ‘My captor only for this dance, Sir Fisherman,’ she said, darkly. ‘A net is not the best means of catching water, you know. You’ll have to do better than that before you start your self-imposed role as tutor.’
‘Oh, I will, Maiden. I will,’ he whispered. ‘I’ll do much better than that, believe me. I won’t even need half a chance.’
‘Not a ghost of a chance.’ She allowed herself to be led into the formation for a galliard, though her mind was churning over the fact that so far he had offered no explanation or apology for last night, not even a reference to it. Which showed him to be both heartless and mannerless, a man to whom Hester was more than welcome, if she wanted him. From now on, she vowed to herself, she would not only place Hester in his path, she would hurl her bodily into it, whether she wanted him or not.
He was, as she had seen before, an excellent dancer, and more than once during the lively galliard, she felt the Queen’s scrutiny as she received whispered information into one diamond-weighted ear. As a partner, he could not have been bettered; graceful, sure of his movements, strong and athletic, and during those brief moments of physical contact, she could almost believe that their animosity was a thing of fiction. He would not let her go, but kept hold of her for the next dance, and she was too close to Her Majesty to make a fuss.
The coranto, with its leaps and little running steps, was one in which the Queen herself was an expert, an even more intricate measure than the gay galliard. Here the man could vary the steps at will, taking his partner with him as long as she concentrated. Adorna came close to containing her anger in the heat of the exercise, particularly when he held her above him with his hands around her waist, both of them in complete unison, at one with the rhythm, the steps, the lifts, as if they had rehearsed together. None of which should have been possible between two people so incompatible on every other level.
For the sake of good manners, not to mention the Queen’s presence, she was obliged to swallow further biting comments with the dainty tid-bits he offered her from the banquet prepared in the chamber next door, though it was she who drank liberally of the wine being offered. More than once he reminded her that it was undiluted, that the Queen herself always took water with it, but the impulse to gainsay him at every opportunity had now taken on the dimensions of a crusade against his tyranny, and she took far more of the wine than she needed to quench her thirst, just to thwart him. He need not treat her like a schoolboy. Education, indeed!
It was at the informal banquet that she saw Master Peter Fowler from the opposite side of the chamber. She could have sworn he had not been there earlier, but then his duties could have been the reason for that. All the same, she was relieved that he had not seen the undignified duel between herself and Sir Nicholas, though it appeared to be the presence of the latter at her side that prevented Peter from coming to speak to her. She smiled at him, but her smile was acknowledged only by a bleak expression of discontent that slid from her to Sir Nicholas and back again. She made a move to go to him, but found that the firm hand on her waist was manoeuvring her round to speak to other guests, as if on purpose to deflect her interest, and she knew then that the rivalry between the two had begun in earnest with neither her consent nor approval. It looked as if Peter had been warned off and that he had accepted the instruction, being in no position to do otherwise. She made a note to herself to reverse the situation as quickly as possible, but when she next looked, Peter was nowhere to be seen.
More than once, in the hours that followed, the idea of seeking her father’s protection came and went. It had always been a useful gambit, always successful. But for once, and for a medley of strange and disturbing reasons, she was glad that her father had not been present, the same reasons telling her that, this time, it would be best for her to handle the problem alone.
‘You’ve had enough,’ Sir Nicholas said, in a low voice, returning the full glass to the server.
Adorna tossed her pale hair over her head and reached out to retrieve the wine from the man’s hand, downing it at one go before he could move away. She handed him the empty glass with a smile. ‘I think I’m the best judge of that, Sir Shiffer…shiff…Fisherman,’ she said. ‘Or had you intended to instruct me on what to eat and drink, too?’
His reply was lost as the room fell silent, the ladies sinking into billowing clouds of lace, feathers, silk and jewels, the men to their knees like dwarves in a rainbowed forest. The Queen was leaving. She halted in front of Adorna.
‘But for you, Mistress Pickering,’ she said, ‘one of our Fishermen would have had an empty net. We have you to thank for stepping into Lady Mary’s shoes. That was courageous, as it turned out. You are not hurt, I hope?’
Adorna looked at the forty-two-year-old face, still remarkably handsome and shining with intelligence through piercing topaz eyes. ‘Your Majesty is most gracious,’ she said. ‘I’m not in the least hurt, I thank you, though I do seem to be perpetually wet these days.’
