He took her roughly in his arms. He liked to play the buccaneer. It was usually successful, accompanied as it always was, in his dealings with women, by an underlying tenderness. See the strong man who could vanquish an enemy, see how he curbs his strength for fear of harming the one he loves!
She was a Queen; he could not help it if, in calculating her desirable qualities, he had in mind not only her gentle nature, her adoration of himself, her charming little body, not too mature, but so comfortable, so pleasant and delightful; there were also her lands, her endowment, her influence. The King loved his uncle, but without a doubt the boy idealized his stepmother. The two of them together would make a team to guide the King. With her riches, her influence and her charm, she was irresistible.
“My dearest,” he said, “when?”
“When?” she cried. “And the King not dead a month!”
“I shall not hesitate this time.”
“My love, you must… hesitate a little… for the sake of decency, for the sake of etiquette.”
But he had seized her again. “Do you think I care for these things when love burns in my heart? No, no! I lost you once. Do you think I will allow that to happen again?”
“Nay, my dearest, you must be patient.”
“Patience and love, dear Kate, go not hand in hand.”
“What would be said of me if…my husband not dead a month…I took another?”
“I would take my fists to the ears of any who spoke ill of you, Kate… from the lowest to the highest. Take off the hood.”
“I dare not.”
“Then I will.” He seized it and flung it from them.
She looked at him and laughed aloud. There was a note of the old hysteria in her voice when she said: “It is the end… the end of fear. Oh, Thomas, you cannot guess what it was like. Every time I heard footsteps I wondered whether they came for me.”
“My darling Kate, my dearest Kate, none shall harm you now, for Thomas will be at your side…as long as we both shall live.”
“It is so wonderful, my darling. I think I shall die of happiness.”
“Die! Ye shall not! You have done with death. Kate, we shall marry soon… this very week.”
“Now let us talk seriously.”
“I speak with the utmost seriousness. I’ll brook no delay.”
He lifted her in his arms while she laughingly begged to be put down. “For if we were seen, I know not what would be said or done against us.”
He refused to release her. He sat on a stool and held her against him.
“Nothing will be done against us, Kate. None would dare.” He was about to outline the advantages of a marriage between them, to explain how the little King would be as butter in their hands; but at such moments it was wiser to talk of love and nothing but love. If he was a reckless statesman, experience had made him a perfect lover; and in any case, love between them was a very pleasant topic.
“I am a most impatient man, Kate.”
“I am an impatient woman where you are concerned. But, Thomas, I am as yet unready. I have nightmares still.”
“You need me beside you to comfort you.”
“I dream …”
“Forget those dreams. Let us talk of others…when you and I shall be married.”
“The earliest would be May.”
“May! Three whole months away!”
“We dare not before.”
“Who says I dare not when I will?”
“My dearest …” But he stopped her protests with kisses while his thoughts were racing on.
“A secret marriage,” he murmured in her ear.
She caught her breath. “No. No. It would be dangerous.”
“May, for our official ceremony then,” he went on. “But I shall visit you. I shall come by night.”
“No, Thomas.”
But he insisted: “Yes.”
“You will ride out to Chelsea after dark? No, Thomas, I forbid it.”
“But I shall forbid you to forbid it when you are in my arms.”
“Across the fields…over Bloody Bridge?”
“Why not?”
