‘If, Don Pedro?’

‘I have made Your Highness aware of the influence I have with my brother, and you know full well the power he wields in this land. If you and I were friends, there is nothing I would not do... not only to have the boy proclaimed heir, but to... I must whisper this... Come, sweet lady, let me put my lips to your ear... to depose Henry in favour of your son Alfonso.’

‘Don Pedro!’

‘I said, my dearest lady, if we were friends.’

‘I do not understand you. You speak in riddles.’

‘Oh, you are not so blind as you would have me believe. You are still a beautiful woman, dear lady. Come... come... I hear you lived most piously at that deadly place in Arevalo... but this is the Court. You are not old... nor am I. I think we could bring a great deal of pleasure to each other’s lives.’

‘I think, Don Pedro,’ said the Dowager Queen, ‘that you must be suffering from a temporary madness.’

‘Not I, dear lady, not I. As for yourself you would be completely well if you lived a more natural life. Come, do not be so prudish. Follow the fashion. By the saints, I swear you will never regret the day you and I become lovers.’

The Dowager Queen had leaped to her feet. Isabella heard the urgent scrape of her chair. She heard also the note of alarm in her mother’s voice. Looking through the folds of brocade she saw a purple-faced man who seemed to her to symbolise all that was beastly in human nature. She saw her mother – no longer calm – afraid and shocked beyond her understanding.

Isabella knew that unless the man was dismissed her mother would begin to shout and wave her arms, and he would witness one of those wild scenes which she, Isabella, was so anxious should not be seen except by those whom she could trust.

Isabella forgot the instruction that she was to remain hidden. She stepped from her hiding-place into the room.

The purple-faced man with the evil expression stared at her as though she were a ghost. Indeed it must have seemed strange to him that she had apparently materialised from nowhere.

She drew herself to her full height and never before had she looked so much a Princess of Castile.

‘Sir,’ she said coldly, ‘I ask you to leave... immediately.’

Don Pedro stared at her incredulously.

‘Is it necessary,’ went on young Isabella, ‘for me to have you forcibly removed?’

Don Pedro hesitated. Then he bowed and left them.

Isabella turned to her mother, who was trembling so much that she could not speak.

She led her to a chair and stood beside her, her arms about her protectively.

She whispered gently: ‘Dearest Highness, he has gone now. He is evil... but has left us. We will never see him again. Do not tremble so. Let me take you to your bed. There you will lie down. He has gone now, that evil man.’

The Dowager Queen stood up and allowed Isabella to take her arm.

From that moment Isabella felt that she was the one who must care for her mother, that she was the strong one who must protect her brother and her mother from this wicked Court, this whirlpool of intrigue which was threatening to drag them down to... what? She could not imagine.

All she knew was that she was capable of defending herself, of bridging the dangerous years through which she must pass before she was safe as the bride of Ferdinand.


* * *

The Dowager Queen sent for Isabella. She had recovered from the shock of Giron’s proposals and was no longer stunned; she was very angry.

‘I am sorry, my daughter,’ said the Queen, ‘that you should have overheard such a revolting outburst. That man shall be severely punished. He shall very soon regret the day he submitted me to such indignity. You are coming with me to the King, to bear witness of what you overheard.’

Isabella was alarmed. She fully realised that the Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava had behaved disgracefully, but she had hoped that, once the man had been dismissed from her mother’s presence, his conduct might be forgotten; for remembering it could only serve to over-excite her mother.

‘We are going to Henry now,’ said the Dowager Queen. ‘I have told him that I must see him on a matter of great importance, and he has agreed to receive us.’ The Dowager Queen looked at her daughter, and tears came into her eyes.

‘My dear Isabella,’ she said, ‘I fear you are fast leaving childhood behind you. That is inevitable, since you must live at this Court. I could wish, my dear, that you and I and your brother could return to Arevalo. I think we should be so much happier there. Come.’

Henry received them with a show of affection.

He complimented Isabella on her appearance. ‘Why,’ he said, ‘my little sister is no longer a child. She grows every day. We are a tall family, Isabella; and you are no exception.’

