full meaning. “Listen to me, Robin,” she said, gripping his hands hard. “Hodge Thatcher was struck on the back of the head, then trussed like a peacock and hoisted up to hang by a noose. I believe he did not take his own life but it was taken from him. And since he was arrayed as a peacock, Cecil and I have construed the message may have been a blow at you.”
“Aha.” He went ashen, no doubt not realizing how hard he pressed her hands. “Could Sussex have hired someone?” he asked suddenly. “And, forgive me, my queen, but Margaret Stewart and Darnley both detest me, as no doubt Mary of Scots does from afar. I am not exactly the best-loved man in the palace. I was settling into the Lord of Misrule role, hoping some would come to see me in a more lighthearted way—to think better of me.”
She tugged her hands free and stood; he jumped to his feet beside her.
“We could be reading too much in, of course,” she said, “but I wanted you to know and guard yourself well.”
“Yet I suppose,” he said, wringing his hands most unlike him-self, “you could be reading not enough in. If I were you, I’d have a care, too, for the murder was of one called ’the queen’s dresser,’ the man who decorated everything you ate. Christmas delights or not, best have someone watch and taste your food. And since the word dresser has a double meaning and Rosie Radcliffe sometimes helps you don your garments, tell her—unfortunately, Sussex’s fond kin—”
“I’ll not have Rosie disparaged, I don’t care who her kin are. I trust her with my li—”
“That’s exactly what you are doing. I beg you to at least have her and someone else search your gowns for venomous barbs or some such. Someone as devious as you describe could have all sorts of harm in mind. And I wouldn’t put it past Vicar Bane to try to prove God’s wrath on us, either.”
“I’ve long known he bore watching, but your points are well taken. We must all be wary, but we shall not be frightened out of a happy Christmas!”
Just as the early winter’s darkness fell outside on Christmas Day, they held the mystery play in place of the more raucous mummers’ one with all its maskings and elaborate costumes. “Mysteries and moralities,” the common folk called these simple dramas, which were once trundled about the countryside on carts or per-formed by trade guilds in the cities. The playlets seemed quite staid and old-fashioned now, but Elizabeth knew Kat recalled such with fondness. And the biblical message might serve to calm Bane and any other Puritan elements about the court, even though the plays had been popular under the Papists of England.
As these were traditional scripts with but a few variables in speech, costume, or staging, many people, at least those who had reached the lofty age of forty, knew the plots and words by rote. Though the queen had seen these done only in her sister’s days on the throne, she too knew what was coming.
With Ned cast in the main role as the evil King Herod, the players presented the drama in which the three wise men went to the king’s palace to ask for directions to the place where the Savior was born. King Herod, however, was a deceitful liar who wished to kill the newborn babe. So the angel of God appeared to the wise men in a dream and told them to avoid Herod on their way home. The result was that Herod gave orders for many children to be slain, though that was only told in speech, thank God, and never reenacted.
“Did they have to do a play where the ruler turns out to be a killer?” Elizabeth groused quietly to Cecil as he suddenly appeared beside her at the forefront of the standing audience. “I favor that new blond actor, and he’s rightly cast as an angel, at least,” she said with a little grin. “But I think Ned needs a dressing-down for playing the monarch that way. Forgive me, my lord, but, Christmas or not, everything seems a conspiracy to ruin my holidays.”
They walked
“Aha.” He went ashen, no doubt not realizing how hard he pressed her hands. “Could Sussex have hired someone?” he asked suddenly. “And, forgive me, my queen, but Margaret Stewart and Darnley both detest me, as no doubt Mary of Scots does from afar. I am not exactly the best-loved man in the palace. I was settling into the Lord of Misrule role, hoping some would come to see me in a more lighthearted way—to think better of me.”
She tugged her hands free and stood; he jumped to his feet beside her.
“We could be reading too much in, of course,” she said, “but I wanted you to know and guard yourself well.”
“Yet I suppose,” he said, wringing his hands most unlike him-self, “you could be reading not enough in. If I were you, I’d have a care, too, for the murder was of one called ’the queen’s dresser,’ the man who decorated everything you ate. Christmas delights or not, best have someone watch and taste your food. And since the word dresser has a double meaning and Rosie Radcliffe sometimes helps you don your garments, tell her—unfortunately, Sussex’s fond kin—”
“I’ll not have Rosie disparaged, I don’t care who her kin are. I trust her with my li—”
“That’s exactly what you are doing. I beg you to at least have her and someone else search your gowns for venomous barbs or some such. Someone as devious as you describe could have all sorts of harm in mind. And I wouldn’t put it past Vicar Bane to try to prove God’s wrath on us, either.”
“I’ve long known he bore watching, but your points are well taken. We must all be wary, but we shall not be frightened out of a happy Christmas!”
Just as the early winter’s darkness fell outside on Christmas Day, they held the mystery play in place of the more raucous mummers’ one with all its maskings and elaborate costumes. “Mysteries and moralities,” the common folk called these simple dramas, which were once trundled about the countryside on carts or per-formed by trade guilds in the cities. The playlets seemed quite staid and old-fashioned now, but Elizabeth knew Kat recalled such with fondness. And the biblical message might serve to calm Bane and any other Puritan elements about the court, even though the plays had been popular under the Papists of England.
As these were traditional scripts with but a few variables in speech, costume, or staging, many people, at least those who had reached the lofty age of forty, knew the plots and words by rote. Though the queen had seen these done only in her sister’s days on the throne, she too knew what was coming.
With Ned cast in the main role as the evil King Herod, the players presented the drama in which the three wise men went to the king’s palace to ask for directions to the place where the Savior was born. King Herod, however, was a deceitful liar who wished to kill the newborn babe. So the angel of God appeared to the wise men in a dream and told them to avoid Herod on their way home. The result was that Herod gave orders for many children to be slain, though that was only told in speech, thank God, and never reenacted.
“Did they have to do a play where the ruler turns out to be a killer?” Elizabeth groused quietly to Cecil as he suddenly appeared beside her at the forefront of the standing audience. “I favor that new blond actor, and he’s rightly cast as an angel, at least,” she said with a little grin. “But I think Ned needs a dressing-down for playing the monarch that way. Forgive me, my lord, but, Christmas or not, everything seems a conspiracy to ruin my holidays.”
They walked
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