“Your Highness, what is this I hear about you and Owen? I begged you to be cau—”
“Sometimes I despair of you,” Queen Katherine said, rolling her eyes heavenward. “No wasting time with ‘How do you fare, Your Highness?’ Or, ‘Lovely gown you are wearing today, Your Grace.’ ”
“I am sorry,” Linnet said, knowing the chastisement was just. She often forgot to observe the niceties expected in noble society. “You do look exquisite today, but I am anxious for you to tell me I’ve no cause to worry.”
“No need to fret,” Queen Katherine said with a sparkle in her eyes. “For ’tis too late for it to do any good.”
“Too late?” Linnet asked, panic rising in her throat. “What can you mean?”
The queen leaned close and whispered next to Linnet’s ear, “I’ve already gone to bed with him.” When Linnet tried to lean back to stare at her, the queen pulled her close again. “And it waswonderful.”
Linnet felt her eyes go wide. Good heavens, what was she to advise the queen now? “Your Highness, I understand how… overpowering… that can be. It can cloud one’s thinking.”
That was the honest truth.
“I suffer no confusion,” the queen said, smiling at her. “You are infatuated,” Linnet said. “ ’Tis a passing fancy. Nothing that merits taking a great risk.”
“I am so happy, my dear,” the queen said, taking Linnet’s hands again and squeezing them. “Please try to be pleased for me.”
Heaven help her, this could not be worse. Clearly, her friend could not see sense just now.
“Enjoy him for a time if it pleases you,” Linnet said. “But I beg you, keep it quiet. No one must hear of this.”
“Come, what do you think I have done?” the queen asked with a laugh. “Sent messengers to the four corners of the kingdom to proclaim the news?”
“If you insist on proceeding with this… this…”—Linnet wanted to say “foolishness,” but thought better of it—“affair, then it must be done in secret. Your ladies and I can arrange clandestine meetings, if you wish. But you absolutely must not spend hours behind closed doors with Owen when the entire castle knows he is alone in there with you.”
“Why must I hide my feelings?” her friend said, her eyes growing sad. “I only want what every woman wants.”
Could the queen be thinking of a serious alliance here? An affair with one of her underlings would stir unwanted troubles, but marriage was utterly impossible.
“Perhaps someday you shall have all you want,” Linnet said, because this was the only hope she could truthfully give her friend. “But it cannot be now.”
“How long must I wait?” the queen demanded. “When will the men who keep my son judge him old enough that a man who pays court to me is not a threat to their influence? Can you tell me, Linnet? Will it be ten years? Fifteen?”
What had happened to the meek princess who always did what was expected of her? This woman who leaned forward with her hands on her hips and anger sparking in her eyes was not the same.
“I cannot give him up,” Queen Katherine said, her voice firm. “I will not.”
“I see,” Linnet said, though she was not certain she did. “If you are set on continuing this dangerous affair, then at least let me give you herbs to help prevent a pregnancy.”
“But my dear,” the queen said with a soft smile. “I want a child.”
Linnet fell back a step and reached behind her for a chair.
“In sooth, I hope Owen and I will have many children,” the queen said with a faraway look in her eyes.
“Then I shall pray for you, Your Highness.” The fear rising in Linnet’s chest made her voice come out low and choked. “I shall pray night and day, for the path you are choosing is a perilous one.”
“It is a path I will not walk alone.”
Linnet swallowed. “Tell me. Is Owen worth the risk you are taking?”
The queen met her eyes. “I love him,” she said, as if that answered all.
“But you were married to King Henry. You loved him, did you not?”
“Aye, but in a different way,” Queen Katherine said with a sigh. “Like everyone, I was in awe of him. Henry was a great man, a king for the ages.”