Darkwitch Rising by Sara Douglass

There was one other public consideration in this dallying. It lacked but four days to Charles’ thirtieth birthday, and the king had expressed a wish to enter London on his birthday, that being a fortunate coincidence, and a propitious one at that.

Preparations for the landing commenced just after two in the afternoon. While there was a general and highly excited hustle and bustle on deck, Charles spent a quiet moment with Catharine in their cabin.

They were both accoutred splendidly for the occasion. Charles wore a deep blue velvet suit with a sparkling silver and gold vest. Ribbons and jewels adorned all his fingers, as well as the sleeves and cuffs of his coat and the buckles of his shoes and the wide band about the hat that currently sat waiting for the king’s favour on a table. Charles’ abundant, wavy black hair had been washed and left to lie about his shoulders and his moustache had been freshly groomed: his entire appearance sparkled and snapped with authority and joy and majesty.

Catharine wore matching clothes, although the fabric of her gown was primarily the silver and gold of Charles’ vest, and her accessories—ribbons, bows and swathes of elegantly draped silk—were of the same deep blue velvet as her husband’s suit. Her hair, like Charles’, had been freshly washed and groomed, and hung in heavy wings to either side of her face before rising into a complex knot on the crown of her head. Pearls and diamonds wove their way through her braids and about her delicate neck. Her fingers gleamed with diamonds, rubies and emeralds.

Her face, like Charles’, was taut and pale with worry.

“My God, Charles, what shall we find?”

“A people who shall acclaim us,” he said.

“That was not what I meant.”

He sighed, and turned to one side to pick up and fiddle with his broad-brimmed blue velvet hat. “I have not heard from Louis. Not from anyone.” He looked back at his wife, and raised his eyes.

“And I have felt nothing. No echoes of pain or misery such as I felt two nights ago. I pray that Louis found her in time.” She rested her hand on Charles’ arm. “Charles, she will be well. Noah is a powerful woman. A goddess. No one knows that better than you. She will not be a pawn, even if Weyland has her.”

Charles laid a hand against her cheek, then kissed her mouth, careful not to smear any of her carefully applied make-up. “I am well served in you as a wife,” he said softly. “Whatever happens, with you at my side…”

“At the least we shall win for ourselves a kingdom,” she said, and grinned, “with considerable less fuss than the last time. Charles, put aside your cares, keep that smile on your face and go forth now and do what you must. Sitting here and worrying shall advance our cause not a whit.”

“You are as wise as you are beautiful. England shall be well served in you as queen.”

At that moment there came a discreet knock at the door, then it opened.

It was James, Duke of York, Charles’ younger brother and Loth-reborn. He had joined Charles just as he was leaving The Hague after spending most of the exile years with their mother in France.

“James,” Charles said, giving his brother a nod.

James was a “not quite” copy of his older brother. He was not quite as tall, not quite so dark, his hair not quite so curly or luxurious, his features not quite so handsome, and they exuded not quite so much power as did Charles’. Nonetheless, he emanated a particular peace, which Charles put down to his adherence to the Christian faith.

“It is time to go ashore,” James said, a strange tightness to his voice.

“What, James,” said Charles, “do you hear the thud of the stag’s hooves on the forest floor?”

“Charles—” James began. He stopped, and Charles saw just how emotional his brother was.

“You are glad to be home,” he said.

“Aye,” said James, “I do not think I could ever bear to be parted from this land again.”

Charles gave a small smile, although his eyes were wary, as they always were when dealing with his brother. “I am glad for it,” he said, then he turned to Catharine. “Now, my darling, let us go to the deck, and endeavour to get ourselves into the Admiral’s barge with the least ruin to our finery as possible.”

He gave Catharine his arm, and led her forth onto the deck.

After a moment, James followed.

Most people in the fleet clearly seemed to think that they had a place reserved for them in the Admiral’s barge, and it took almost an hour to manage to get both king and queen, several of the king’s dogs, as well as numerous officials, dignitaries and courtiers into the barge and still leave enough room for the sailors who must perforce do the rowing.

Charles and Catharine sat about a third of the way down from the bow, shaded from the sun by a canopy and from the spray by artfully raised canvas walls to either side of the barge. Next to them sat the faithful Sir Edward Hyde (created Earl of Clarendon as part of the king’s morning business aboard) as well as Sir Edward Montagu, while James sat just before them, his face continuously turned to the white cliffs and the swathe of green that topped them. More than anything else Charles would have liked to have had Louis at his side for this grand entry into England, but it was not to be. He took Catharine’s hand, and squeezed it, and smiled for her.

She could clearly see the worry return to his eyes and, to distract him, she tilted her head to where Samuel Pepys sat towards the rear of the barge, scribbling away in what appeared to be a notebook.

“Master Pepys is ever the busy secretary,” she said, and then looked to Montagu. “You are well served by Pepys, my lord.”

“Oh, aye, majesty,” said Montagu, then sighed heavily. “No doubt he sits there now, even on this day of all days, and busies himself figuring how much I owe my creditors.”

Charles laughed and, half-rising from his seat, called out to Pepys. “What do you there, good Master Pepys? Is there not enough to entertain you on this day that you must worry at your lord’s accounts?”

Pepys smiled and rose, bowing at both Charles and Catharine. “Not accounts at all, gracious majesties! I take notes of all that happens about me, all that I see on this auspicious day. I keep a diary, and like to record all that I see as well as all I do, sin or no.”

Charles raised an eyebrow. “You record your sins? Truly? And what does your good wife say, Pepys, when she reads your diary while you are about your lord’s business?”

Again Pepys bowed. “I write only in cipher, majesty. There are few who could figure it, and my good Elizabeth most certainly not among them.”

Charles laughed, and waved Pepys back to his seat as he sat himself. “A diary,” he said to Catharine, half-shaking his head.

“Well,” she said, “he shall have many pretty things to write about today’s celebrations, no doubt. And,” she grinned, mischievously, “better a diary to record your victorious entry into your kingdom, perhaps, than years spent working a tapestry?”

Charles smiled at her reference to the magnificent tapestry that, as Matilda, she had caused to be woven to record her husband William’s victorious campaign over the Anglo-Saxon forces.

Then Catharine’s faced sobered. “Ah, I’m sorry, my love. I should not have laughed about Harold’s—”

He kissed her mouth, silencing her apology. “You do not need to apologise to me,” he said. “Never.” They reached shore safely, save that one of Charles’ dogs shat in the barge, which sent Pepys to more furious scribbling, and the rest of the barge into uproarious laughter.

“I am but a man,” Charles said, disarmingly, as the laughter finally petered out, “and my dogs mess as those of any other man.”

From the barge they managed the dry sand with minimum difficulty (Catharine smiling in delight as she was carried over the waves sitting on the linked arms of two tall diplomats) where Charles immediately sank to his knees.

He grabbed two handfuls of the sand, and lifted them skyward. “I praise God in heaven,” he cried so that all might hear, “for my safe return to my beloved homeland, and beg Him to grant me the wisdom to guide my people bravely and well and in the manner to which He commends me.”

To one side, Catharine nodded, murmuring “Amen”, glad that Charles had the presence of mind to set the scene for a rule guided by God’s hand, and not as God’s divine agent on earth, answerable to no one, which was his father’s fatal error. She also wondered at the action, knowing most present were educated enough to know that William the Conqueror had done much the same thing when he first set foot on England’s beaches…save that when William had seized his two fistfuls of sand, he had cried out, “See, England is mine!”