Page 5 of Breath From the Sea
“You are much like Grace O’Malley, child.”
Antónia bristled. She wasn’t a child. She was a captain of a very profitable pirate ship. An unmarried spinster if she were to be at this court. Though she was no maid.
“I…” Antónia took a deep breath. “Your Majesty, I have brought you a gift from my grandmother and from my uncle, Lord Tibbot Mayo, and their well wishes for your birthday.”
“Let us see what you have brought.” The queen held out her hand.
Antónia made a move to place the velvet pouch in her palm, but Cecil intervened, plucking it from her palm and handing it to the queen himself.
It was on the tip of Antónia’s tongue to ask if he was going to examine the contents, but she kept her words to herself, not wanting to be thrown out of the privy chamber to the great disappointment of her grandmother.
The queen opened the pouch and let out a laugh that startled the room. In her palm was the tiny golden ship pin, its sails made of emeralds, its masts of rubies and sapphires along the bottom in the shape of waves.
“Beautiful,” she said.
Antónia nodded. “My grandmother will be pleased you like her gift, Majesty. She had it made especially for you.”
“We but wonder how a poor and wretched woman could have afforded it.”
Antónia had also been practicing her reply to this question, for she knew it would be coming. “She scrimped and saved for many years, Majesty. But she also found a few Spanish coins parted from their owner.”
Her words were meant to be a coded message, for the Spaniards that had docked at Kinsale had arrived to help the Irish fight the English. To have them part with coin showed that her uncle, the viscount, was on the English’s side.
A joke, if Antónia had ever heard one, for he’d personally appointed her father to fight the bastards. Oh, politics. Give her the sea!
“Her gift and your uncle’s loyalty are well received.” The queen locked her eyes on Antónia, studying her from head to toe, perhaps wondering if Antónia followed in Granuaille’s footsteps.
Antónia bowed low again, but as she did so, her eyes caught on another gift set on a table beside the queen. There were many things there; baubles, plate and fabrics, but this one in particular caught her fancy.
“That ring,” Antónia said. “I’ve seen it before.”
“Have you?” The queen raised a brow, no doubt wondering if it had been on a pirating expedition she’d spied it.
“Aye.” Well, not truly. She’d seen a painting of it. “The Lucius Ring.”
There was much lore surrounding the ancient Roman ring, rumored to have a ruby the size of a quail’s egg. Well, it was not quite so big as that, she could see. But it was beautiful. The ring was supposed to bring good luck to anyone upon the sea. But she’d also heard the lore. The ring could tell if you held love in your heart, or a profound ache. She wanted it. Antónia needed it. For every lover she’d taken had left her heartbroken and she could no longer put her heart on the line. She needed luck. She needed the ring to tell her when she’d found the one true love to sail the seas with.
“So you’ve heard of it. ’Tis cursed.” The queen frowned. “Given to us by one of our barons just now, though he swears not to know the history behind it. Do you?”
Antónia kept her face neutral and shook her head. “Nay, Your Majesty, I do not.” Lying to the queen was a lot easier than lying to her grandmother. Though pirates, submerged in a world of falsehoods and games, often could tell a lie from someone’s lips quicker than anyone else.
“Pity,” Queen Elizabeth said and then waved Antónia from the room, perhaps afraid she was going to steal away the precious relic.
Antónia bowed once more, though this time she did not go all the way to the floor. Upon rising, she backed up three steps then whirled on her heel, happy to leave this room on one hand and irritated on the other. How was she going to get a hold of that ring?
“Lord Graves,” the queen called behind her. “I want you to deliver this wretched thing to the French. Place it in the hand of the Medici Queen. Let the curse be upon their house. ’Tis loathsome enough.”
Antónia spied the queen plucking up the ring and handing it a tall courtier, his back to her. She still recognized the line of his stance and was surprised she’d not seen him in the room. He must have hidden in the shadows.
Lord Graves was the captain who’d arrested her men.
Alas, before she could see his face, Antónia was through the doors, fairly pushed by the footmen who could not wait for her and her gallowglass warrior to depart court, London and England altogether.
Well, these English sots might want her to leave now, but she’d not be too far… Antónia had a new adventure—a ring to steal—and an English ship to cut off on its way to France.
Lord Graves, I will see you to your grave, indeed.
