Murder in the Queen's Garden (An Elizabethan Mystery) - Softcover

Carmack, Amanda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451415132 ISBN 13: 9780451415134

Publisher: Berkley, 2015

Synopsis

The author of Murder at Westminster Abbey and Murder at Hatfield House is back with an absorbing and surprising new Elizabethan Mystery...

1559. Elizabeth has been on the throne for six months, and life in England seems newly golden. But for the Royal Court, murder and betrayal are foretold in the stars....

Kate Haywood, the young queen’s personal musician, has been keeping busy playing for a merry round of summer parties where famed astrologer Dr. John Dee and his fantastic horoscopes are all the rage. However, Elizabeth’s favorite stargazer fails to predict the discovery of a skeleton in the queen’s garden—and that the victim’s identity will call his own innocence into question.

When the doctor’s pupil is the victim of a second murder, the concerned queen enlists her trusted Kate to clear the accused killer of wrongdoing. But will the stars align to light Kate’s path through a tangled thicket of treachery to save Elizabeth’s prized astrologer and protect the queen from those who threaten her reign?

About this title

About the Author

Amanda Carmack is the author of the Elizabethan Mystery novels including Murder at Westminster Abbey and Murder at Hatfield House. Amanda Carmack is a pseudonym for a multipublished author. Her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Oklahoma.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

ALSO BY AMANDA CARMACK

OBSIDIAN

PROLOGUE

Nonsuch Palace, 1541

Amelia was right. He would very much regret doing this.

As Dr. Timothy Macey, astrologer to King Henry’s royal court, hurried through the night-dark gardens of the king’s pleasure palace at Nonsuch, his mistress’s words rang in his head.

’Tis not fitting for people like us to be amid the schemes of people like that, Amelia had cried when she learned what his new business was. It’s not safe, and it won’t end well—mark my words. Look what happened to poor Queen Anne!

Then she had sobbed, snatched their bewildered little son up in her arms, and dashed into the cottage, slamming the door behind her.

He had cursed her folly, shouted at her that she knew not what she spoke of and that she could rot in there all alone.

She had never had a problem spending the extra coin he earned now; that was for certain.

But he worried now there was some truth to her fearful words. The doings of kings, especially this king, with the blood of so many on his bejeweled hands, should be none of his business. He had seen what happened to those who displeased King Henry Tudor, had seen their heads on pikes. Yet his vast knowledge, hard-won from so many forbidden books, so many long nights over a scrying stone, had made him arrogant. He had thought he was different.

Only when he read what was written in the stars had he truly seen how far he had come along a dark road.

He paused at the entrance to the garden maze and peered back at the palace, sleeping with a deceptive air of peace in the darkness. It was King Henry’s pride, his great pleasure palace, meant to outshine any French château or Italian villa with its magnificence. Indeed it was surprisingly beautiful, with its carved towers and pale sculptured friezes, yet it was not finished. Despite the fact that Henry had begun to build it years ago, to celebrate the birth of his precious son, Prince Edward, whole wings around the courtyards were still left hollow, decorations half-painted.

Yet Henry had insisted on showing the house’s magnificence, bringing his court here with his new queen, the young Catherine Howard—half his age, golden haired, merry, laughing, dancing. Always dancing. The king’s “rose without a thorn.”

Dr. Macey cursed now to think of her. She had seemed to make his fortunes only a few days ago, when King Henry commissioned him to draw up the queen’s horoscope. No doubt the fat, sickly, stinking Henry was sure the stars would foretell the handsome sons she would give him, the love for him she had in her youthful heart.

But that was not what was in the future at all. Macey’s hands still trembled on the scroll he clutched, the terrible chart that told the truth of Queen Catherine and her young heart. The blood that would soon taint her white skin and stain the souls of so many around her.

Nay, he could never tell the king the truth, or anyone else! He was a mere messenger, but the royal rage, so swift and lethal, would surely fall directly on him. Not to mention what would happen if the queen’s lover knew the truth. It had to be concealed, and now, before Macey was caught.

He looked down at the parchment crumpled in his hands, and the pale moonlight caught on his rings. His night stone, whose power he had treasured ever since his old teacher had gifted it to him so many years ago, and the fine emerald set in wrought gold, a gift from King Henry that had once seemed such a treasure, both glinted in the light.

Now the emerald was a chain, dragging him down to the waiting demons of hell.

He heard Amelia’s sobs again, saw her fear-filled eyes. He had scoffed at her, but she was right in the end. His powers should never have been put to the service of a madman like King Henry and a strumpet like Queen Catherine.

Worse, he had given in to the basest temptation and taken coin from the queen’s lover—a man who was young and hot-tempered and who had killed before without thought or care—and played him off the king. That was what haunted him now, what chased him in the night.

