Read The Hostage Queen for Free Online Page A

pine seeming to go on for ever. Margot kept to the back of the main party on her white palfrey, simply enjoying the freedom and the cool breeze in her hair, when Henry brought his horse to her side and challenged her to a gallop.
    There was nothing Margot loved more than a dare and normally would have welcomed any adventure to break the tedium, yet she hesitated. She hated to be outshone, and this high bred horse was trained to amble with a smooth gait over long distances. Beautiful as the animal was, she certainly wasn’t made for a fast gallop.
    ‘I think not. Pray ride with the other silly young boys, if you are bored.’
    ‘Don’t tell me you’re afraid you might lose?’ he teased.
    ‘I am afraid of nothing, certainly not an oaf like you.’
    ‘Or are you nervous that you may get lost?’
    ‘Of course not.’
    ‘If so, you need have no fear. This is my country. I know it well. And everyone knows me.’
    ‘Every peasant, I dare say.’
    Henry smiled. ‘Indeed, and every farmer, every woodsman, every milkmaid. Have you not heard them hail me? They call me noste Enric.’
    ‘Our Enric?’ Margot scornfully mimicked. ‘No doubt because no one else would ever lay claim to you.’
    ‘Not even you?’
    ‘Particularly not me! I’d sooner die than . . .’ The words were no sooner out of her mouth than a wild boar suddenly charged out of the undergrowth in front of them, startling both Margot and her horse. Cursing, she fought with the reins to bring the skittish animal back under control while desperately attempting to maintain her seat in the saddle.
    Henry put back his head and laughed, but when he reached out to grab the reins and help steady her mount, she turned on him like a spitting cat.
    ‘I can manage perfectly well, if you please. Unlike the countless pretty girls who fawn at your feet, I need assistance from no one, least of all from you.’
    This seemed to amuse him all the more. ‘I’m thankful to hear it, since a Princess of France must surely be both brave and steadfast, although she must of course obey her husband, once she has one. If you were my wife, that would most certainly be the case.’
    Cheeks flushed bright pink, and not simply from the effort of bringing her mount back to a steady gait, Margot responded sharply. ‘Only if a husband were worthy of respect, which you would not be. I should never do as you ordered me. Fortunately, I never shall be your wife, so the point will not be put to the test.’
    ‘We may yet be obliged to consider the possibility, since you are back on the market. Would you not care to be my Queen?’
    ‘No, I would not! Your clothes are outmoded, your manners worse than a peasant’s, and your breath smells of garlic.’
    Henry laughed. ‘Of course it does, I’m a Gascon.’
    ‘That does not mean you must be quite so vulgar.’
    But he was no longer listening to her. One of her mother’s Escadron Volant trotted her horse by them at precisely that moment, a pretty brunette with green eyes. Henry instantly lost interest in their sparring and galloped off in pursuit of the girl. Margot was furious. How fickle that boy was.
     
    The moment she was alone Jeanne reached for quill pen and ink, wasting not a moment in sending a message to warn her fellow leaders of this threat.
    Condé she knew to be ambitious, brave and cunning, a military genius, and as a Bourbon Prince more than ready to claim the throne were King Charles to be deposed. H ump-backed he may be, but far from repulsive in either appearance or character. F or all his brilliance he had a weakness for w omen, who responded easily to his charm and his merry blue eyes. Such antics did not endear him to Coligny, the Admiral, who considered his colleague morally unstable, being himself of a more serious nature.
    Jeanne would consider any threat to the leaders’ safety as tantamount to a declaration of war.
    She wrote and dispatched the letter with all speed before returning to the entertainment planned