James’s thighs.
Frances felt as if the air had been knocked out of her lungs. She stood stock still, struggling to breathe. The King gave another moan and the man raised his head to smile at him, exposing the shock of his arousal, before lowering his mouth once more.
As if suddenly released from an enchantment, Frances backed hurriedly out of the room, willing her feet to make no sound on the dusty floorboards. Back on the landing, her heart was pounding so hard in her chest that she feared it could be heard. But, after a long moment, the King cried out. As she padded quickly down the stairs, the sound of the other man’s silken laughter echoed around the walls.
George Villiers.
CHAPTER 4
21 August
‘Ha!’ James exclaimed, as the dice clattered to a halt. ‘I have it again. Surrender your fortune, Somerset.’
Frances peered over Lady Grace’s shoulder and saw Somerset give a resigned grin, pushing the remainder of his coins towards the King. His mouth dropped as Villiers stepped forward and refilled his master’s glass. The young man paused for just a moment too long after performing this task, the flagon suspended in his slender fingers. Frances saw James’s eyes rest upon them and he inhaled deeply, as if trying to catch his lover’s scent. She knew that her husband had seen it too. He had been shocked, but not surprised, when she had told him what she had witnessed in the hunting lodge a few days before. ‘We must keep our counsel,’ he had urged.
Frances knew he was right. The secret would be out soon enough anyway. The King was doing little to disguise his growing infatuation.
‘That will be all, Villiers.’
Somerset’s voice, sharp as flint, sliced through the heavy silence. Still his rival did not move. Only when the King gave a reluctant nod did he bow and step back into the shadows.
‘Come, Thomas,’ James said. ‘It is just you and I now.’
Frances took a sip of claret and forced her attention back to her companion. ‘You will be glad to have your house to yourselves again,’ she said quietly. ‘My husband tells me that the King plans to depart for Nottingham before the week is out.’
Lady Grace smiled. ‘We are greatly honoured by his visits, of course.’ She continued in a low voice: ‘Though they do place a burden on our estate – and those of our neighbours. Sir Anthony has been obliged to offer recompense for the damage wreaked upon their crops by His Grace’s incessant hunting.’
Frances shot a quick look in the King’s direction, but he was too intent upon his game to heed their conversation. She knew it was the same wherever James stayed – Thomas had often spoken of it. He had tried to persuade his master to lay out his own funds as a means of securing goodwill, but to no avail. This king had ever been careless of his subjects’ welfare, she reflected.
‘I would be glad if the Queen would accompany her husband sometimes,’ the older woman went on, ‘but it seems she prefers to remain in London.’
It was true. For most of the years that Frances had served at court, Anne had lived in a separate household at Greenwich. She had claimed the air was more beneficial to her health than that of Whitehall or St James’s, but her recent move to Denmark House on the Strand exposed this as a lie. It was hardly a secret that she could not bear her husband’s company – or he hers.
‘The King was ever best when furthest from the Queen,’ she whispered.
‘You have the luck of the devil, Thomas!’
Both women turned to the King, who was staring in mock-horror at Frances’s husband.
‘If you did not keep my hounds in such good order, I would have you whipped,’ he added, with a grin, as he handed Thomas a large pile of coins.
‘Another game, Your Grace?’
‘And let you further deplete my treasury? No, Tom, we will have no more sport this evening. Besides,’ he added, casting a glance over his shoulder, ‘I am tired after the day’s hunting so will seek my bed.’
The other men around the table rose as the King prepared to depart. Somerset was at his side, as if fearful that Villiers would forget his position and offer to accompany their master. As he reached the door, James turned and addressed Thomas again. ‘I have a mind to visit my hounds tomorrow morning, before we set out for the hunt. Bring some of the