The Italian Woman Part 23

'For every smile you give her, you must give me two. If you ever kiss her hands, you must pay twenty kisses to make up for that.'

She clasped her arms about his neck and strained herself against him. 'Henry, my love, I adore you.'

'And you will understand? You will know that every thing I do is to make our future secure, that I have no thought, no wish beyond my union with you?'

She drew his face down to hers, and her kisses, tender at first, grew warmer and more wild.

'Oh, Margot, Margot,' said the Duke of Guise, 'there was never one like you in the whole of the world.'

She laughed. 'If all women were like me there would be no wars, no politics. There would be no time for anything but love-making. But then, all men would have to be like you to make the women desire them so much and there is no one in the world like you, my beloved.'

It was difficult to be wise with such a woman; when he was with Margot, Henry forgot that vision of a crown which, by sagacious diplomacy, might be his one day.

Margot, deep in her love affair, had completely forgotten that other Henry, her brother, for whom she had promised to play the spy.

Henry, returning from the wars, found her changed, and he, like the Cardinal of Lorraine, knew the meaning of the change in her. He was angry that she should have forgotten her promises to him, but when he discovered who her lover was, his anger increased to a fury.

Henry was clever enough to understand his sister's nature. Margot made a good spy, but Margot was born to love men. Her lover would be all-important to her; she would betray anything or anybody even her own brother for the sake of the man she loved. Henry of Guise was probably already in possession of any secret he cared to know. Margot was the sort who would hold nothing back from the object of her pa.s.sion.

It was perfectly simple to see what Guise was after. He wanted more than Margot; he wanted alliance with the Royal House. And Margot, the little fool, did not realise that the greatest enemy to the House of Valois was the House of Guise and Lorraine.

Henry sought out his sister.

'You little fool!' he cried. 'You traitress! What is all this of you and Henry of Guise?'

Margot opened her lovely dark eyes very wide and looked at her brother in astonishment. Her lover had made it clear that, as they hoped for their marriage, they must at the moment keep their intentions secret. 'I do not understand you,' said Margot.

Henry took her by the shoulders and shook her.

'You and he have been together ...'

'What makes you say so, Monsieur? And take your hands from me. Do not bring your camp manners to court.'

Henry was furious; Margot was to have been his creature. Now she was entirely Henry of Guise's.

'You have ignored my interests,' he accused.

'Indeed, there was nothing to report.'

'You were too busy looking into the eyes of Henry of Guise.'

'And you, my lord, have been listening to idle gossip.'

Henry left her and went to his mother.

'You know of this affair between Margot and Guise?'

Catherine knew. She had, through her tubes, heard certain conversations between the lovers. The shamelessness of Margot made her laugh. Her spies had been secreted in certain places and had given her details of what had taken place between those two. It seemed to Catherine that she had a wanton for a daughter, a reckless, pa.s.sionate girl who pursued Henry of Guise with complete lack of shame, just as she always had done since she was a child.

'My dear son, Sebastian of Portugal will soon be here, and he will be made your sister's husband.'

'And in the meantime you allow her to behave as she does with Guise?'

'It is too late to stop that now.'

'The scandal ...'

'There will always be scandal concerning Margot. Besides, she goes into a new country where this scandal will not be known. I have made it clear to all those who have spoken of the matter to me that it would be better to remain silent on the subject.'

'So meanwhile our lovers continue to enjoy each other.'

'And never did two enjoy each other more!' Catherine burst into coa.r.s.e laughter. 'And, my darling, you are back, and it is good to see you.'

'Mother, she should be working for me.'

'My darling, have you not learned yet that there is only one who works for you?'

'I know it.' He kissed her hand and, kneeling, let her fondle his hair. He was thinking of a very charming young man who had come to his notice recently: De Guast. What beauty! What elegance! He wanted nothing so much as to be with his new friend. It was irritating to find that Margot had betrayed him, to have to endure this very possessive love of his mother's.

'Mother,' he said, 'you do not take this affair of Margot's in any great seriousness. Why? The Guises are our enemies. They are too powerful, too ambitious. Duke Henry is Duke Francis all over again.'

'I am watching everything, my dear one. I shall let nothing injure you. I have them watched. When necessary, Monsieur de Guise shall receive his conge.'

'For my sake,' said the enraged Henry, 'I beg of you to speed up my sister's marriage with the Prince of Portugal.'

'For your sake, my darling, I would lie down and die.'

He kissed her cheeks. She was happy, as she always was when he gave her a caress for which she had not asked. She smiled at him yearningly. This was how she had felt towards that other Henry who had humiliated her so shamefully with Diane de Poitiers. Loving a son was, she decided, a happier affair than loving a husband. She drew him to her and kissed him fondly. 'Oh, my darling,' she said, 'it makes me happy to have you home.'

'I am happy to be with you, Mother dear ... And you will speed on the arrangements with Portugal?'

'I will, my son.'

Margot was angry, but she did not believe for a moment that the marriage with Portugal would come to anything. Henry would not allow it. Henry and his powerful family wanted their marriage, and the Guises rarely failed in anything they undertook.