He greeted his stepmother with equal warmth, although he was wondering what grievance had brought her – he felt sure it was a grievance.

‘Henry,’ said the Dowager Queen, ‘I have a complaint to make... a complaint of a most serious nature.’

The King put on an expression of concern, but Isabella, who was watching closely, saw that it thinly veiled one of exasperation.

‘I have been insulted by Don Pedro Giron,’ said the Dowager Queen dramatically.

‘That is very shocking,’ said Henry, ‘and I am grieved to hear it.’

‘The man came to my apartment and made outrageous proposals.’

‘What were these proposals?’

‘They were of an immoral nature. Isabella will bear witness, for she heard all that was said.’

‘He made these proposals in Isabella’s presence then?’

‘Well... she was there.’

‘You mean he was not aware that she was there?’

‘No... he was not. I know, Henry, that you will not allow such outrageous conduct to go unpunished.’

Henry shifted his gaze from his stepmother’s face. He said, ‘He did not... attack you?’

‘He attacked my good name. He dared presume to make immoral suggestions to me. If Isabella had not come from her hiding-place in time... I think it is very possible that he might have laid hands on me.’

‘So Isabella was in hiding?’ Henry looked sternly at his half-sister.

‘I thank the saints that she was!’ cried the Queen. ‘No woman’s virtue is safe when there are such men at Court. My dear son, you will, I know, not suffer such conduct to go unpunished.’

Henry said: ‘Dear Mother, you excite yourself unnecessarily. I have no doubt that you protected your virtue from this man. You are still a beautiful woman. I cannot entirely blame him – nor must you – for being aware of that. I am sure, if you consider this matter calmly, you will come to the conclusion that the best of men sometimes forget the honour due to rank when beauty beckons.’

‘This is carnal talk,’ cried the Queen. ‘I beg of you not to use it before my daughter.’

‘Then I marvel that you should bring her to me when making such a complaint.’

‘But I told you she was there.’

‘She had been concealed... by your wishes, or was it some sly prank of her own? Which was it, eh? You tell me, Isabella.’

Isabella looked at her mother; she dared not lie to the King, yet at the same time she could not betray her mother.

Henry saw her embarrassment and was sorry for her. He laid a hand on her shoulder. ‘Do not fret, Isabella. Too much is being made of very little.’

‘Do you mean,’ screeched the Queen, ‘that you will ignore the insulting behaviour of this man towards a member of the royal family?’

‘Dear Mother, you must be calm. I have heard how excited you become on occasions, and it has occurred to me that it might be advisable if you left Court for some place where events which excited you were less likely to occur. As for Don Pedro Giron, he is the brother of the Marquis of Villena, and therefore not a man who can be lightly reprimanded.’

‘You would allow yourself to be ruled by Villena!’ cried the Queen. ‘Villena is important... more important than your father’s wife! It matters not that she has been insulted. It is the brother of the great Villena who has done it, and he must not be reprimanded! I had thought Villena was of less importance nowadays. I thought there was a new sun beginning to rise, and that we must all fall down and worship it. I thought that since Beltran de la Cueva – that most obliging man – became the friend of the King... and the Queen... the Marquis of Villena was not the man he had once been.’

Isabella half closed her eyes with horror. Previously the scenes had been threatening in the private apartments. What would happen if, in the presence of the King, her mother began to shout and laugh!

She longed to take her mother by the hand, to whisper urgently that they should beg permission to go; and only the rigorous training she had received prevented her from doing so.

Henry saw her distress and was as eager to put an end to this discussion as she was.

‘I think,’ he said gently, ‘that it would be well if you considered returning to Arevalo.’

His quiet tone had its effect on the Dowager Queen. She was silent for a few seconds, then she cried out: ‘Yes, it would be better if we returned to Arevalo. There I was safe from the lewdness of those whom Your Highness is pleased to honour.’

‘You may leave when you wish,’ said Henry. ‘I only ask that my little sister and brother remain at Court.’

Those words completely subdued the Queen.

Isabella knew that they had touched her with a terrible fear. One of the worst terrors of her mother’s wild imagination had always been that her children might be separated from her.