The Traitor's Daughter

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

This strand of hair goes over this one; this one goes there...

Elizabeth focused on the long, large pile of hair in her hands, her brown eyes narrowed. She was more frustrated than she had been in a long time, over something so trivial. Meanwhile, Jane Westfeld sat in front of Elizabeth, her back to the dark-haired woman. She grimaced and fought the urge to cry out and tell her friend to stop pulling as hard as she had been. Instead, she sighed and pulled away from Elizabeth.

“I could be wrong, but I believe you're failing miserably at this,” Jane said with a smile.

Elizabeth laughed and released the hair from her hands. Only a quarter of the length of Jane's hair was plaited, and it looked absolutely horrendous. Strands of hair poked out of the plait, and others were knotted together. She felt bad that Jane would have to brush through them later.

“How did you know?” Elizabeth replied jokingly.

Jane smiled, tossed her long hair over her shoulder, then began running her short fingers through the knots and tangles. She grimaced as she did so, but Elizabeth could already see that she was making progress.

“It's a good thing you weren't born a peasant,” Jane said truthfully. “You'd never get a job as a lady's maid.”

The two women sat in a window seat in one of the corridors that had less traffic than others. Elizabeth had been surprised when Jane invited herself into her room before she was even out of bed, but was pleased at the same time. It had been a long time since Elizabeth had been around friends, and she was happy that Jane willingly came to see her; especially after all the drama with the king and queen.

It was the morning after Elizabeth had discovered Grace in her room, and she still hadn't seen the girl around court. She had sent a letter to her, asking how she was, and received a message back, saying that she was taking time off to heal. Her friends from the kitchen were helping to take care of her wounds. Elizabeth was extremely glad to hear that Grace was taking time off. Working in the kitchens and serving people wouldn't help her heal as fast as she needed to.

“Have you spoken with the queen since the....incident?” Jane asked hesitantly.

Elizabeth shook her head, but said nothing, hoping it would get Jane to stop talking about it.

“Are you...happy? I mean, I know that a lot of women are forced to try and become the king's mistress. Are you doing this because you want to?”

Elizabeth sighed and leaned her head against the cold window. She considered telling Jane the truth, but knew it was a stupid idea. And yet, she longed to tell someone at court aside from Mary. She wanted someone else to be in on the secret. Someone she could trust. A friend.

“I'm not the king's mistress,” Elizabeth said quietly, her voice sounding somewhat impatient.

Jane wasn't quite sure she believed her friend, although she wanted to. She knew that she was quite gullible – she always believed every rumor that spread around court – but this rumor, the one about her friend, was one that she wanted to look into herself. She didn't want to believe a word anyone said, until she had done her own investigating.

“Elizabeth,” Jane said quietly. She placed her hand on her friend's, and looked at her with an expression full of pity.

Elizabeth yanked her hands free from the other woman's grasp and glared at her.

“I don't need a friend who won't believe me, Jane. If I wanted one of those, I'd befriend any other courtier. I'm telling the truth.”

Jane studied her friend's eyes for a few seconds and found that she couldn't help but believe her. She sighed, settled her hands in her lap, then smiled at Elizabeth.