Her family were against her. Her brother Henry had now played on the emotions of her brother Charles; and in spite of the fact that she despised Charles, she had to remember that he was the King. It was always easy to work on Charles by telling him he was in danger of a.s.sa.s.sination. Brother Henry had told Charles some story about Henry of Guise's ambitions to marry their sister and that, being a Guise the son of Le Balafre he already imagined he had some right to the throne of France. What a King he would make! thought Margot. And what a Queen she would be! The very thought made her clench and unclench her hands with the longing for him. The citizens of Paris adored him. Who would not adore him? All her loyalty was for him. If he wished to s.n.a.t.c.h the crown from her brother well, then she would do everything within her power to help him. There was no loyalty for Margot but to her lover. No one else in the world mattered. If she could help to bring him the crown of France for a wedding present, she would be happy, even if, to do it, she had to see her brothers lying dead. It would be but a small reward for all the pleasure he had given her.

Her brothers hated her now. Charles had screamed at her; Henry had been sarcastic about her. What did she care? They could not touch her love.

Charles had cried: 'I tell you I will not have that spy at court. I'll have him killed. I am the King, am I not?'

'It would not seem so, to look at you now, Sire,' Margot had retorted.

She was daring, reckless, but had she gone too far?

Charles foamed at the mouth. 'Have her whipped!' he cried. 'I'll do it myself.'

He ran at her with eyes flas.h.i.+ng; he was certainly terrifying in his madness; she must remember that he was the King; he could give an order and have her taken to a dungeon. When his madness was on him he might do this.

She ran to Marie Touchet and begged for her protection.

'Marie, my dear, I have offended the King. Plead with him for me.'

And good-hearted Marie did, soothing the King as only she could soothe him. His sister Margot was but a child. He should remember that. She was so sorry to have offended him.

'She ... she is a wanton. She ... she gives herself and our secrets to Henry of Guise.'

'But if she loves, my dearest lord, can we blame her? Do not we also love?'

Margot wanted to laugh at that. Mild Marie Touchet and mad Charles ... to be compared with her and Henry!

But she had learned her lesson. She must not be so rash. She might put Henry in danger if she were; after all, he had managed to make some people think he was contemplating marriage with the Princess of Cleves.

Her brother Henry was not wild, like Charles, but he was very angry with her. He frightened her more than Charles did, for she knew he discussed her with their mother.

One day Catherine sent for her, and as she entered the Queen Mother's apartments she began to tremble; she felt the sweat in the palms of her hands as she used to when she was a little girl.

'Come here,' said Catherine.

Margot went to her and curtsied. Her lips touched her mother's hand.

'Rise now,' said Catherine. 'No ceremony, my daughter.' Her lids slid down over her eyes. Madame le Serpent, thought Margot, waiting, deciding whether or not now is the time to strike.

Catherine started to walk up and down the apartment.

'My daughter, it is time you married. You are no longer a child, and princesses must marry early.' Margot's heart began to pound. 'I have taken a good deal of trouble on your account already, and have, I think, succeeded in making a brilliant match for you.'

Margot began: 'Madame ...' But Catherine looked at her in astonishment that she should have dared to interrupt, and Margot was immediately silent.

'Sebastian, the King of Portugal, is considering whether he will take you as his wife.'

Margot gulped and tried to speak.

Catherine went on: 'As you know, he is the nephew of the King of Spain, and Philip himself puts no obstacle in the way of the match. I am sure that when Sebastian himself sees you in all your maidenly beauty, he will be eager to make you his wife. Now, my daughter, you will be ignorant of the duties of the married state, and you may need instruction in such matters. Do not forget that I am your mother and that I shall be willing to help you and tell you what you wish to know of such matters of which you, as a maiden, will be ignorant.'

Margot flushed scarlet; she knew that her mother was aware of her love affair. She wanted to show defiance as she had to Charles and Henry, but she was numbed by that cold terror which she always felt in the presence of her mother.

'Speak, my daughter! Speak, Marguerite, and tell me that you are happy because of this match I have arranged for you. Tell me, what is your will in all this?'

The cold eyes held Margot's, and the girl felt as though she were in the presence of a supernatural being, something inhuman and horrible that was threatening death to her love, and life-long misery. She remembered her lover's instructions to be calm, to indulge in temporary deceit for the purpose of winning in the end.

'I ... I have no will of my own, Madame,' she heard herself say. 'I only have that will which depends on yours.'

Catherine burst into loud laughter. She took Margot's ear and pulled her towards her.

'No will but mine ... and that of Monsieur de Guise, eh?'

Margot cried out in pain, but her mother gripped her ear the harder. Then she put her lips close to that ear and began to whisper that she knew what Margot believed to have been known only to herself and her lover. All Catherine's coa.r.s.eness came out now. The loud laugh on her lips, the crude words, made Margot flinch.

