Suddenly she paused, made a stiff little bow and said: “Madame St. Clare? My master presents his service to you and asks if you will wait upon him tonight at his lodgings.” And then she spun around and danced off across the room, laughing joyously. But in the midst of a whirl she stopped, her face serious again. “What shall I wear!” And chattering excitedly the two women ran into the bedroom. The clock on the mantel pointed to nine.
This time she was more sure than ever that he liked her.
Some of her earlier awe and self-consciousness was gone and they laughed and talked like old friends; she thought him the most fascinating man she had met since Lord Carlton. When she left he said, as he had the time before, “Good-night, my dear, and God bless you,” gave her a playful slap on the buttocks, and another bagful of coins.
Tempest and Jeremiah were waiting for her at the Holbein Gate and they set off swiftly for home, rattling and clanging through the night.
But the coach had no sooner turned into the Strand than a party of horsemen rushed at them from out of the shadows. Before Amber knew what was happening Tempest had been hauled down from his perch and Jeremiah knocked to the ground. The horses began to rear and neigh with excitement. Amber was looking around her, wondering what she should do, when the door was flung open. A masked man leaned in, seized her by the wrist and began dragging her toward him. Amber screamed and started to struggle, though she knew well enough what little good that could do.
He gave her a rough shake. “Stop that! I won’t hurt you-just hand me that bagful of coins his Majesty gave you! Quick!”
Amber was kicking at him and trying to tear his fingers loose from her wrist. But now as she leaned over to bite his hand he gave her a violent shove that knocked her across the coach and half onto the floor and she could see the gleam of moonlight on his levelled pistol. “Give me that bag, madame, or I’ll shoot you! I have no time for playful tricks!”
Amber continued to hesitate, expecting to be rescued somehow, but as she heard the sound of the pistol cocking she took the bag from her muff and tossed it at him. He caught it, gave her a bow and backed away. But just before the door shut she heard a woman’s triumphant laugh and a voice cried: “Many thanks, madame! Her Ladyship appreciates your charity! I promise you the money will be laid out in a good cause!” The door slammed and there was a sound of prancing horses’ hoofs as they wheeled about and then started off again at a gallop—riding back down King Street toward the Palace.
Amber lay for a moment without moving, dumfounded. That voice! she thought. I’ve heard it somewhere before! And then suddenly she remembered: It was the same laugh, the same aggressive, high-pitched feminine voice she had heard that night outside the Royal Saracen-it was Barbara Palmer!
That was the last of Amber’s visits to Whitehall.
The King, it was well known, liked to live in peace and quiet, and a jealous woman’s sharp venomous tongue could make that impossible. Fortunately for her though, gossip spread that Charles had said he liked Madame St. Clare well enough—but not to the point of sacrificing his ease for her. And that was all that saved her. As it was they kept at her for several days, stinging and biting like malicious insects, but at last they grew tired of baiting her and found another victim.
By the time a fortnight had passed her life had settled back to normal. Everyone but Amber had forgotten that the King had ever sent for her.
But she did not forget or intend to forget. She nursed her new grievance against Barbara Palmer as carefully as she had the old. Someday, she promised herself, I’ll make her sorry she ever was born. I’ll find a way to get even with her if it’s the last thing I do on earth! She spent much time and found much pleasure in imagining her revenge, but those images, like everything else she could not see or touch, slid gradually into some back compartment of her mind to be saved and brought out again when she had a use for them.
She had been entertaining, one night, a dozen young men and women whom she had invited to supper and they had just gone home, leaving the tables littered with dishes, the floors covered with nut-shells and fruit-peelings and a torn deck of cards. There were wine-bottles and glasses, with only a sticky sediment in the bottoms, the air was thick with tobacco smoke, and the furniture had all been pushed out of place.