The Queen’s laugh was merry and tinkling. ‘But I notice that you made it a little more difficult for Sir Nicholas to haul you up, this time. Was that because you do not care for the mode of capture or because you do not care to be netted by Sir Nicholas?’
‘I am not yet ready, Your Grace, for any man to capture me.’
‘I’m glad to hear that.’ The Queen nodded. ‘Then we are of the same mind on that score, mistress. I agree that we should not make it too easy for them.’ She walked on, smiling until the doors closed quietly behind her.
Sir Nicholas placed a hand on the small of her back, continuing from where he had left off. ‘No,’ he replied to her facetious question. ‘Anyone who can converse so clearly with the Sovereign after as much neat wine as you’ve had needs no instructions from me. Even if it was nonsense.’
‘It was not nonsense, sir, it was…’
‘Yes, it was. You are ready for a man.’
‘Now who’s talking nonsense? You know as much about that, sir, as you know about fishing. Nothing at all. I bid you goodnight.’ She kissed several friends on the way to the door, as was usual, but Sir Nicholas was not one of them. Indeed, she was relieved to find herself at last in the peace of the tiring-room where only Maybelle and a handsome young man were having a quiet conversation in a dimly lit corner. The clothes were all in order, and her own garments had been laid out ready for her. The young man bowed courteously and left. ‘Is he waiting for you, Belle?’ Adorna asked.
‘Yes, mistress.’
‘Then just help me out of this thing and into my kirtle and chemise. If I throw that cloak around me I’ll not look any different in the dark. Get your young man to go home with you and take my other things at the same time. I’ll slip through the palace garden as soon as I’ve gathered my wits together.’
‘Didn’t you enjoy it, then, after all? Lift your arms.’
‘Slip it downwards, Belle. No, I didn’t. And my head’s reeling. I need to sit still a moment.’
‘Too much wine?’
‘Too much everything.’ Her tongue’s usual agility had begun to fail her, suddenly. ‘Hurry up. No, leave my loos and shippers.’
‘Stockings and slippers?’
‘Tha’s what I said. Now, get me into my…there, that’ll do.’
‘But you can’t go home only half-dressed.’
‘’Course I can. Who’s to see me? There, you go and take these with you.’ She bundled the heavy skirt, bodice and stays, sleeves and ruff into the maid’s arms. ‘Don’t be late back, Belle. Who is he?’
‘His name is David, only he says it Daveed. He’s French.’
‘One of the French mission to the Queen?’
‘Yes, mistress. You be all right alone? You sure?’
‘Better than I’ve been all evening, Belle. Go.’
Alone, she pulled her cloak closer around her shoulders, sitting down suddenly on a clothes-chest as the room swayed dangerously. Fresh air was what she needed, and sleep.
The door opened, disturbing the beginning of a dream. Her heart sent drumming beats into her throat, but she was immediately defensive. ‘What?’ she said. ‘Advice on how to dress?’
‘Come,’ said Sir Nicholas, holding the door. ‘I’ll see you home.’
‘Why? You think I may have an assignation with Faster Mowler? Fowler. If so, you may well be correct.’
‘There is no assignation and you should be in bed.’
‘Whose?’
‘Can you walk, or shall I carry you?’
She stood up, hearing her words take on a boisterous life of their own. ‘Neither, I thank you. I can carry myself home.’
‘Yes, I’m sure you can. Sooner or later.’ He lifted her heavy hand and pulled gently, and Adorna saw a flicker of surprise as her cloak fell open to show that her full overgown was missing.
Wearily, she pulled the cloak back into place, snapping at his helping hand. ‘No more than you’ve seen already, and no different from all the others.’ Walking without legs was something new to her, although she placed the experience together with all the others of that unforgettable evening. The shock of the cool night air reeled like gunpowder through her head, making her clutch at the door-frame as they passed from the Queen’s Apartments into the covered walkway surrounding the royal garden.
