Tina swept down to the floor as if she were paying homage to a deity. Henry’s close-set eyes lit with greed as they licked over her half-exposed breasts beneath the delicious silver ruff.
“Lady Valentina Kennedy has brought a message to Your Majesty from Queen Margaret of Scotland.”
Henry held out his beringed hand so that the lady might kiss it, but Tina slipped the letter from between her breasts and placed it upon the King’s massive palm. Henry was far more interested in the female his sister had sent him than her missive. He tossed it negligently upon the table and invited the lady to sit with him. With a wave of his hamlike hand, he removed the earl who occupied the seat beside him as if he were the meanest lackey.
Henry splashed malmsey into his large, gem-encrusted goblet and placed it in Tina’s hands. She repressed a shiver at the thought of sipping from the same rim where the gross mouth of Henry Tudor had quaffed and covered her hesitation with a shy smile.
“Don’t be overwhelmed, sweeting,” said the fatuous Henry, patting her knee in a pretense of fatherly affection. “We would share more than our cup with you”
Two strapping wrestlers bowed before the king, wearing nothing but skintight hose. The king’s champion wore Tudor green, while the challenger’s hose were a disconcerting yellow. They were both large, heavy men, and Tina thought all that exposed flesh most distasteful. Henry bent toward her intimately. “I wager a kiss that my champion pins your challenger.”
“Sire, he is not my challenger. I know naught of wrestling.”
“That is not very sportive of you, my lady. I will teach you all you need to know of wrestling.” He threw back his head and laughed at his own wit, then smoothed down the golden curls of his beard. Henry, like an overgrown boy, wanted to shine before this attractive woman. “My champion is the best. None can match him—save myself, of course.” His eyes lit with zeal. “Would you like to see me take him?”
Tina could think of nothing she would like less. Her lips opened as she gasped for breath, and Henry thought she was overcome with awe of him.
“Come sweeting, wager on me, and win a prize of your own choosing.”
Tina immediately thought of the letter she wanted him to read and murmured, “No lady ever had a more exalted champion, sire.”
Henry threw his doublet and velvet cap to one of his gentlemen and climbed from the dais to a chorus of encouraging cheers. Tina was most relieved that he would wrestle in his shirtsleeves. She had no desire to see the gross Tudor stripped to the buff.
Tina thought the spectacle before her grotesque. Two oversized bodies, with arms and legs entwined, heaved and huffed until both men were red in the face and sweating profusely. She raised her fan to cover her expression of distaste. The king’s champion was good at charades. He made a show of being a match for the king until the last split-second, when he went down like ninepins. The courtiers cheered and applauded and banged their goblets on the table in approval.
Henry raised his arms in acknowledgment, lapping up the adulation. He was England’s undefeated champion whether the sport was wrestling, tennis, jousting, or hunting. He was about to add seduction to the list. His gentlemen helped him back into his ostentatiously ornamented doublet, and he leaned toward Valentina with his sausagelike fingers stretched before him. “Choose a bauble, sweeting—don’t be shy!”
“I ask no jewel, Your Majesty,” Tina said softly. “All I ask is that you read the letter I have brought.”
Henry broke the seal and scanned the contents. Suddenly his lips pursed peevishly. “I’ve had no word that this self-styled Lord Vengeance has been taken.”
“He has not been taken, Your Majesty. Lord Douglas is not the murdering pirate!”
Henry’s eyes became covetous as he looked at her mouth, then her lovely breasts. The thought of Douglas fucking her titillated his imagination, as a schoolboy enjoys a dirty picture. His mouth went prudish as he asked, “You are hand-fasted to this Douglas?”
“I am, sire,” she said softly.
“A licentious Scottish custom—against the law here in England. ‘Tis fornication pure and simple. You live together and share his bed without benefit of clergy.” He licked his lips. “Do you deny you are his mistress?”
Tina fanned herself furiously. “It is a time-honored tradition. He is my husband in every way.” As she said the words, Tina knew she spoke the truth. Ram Douglas was her husband, and she knew she could never be unfaithful to him.
Henry captured her hand and held it fast when she tried to withdraw it. He whispered huskily, “Wife and whore in one—a tempting combination! Are you rewarding in bed?”
Tina’s cheeks were hot, yet it was not shame she felt but anger. Henry enjoyed teasing her. He began to tickle and stroke the palm of her hand with his finger in a suggestive manner, then lifted her hand to his mouth and tickled and licked it with his tongue. Tina’s gorge rose, and for a moment she feared she would vomit on his royal person. She swallowed rapidly and prayed she would not disgrace herself.
The Countess of Surrey was worried. She had watched the chancellor present Valentina Kennedy to the king and seen her hand him a letter. It could be from either the King or Queen of Scotland, and it could be filled with lies about the Howards. She lost no time informing her husband of her suspicions and urged him to join the king on the dais. The moment Henry saw the Earl of Surrey approach, he beckoned him with an all-powerful finger Howard knew a moment of misgiving as his monarch’s beady eyes fastened upon him.
“Why was I not informed of the capture of the elusive Lord Vengeance?” Henry asked silkily.
“Your Majesty, I had word from my son Thomas only today that the Revenge had been spotted off Flamborough Head. He has an informant who has divulged that a raid on Kingston is imminent, and the admiral has laid plans to trap Lord Vengeance and his ship the Revenge in the Humber River.”
Henry tapped his fingers thoughtfully. “Your information seems to tally with Margaret’s. Apparently Dacre arrested Lord Douglas and had him shipped to London. How could he have bungled so badly?” asked Henry.
Since Lord Dacre was Howard’s rival, he took the opportunity offered to blacken his reputation. He shrugged. “Your Majesty offered a great reward for the capture, I believe?”
Henry’s fingers tapped faster. “I should have been informed the moment such a prominent Scot arrived at the tower. Though he is obviously not the elusive Lord Vengeance, he could nevertheless prove to be of great value at the bargaining table.”
A cold hand clamped around Tina’s heart.
