My Lady Jane(108)

Gifford turned to look at Jane. “You should come with us.”

Jane froze. Go with them? To plan? To strategize?

Edward stared at Gifford. “We’ll be planning a battle, G. The men, I mean. Well, and Bess, of course.”

“Which is exactly why Jane should join us,” Gifford said. “She’s excellent at planning.”

Jane looked back and forth between them.

“All right,” she said. “Let’s go. I have lots of ideas.”

The three of them walked to the tent where the leaders of their assembled forces—Archer, Bess, the commanders of the French and Scottish armies—were standing around a table that bore a map of London. Gifford spent a few minutes pointing out different places of interest—what might be a useful hill and where they might focus their attempts to enter the city.

“That’s the plan?” Jane asked after a few minutes of listening to Edward and Archer bicker over the best place to attack the city wall. “To besiege London?”

Edward shrugged. “We have to take London somehow.”

“London has never crumbled under siege, not in all of recorded history,” Jane pointed out.

“But it’s not as though Mary will meet us on the battlefield.” Edward coughed lightly. “She won’t send out her army when she doesn’t think she needs to. The rules of engagement mean nothing to her.”

Jane had a sudden idea.

“Then the rules of engagement must mean nothing to us,” she announced. All the men in the room frowned. “London cannot be taken. And it doesn’t need to be taken.”

Mary hadn’t needed an army to take London. Yes, she’d had one, but they’d just sat around the wall being scary while Mary intimidated the Privy Council into submission and seized the throne.

“What do you propose, Jane?” Bess gave her an encouraging smile.

“We take Mary.”

“Take her where?” asked the French commander.

“Take her how is probably the better question,” G said.

“Take Mary. Yes, that’s clever,” Bess said, ignoring G’s concern. “All Edward needs to do is show up to confront Mary. When everyone sees that the rightful King of England is alive, they won’t be able to deny his claim to the throne. But it must be in the proper place, where there can be no question about his identity. And we must not give Mary any time to prepare.”

“Mary will be holed up in the Tower of London, won’t she?” G asked. “In the royal apartments at the top of the White Tower?”

Jane slammed her palm on the table. “Then we break into the Tower.”

“The Tower that . . . also hasn’t been breached, ever?” Edward eyed Jane.

“Right, but we have advantages others haven’t.” Jane counted on her fingers. “One: an intimate knowledge of the layout and inner workings of the Tower of London. Two: a kestrel.”

Everyone looked at Edward. (Even the French commander, though he wasn’t sure why everyone was looking at Edward. In spite of all the hints, he hadn’t figured it out yet.)

“I can’t go in there alone,” Edward protested.

“I’d volunteer,” boasted Archer. “But I can’t fly over the walls.”

(Here, the French commander’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. France was still a country run by Verities, after all.)

Edward glared at Archer. “The problem isn’t the walls. It’s that I’d be naked. And unarmed. I’d have to land and change on the Tower Green, conveniently in the very same place Mary executes people like me, and I’d rather not make it that easy for her.”

(Everyone definitely knew what they were talking about now.)

“It’s fine with me if you want to send the bird in.” Archer smirked at Edward. “But we have these armies, you see. Are they for nothing?”

The Scottish and French commanders looked at each other in a moment of mutual solidarity.

“The armies are useful.” Jane wished the others would all just hurry up and understand. “They will be a diversion. Imagine her panic when Mary looks out and sees several thousand soldiers assembled outside the city. Here.” She touched a spot on the map. “On the opposite side of London from the Tower.” She leaned forward over the table eagerly. “Mary doesn’t even know you’re alive, Edward. As far as she’s aware, I’m the one preparing to attack London. And we’ll let her continue thinking that.”

“Which doesn’t change the problem of a naked bird king standing on the Tower Green,” Archer said. “Do you have a plan to keep him from getting killed before he surprises Mary?”

“Yes.” Jane grinned. “I do.”

Edward had been planning to attack the city at dawn, but with Jane’s new and improved plan, they were going to hold off until night fell, so that it’d be easier to sneak into the Tower unseen. Which would give them the entire day to prepare.

“I’m going to practice,” Jane announced when she and Gifford returned to their tent together to get some much-needed sleep. She hung a cloak from one of the tent poles to act as a curtain, then took off her clothes. Light flared as she changed from girl to ferret to girl again. It was surprising how easy she found the change now that she knew she could do it. Now that she knew what she truly wanted.