Blood Between Queens by Barbara Kyle Page B

now.” His angry frown returned and she hastened to add, “Because I am so afraid his mother will tell him about me.”
    Wearily, he shook his head. “She won’t. When we took you in she gave me her solemn promise never to speak of it.”
    Ah, that explained so much! Yet, was it enough? “But now that Will has told her about us? What if she breaks her promise and hurls the truth at him? Especially if I am sent north and am not even here to defend myself?”
    “Then tell him now. Get it over with. Tell him today.”
    “He’ll hate me.”
    “Nonsense. You are an innocent in this miserable feud. He’ll understand that. And it’s clear that he loves you. Trust in that.”
    She felt a shiver. “But can I trust? Won’t he see in me his enemies, my kinsmen? Can he really forget how his father was killed and his mother left widowed? Besides, our family and his are so staunchly Protestant, and he’ll realize that as a Grenville I was born a Catholic. For all these reasons . . . oh, my lord, I have seen with my own eyes the loathing he bears my aunt.”
    “Frances? Ah, well, she is a hard woman to warm to.”
    “It’s not that. Will hates her. For her Grenville blood. My blood.”
    That gave him pause, she saw. Made him quiet. She felt a shudder, seeing how truly she had hit the mark.
    “Look,” he said, “this can’t go on. You have to be honest with Will. You cannot build a marriage on a lie.”
    Anger swelled in her, born of desperation. “Lies are what we’ve all been living with, ever since I came among you.”
    “I thought it best for you. I would have done you no favor to have people know you’re the daughter of a traitor.” He heaved a troubled sigh. “However, that may have been a mistake. Your father’s sins died with him in the flames, and maybe that wiped the slate clean for you. This damned secrecy. I never thought it would grow into such a problem.”
    She had to look away. Could not let him see that she held back a deeper lie. Her father had not perished in the fire. Where he had gone, she had no idea, but he was alive, somewhere, and she alone knew it.
    “Justine.”
    She turned back, hearing the new note in his voice. A hopeful note, as though he had discovered something. “This mission you’ve been chosen for,” he said, “to attend Mary, Queen of Scots. It could be the very thing to help you win Will over.”
    She stared at him, baffled. “How can leaving him do that?”
    “By your service to Elizabeth. Will is devoted to Her Majesty’s cause, as are all our family. Your being part of that cause will strengthen your bond with him. It will prove to him how deeply, how thoroughly, you are one of us. A Thornleigh.”
    A glimmer of light broke through her fears. “Think you so?”
    “I do. Show Will your loyalty, by your actions. Then nothing can shake him. Not even when you tell him your past.”
    She clutched at what he had just implied. “ When I tell him? You mean, not yet?”
    He seemed to realize the contradiction: A moment ago he had said she should tell Will today. “You won’t be with Mary for long. A couple of months at most, and meanwhile I’ll deal with Joan. Once you’re back home, that’s the time to tell him. You will have proved yourself. I dare say your service to Elizabeth will even boost his prospects with Sir William.”
    Justine felt a jolt of excitement. The picture he painted was so bright, so beautiful, it made tears spring to her eyes. She was part of his family, and she would prove this truth to Will! She would show herself to be such an essential member of the house of Thornleigh and be so valiant in her service to Elizabeth, nothing could shake his love, not even her Grenville blood.
    “Oh, sir!” she said through her tears, and flung her arms around his neck. “I will excel in the mission. And when I return to Will, nothing will ever come between us again!”
    He chuckled. “I do not doubt it.”
    “Pardon, your lordship.” Timothy, the