Tudor Lovers' Destiny

By Jean Wyld

Set during the turbulent years of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, Tudor Lovers’ Destiny, follows the fortunes of the beautiful young Diane Meyrick whose station in life means she must marry an aristocrat chosen for her by the Queen herself. Diane is in love with the wonderfully handsome Aidan Fielding whose social status is below hers. But the twists and turns of fate finally allow the love between these two young people to overcome all obstacles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hornbeam Press
• Release date: May 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9780993289125

Book preview

Four

Copyright

ISBN: 978-09932891-2-5

Copyright © 2016 by Jean Wyld

Published by Hornbeam Press, London

Jacket Design by Geoffrey Waring

About the Author

Jean Wyld reads extensively before writing an historical novel and her stories have well-researched backgrounds. Her novels feature an adventurous hero and a lively heroine in fast-moving plots in which the heroine is caught up in a passionate love affair with many twists and turns of her life before love prevails.

Chapter One

September 1585

A bright autumn sun shone on Queen Elizabeth's cavalcade as it cantered along the final stretch of the broad tree lined avenue leading to Lord Meyrick's great Sussex mansion where he and his family stood waiting to greet their royal visitor.

As the Queen came into view, Diane Meyrick saw Aidan Fielding bring forward the magnificent white stallion her father was to present to the Queen as a gift to mark her stay in his house. Diane felt her heart begin to beat rapidly in her breast and a rush of pulsating fire race hotly through her body. She loved Aidan Fielding with every fibre of her being and had done so from their very first meeting when he had come to Meyrick to do business with her father.

The Queen now waved and smiled at the estate workers who had fallen to their knees with calls of God bless Your Majesty as Aidan handed the reins of the stallion to Lord Meyrick.

Diane saw how intently the Queen looked at him. It was well known she liked good-looking young men around her. Aidan Fielding was well over six feet tall, broad shouldered and athletic. In Diane's eyes there was not a man present who could compare to him in looks, for Aidan Fielding was remarkably handsome.

The Earl of Leicester handed Elizabeth down from her horse and she looked back approvingly at the white stallion. Richard Meyrick, this is indeed a thoroughbred fit for a Queen, she said. I will ride him in the hunt tomorrow. She led the way into Meyrick Hall with Lord Leicester by her side. They had made many private visits to Meyrick where they would be surrounded by trusted friends, well away from the prying eyes of foreign ambassadors and court gossips.

Most of Europe believed he was the Queen's lover and would have married her if he could. However, his first wife had died in mysterious circumstances and dark rumours still persisted that he had arranged her murder. She had been suffering from an incurable illness and nothing would have been said if she had died in her bed but she had been found with a broken neck at the bottom of a staircase. He had protested his innocence but the possibility of marriage to the Queen was over and eventually he had married a court lady to provide an heir. The boy had been much loved and called The Imp but he had died young and lay buried beneath a magnificent tomb in the Beauchamp Chapel in Leicester.

The Queen had been furious when she found out Leicester had married without her consent and threatened to send him to the Tower until it had been pointed out a man could not be punished in that way for making a legal marriage. However, Elizabeth had refused to acknowledge his wife and had barred her from court forever. Gradually she had found herself unable to do without Leicester, whom she had known from childhood, and he had resumed his old position by her side.

Diane did not immediately follow the Queen into the house but lingered for a while so that she could speak to Aidan. He smiled at her and heart leapt with the rapture she always found herself feeling in his presence. Oh Aidan, the Queen was so pleased with her gift, she said. Does she know it was you who chose it for her?

Lord Leicester might tell her, he replied. It was he who sent me to make sure the stallion would be acceptable although he must have known all of the Meyrick horses are purebred from Arabian stock.

He saw how trustingly she was looking up at him. If only she had been the daughter of one of the estate workers and not the great Lord Meyrick, how different thing might be! She was eighteen and ready for marriage but not for one such as himself who still had to make his way in the world. No she would be given to some aristocrat chosen by her father who would have ancestry as old as his own and the possessor of a great fortune and estates for Diane to control in his absence. For such men often travelled abroad on the Queen's business and left their wives in charge.

