Read A Love Most Dangerous for Free Online

I supposed to come to
him the week before, after our meeting in the garden? Had I been expected to
come to him without his command?
    'I came immediately I was summoned,' I said.
    'We sent our Page to you some while ago,' he said.
'Your King is surprised he has been kept waiting.'
    'It is a goodly way from my chamber, Your Majesty,' I
said. 'And it took me a while to find my book of verse.'
    'It took you a while?' He held out his hand for the
volume. 'I assumed it would be your constant companion.'
    'I read many books, Your Majesty.'
    I paused, wondering whether to risk saying what was in
my thoughts. I took a deep breath.
    'And besides, I had to wash myself.'
    He stared at me, his eyes suddenly hard. 'You kept
your monarch waiting while you washed yourself?'
    He walked away from the alcove and flung himself into
one of the chairs by the fire. I bit my lip, aware that tears were forming in
my eyes.
    Henry saw this and I saw his eyes flicker with
amusement.
    'The King is glad of it,' he said at last. 'He
applauds you for it. Cleanliness is something the King takes very seriously.'
    He gestured towards the other chair. 'Sit, Alice
Petherton, and tell me which of Sir Thomas Wyatt's poems you best like.'
    I sat down but for a moment could not find my tongue.
I found my body shaking as if with ague and my wits appeared to have quite
deserted me. How would I answer him now?
    The King appeared not to have noticed my confusion; he
flicked swiftly through the book, barely pausing at any page.
    'We did not know Sir Thomas had made a book of his
poems,' he said.
    I sighed for my tongue was suddenly released. 'He did
not have it made, Your Majesty. His friend took a fancy to have some of his
verses printed. The book contains a dozen or so, I believe.'
    'Then how have you to come by such a precious jewel,
Alice Petherton?'
    'Sir Thomas's friend is second cousin of my mother,
Your Majesty. We knew each other a little as children, and we have renewed our
acquaintance since we both came to Court.'
    'Ah, Elizabeth Darrel,' the King said. 'She is pretty,
is she not?'
    'I believe she is Your Majesty.'
    'Beauty appears to run in the family, wouldn't you
say?' His eyes lifted from the book a moment and examined me.
    'I don't know what to say, Majesty.'
    'Come Alice Petherton, no girlish wiles with us. You
know full well you have a good face and figure.'
    I glanced up at him. 'No man has told me so, Your
Majesty,' I said. 'Until today.'
    He put his finger to his bottom lip and began to tap
it gently. He appeared amused by my words and I thought for a moment he would
respond with some quip or comment. But instead he returned to his perusal of
the book.
    'Let us read together, Alice Petherton,' he said at
last. 'For that is the reason I have summoned you here.'
    With one hand he lifted the table between the two
chairs and threw it behind him and across the room. I jumped at the sound but
jumped even more at what he did next. He leaned towards me, lifted both chair
and me and placed me closer to him. I gasped in astonishment.
    He laughed when he saw my reaction. 'You seem
surprised by my strength,' he said. 'Are you?'
    'I am Your Majesty,' I said. My hand went to my mouth.
    He laughed once again and patted me on the knee. 'I am
a man of great strength and great zeal,' he said. 'You will learn this over
time.'
    He opened the book of poems in the middle. His thick
finger jabbed at a poem as if he were a merchant pointing out some piece of
cloth on a stall. 'Here, Alice Petherton, let us read this poem together.'
     I glanced down at it and began to read it along with
the King. He read in a voice not quite as deep as his normal speech, with a
surprising lightness of tone, almost as if he were singing.
     
    They flee from me, that sometime did me seek,
      With naked foot stalking within my chamber :
    Once have I seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
        That now are wild, and do not once remember,
        That sometime they have put themselves in