The Doublet Affair (Ursula Blanchard Mysteries) by Fiona Buckley Page B

many well-known people there. How did you come to join the court?”
    Therefore, while Redman served the chickens and we began to eat them, I talked of my past life in Antwerp, and my present post with the Queen, and how Rob Henderson and his wife were fostering my little daughter and educating her so that one day she too might come to court. Rob occasionally put in a remark. I knew I should be effacing myself and listening to the Masons’ conversation, in case it contained any of the clues I sought. I also badly wanted a closer look at those tapestries. However, even though neither Mason nor Crichton had addressed a word to me since I came to the table, these people were my hosts and sheer good manners required me to be agreeable. If I were asked to talk, I had better do so.
    The Mason children now listened attentively and caused no more disturbance. Indeed, Penelope, possibly bent on refuting Philip’s rude dismissal of female intelligence, took to asking searching questions.
    “Can ordinary people see the Queen, Mrs. Blanchard—have audiences with her, I mean, not just watch her go by in her coach? Are they allowed?”
    “Oh yes, sometimes. Not long before I came here, a quite ordinary clockmaker was granted an audience so that he could present her with a gift. I was there at the time.”
    “What was it?” George asked with interest. “A golden clock, all set with jewels?”
    “Well, it had a gilded case, but it was actually a—”
    Penelope’s manners hadn’t become perfect on theinstant, and she interrupted impatiently. “Of course it was jewelled. It must have been studded with gems! Would you dare to offer a queen anything that wasn’t?”
    “Yes,” said George. “I wouldn’t offer her a gemstudded saddle. She wouldn’t be able to sit on it!”
    “Now, now,” said Crichton, but Penelope plunged eagerly on.
    “Does the Queen live in great luxury, Mrs. Blanchard? Does she eat off gold dishes every day?”
    I looked carefully at Penelope, thinking that although she would never be a beauty, not with that bulging forehead and square jaw, her zest for life conferred its own attractiveness. I liked her. I gave her a smile.
    “The Queen lives with proper dignity,” I said. “When she holds state banquets, then there are gold dishes and napkins with gold embroidery, and yes, she often wears dresses sewn with jewels—she is particularly fond of pearls. But she is well aware of the need to curb extravagance. She has to strike a balance between impressing dignitaries and avoiding waste. In private, she wears simpler gowns and she dines from gilt dishes, not gold. She is herself abstemious in food and drink.”
    “One hears rumours,” said Crichton, addressing me at last, “of much extravagance at court—in dress and furnishings, and behaviour, too.”
    I shook my head. “The court is well conducted, and if the furnishings are fine, most of them were there before the Queen came to the throne, or have come to her in the form of gifts. She is careful with therealm’s money. She spends much less than Queen Mary did.”
    “Ah. Poor Queen Mary.” Dr. Crichton sighed. “She made many mistakes, but she was a sick and disappointed woman.”
    “She was also a very extravagant one,” I said. If there were people here who wanted to bring back the past, then let them be reminded of the truth about that past. “Queen Elizabeth makes a point of nurturing the economy. One of the first things she did when she came to the throne was to improve the coinage.” Cecil had enlarged on this subject before I left the court. “None of her gold money is less than twenty-two carat,” I said, “and her sovereigns and angels are above twenty-three.”
    Mason, interested, also at last embarked on a conversation with me. “It is true that prices aren’t rising as fast as they were. I have said it before, at this very table: a realm, like a household, must live within its means. A ruler who forgets that courts disaster,