Free My Enemy, the Queen by Victoria Holt

and Baron of Denbigh title which had never been used by anyone but a royal personagend the estates of Kenilworth and Astel Grove were to be his.
    Everyone was smirking behind their hands. Of course she was not going to relinquish her Sweet Robin. She wanted to do him honor and this seemed a good way of doing it while, at the same time, she insulted the Queen of Scots.
    We at Court understood her motive, but the people would see it differently. She had suggested a match between the Queen of Scots and Robert Dudley. How wrong all the scandalous gossip had been about the murder of Dudley wife! The Queen was certainly not involved, for she had not married him when she could and now she was offering him to the Queen of Scots!
    Our clever Queen had achieved her purpose. Robin received his honors and people ceased to lay part of the blame for the murder of his wife at the door of the Queen.
    I was present when the honors were bestowed on Robert. It was a very ceremonial occasion indeed which took place in Westminster Palace; and I had rarely seen the Queen in such a happy mood. Of course he looked magnificent in his glittering doublet, his satin bombasted breeches and his elegant ruff of silver lace. He held his head high; he would come out of that hall a much richer and more influential man than he had gone in. A short while ago he had thought all hope of marriage with the Queen was over since she had announced her determination to banish him to Scotland. But now he knew that she had no intention of doing this and it had just been a ruse in order that she could comfortably shower gifts on himn assurance of her affection when he had feared her indifference.
    Elizabeth entered the hall a scintillating figure, love for Robert softening her face, making her almost beautiful. Before her, carrying the sword of state, walked a very tall young manittle more than a boyho, it was whispered to me, was Lord Darnley. I scarcely looked at him then, my attention being all for Robert, although I should have paid more attention to him if I had known what part he would play in the future.
    All eyes, of course, were on that pair, the two principal actors in the scene; and I marveled as I had so often in the pastnd was to do in the futuret the Queen blatant exposure of her feelings for him.
    Robert knelt before her while she fastened the mantle about his neck, and as she did so, to the amazement of all, she put her fingers inside the collar and tickled his neck as though she found the desire to touch him in this way irresistible.
    I was not the only one who noticed. I saw Sir James Melville and the French Ambassador exchange glances, and I thought: This will be reported throughout Europe and in Scotland. The Queen of Scots had already professed herself to have been insulted by the suggested match and referred to Robert as the Queen Horse Master.
    Elizabeth did not seem to care. She turned to Melville, for she must have seen the look he exchanged with the Frenchman. There was very little she missed.
    ell,she cried, hat think you of my Lord Leicester, eh? Methinks you like better yon lang lad.She nodded towards Lord Darnley and I saw Melville flinch a little. I did not understand then, but later I realized she was letting him know that she was aware of the supposedly secret negotiations which were in progress to marry Mary of Scotland to Lord Darnley. It was characteristic of her that while she tickled Robert neck she was considering the outcome of a marriage between Mary and the tall young man.
    Later she pretended to be against it while at the same time doing everything she could to bring it about. She had summed up Darnleyot yet twenty years old, very slender so that he looked even taller than he in fact was, a pretty boy with round, rather prominent blue eyes and soft skin as delicately colored as a peach. The effect was charming enough for anyone who liked pretty boys. He had a veneer of pleasant manners, too, but there was something peevish and