The Three Crowns: The Story of William a - By Jean Plaidy Page 0,30

married for love. Those early struggles against his family and Anne’s—how well worthwhile they had been.

If I married again, he told himself, it would be for love.

He did not at first recognize the charms of Susanna Armine, Lady Bellasis. She was neither very young nor very handsome. But one day something in her manner reminded him of his dead wife and the more he saw of her the more pronounced this likeness seemed to become and he began to picture her seated at a fireside with children around her.

From that moment he started to fall in love and his resolutions not to marry again were swept away.

He courted Susanna. At first the Court paid little heed, except to murmur that James had chosen a hard task because Susanna was known to be the most virtuous matron at Court. Charles looked on cynically. How like James, he thought; he would always make difficulties for himself. And why did he always select the least beautiful women!

Susanna appeared at first to regard the Duke of York merely as a friend and because of the nature of his attachment James was content for a while that this should be so. He would talk to her of the loss he had sustained and she confided in him her own troubles.

Her marriage had not been a happy one on account of her late husband’s fondness for drink.

James condoled with her. “I, who was extremely happy in my marriage, can perhaps sympathize more deeply with those who had to make do with so much less.”

“I thought I should never live through the disgrace,” sighed Susanna, “when they came home and told me he was dead. Killed in a duel—in itself a criminal act. He had taken too much to drink and … his opponent killed him.”

James put his hand over hers. There were tears in his eyes.

“How you must have suffered!”

“Moreover my husband was a Catholic; and my son is being brought up in the same religion.”

James was ardently enthusiastic. He did not think she should regard that with any misgivings; he would talk to her of his opinions which, she would understand, in view of his position must be kept as secret as possible. “But I feel none the less seriously for that,” he assured her.

She was a member of the Church of England, she told him, and nothing would change her, because she was convinced there was one true faith and that was the one she would always follow.

James was determined to convert her; she was determined to convert him; but far from making a rift between them, this drew them more closely together. She was his dear theologian, he told her; not even the Archbishops could put up such a case for the Church of England as she did, but he was going to demolish her arguments … one by one.

In this he failed and he was almost glad to fail, for it seemed to him that never had he heard such brilliant discourse. He pictured hours at the domestic hearth when they would talk to each other of their feelings for religion and perhaps between them, come closer to the truth than any had ever come before, because he had to admit he was moved by her arguments. She was brilliant; she was sound; she was even beginning to shake his absolute faith.

And that, he told himself, is what I need. Before I become a Catholic, I must be sure that I am entirely one. There are too many risks to be run for me to take this lightly. What a joy therefore to discuss with Susanna. He called her his confessor, his guide and comfort.

This idyllic state of affairs could not go on.

One day Susanna said to him: “I have heard rumors which distress me. Your Grace’s visits to me have been noted and I believe that we have become the subject of one of the Court lampoons. Doubtless my Lord Rochester is behind this for it is what one would expect of him.”

James could not bear to see her distressed. “I will find out who did this and have him punished.”

Susanna shook her head. “That will not stop the rumors. More likely will it strengthen them. Nay, you must not come here so frequently; and when you do come we must not be alone.”

James was aghast. Not see Susanna! Not talk of what he called “their secret matter”! He could not endure such a state of affairs. But he agreed that