“You are welcome. Do not thank me too much. I doubt if I could ever do it again—the restraint I mean.”
She expected him to grin at her but he was serious. Her heart leapt and began to beat the quickened rhythm he could always arouse. Their eyes held. She was trying to summon her courage to give in to the magnetic pull she felt to sit on the bed and kiss him when Anne glided in humming.
“Good morning, Lord Stafford. You look a great deal stronger but a shave would help, you know.”
“Yes, Lady Anne. Indeed I know.” He flicked his thumbnail across the stubble. “Mary and I were just discussing it.”
“Oh. Well, do you feel strong enough to tell me how things truly were at Eltham when you dashed off? Father’s missives are so political and His Grace’s notes are of far another sort.” Her dark eyes danced over him in some sort of challenge, and he returned her gaze steadily.
“I would be pleased to tell you whatever you would choose to know, Lady Anne, but right now I am famished. I intend to try to move around a bit this afternoon, so perhaps at supper this evening there will be time.”
Anne lifted her sleek head to stare at Mary. “Well, of course, I know you have been unwell. It is only that I am dying to hear someone tell me the way it truly is, you see. George is kept much away these days. Perhaps at dinner.” She raised her slender right hand to Mary and was gone.
“Why did you tell her that, Staff? You are hardly famished after that stew and biscuits.”
“Maybe I want to be alone with only you, Mary, and she did interrupt us. And then, maybe it gives me perverse pleasure to put her off since everyone falls all over her these days, and it is likely to be worse when she returns to him this autumn. The time will not be long when it will be completely unwise and unsafe to put off the Lady Anne.”
“You predict she will become his mistress? She says she will never do that.”
“I am afraid I am starting to believe her. I think His Grace is stirring his pluck to send Queen Catherine away from court for good, and then we shall see the Lady Anne’s next move. She must be a hell of a chess player, as much as you must be a bad one, love.”
“I hardly think you need to bring me into this. I...”
“Rest assured, I prefer a poor player at that game, Mary. One I can teach and beat if I have to. The other thing is,” he went on, “His Grace is not truly content with having the Fitzroy boy his heir. Bessie Blount’s son is no match—nor is the queen’s slender, serious daughter—for a legitimate son.”
“Catherine is healthy enough, although she will bear him no more children,” Mary argued quietly. “He is far from being a widower.”
“That is what I mean about the next Bullen chess move, Mary. We shall have to wait and see. And I do want to sit in the gardens and perhaps stroll about to get my riding strength back. I had best have that shave since we are talking only of unimportant things and not of our future. I have to be able to ride. I do not intend to be here when your father returns to claim Anne or if His Grace should suddenly appear.”
She stood to fetch the boy to shave him. “I refuse to be afraid of either of them anymore,” she said bravely.
“Not afraid, perhaps, sweetheart, but always careful.”
She gave his good arm a playful caress as she left the room. He made a grab for her but missed. She laughed.
“Teases always get what they deserve, Mary,” he called after her. She laughed again at having him sound like his old self again.
In the afternoon she and Catherine walked with Staff to the stableblock to visit Sanctuary. Mary had assured him more than once that Ian was tending the horse lovingly, but he had to see for himself. Staff walked in slow steps and she knew he still had a headache and was weak as a babe. But she was so glad to see him up! Little Catherine walked between them, holding on to both of their hands. The child had always favored Staff and remembered him from her earliest days when he would visit her parents in their chambers and tease her and make her laugh. Mother had told her that her father was dead now and that meant he had gone away forever. At least now her tall friend Staff was here with them. It would make her very happy if he would decide to stay here with mother, grandmother and Aunt Anne. She was certain it would make mother very happy too.
And now he was taking them to see his big horse. She and mother had seen him ride it in a joust one day. The king was there too. That was when she sat with her friend Margaret to watch. Margaret’s uncle was the king.
“Will Santry remember me, do you think, my lord?” the little girl’s sweet voice asked him.
Staff and Mary smiled at her attempt to say the difficult word. “I am certain he would never forget a beautiful lady like you, Mistress Catherine,” Staff said seriously.
“Did he get hurt when you and mother did?”
“Just a little cut. It is much better now they tell me. Just as I am.”