He left a pause to see how I would respond. If I have learned one thing in these past years, it is how to conceal every shift of emotion behind a face as neutral as a Greek mask when it matters. I merely allowed my eyes to widen in a question.
‘It seems the old ambassador was not the only one who appeared over-familiar with English court circles. Your friendship with Sir Philip Sidney did not go unremarked, for instance. I heard you were sometimes his guest at the house of his father-in-law, Sir Francis Walsingham. Who is called Elizabeth’s spymaster, as I’m sure you’re aware.’
‘Sir Philip and I talked only of poetry, Majesty. I barely knew Sir Francis.’
‘Don’t play me for a fool, Bruno.’ He gripped my arm and his face loomed suddenly an inch from mine, his tone no longer flippant. ‘I’m talking about secret letters between the Duke of Guise and Mary Stuart, and the English Catholics here who support her claim to the throne, sent using our embassy as a conduit. Elizabeth wrote to me. She said those letters were evidence of advanced plans for an invasion of England by Guise’s troops, backed by Spanish money, to free Mary Stuart from gaol and give her the English throne. Whoever intercepted those letters at the embassy, Elizabeth said, probably saved her life.’
‘God be praised for His mercy, then.’
He let go of me and stepped back, eyeing me for several heartbeats in silence. ‘Amen, I suppose. Put me in a damned awkward position though.’
‘You would have preferred it if Guise had succeeded?’
‘Of course not!’ He looked appalled. ‘But how do you think it made me look? I have been striving for an alliance with England, despite my brother’s death and the end of the marriage plan. I send expensive diplomatic missions to flatter the old cow into entente, and all the while there’s a faction in my own country strong enough to raise an army against her. That I know nothing about! How can Elizabeth have any faith in me as an ally? It makes a mockery of my kingship.’
You do that all by yourself, I refrained from saying. ‘But it can only inflame the situation to send an ambassador whose first loyalty is to your enemies and who hates all Protestants, including the English Queen.’
He slapped his hand down on the balustrade. ‘God’s teeth, Bruno – I do not pay you to teach me diplomacy.’
‘You do not pay me at all at the moment. Majesty,’ I added, holding his gaze. It was a gamble. Henri liked men of spirit who had the courage to speak frankly to him, but only up to a point. His eyes blazed.
‘Do I owe you? Is that what you think?’ He pointed a finger in my face; the dog yelped again. ‘I sent you out of danger, at my own expense, and you repay me by taking money from the English to spy on my ambassador.’
‘I thought you said those letters came from Guise.’
‘Don’t cavil, damn you. If you were opening his letters, you were reading everybody else’s too. You don’t know how hard I had to work to defend myself against the rumours that followed you, after you left.’
‘Lies spread by my enemies.’
‘I know that!’ He threw his hands up. ‘The people of Paris don’t know it. All they hear is that their sovereign king, whom they already believe to be a galloping sodomite and friend to heretics, keeps a defrocked Dominican at his court to teach him black magic. Why do you think I bring you here like this—’ he gestured to the night sky – ‘in secret?’
‘I never understood why I was considered such a threat,’ I said mildly. ‘Your mother keeps a Florentine astrologer known as a magician in her household, and the people forgive her that.’
‘Oh, but the people love my mother,’ he said, not bothering to disguise the bitterness. ‘Her morals and her religion are beyond reproach. Even so, she’s had to banish Ruggieri on occasion to quash gossip, you know that. He keeps his mouth shut at the moment, I assure you.’ He grimaced. ‘Look – I cannot give you back your old position at court, Bruno. I cannot risk any public association with you while my standing is so precarious – you must understand that. Recognise what you are.’
‘I know what I am, sire. But I was also your friend, once.’ I kept my eyes to the ground. A long silence spread around us. When I looked up, I was amazed to see tears in his eyes.
‘And so you are still,’ he said, a catch in his voice. He raised a hand as if to touch my face, but let it fall limply to his side. ‘I miss the old days. Those afternoons shut away in my library with Jacopo, talking of the secrets of the ancients. Do you not think I would bring those days back, if I could?’ He shook his head and the fat pearl drops in his ears scattered reflections of the torchlight. ‘I don’t know how it has come to this, truly. The people loved me when I first wore the crown. They crowded the streets to watch me ride by. The processions we used to have!’ He turned to gaze fondly into the distance. ‘My mother emptied the treasury putting on public entertainments to win their goodwill. And look how they now flock to Guise. Well, let them, filthy ingrates. See if he would give them fountains of wine in the public squares.’ His face twisted. The dog let out a mournful whine, as if sensing the mood.
They loved you only because you were not your brother Charles, I could have said. And they cheered him when he was first crowned too, because he was not your brother Francis, and Francis, because he was not your father, the last Henri. That is what people do. Those who now say they love Guise do so mainly because he is not you. Say what you will about the people of Paris, their capacity for optimism seems bottomless, despite all the lessons of history. Or perhaps it is just an insatiable desire for novelty.
‘How does your royal mother, anyway?’ I asked, hoping to rouse him from self-pity.
‘Oh God,’ he said, with feeling. ‘Still convinced she wears the crown, of course. If she’s not haring around the country on some diplomatic mission of her own devising, she’s leaning over my throne dictating policies in my ear. I fear I shall never escape her shadow. But she refuses to die.’ He broke off, looking shocked at himself. ‘God forgive me. You know what I mean. She’s wracked with gout, but she won’t even give up hunting, and she still has more stamina for la chasse than any of the men who ride out with her. Sometimes I think I should have sent her to a convent long ago.’
‘I cannot picture the Queen Mother retiring without a fight. She lives for political intrigue.’ You’d have lost your throne years ago without her leaning over it, I thought.
‘True. And she’s far better suited to it than I am,’ he said, with rare candour. ‘She positively thrives on it. Her chief advantage to me is that the Duke of Guise is terrified of her.’ He broke into a sudden grin. ‘In her presence he’s like a boy caught stealing sweetmeats. So I have to keep her around – she’s the only one who can negotiate with him. Why can’t I have that effect on my enemies, Bruno?’ The plaintive note had crept back.
If it had been a serious question, I might have replied: because you possess neither your mother’s iron will nor her formidable grasp of statesmanship. If Catherine de Medici had been born a man, she would rule all of Europe by now. Instead she has had to make do with ruling France these past twenty-six years from behind the throne of her incompetent sons.
‘Few things strike fear into a man’s heart like an Italian mother, sire,’ I said, instead, but he did not smile.
‘All I ever wanted was to bring accord between my subjects, whatever their church, so there would never be another massacre like Saint Bartholomew’s night.’ He wrung his hands, fully immersed in his own tragedy. ‘Now look at us. Three Henris, tearing France apart between us. And my greatest sorrow is that all this strife has parted me from you. I can count the number of true friends I have on the fingers of one hand, and you are among them. Embrace me, Bruno. Mind Claudette.’
He held his arms out to me; gingerly, leaning across the dog, I accepted his embrace. A gust of perfume made my eyes