The Queen's Fool

“I agree,” I said, surprising him again.

He stopped in his tracks. “You agree?” he repeated comically.

I nodded.

“And Daniel is to be brought up as one of the People?” he confirmed.

I nodded. “He is one already,” I said. “I had him circumcised. You must instruct him, and when he is older he will learn from my father’s Hebrew Bible.”

He drew a breath. “Ha

I pressed against his side. “Daniel, I did not know what I wanted when I was a girl. And then I was a fool in every sense of the word. And now that I am a woman grown, I know that I love you and I want this son of yours, and our other children who will come. I have seen a woman break her heart for love: my Queen Mary. I have seen another break her soul to avoid it: my Princess Elizabeth. I don’t want to be Mary or Elizabeth, I want to be me: Ha

“And we shall live somewhere that we can follow our beliefs without danger,” he insisted.

“Yes,” I said, “in the England that Elizabeth will make.”

Author’s Note

The characters of Ha

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