Diane, I will be leaving soon with the Earl of Leicester for the Netherlands, he said. He heard her gasp of horror at the news for it was true he could be killed in the fierce fighting that was now being fought between the Dutch Protestants and the Catholic Spanish invading their country.

I will be sorry to go, he said truthfully for he knew he loved this girl who was so far above him in rank and position. But it will mean promotion in Lord Leicester's household and perhaps lead to the Queen finding me a place at court.

He looked down at her bejewelled headdress and auburn curls falling to her shoulders. She was quite the most beautiful girl he had ever known. Those large blue eyes and Cupid bow lips were enough to turn any man's head. More than anything, he wanted to take her in his arms and feel her surrendering to him. He forced himself back to reality. Such longings were not for him. All he had been allowed was to lightly brush her long slim white fingers with his lips on being introduced to her by her brother Ambrose.

He saw her rounded breasts heaving under her embroidered bodice and tears springing into her eyes.

Aidan, I cannot bear the thought of losing you, she cried. Not now! I love you so much.

Diane, have a care, he said urgently in a low voice. People must not see you in tears. We will speak later, I promise.

Diane did not trust herself to answer him but instead turned swiftly on her heel and fled into the house. There was a great deal of noise as the courtiers accompanying the Queen were being shown to their various rooms and their baggage was being carried in by servants and up the great oak staircase to the bedrooms.

Once in her own room, Diane felt she would be safe to give way to her emotions at the thought of what lay before Aidan Fielding. But she was wrong, for she found her mother, Lady Susan Meyrick, already there. Lady Susan was opening a jewel case and when she saw Diane she held up a rope of perfectly matched pearls.

Diane, I want you to wear these to the ball tonight, she said. Your grandmother always wore them on state occasions. They were a gift from his late Majesty, King Henry.

Surely you will want to wear them yourself! Diane exclaimed.

Lady Meyrick shook her head. No, they are for you, my dear, she said. You are of an age to start your own jewel collection. Your future husband will expect you to be well provided for although of course he will add his own choice of jewels on your marriage.

Marriage! Diane echoed.

Lady Meyrick smiled gently. Do not sound so surprised, my dear. You are eighteen years of age. Many girls have been married much earlier and already borne children but we have been loath to part with you and kept you with us here at Meyrick when perhaps we should have allowed you to become part of court life and meet more people of your own age and position.

Diane was horrified. She loved Aidan Fielding. The idea of becoming his wife had filled all her dreams. The thought of sleeping with another man and submitting to his embraces was too dreadful for her to contemplate. Lady Meyrick fingered the pendant she was wearing around her neck. It contained the miniature painted by Nicholas Hilliard of her son Edmund, who had recently died of fever.

She had pleaded with Lord Meyrick to allow Diane to stay away from court and remain at Meyrick but now he had been adamant.

She deserves to become the wife of a man with a great household, he had said. And she will only meet such men at court. He had taken her in his arms. I know how much you miss Edmund but his death must not be allowed to stand in Diane's way of making a brilliant match. And she had agreed with him.

Every day she and Father James said a mass for Edmund's soul while in the estate church attended by Lord Meyrick and his household, and the Church of England service always contained a prayer for the late much-missed Edmund.

Lord Meyrick did not share his wife's Roman Catholic views. He had too many memories of the burnings inflicted by Mary Tudor to ever want that religion to gain a foothold in England again. But his love for Susan Meyrick was such that he allowed her to keep the Papist priest in a small cottage on the estate and for them to pray together in a private chapel on the edge of the forest.

Quite how much he missed his deceased son could only be guessed for he barely mentioned him. But in his heart Lord Meyrick mourned the loss of a young man who had a brilliant career before him. Edmund had a talent for languages and an effortless ability to diplomatically handle the most complicated of situations presented on the foreign missions on which he had been sent by the Queen.

