Free Mary of Carisbrooke by Margaret Campbell Barnes

army coat and pulled forth a string of beautifully carved amber beads. Drawing her towards the light of a lantern hanging above a doorway, he held them out to her; and Mary gave a little gasp of admiration, for they were even finer than the ones which Master Newland, the merchant, had given to Frances. “Such things breed vanity, but I overheard you admiring your friend’s,” Rolph said.
    She had done more than admire them. She had sighed with envy because they were just the colour which suited her best. And because she had never possessed any jewellery. It had been clever of him to choose them, but Mary called to mind her aunt’s warnings and tried to avert her gaze. “I cannot possibly accept anything so expensive,” she excused herself.
    “I can well afford it,” he bragged. “And other trinkets. And maybe perhaps a visit to the mainland—if you will be kind to me.”
    She knew that he was talking to her as Rudy must have talked to Libby. “My father would not let me wear them,” she protested.
    “Your father takes his orders from me.”
    Although her aunt had married into a titled family, it was true. Since the civil war the social life of the country had become muddled up like that. She must do nothing to prejudice her beloved father. Reluctantly, almost as though he had placed a snake in her hands, Mary let the cool beads slide through her fingers.
    “You can wear the thing when you go into Newport—or when you are alone with me. Let me put them on for you,” he urged. He was a long time fumbling with the clasp and she could feel his hands exploring the smooth whiteness of her neck.
    “I do not want to go to the mainland,” she said, jerking herself away. “And why should you, the Captain of the Guard, need kindness?”
    The ingenuousness of the words drew something of the truth from him. “It is not only my men who miss their home life. You do not suppose, do you, that I wanted to leave London and be stuck on this God-forsaken island?”
    “Do you suppose we wanted any of you ?” she flashed back at him, stung to local loyalty.
    She was a lovely young thing when the colour came into her cheeks, and the sparkle into her golden-brown eyes. Rolph decided to take the Governor’s message himself, and walked close behind her as she began to mount the stairs. “At least we liven things up,” he chuckled, clutching at her in the darkness.
    But Mary was too fleet for him. “Why are you following me?” she demanded breathlessly, having reached the security of her aunt’s doorway.
    He straightened his belt and resumed his normal air of authority. “Because I, too, have occasion to see Mistress Wheeler.”
    Inside the housekeeper’s room they found Silas Floyd, tunic unbuttoned, taking his ease before the fire, while his sister stood by the table fashioning some garment. Both occupants of the room looked surprised to see the overner, and Floyd, off duty, rose to his feet just deliberately enough to convey the impression that his presence was an intrusion. “Do you want something of me, Captain?” asked Mistress Wheeler.
    “It is Colonel Hammond who wants you, Mistress,” said Rolph, with cheerful civility. “It seems that all the trouble royalty has caused you is as nothing compared with what is yet to come.”
    “You are pleased to speak in riddles, Captain.”
    “To be more explicit, a batch of courtiers are coming from Hampton.”
    The sorely tried housekeeper laid down her measuring tape and stared at him across the table. “How do you know this?” she asked.
    “The Governor himself told me just now, and I thought it only kind to prepare you before you see him. Moreover, I myself have just come from London.”
    “From London?” exclaimed Floyd. “Then they know that the King—”
    “Sooner or later they had to know. In my opinion, the man who advised him to come here was a fool.”
    “But surely having his own people sent here means that his Majesty will be properly treated,