She felt his arm go around her, supporting, and the events of the evening fell about like skittles in her mind while her body responded in the only way it knew how, instinctively and uncontrolled. Blindly, she turned to him, reaching up with her hands to search him in the darkness, understanding the reason for his hesitation but knowing that here she could taunt him and take his response in private without the act she had been forced to adopt before the Court. Here, she could fight him with knives unsheathed and be damned to the consequences.
Holding his head only a whisper away from hers, she whipped him with her scorn, oblivious to the danger. ‘So what was all that about the lungeing-rein, Sir Nicholas? You think you can school every filly, do you? Well, sir, I believe you might have bitten off more than you can chew this time, because I don’t stand around waiting for—’
His hesitation was shorter than she had predicted before his mouth closed over hers, the scathing words she had just delivered wiped from her memory in a ravenous avalanche of kisses that buried them for ever. She was never able to recall what she had said to provoke him, only that it might have seemed that he was waiting for just such a provocation.
The loss of her words was nothing to her gains in other respects for, despite her taunts that she was equal to his experience, she had no idea what she was talking about except kisses and mild caresses of the kind she and her gossip-friends had giggled over. Going to bed with a man, according to their information, was what some unmarried women did, but exactly what this entailed was still something of a mystery, and the sex acts they had witnessed between animals could surely bear little relation to humans.
But now her body burst into flame at his touch, urging her to press herself against him while revelling in the hard restraint of his arm across her back, the width of his shoulders, all those details she had unwillingly watched this evening while hating his strength, his mastery, his arrogance.
In the enclosing darkness, she was only dimly aware of being lifted into his arms and laid upon the pine bench that lined the walls, their cloaks beneath them. His weight lay half over her, his legs heavy upon her own sending new shockwaves upwards through her body as the imprint of every contour made its way through the soft linen of her kirtle. His mouth came again to hold hers captive while his hand moved carefully over her embroidered chemise, coming to rest, at last, over her breast.
‘No!’ She pulled her head aside, breaking his kiss and expecting the amazing sensation to stop. ‘No,’ she gasped, when it did not.
His lips stayed in contact with hers, just short of a kiss, just close enough for her to expect it at any moment. ‘Steady…steady,’ he whispered. ‘It’s all right…steady!’ Moving his hand over the full roundness, he kept her lips waiting and her awareness flitting between hand and mouth. Then, as she stilled, he slipped his hand beneath the fabric while claiming her mouth just as a gasp filled her lungs, ready to protest again. The shock turned to a moan of ecstasy and the hand that had grabbed at his wrist slackened its hold, allowing him to explore, softly, slowly, tenderly raking her nipple as his lips nibbled hers. She gave a cry, unaware of its precise meaning. ‘That’s good,’ he whispered. ‘Very good. Now, what else are you going to teach me, eh? About this…?’
Her breathing quailed under his hand that plotted the next unfamiliar warm voyage across the skin of her ribs and stomach, sliding over her hips and making her cry out again with the unbearable suspense of it. ‘No,’ she whispered, meaning yes. Reaching up with her free arm, she slipped her fingers into his hair and pulled his head down to meet hers, her words and needs no longer in unison. His dizzying kiss made her moan with desire, but she heard it only from a distance, like the denials she had voiced since their first meeting, fading at his command.
‘More?’ he said. ‘This is but the beginning.’ His lips moved downwards on a different course over her neck and breast, straying across to her other side to torment her nipple with his tongue and teeth, taking her hand and holding it firmly away as she writhed and arched, pinning her down. ‘Now, my beauty,’ he said, kissing the taut skin, ‘is there something else you wanted to show me? What was it you had in mind, back there, that I haven’t a ghost of a chance of getting? Eh?’ His deep voice vibrated across her lips.
But a slow and exquisite ache that began somewhere in her thighs had now centred in a mysterious place, telling her that things were happening that she could never have dreamed of, that she had started something of which she had never been in control from the start, that he had the power to mould her with his touch. As to what she had meant by her riposte, her mind was a blank as she shook with the impact of her own body’s responses. She was silent and trembling as his teasing hand made a slow and inexorable progress over her breast and stomach, reaching down until it came to rest on the soft mound between her legs. By which time he had claimed her lips once more with a kiss that was intended to make protests difficult, but not impossible.