'Harlot! Wanton! Do you know no better? It is you who have seduced him ... not he you. It is you who have importuned Monsieur de Guise to take you to his bed. Marriage! What of that? The Princess of France, for whom I have tried to arrange one of the grandest marriages the world has ever known, is a harlot, begging the favours of the Duke of Guise. "Henry ... take me ... take me ... Now ... now ... I cannot wait. I long so for you ..." ' Catherine began to laugh. 'Monsieur de Guise must have found the conquest of the Princess of France the easiest he ever undertook.'

And with these scornful words, Catherine flung Margot from her; and Margot, who would have been quick-witted, who would have made her escape from any other, lay where she had fallen, as though petrified, unable to move, while her mother, portly and vengeful, swept slowly and majestically towards her.

'Get up!' she cried; and Margot rose immediately.

Catherine slapped Margot's face, her rings cutting into the girl's cheek.

'Ah!' said Catherine. 'That must not be. We must not let your future husband know that we have had to beat you for wantonness with the Duke of Guise.' Catherine pulled Margot towards her. 'And why do you think Guise has made you his mistress? Because he loves you? Because he is as mad for you as you so shamelessly are for him? Never! Because, foolish wanton, the Cardinal of Lorraine told him to seduce you in the hope that, having been his mistress, it would be impossible for you to marry him whom I have chosen for you. That is their scheme. "Henry, I long for you." "And I for you, Margot. And for all that you can bring me. Not your wanton body, you fool, but your name, your rank, for besides being a harlot you are the daughter of a royal house, the most n.o.ble house in France." '

'You lie,' said Margot. 'He loves me ... me.'

'You little fool. Monsieur de Guise is not the sort to say "No" when a woman begs so insistently.'

'You lie ...'

Catherine took Margot by the sleeve of her gown and dragged her to a couch. She pushed her down and bent over her. 'You may well show fear. You dare to tell me, your mother, that I lie! You dare to solicit favours of Monsieur de Guise! You dare to become the mistress of the man who threatens your brother the King and the whole of your family!'

This was one of those rare occasions when Catherine's control broke. She imagined she heard Margot's voice: 'Henry, I long for you.' She imagined she heard the deep, pa.s.sionate response of Henry of Guise. But it was not these two she pictured; it was another Henry, oh, long ago, loving his mistress as he never could his wife.

In a sudden rush of fury, she tore off Margot's clothes and beat her savagely.

'Not the face this time!' she cried. 'We must not show the King of Portugal that we have a wanton for a daughter. We must beat you where the marks of a beating will not be seen ... except, perhaps, by Monsieur de Guise.'

Margot lay panting under the fury of her mother, who had picked up a cane with a jewelled handle which Charles used when he left the palace on flagellating orgies. It came down again and again on Margot's body; and all the time it seemed to Catherine that she was watching two lovers through a hole in the floor of the palace at Saint-Germain. It was not, it seemed to her then, Margot who lay there, but Diane.

Eventually her pa.s.sion was spent. She reflected that it was a rare thing for her to indulge in such emotion. Yet it had been irresistible. Margot had called up too many memories. It had been foolish of her to compare Henry of Guise with Henry of Valois, simply because they both bore the same name.

Margot lay limp on the couch, and Catherine stared down at her bruised body.

'Go,' said Catherine. 'Put on your dress. Later I will discuss with you the arrangements for the greeting of the King of Portugal.'

And while Margot, in her own apartments, was bathing her wounds, terrified lest some mark should spoil the perfection of her body, Catherine reproached herself for that outburst of fury.

Looking back was something in which she knew it was folly to indulge. There were too many dangers of the moment for past insults and humiliations to be of any importance.

Margot was preparing to meet her suitor. Her dress was of cloth of gold; her jewels magnificent; and her eyes were as hard and as brilliant as the diamonds she wore. She was saying to herself: 'I will never marry him. I will marry Henry. There will be a way, and we will find it.'

She had seen Henry of Guise earlier that day. He was constantly in the company of the Princess of Cleves, being so much wiser than she could ever be. He knew of that interview she had had with her mother; he begged her to be calm, discreet. It was for Henry's sake that she had feigned meekness and pretended to submit to her mother's commands.

She had said to Henry when they met: 'I must see you later. I want to come to you in my rich gown and my jewels. I have said I will wear them to greet my bridegroom. You are my bridegroom.'

'It is dangerous,' he said.

But Margot's pa.s.sion carried her beyond the thought of danger. She must see him. It was so long since they had made love. Two days ago ... It was an age! To-night, after the ceremonial meeting with the King of Portugal, they would meet. Did he know that small chamber close to his own apartments in this palace of the Louvre? She would come to him there, and he must be ready for her. They would spend the whole night together. They must. She would not be put off with a mere hour. They must be together all through the night. It was only with such a prospect before her that she could face the ordeal of the evening's ceremony.

He had agreed to be at the rendezvous, and Margot, having dressed herself with the greatest care, knew she had never looked so beautiful.

'Ah!' said one of her women. 'You look like a Princess who is going to meet her lover.'