Free The Boleyn Reckoning by Laura Andersen

blinked twice. “Go on.”
    “Since my sister’s arrest, Anne has been passed around various members of the Howard family with little consideration for her welfare, only the convenience of others. The king—” Here he faltered once more.
    “The king has formally recognized his daughter, yes,” Minuette said for him. “And yet, you are correct, he has not provided her with a household of her own or guardians besides her mother.”
    “Honoria and I would like to give her a stable home, away from politics. You know me well enough to honestly assure the king that we do not seek this position in order to profit from it. It is the child herself we care for.”
    His straightforward goodness made Minuette ashamed of herself.I should have married him when I had the chance, she thought blackly, knowing even as the thought formed that it would not have served either of them well.
    “I do know,” she assured Jonathan. “I will speak to the king. He thinks highly of you. I expect he will gladly grant your request.”
    His favour asked, Jonathan did not linger. He rose and bowed to her, but when he straightened he added, “It is good of you to do me this kindness. If ever I might be of service, you have only to ask. I would requite the ill my sister has wished you.”
    “You owe me nothing,” Minuette assured him. “And I quite understand that, in Eleanor’s eyes, it is I who have done her ill.”
    “And are you happy?”
    How could such a simple question set all her defenses ringing? “Why do you ask?” she parried.
    “Because all that time ago, at Hampton Court, when I asked you—” He stopped himself, and his eyes were far too perceptive. Minuette would have looked away if she had not thought it would make her look guilty of something.
    Jonathan finished his thought. “When you declined to marry me then, I believed it was for the sake of another man. A man
not
the king.”
    With a bright, brittle smile, Minuette kissed Jonathan on the cheek. “Go to York and marry your Honoria. And may you both be happy for many years to come.”
    Within the week, Minuette had spoken to William and secured his agreement to give Anne Howard into her uncle Jonathan’s wardship. She thought herself done with Percys then, trying to keep Jonathan’s honest appraisal of the past from troubling her waking hours, when a far more troublesome Percy reappeared.
    Eleanor wrote to Minuette from the Tower, requesting an interview “with the king’s best beloved future queen.”

CHAPTER FIVE

    I T WAS NEARLY the end of April before Dominic was able to make the trip to Kenilworth and retrieve Robert Dudley’s chest. He had insisted on making the trip personally, not trusting anyone else. He’d had to tell William most of the truth to get the king’s leave, but he and Elizabeth had not yet told the king that it was Rochford against whom Robert was laying his claims. Dominic didn’t know how William would respond to his uncle’s … what to call it? Treason? Treachery? Lies? At the least, Rochford had ruthlessly manipulated events, including blackening his own sister’s reputation, in order to eliminate those he saw as rivals. William would not take kindly to being left in the dark. If there was manipulation to be done in England, it was the king’s prerogative to have his hand on all the strings.
    Dominic made the trip north as quickly as possible with only his man-at-arms, Harrington, as companion. They had worked together since 1553 and Dominic trusted him absolutely. Five inches taller than Dominic and built like an ox, Harrington was one of only three people who knew of Dominic and Minuette’s secret marriage: the other two were Carrie, Minuette’s maid, and the Catholic priest who had married them. Dominic suspected Harrington’s affection for Carrie ran deep, but it was difficult todecipher emotions from such a silent man. Compared to his man-at-arms, even Dominic counted as talkative.
    Having been forced into accepting the