They would find out what he had done in those papers, for the stars never lied, if they had not already, and they would take their revenge.

Macey spun around and hurried into the dark safety of the maze. The thick, thorny hedge walls rose around him, blotting out the sight of that cursed house, and only moonlight guided his steps.

He knew Queen Catherine used the center of the maze for her secret trysts. Where better to hide her secrets, and his own?

He had sent a copy of the chart to his best student, young John Dee, at Cambridge, instructing him not to read it unless it became necessary. John had the wisdom and discretion of men three times his age. He would know what to do with this knowledge, if need be. This copy, Macey would destroy now, before the king or the others could find him. He would have to draw up a false horoscope for Queen Catherine.

Suddenly, there was a shout behind him, from beyond the entrance to the maze. Booted footsteps pounded on the ground, and he heard someone call his name.

He knew that voice. It was Thomas Culpeper, the queen’s young ruffian of a lover. He and his friends Lord Marchand, who had hated Macey since their own days at Cambridge, and Master Dereham, the queen’s secretary, had already paid Macey for his secret knowledge of alchemy. And now he knew he truly was betrayed. They would try to destroy the horoscope and silence him.

But they still did not know the secrets the stars had told him. If he survived this night, he would make certain they never did.

He ran faster through the twists and turns of the maze, as the racing footsteps of his pursuers grew louder behind him. If he could only reach the safety of the next turn.

Yet it was too far away. He couldn’t breathe; his chest felt tight; his legs burned. He tumbled into the maze’s center just as a rough fist snatched a handful of his robe and shoved him to his knees. Pain jolted up his legs as he landed in the mud. The emerald fell from his finger and the paper was snatched away from his hand.

“Bastard!” Thomas Culpeper cursed. “You will get us all killed. Where is the horoscope? I know you have it; the maidservant who saw you told me.”

“May God forgive me,” Macey whispered. He had not considered the servants. He thought of Amelia, of their little Timothy’s face. And he feared it was much too late for anything at all.

CHAPTER ONE

August 1559

“Make way, you varlets! Make way for the queen!”

The guards in Queen Elizabeth’s green-and-white livery galloped along the dusty, rutted lane, pushing back the eager crowds who gathered to watch the queen ride by. They had left the nearest village behind, with its rows of cottages and shops, its stone gaol, but the crowds were still thick.

Along the road, the royal procession seemed to stretch for miles. Hundreds of people rode with Queen Elizabeth on her summer progress, an endless stream of horses, wagons, and coaches. Baggage carts were piled high with chests and furniture, maidservants and pages clinging to them precariously as they bounced along. The courtiers on their fine horses were a many-faceted jewel of bright velvets and feathers, a brilliant burst of color emerging from the brown dust of the hard, rutted summer pathways.

None were more glorious than the queen herself. She rode in her finest coach, a gift from one of her suitors, the Prince of Sweden. It was an elaborate conveyance painted deep crimson and trimmed with gilt paint, lined with green satin cushions. Six white horses drew it along, green ribbons braided in their manes and tails fluttering in the wind. Queen Elizabeth, resplendent in white-and-silver brocade, her red-gold hair piled atop her head and twined with pearls, waved her gloved hand at the crowds who clamored to see her.

“God save our queen!” they shouted, falling over one another, tears shining on their faces. Parents held their children up on their shoulders to glimpse a real queen.

“And God bless all of you, my good people!” Elizabeth called back.

Sir Robert Dudley rode beside her on his grand, prancing black horse, almost like a part of the powerful beast himself in his black-and-gold doublet. A plumed black hat trimmed with pearls and rubies sat on his curling dark hair. He laughed as he caught some of the bouquets tossed to the queen, and he leaned into the carriage to drop them in her lap. Elizabeth smiled up at him radiantly, the very image of a summer queen, full of heat and light and pure, giddy happiness.

Kate Haywood could barely glimpse the queen’s coach from her own wagon farther down the lane, but even she could see the sunburst of the queen’s smile. It had been thus all summer, from Greenwich to Eltham, a procession of dances, banquets, and fireworks over gardens in full, fragrant bloom. After so many years of danger and fear, it seemed summer had truly returned to England at last, and everyone was determined to enjoy it to the hilt. Especially the queen.

Kate looked down at her lute, carefully packed into its case and propped at her feet. She let the stewards load her clothes chest, filled with her new fine gowns and ruffs, into the baggage carts, but never this, her most prized possession. It had once belonged to her mother, who died at her birth, and she had grown up learning to play her music on it. It was her most trusted companion, and now that she was a full member of the queen’s musical consort, it earned her own bread as well. It had seen much activity in the last few weeks, playing deep into the night as Queen Elizabeth danced on and on—mostly with Robert Dudley.