Harry, Lord Meyrick's eldest son, lived in Hertfordshire where the Queen had given his father vast estates for his loyalty to her before she had become Queen. Lord Meyrick had been racked to force him to betray what Elizabeth knew of the Wyatt Rebellion but he had said nothing and for that she had never ceased to be grateful. Ambrose, the youngest son, was content to stay at Meyrick and together with Eli Coates, the head stable man, raised horses for the Queen's army.

Lady Meyrick stopped fingering her pendant and returned her attention once more to the pearls.

They will go beautifully with the gown you are to wear tonight, she said. I have just sewn the last seed pearl on the bodice but I will send needlewomen to you to make sure of the fitting.

She had never hidden the fact that she had once been the daughter of Meyrick's steward and needlewoman to Queen Mary when she had caught the attention of Lord Meyrick. Despite being offered the choice of various heiresses by Queen Elizabeth, he had politely declined them all and married her. Although the Queen had accepted his decision, Susan Meyrick knew Elizabeth had been far from pleased and Elizabeth Tudor was known to have a long memory when it came to avenging what she considered a slight to her royal dignity. Now she wanted Diane to come to court and this time Susan Meyrick was convinced she would insist on being the final arbiter on the gentleman Diane would marry.

My dear Susan, Lord Meyrick had replied when she had voiced this fear. Diane is the Queen's goddaughter. Of course she will want only the best for her. And believe me, there will be no possibility of Diane marrying any man who is repugnant to her.

When I marry I want it to be for love, Diane's voice broke in on her thoughts. Not to a man I hardly know.

Your father would not have it any other way, Lady Meyrick assured her. Now I still have much to do below stairs. When the Queen has finished her private talk with Sir Francis Walsingham she will expect your father and I to be ready to entertain her.

She gave Diane a fond kiss. Do not worry about your future, Diane. I know you will be very happy. Your father will only agree to you marrying a very agreeable gentleman whom you will come to love just as I do him.

After Lady Meyrick had gone, Diane sat at her dressing table and looked at herself in the large silver-framed mirror.

Her mother had told her she was beautiful and so had many of the female servants who often compared her to various other daughters of local gentry but Aidan Fielding had never been anything other than formally polite. The fact that he had revealed he would be leaving for the Netherlands had been such a shock that she had told him how much she loved him. What must he think of her?

There was no doubt the Earl of Leicester held him in very high regard or he would not have entrusted him with the decision about the white stallion. She knew that Aidan had ridden the length and breadth of England for the Earl who as the Queen's Horse Master was responsible for supplying horses for the army able to pull heavy cannon in battle situations. Not only that, there must always be a constant supply of horses for ceremonial occasions and ready to be given as gifts to visiting statesmen.

If only they were of equal rank, Diane knew, she would have no hesitation in telling her father of how much Aidan Fielding meant to her. As it was, if Lord Meyrick thought Aidan had taken advantage of his time at Meyrick to make advances towards her, then he could ruin him completely. Neither the Queen nor the Earl of Leicester would have him in their service. When the great families learned of his disgrace they too would close their doors to him.

These despairing thoughts were brought to an abrupt end by two needlewomen coming into the room carrying the white satin gown Diane was to wear that evening. She stood up and allowed them to first fit the bodice so lovingly embroidered with flowers and seed pearls by her mother and then the skirt that showed off her slim waist much envied by those of more ample proportions.

Lady Diane, there will be no court lady looking more lovely, one of the needlewomen told her admiringly. The gentlemen will have eyes only for you tonight.

They left, taking the gown with them for the final stitches, and their place was taken by other women who carried in a wooden tub and filled it with scented hot water. They carried lavender soap made by the Meyrick household servants for the use of Lady Meyrick and her daughter, and large soft towels woven by weavers on the estate. Diane stepped naked into the tub and allowed them to bathe her and then wash her long auburn tresses and brush them dry so that her hair lay in shining curls around her shoulders.

