On this day she was clearly disturbed.
“Oh, Robert,” she cried, “you must know what has happened to me. I am desolate. But I know that you will save me. You are all powerful. No one would dare disobey you.”
“Do be calm,” he implored, “and tell me all about it.”
“My husband is home and he wants to take me away from Court … to the country.”
“But it is natural that he should.”
“Natural!” she stormed. “Why should he not stay at Court? Why should he want to bury me in the country … even if he does himself?”
“It is usual for wives to live with their husbands.”
“Robert, you can stand there so calmly … !”
“My dear Frances, ours has been a charming friendship.”
“A charming friendship! Is that all it is to you?”
“How I wish it could be more. But you are not free.”
She threw herself against him; she gripped his arms and stared into his face. “Robert, if I were free, would you marry me?”
“My dearest Frances, you are not free.”
She stamped her foot. “If I were, I said. If I were.”
“Ah, if they had not married you to Essex, how different everything would be.”
“Then you would marry me?”
Marry a daughter of the Howard family, one of the first in the country—rich, influential? Certainly he would. He had hesitated over Anne Clifford; but he would not over Frances Howard.
“Of course I would marry you,” he said truthfully.
“My dearest. My love!” she cried in ecstasy.
“You have forgotten something, my dear. You are not free to marry, having already a husband.”
“I shall never forget what you have just said, Robert. Never.”
“I shall always remember you.”
“You talk as though we are saying goodbye.”
A look of pained surprise crossed his handsome face. “Alas, but we are,” he said.
“Robert, I shall never say goodbye to you. I shall never give up hope. You can prevent my going to the country. You can ask the King to command that we stay here.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That would be most unwise.”
“Unwise! What has wisdom to do with love like ours.”
“Ah,” he sighed. “You are right. We have been unwise. And I fear the consequences if you remained at Court. What when your husband discovered that we were lovers?”
“Let him discover.”
Robert moved away from her. She was being rather ridiculous. While James had no objection to a love affair he would not be pleased by scandal. James disliked the sort of scandal that could easily arise if Essex discovered he had been forestalled. It could do endless harm. No, the affair was over. He was regretful, but he knew he would grow less so as the days passed. She had been a charming mistress and he had been far from indifferent. In fact, he could sincerely say that he had never cared for a woman as he had cared for her; but that did not imply that he was the victim of a grand passion.
Frances was staring at him in horror. She had sensed the shallowness of his feelings compared with her own, and she was desolate.
He was ready to say goodbye. Perhaps he was eager to do so. He did not want trouble with Essex.
Jennet had said: “It will be well for us to avoid the crowded streets which can be noisy.”
“I would not wish to be recognized,” her mistress agreed.
“My lady, are you sure—”
“That I want to come? Of course I want to come, you fool. Did we not decide that it was the only way?”
“Very well, my lady, but if we should be caught …”
“Oh, have done! I will take the blame. I will say that I forced you to take me. Indeed, how could it be