However, he was more aware than Adorna that some kind of protest was necessary, for although he intended that she should remember this first chastening lesson, there would be far better times and places to continue it when her senses would be clear instead of dulled by wine. Her contrariness had served his purpose well, but she would blame herself as much as him for this memorable episode before she would be tempted to return for more.
‘Well?’ he said, caressing. ‘Have you remembered?’ When she made no answer, he understood that she was already on the verge of surrender and so, to provoke her, he tightened his grip on her wrist and shifted his weight.
‘No…no! Please…don’t!’ Her voice shook itself into a whisper, full of the premonition that, whatever his next move was to be, it was up to her to make him understand that no matter whether this was what he did with other women, he could not do it with her. She could not have said why, having no experience to go on, but the certainty was there.
Instantly, he withdrew his hand, gently pulling her clothes back into their proper place. ‘Shh…shh…all right. I’ve stopped. That’s enough for now, I think.’ Carefully, he swung himself away, easing her upright to rest in his arms until her trembling was under control.
Even in her fuddled and confused state, she could not have denied that the capitulation already begun in the banqueting house was now well under way in the Queen’s garden. But though her fear of being added to his conquests remained as great as ever, he had shown her with appalling ease how close she had come to ignoring every one of her objections. The thought was terrifying.
‘Let me go home,’ she whispered, shakily. ‘You have taken advantage of me, sir.’ She stood, clinging to one of the wooden pillars for support.
He came to stand behind her, his hands beneath her cloak covering her breasts and pulling her back to him, possessively. ‘Oh, no,’ he said into her ear. ‘Oh, no, sweet maid. That I did not, and you know it. If I had truly taken advantage of you, I could have plied you with more wine instead of telling you to stop. I could have taken you into any one of a dozen dark rooms. I could still have you stark naked and on your back right now, if that’s what—’
‘No!’ she panted. ‘That you will never do! Now release me.’ For all its apparent fervour, her plea lacked momentum under his persuasive hands that cleverly drew her mind from resentment towards the breathtaking response of her body. Still tingling from his attentions, she had no will to protest as his wandering hands reinforced his first lesson.
‘You started this, my beauty, and now you’re in it up to your pretty little hocks again, aren’t you. And no guardians to run to.’
‘Master Fowler will…be my…’ Her mouth was taken over by his kiss.
‘Yes,’ he said at last, ‘run to your Gentleman Controller as often as you wish, but he’ll never have control of you as I shall. You can stop playing your game of run-and-hide now, Adorna. It’s time to face reality.’ He caught her wrist and swung her round to face him, taking a fistful of her golden hair to tilt her face under his. ‘I want you and I shall have you. Fume and fight as much as you like; your opposition will make my winning and your losing all the sweeter.’
‘Fine words,’ she snarled, ‘from one who makes a secret assignation with no intention of keeping it. If that’s the reality you intend me to face, sir, I’ll stick with my so-called games a while longer, I thank you.’
‘So that’s niggling at you, is it? Well, if I’d thought you’d have accepted my explanation any earlier, I’d have given it to you, though there’s hardly been a good moment for apologies, has there? I was foaling a mare. A first foal. Premature.’
‘And you could not have sent a message?’
His voice softened with an invisible smile. ‘Oh, yes. Yes, I could have. I could have sent your Master Fowler. He was with me in the courtyard when the stable-lad came to tell me that the mare had started. I could have asked him to go to the banqueting house where you’d be waiting for me and tell you not to. Should I have done that, do you think?’
The idea was absurd, she realised that now. He could not have sent anyone with such a message. ‘I was not waiting for you,’ she said, angrily pulling at his grip on her wrist. ‘I went in.’
‘Ah, I see.’ He smiled, releasing her. ‘Then there is no real harm done after all, is there? And no apology needed. Now, anything else before I take you home?’
‘Yes, there is. Have you warned him to stay away from me?’
‘Who? Master Fowler?’ His smile grew into a soft laugh. ‘No, mistress. I do not warn men off. I don’t need to. Our Gentleman Controller will get the message soon enough without any extra help from me. I think you’ve already seen that tonight.’
‘And I think, sir, that the less I remember of this night the happier I shall be. I choose my own friends and I shall choose my own lovers when I’m ready. And you will not be among them. Master Fowler would never have behaved as you have.’