Free Daughter of Silk by Linda Lee Chaikin

“Your grandmère herself sends you to him. And, it is favorable to us all.”
    So Madeleine had informed Grandmère of the questions she was asking about le Marquis. Just wait until I correspond with Madeleine again .
    Rachelle convinced herself it was worry that caused her heart to beat so quickly and not the feminine excitement of confronting the marquis face-to-face, alone, for the first time. She straightened the Alençon lace on her bodice. Ah, lace . . . how she loved to run it through her fingers.

    The cream lace on the cuff of the blue velvet sleeve of Marquis Fabien de Vendôme was not Alençon but Burgundy lace, with woven threads of gold and purple representing the blood royal. This lace originated in the region of Burgundy that had once been the powerful duchy of his kinsman of two generations ago, Charles de Montpensier, le Duc de Bourbon, one of the most powerful men in France whose rights to the throne equaled, if not exceeded, those of the present Valois royal family. Fabien’s late mother was Marie-Louise de Bourbon, and his father, Marquis Jean-Louis de Vendôme, had been the Duc of Bourbon, until his death — assassination , Fabien thought coolly. Fabien had lost the
    title of duc to a kinsman, Prince Antoine de Bourbon, the brother of Prince Louis de Condé. Antoine was presently the king of the Huguenot kingdom of Navarre. In respect to Fabien’s ancestry, however, he was granted the marquisat in Vendôme, also his mother’s family estate and some of his father’s lands.
    Now within his chamber in the palais chateau of Chambord, Fabien stood before a Venetian mirror mulling over the arrival of the cowled stranger who had been ushered into the palais beneath his very nose. He was angry with himself for not having expected the arrival of le Duc de Guise and his brother, le cardinal. They had followed the Queen Mother from Paris with a rather belligerent attitude. Due, no doubt, to the fact that their blood niece Mary of Scotland was married to King Francis
    II. Francis and Mary were as much under their influence as the queen regent herself. A matter that Fabien knew infuriated her.
    Something unpleasant was hatching. He sensed it had something to do with the arrival of le Duc de Guise and the messire in the hooded cowl and face mask. Fabien decided to discover more about both.
    Le Duc de Guise, known as le Balafré for the military victories he
    had led for France, had more recently turned his relentless hatred against those of the religion, the French Protestant Calvinists or Huguenots.
    Thinking of Huguenots brought Fabien’s master swordsman to mind. Chevalier Nappier was a secret Huguenot, an expert with the rapier, and Fabien, from his youth, had befriended him. Fabien knew a man of iron when he met one. He admired men of conviction, for most could be trusted once they had made the decision of loyalty. He had a number of such Frenchmen serving him. There was much about Nappier that reminded Fabien of the stern French pirate, Capitaine l’Olivier, who with one swipe could remove a head.
    Now there was an arrogant galante for you! The cold-blooded Protestant liked to hunt and capture Spanish galleons and take no quar- ter. It was said he had his reasons for hating Spaniards, not the least of which was that he had been a prisoner under their torture for several years. That Fabien was baptized a Catholic and attended Mass with the king’s royal household each noon in no way altered Fabien’s respect for the pirate, though l’Olivier would certainly find that plaguing.
    Had Nappier noticed le Duc de Guise and the messire with the mask riding into the courtyard? Guise’s men-at-arms would of necessity take food and rest near the armory and barracks where Nappier might catch a snatch of verbal exchange between them that would prove interesting. Fabien made up his mind to go there as soon as he located Sebastien.
    Fabien straightened his light blue velvet jacket and tried on his hat, the