“Some days, I’m not too fond of the queen myself.”
“Of course you are not fond of her,” she said warily. “What do you mean, ‘fond’? You do not know the queen.”
“Aye, I do.”
“You know Elizabeth, Queen of England and Ireland?”
“She’s the one.”
Her mind, torn between his words and his sword, rebelled. “But…how? In what capacity do you know her?”
“Councilor.”
“Councilor?”
He shrugged. “One of them. Member of her court. Friend.”
Slowly, her jaw dropped. “You cannot…that is not possible…what you say…no.”
“Aye.”
The single word was more compelling than an argument. “In what manner? In what way, did you…” She waved her sword ineffectually, so stunned she could hardly speak. “For how long?”
His lips pursed. “Nigh on sixteen years.”
“No.” It wa
s barely a breath. She stopped moving her sword and simply stared. “You are lying. I do not believe you.”
“Well, that’s a shame, for I am telling the truth.”
“But, I… Why didn’t you tell me?”
He stopped too, his sword motionless. “What difference would it have made?” he asked in a low voice.
“Oh, Aodh, it means everything.”
“To you?”
“To the queen.” Katarina knew very well what happened to the queen’s favorites when they did a thing that even hinted at betrayal.
When her mother had been accused of being a witch, a maker of the ancient dyes of Rardove, and priest harborer, her husband, Katarina’s father, had stood surety for her. Claimed her innocence to the queen’s representative in Dublin, and then to the queen herself.
The claims had meant nothing; indeed, they may have doomed them both even more in the queen’s eyes, if for no other reason than jealousy. The way they saw it in England, an Irishwoman had stolen the queen’s captain, then bewitched him, then turned him Catholic.
Even a hint of disloyalty could doom a man.
Aodh had more than hinted. He had stolen a castle.
Oh, this was much, much worse than she’d thought. An Irish warlord rebelling was a matter of course. But one of the queen’s favorites?
This was treason on a high scale.
Aodh would be dead before Elizabeth finished giving the command. Lashed to a table, his body cut open, disemboweled while still alive, then his arms and legs half-severed and tied to horses…
She actually bent forward, sickened by the thought. She did not think she could survive that.
Oh, curse him, he had ruined her.