Kate flexed her fingers in her new kid gloves. They, too, had seen much work lately, and she couldn’t afford for them to grow stiff. Once they reached Nonsuch Palace, there would be much dancing again. It was said that Lord Arundel, the palace’s owner, was much set on wooing the queen and had planned many elaborate pageants to advance his suit.

For a moment, Kate thought of her father, content in retirement at his new cottage near Windsor. She received letters from him on this progress, full of his news as he finally had time to work on the grand Christmas service cycle he had longed to finish. He also had words to say about a kindly widow who lived nearby and who brought him fresh milk and new-baked bread. He seemed happy, but Kate often missed him a great deal. They had been each other’s only family for so long.

And yet—he had kept her mother’s secret from Kate all her life. And she hadn’t yet been able to bring herself to confront him about that. She didn’t know if she ever could. It made her feel so very lonely.

Kate leaned farther out of the wagon into the choking clouds of dust to study the coach in front of her. Catherine Carey—Lady Knollys—the daughter of the queen’s aunt Mary Boleyn, rode there with her beautiful daughter, Lettice, the fine new conveyance a sign of their high favor with the queen. Beside them, talking to the ladies through the open window, was Lady Knollys’s brother, Lord Hunsdon.

He threw back his head and laughed, his red beard glinting in the sunlight, and his sister peeked out the window to laugh with him. She caught her plumed hat just before the wind would have snatched it from her dark hair.

Whenever Kate saw Lady Knollys, she wondered if her own mother had looked something like her, with her delicate face and shining black hair—Boleyn hair, they called it. Kate’s own mother, Eleanor, was the illegitimate half sister of Anne and Mary Boleyn, a fact Kate had discovered in a most shocking way only a few months before.

Not that the Careys, or anyone else, ever spoke of that fact or acknowledged it. Though sometimes Kate thought she saw Lord Hunsdon looking at her. . . .

The convoy suddenly lurched to a halt, startling Kate from her brooding thoughts. She clutched at the wooden side of the wagon to keep from tumbling to the floor.

“Are we stopping again?” cried Lady Anne Godwin, who sat across from Kate. “We shall never get to Nonsuch at this pace! I vow we could walk faster.”

Mistress Violet Roland, from her perch on the bench next to Kate, smiled and said, “Of course Queen Elizabeth will wish to stop and talk to the people whenever she can. Most of them will never see such a sight again.”

Kate smiled at her. She had come to like Violet very much on their travels, for they often found themselves in the same conveyances and sharing lodgings in the palaces and manors of the summer progress. She was one of the queen’s newest maids of honor, small and pretty, with blond curls and a quick smile. She enjoyed music and could help while away dull hours on the road talking of the newest songs from Italy and Spain. She was also a fine source of gossip about the court, conveyed in quick whispers and giggles. Who was in love with whom, who was seen speaking to whom.

Information that seemed most frivolous but could prove deadly useful—as Kate often discovered lately.

Violet seemed especially excited today, for her brother served as a secretary to Lord Arundel, and she would get to see him at Nonsuch.

“And it is such a lovely, warm day,” Violet said. “Who can grumble about being out in the sunshine?”

“I can,” Lady Anne muttered, readjusting her silk skirts around her. Unlike Violet, she was not often very merry. “My backside is aching from this infernal, jolting wagon. And your nose will grumble, too, Violet, when you get hideous freckles.”

Violet just laughed and leaned out to see what was happening. Kate peeked over her shoulder to see that the queen had halted her carriage to call forth a man with a little girl in his arms. The child shyly held out a bouquet to Queen Elizabeth, who accepted it under Dudley’s protective watch.

Kate felt a pang of strange wistfulness as she watched the tenderness Sir Robert always showed the queen, the affection that was always so obvious between them. It had been many weeks since she had seen her friend Anthony Elias, who worked to become an attorney in London. Yet she thought far too often of his smile, his beautiful green eyes. The safety she had found in his arms when she nearly died on the frozen Thames. If he ever looked at her as Sir Robert looked at the queen . . .

But Anthony would not. And she had her own work to do. She had to cease to think about him.

She sat back on the narrow wooden bench and made sure her lute was safe still. Music was all she ever knew for certain.

Violet turned and gave her another smile. “Have you had your horoscope done by Dr. Dee yet, Kate?”

Kate shook her head. “I have not yet had the time,” she said. She had seen Dr. John Dee’s bearded, black-robed figure hurrying around the court, his apprentice, the pasty young Master Constable, dashing after him with his arms full of mysterious scrolls and books. Having one’s horoscope cast was considered essential by many people at court in recent days. Dr. Dee had forecast the queen’s coronation date, as well as where she should visit on this progress. Queen Elizabeth relied on his wisdom...

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0451415132
• ISBN 13: 9780451415134
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 304