I laid the final item on the table, and stepped back, looking critically over everything - making sure nothing was left undone. In the silence of the room, rushes crackled loudly underfoot. Inhaling the scent of lavender, I closed my eyes, deliberately treading a little more - hoping a heady intake of the perfume would relax my jittery nerves. In my mind's eye, there took shape a misty vision of gentle, rolling hills backed against scorched blue skies. Hills all purpled with the bloom of lavender.
Looking again at the mirror, I slowly fingered one of the deep marks smallpox had cratered into my skin. In the first shock, my lord husband said he'd gone abroad leaving in England a fair lady to return to one foul. But I think the eyes reflected back to me from the mirror are the same, though sadder now, and I know my mouth curves easily into the same loving smile. But still I pick up the mask from the stool - placing it carefully over my ruined nose and cheeks, leaving only my mouth and chin exposed.
Just in time. Two knocks rap sharply against wood.
"Come in, " I say, for I possess no desire for a servant to share my loneliness.
First my brother Robin enters. O - tis no wonder that his enemies call him ' The Gipsy.' He is so dark - his eyes- his hair- but still very, very handsome. But our mother did not fail her children in this - passing on some of her comeliness to all her brood. They once said my mother's beauty lived again with me. Now?yea...now all voices speak loudly in their silence.
I hear the rustle of a silken dress, and drop my body in a deep curtesy, bowing my head low. Inhaling the scent of rosewater, I feel the lightweight of a hand resting on my shoulder. I lift my gaze to the Queen. Her dark hazel eyes look down at me in great tenderness.
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