Page 19 of The Changeling

‘What do you see?’ her half-brother demanded.

I struggled to speak. ‘A … a lion and a dragon … fighting. You must beware! Danger … treason … death.’

All the charm and gaiety drained from the queen’s face, leaving her white and frightened. ‘A lion and a dragon? What could it mean?’

I shook my head. I had no way to understand it.

Lord James regarded me intently. Something in his face made me uneasy, and Carlin growled deep in her throat. Châtelard wheeled his horse about. ‘The child talks gibberish. She must be mad! Can we not ride on? It is cold, and I for one would like a cup of hot mulled wine.’ He gave a shrill artificial laugh.

Mary reached out to clutch at Lord James’s sleeve. ‘The fire in my bedroom at Stirling? Do you think …? Perhaps it was not just a draught blowing my bed curtains into the candle flame? Perhaps it was meant to kill me as I slept?’

‘Do not let the child upset you,’ her half-brother said. ‘It is clear she is as impaired in her mind as she is in her body. Come, let us ride on, it is too cold for our horses. Leave the girl to her ravings.’

‘Are you telling me the truth?’ the queen demanded.

I nodded. ‘I’m sorry … I canna choose what I see. Oh, please, your Grace, beware! Someone … Someone close to you means you harm.’

She nodded, and kicked her horse into motion.

‘You should have your tongue nailed to the pillory!’ Châtelard said to me. ‘How dare you distress her Grace so.’ He cantered after her.

The queen’s half-brother looked down at me, frowning. ‘Do you truly have the Sight?’

I nodded dumbly.

‘What do you see for me?’

I looked up into his eyes, hazel like the queen’s.

‘One day you will rule in all but name,’ I told him.

He nodded. Wheeled his horse away. Galloped after the queen.

I was trembling all over. It had been such a strange impulse, cooking the queen a little cake. I had thought only to please her. I had not known a marigold was her secret insignia – how could I have known? Yet I had gone out into the cold wind to pluck the flower, and made the cake look as much like a marigold as I could.

I crept back to the castle, Carlin trotting at my heels. The kitchen was a whirl of activity as the cooks prepared a great feast for the queen. The centrepiece was the head of a unicorn carved from marzipan. As I carefully applied gold leaf to the long scrolled horn, I thought again about my vision. A lion and a dragon fighting …

Some of the kitchen maids had told me the Lords of the Congregation had mocked the queen on her arrival in Edinburgh, staging a pageant where a dragon made of canvas and paper was set on fire and a psalm sung while it blazed. It was an insult to her Catholic faith, for Pastor Knox said the Pope was the Beast of Revelations, the winged serpent that was the emblem of Satan. The book of Revelation also referred to Christ as a lion. So perhaps my vision meant that the struggle between the old and new faiths in Scotland would bring about the queen’s death?

And I had told the queen’s half-brother that he would rule in all but name.

How I hated my curse of Seeing. I could not summon it at will, and neither could I stop myself from speaking the premonitions when they came. If only I could blinker my eyes and shackle my tongue. If only I could be like the other girls, running back and forth from the great hall with flushed cheeks and shining eyes, thrilled to have seen the queen.

After the feast had been cleared away, someone struck up a fiddle, and it was not long before everyone was up and dancing. I could not dance, despite all my wishing, so I went out into the dark garden, my dog my faithful shadow as always.

The rain had blown over, and stars glittered above. I walked back and forth, worried for the queen and frightened by my own powers. Where did such hidden knowledge come from?

Could I somehow avert the queen’s fate and save her?

‘Would you like to dance?’ Robbie’s voice came out of the shadows, startling me.

‘Do no’ tease me, Robbie. You ken I canna dance.’

‘Surely the girl that can gallop on the back of a stallion can dance a few steps?’

‘I dinna ken how.’

‘I’ll teach you.’ Robbie held out his hand to me.