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The thought of Louchester standing beside her in the holy church made her shudder and she felt as if bile was rising in her stomach and she would retch. She gripped her hand to her throat and tried to ease her nauseous nerves. Clutched tightly in her hand, ink running due to the misty weather, was the latest correspondence from Elisabeth's closest friend Lady Arianna Eckenhart, the Marchioness de Haldenbury. Lady Arianna had been raised in Hampshire the daughter of the local barrister and had played with Elisabeth as a child. Though Arianna was not of noble birth and had only a small pittance for a dowry, her father was highly esteemed and a profitable lawyer. The Duke had arranged the lofty marriage for the barrister's daughter several years before, and the match had been a good one. The Marquis was a close friend of the Duke's and a colleague at court, and Arianna's father was Lord Hamilton's private attorney and handled all of the estate's financial debts and collections. Arianna had gone to London with her new husband and had been well received at Whitehall, easily slipping into the lifestyle of a courtier. Her position at Whitehall had proved useful for Elisabeth, for when her own betrothal had been approved and announced at court, Arianna had been quick to forewarn her friend about Lord Louchester and his duplicitous dealings in London. Arianna's first letter warned Elisabeth about Louchester's supposed involvement with the Covenanters, a growing group of Parliamentarians disenchanted with Charles. They were outspoken against the King and his rule, though more lately their words rang loud with sedition. Elisabeth had remained far removed from the London court at Whitehall, finding the daily monotony of pomp and intrigue boresome and demeaning. Despite preferring the serene country life to living at court, as was a privilege of her title, and the fact that her father's role as a close, trusted councilor to Charles and James before him, kept him in London frequently, Elisabeth was not opinionated towards her King or his situation, though she did feel the King's request from her father was absurdly ill timed. But she knew her father and knew that it would have only taken the whisper of an idea to send him abroad. His soul was steeped in the Germanies, for her mother, who had died tragically in childbirth, had been of German nobility, and his love for her had never died. And his loyalty to his King would have required no demand from Charles for the service. He had gone to Europe at the behest of James at the first outbreak of the war, which was when he had first met her mother. An unrivaled beauty, he had told her once. There were two things she knew of her father, his unfaltering love of her mother and his unswerving loyalty to his King. She also believed in the Divine Right of the English Crown and did not question that. However she was strongly opinionated about the Covenanters and saw them as bored and overly ambitious zealots with nothing better to do than plot against the King. Lord Louchester had not been born to a title or to land, his lordship along with a House of Commons seat being purchased for an undisclosed amount, though a seat in the House of Lords was not so easily bought. Elisabeth wondered exactly how he had come by his new wealth, a benefactor most likely, though that person had remained discreetly anonymous. As the Duke's sole heir Elisabeth's husband would inherit, as her dowry prescribed, a lesser title and upon the Duke's death the seat in the House of Lords and ultimately the duchy. In the case of the Duke's absences, also prescribed, he would preside in the House of Lords until the Duke's return. This fact fueled her fears even more towards Louchester's capabilities, and she was terrified at what he was plotting. If he truly was consorting with the Covenanters, then his increasing and more ardent proposals were frighteningly understandable. With her father's departure, even if a wedding was postponed, she sensed Louchester would force her hand anyways. Elisabeth knew her father well and knew he must carefully chose his predecessor, but despite his misgivings she did not trust Louchester or his motives, nor did she trust her father's judgment towards the man. |
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