The Virgin's Daughter (Tudor Legacy #1)(78)
Especially one who clearly harbored doubts about his trustworthiness.
It all combined to leave him spoiling for a fight, heightened by Lucette’s cool beauty and avoidance of him. True, he was avoiding her as well, but she didn’t have to look so unaffected by his ignoring her. So when Walsingham invited him to step out of the hall and meet him in a private chamber, Julien set out in an explosive mood.
His explosive moods mostly manifested in a darkly sarcastic cheer, so as he passed into the chamber to which an indifferent guard motioned him, Julien said, “From ambassador to Lord Secretary—you’ve done well for yourself, Walsingham. How many have you killed to get here?”
“No more than you’ve killed to keep your secrets.”
Julien grunted, remembering anew that Walsingham was unflappable. He declined the proffered seat and lounged insolently against the linenfold paneling, arms folded as if he hadn’t a care in the world. “And which secrets would those be? The ones I keep for you—or the ones I keep from you?”
“That is the question,” Walsingham agreed. “Where exactly do your loyalties lie at this moment?”
“Where they have always lain. With myself.”
“Don’t try that on me,” Walsingham said sharply. “A man devoted only to his own interests would not have thrown my money back in my face so long and with such venom. Only a man touchy about his honour would be so insulted by reward.”
“What do you want?”
“Have you turned against me and England?”
“Turned against you—or always been against you?”
Walsingham shook his head. “No. I know how to read men, and when you offered yourself into my hands, it was done from principle and honestly. I am simply not certain if that principle has continued to sustain you this long.”
“I have done nothing against the interests of your queen, nor will I,” Julien said wearily. “I still believe what I did before—that Europe needs a balance, and places where those whose beliefs are unpopular in their home countries can go for safety. I would prefer that the Huguenots be able to remain in France. But as long as they are despised and hunted, I will continue to do what I can to keep them safe from the fanatics in my own country.”
“How I want to believe you, LeClerc. But there have been troubling signs pointing in your direction for several months now.”
“I don’t suppose you want to tell me what those signs are?”
Walsingham simply gave him a look and Julien sighed. “Right. Well, as I pointed out to your latest intelligencer, I cannot prove a negative. And I certainly cannot prove it when I don’t know precisely what pieces of evidence are causing you to suspect me.”
“Do I detect sarcasm in your assessment of Lady Lucette?”
“Oh, come now, Walsingham—engaging a woman? I don’t suppose her father would be too happy about that.”
“Don’t change the subject, LeClerc. Although speaking of that, I don’t suppose Lord Exeter would be any too pleased to know how desperately you are pining after his eldest daughter.”
Julien shoved himself away from the wall. “Tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do it. But I will not discuss Lucette Courtenay with you—or anyone. Am I clear?”
Walsingham’s rare smile was laden with meaning. “More clear than I think you care to be. You are right, proving a negative is troublesome. But not impossible. All you need do for the next week is enjoy yourself at my illustrious queen’s court. At the end of that week, I shall decide what to do with you.”
“I can’t wait.” Julien’s head was near to splitting. He threw open the door to the chamber and stalked past the single guard. Surely there was wine to be had in England.
Maybe if he got drunk enough he would forget the feel of Lucie beneath him on her bed. The last night he would ever touch her.
NINETEEN
Elizabeth was snappish and irritable as July progressed under serenely sunny skies. The weather was oppressively hot and she could hardly wait to leave Richmond for the cooler North. By the time she left, Walsingham assured her, the Nightingale mastermind would be in the Tower—she assumed, if he could not positively identify either of the LeClerc brothers he would simply throw them both into prison and sort it out in the aftermath—and upon her return to London Elizabeth could begin to contemplate her future without even an absent husband to consider.
Against Walsingham’s advice, Elizabeth granted a brief audience to Nicolas and Julien LeClerc the day after their arrival at court. “If one of them is bent on killing me, I should like to look him in the eye,” she snapped at her Lord Secretary, and so he stood behind her throne today, no doubt glaring balefully at the Frenchmen.
Dr. Dee and Lucette attended them, and Elizabeth greeted the doctor warmly. “I trust you have brought back many fine books for my libraries,” she teased. “I shall look forward to examining them in future.”
To Lucette, she merely nodded in acknowledgment of the girl’s curtsey. She had noted yesterday this new composure of Lucette’s—disconcertingly like her mother’s when Minuette had been keeping secrets from Elizabeth. The queen was in no doubt that Lucette’s emotions had been engaged by the brothers, though she showed no obvious signs of affection toward her supposed-intended.