Aidan made his way to the stables to make sure that the Queen's stallion was being well cared for. He knew this visit was not really necessary, as Eli Coates, the head groom, would have lavished hours of attention on the Queen's gift. But it was a way of filling in the time before he could be with Ambrose again, for at the moment Lord Meyrick's youngest son was helping to entertain some of the courtiers who had come to Meyrick with the Queen and Aidan found himself left to his own devices. As he turned the corner into the stable yard he stopped abruptly for he saw Lord Meyrick there talking to Eli Coates. Not wishing to intrude, he would have retraced his steps but Lord Meyrick saw him and gestured to him to come forward.

I came to look at the stallion, Aidan said.

Lord Meyrick smiled at Eli. I was doing the same thing, he said. And have been told her majesty's horse is in good hands and not to worry myself about its welfare but leave it to the experts.

He and Eli exchanged glances and laughed. There seemed to be a very strong bond between them yet no familiarity on Eli's part. Aidan had noticed this relationship before at Meyrick between Richard Meyrick and some of the older servants. They really did seem to worship the ground he walked on and here at Meyrick he was regarded with a respect and loyalty he had not seen on any of the other great estates he had visited on the Earl of Leicester's behalf.

The Queen has private business to discuss with Sir Francis Walsingham and will not need my presence for a good hour or more, Lord Meyrick said. The contract for the trees you have bought on behalf of John Hawkins, the Queen's Naval Treasurer, is ready for signing and sealing. Come with me to the counting house and we will settle things so that you can carry the contract with you when you leave.

Aidan knew that Sir Francis Walsingham was the Queen's Spy Master and doubtless he was using this private visit to speak secretly to the Queen and the Earl of Leicester. It was said that he used his own personal fortune to pay for the network of spies and informants spread throughout England and abroad which kept the Queen advised of what both her enemies and her friends hoped were closely guarded activities known only to themselves.

Aidan followed Lord Meyrick to the nearby counting house, where much of the Meyrick estate business was conducted, and sat down at the long oak table.

I think the naval dockyard at Deptford will be pleased with our Meyrick trees, Lord Meyrick said. I understand you bargained hard with my chief forester, Master Fielding, but the price you paid was fair so I am ready to set my seal on the contract. He pushed a closely written Latin document towards Aidan. Read it first to make sure you are in agreement with its terms.

Aidan read through the legal Latin phrases aware that Lord Meyrick was watching him closely. It all seems in good order, my lord, he said and picking up a quill pen dipped it into the inkhorn and signed his name in his usual clear script and waited as Lord Meyrick also signed and then affixed his seal. He expected to be dismissed but Lord Meyrick seemed to be in no hurry to leave. Instead he leaned back in his high backed, elaborately carved chair at the head of the table and surveyed Aidan with quizzical eyes.

You are a young man to whom Latin comes easily, he said. My son Ambrose tells me you have sat with him of an evening and made light work of all these legal phrases so much beloved by the lawyers who draw up these contracts for us as much to bewilder and confuse, I have always thought, rather than using plain language even I could understand.

Aidan had no doubt that Lord Meyrick could very well find his way through any Latin document with the greatest of ease if he so chose. After my father died, he said. Master John Hawkins, who knew my father well, took it upon himself to see to my education. I learned my Latin at grammar school and used it on his behalf in the dockyards where I learned a great deal about shipbuilding and what was required to enable our navy to withstand anything foreigners might send against us in the future.

He did not elaborate on what exactly John Hawkins and his brother were working so hard to achieve at Deptford for such knowledge would be of the greatest interest to European countries especially the Spanish, whom John Hawkins looked upon with the deepest mistrust.

Perhaps Lord Meyrick already knew as he was a Privy Councillor and one of the Queen's most admired advisers but Aidan had long learned to keep a bridle on his tongue where naval matters were concerned and because of this he had earned the trust and confidence of the Queen's Naval Treasurer and was always welcome to lodge at his house when he was in London.

"I understand from the Earl of Leicester that it was John. Hawkins who