Page 26 of A Column of Fire
‘So soon!’ said Mary, then they both looked at Francis.
Mary had become engaged to Francis when she was five, just before she moved to France to live. The engagement was political, like all royal betrothals. Its purpose was to cement the alliance of France and Scotland against England.
But as the girls grew older they had come to doubt that the marriage would ever happen. Relations among the three kingdoms shifted constantly. Power brokers in London, Edinburgh and Paris talked frequently about alternative husbands for Mary Stuart. Nothing had seemed certain, until now.
Francis looked anguished. ‘I love you,’ he said to Mary. ‘I want to marry you – when I’m a man.’
Mary reached out to take his hand sympathetically, but he was overcome. He burst into tears and scrambled to his feet.
Alison said: ‘Francis—’
He shook his head helplessly, then ran from the room.
‘Oh, dear,’ said Mary. ‘Poor Francis.’
Alison closed the door. Now the two girls were alone and in private. Alison gave Mary her hand and pulled her up from the floor. Still holding hands, they sat together on a sofa covered in rich chestnut-brown velvet. They were quiet for a minute, then Alison said: ‘How do you feel?’
‘All my life they’ve been telling me I’m a queen,’ Mary said. ‘I never was, really. I became queen of the Scots when I was six days old, and people have never stopped treating me like a baby. But if I marry Francis, and he becomes king, then I will be queen of France – the real thing.’ Her eyes glittered with desire. ‘That’s what I want.’
‘But Francis . . .’
‘I know. He’s sweet, and I love him, but to lie down in a bed with him, and, you know . . .’
Alison nodded vigorously. ‘It hardly bears thinking about.’
‘Perhaps Francis and I could get married and just pretend.’
Alison shook her head. ‘Then the marriage might be annulled.’
‘And I would no longer be queen.’
‘Exactly.’
Mary said: ‘Why now? What brought this on?’
Alison had been told by Queen Caterina, the most well-informed person in France. ‘Scarface suggested it to the king.’ The duke of Guise was Mary’s uncle, her mother’s brother. The family was riding high after his victory at Calais.
‘Why does Uncle Scarface care?’
‘Think how the prestige of the Guise family would be boosted if one of them became Queen of France.’
‘Scarface is a soldier.’
‘Yes. This was surely someone else’s idea.’
‘But Francis . . .’
‘It all comes back to little Francis, doesn’t it?’
‘He’ssolittle,’ Mary said. ‘And so ill. Is he even capable of doing what a man is supposed to do with his wife?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Alison. ‘But you’re going to find out on the Sunday after Easter.’
3
Margery and her parents were still deadlocked when January turned into February. Sir Reginald and Lady Jane were determined that Margery should marry Bart, and she had declared that she would never utter the vows.
Rollo was angry with her. She had a chance to take the family into the Catholic nobility, and instead she wanted to ally with the Protestant-leaning Willards. How could she contemplate such a betrayal – especially under a queen who favoured Catholics in every way?
