As the Sparks Fly Upward (30 page)

“There's nothing to forgive, Dr. Perry. We'll do good work together. Feel free to call on me anytime.”

As he left the palace, Colin's mind was on the new house. His first thought was how much this would please Twyla. He hurried home as quickly as he could, and Twyla met him at the door. “Good news!” he said, then suddenly he put his arms around her and lifted her up and spun her around.

She knew his hug was not romantic, so she said only, “Why, what is it, Colin?”

Colin put her down and said, “You can't call me Mister any longer. I'm now Sir Colin Winslow. The queen knighted me!”

“How wonderful! You deserved it.”

Colin saw that her eyes were sparkling and her lips were wide with a smile.

“And look! The queen has given us a new house!”

“A new house? Did you buy it?”

“No, the queen gave it to us. I will serve as the court physician. There's a small house for you. We'll have to hire servants, and you'll need a maid and a cook.”

“What will I do with myself?”

“You'll be nice to me. That will be your full-time job.” He paused, then said, “My parents will be proud of me.”

Twyla smiled, saying, “They're already proud of you—and so am I, Sir Colin Winslow!”

Colin had dreaded telling Teague that he was leaving for London, but Teague was pleased, saying, “You're going up in the world, young man. I'm proud of you.”

All during the month of March, Colin was fiercely busy. Now that he was the court physician, he had multiple calls for his service. Like his predecessors, he didn't answer most but assigned them to young assistants who had come to him seeking positions. He was amazed at how differently people treated him now that he had a title. He paid little attention to that, but he used every spare minute with Twyla to outfit the new house. It was a large house that required at least half a dozen servants, but money was coming in from the book now and the practice was booming.

In the last week of the month, Colin got a letter from his mother saying his father was not at all well and asking him to come to Stoneybrook. He showed the letter to Twyla. “I'm worried about Father. I've decided to go get him and Mother to bring them back here. There's plenty of room for them, and I can take constant care of him here.”

“When will you go, Colin?”

He smiled at her, saying, “Well, at last you've stopped calling me ‘Mister.' You've got to be good or I'll make you call me Sir Colin. Now, I'll go get my parents tomorrow, and you finish up on the house. By the way,” he hesitated awkwardly, then said, “Adam and Heather will be coming to live with us for a time.”

Twyla didn't speak for a moment, then hesitantly said, “Well, that will be nice.”

“Adam needs to be near court along with Drake. They're getting ready to face a war with Spain. His house is too far away at present.”

“There's plenty of room for everyone. When will they be here?”

“Within a week. I must get ready and go.”

Twyla watched as he hurried away. She shook her head, for it displeased her that she would have to share the new house with Heather. She knew that the woman looked down on her because she had been a servant, and she also knew, from local gossip, that Heather was unhappy with her husband. Adam cared little for the social world of the court, while Heather wanted to go to every ball. She wanted Adam to fight his way up in society, but all Adam cared about was his career in the navy.

Twyla had heard, for some time, a great deal of gossip about Heather's personal life. Everyone, it seemed, knew that she'd had an affair with Sir George Beddington. He had no fortune, but he was a handsome man.

“Colin shouldn't have her in his house,” Twyla muttered. “He's still in love with that woman, and she's nothing that a woman should be.”

For two weeks now Twyla had been delighted to serve Colin's mother. She had always loved Eden and Brandon, and now that they were in the same house, she saw that they were made perfectly comfortable. This wasn't difficult to do, for there were
plenty of servants. Though Brandon's health had been poor, he had improved greatly.

Twyla's relationship with Heather was not so happy. Adam was gone most of the time, for he and Drake were busy building a navy to meet the Spaniards. This left Heather with nothing to occupy her. Quite by accident, Twyla had discovered that the romance between Sir George Beddington and Heather was by no means dead. She overheard the servants talking about it and her first impulse was to speak of the affair to Colin, but she quickly saw that she must never say a word about Heather—at least until Colin was freed from his obsession with her.

But Heather had no hesitation about speaking to Colin about Twyla. She had not been in the house a week when she called Colin aside and said, “It's not fitting for you to be living in a house with Twyla. People are beginning to talk. You must get her out of here.”

“What are you talking about?” Colin said instantly. “We're not living in the same house, as you well know. She's a fine young woman, and I'm very proud of her.”

“You're vulnerable to women, as almost all men are,” Heather said at once. “Don't you see the danger in living in the same house with her?”

“No, I certainly don't! We've been living in the same house since she was a child.”

“Well, she's not a child any longer, Colin! You're alone together for much of the time. What if she draws you into an affair? She might have a child, and you'd be forced to send her away.”

“You're talking nonsense, Heather! Twyla is a pure young woman!”

Heather moved toward Colin, putting her arms around his neck and pressing herself against him. “You're a target for an aggressive woman, and I'm partly to blame. I was your first woman, and I've never forgotten our love, and neither have you.”

There was enough truth in Heather's words to send shame
through Colin, and the pressure of her body stirred old hungers. He drew away from her with a desperate fear that he would not be strong enough to resist her advances. “Don't speak of this again, Heather!” he said, then turned and left the room.

Heather slowly smiled, for she well knew that Colin was still drawn to her. She left the room, assured that there would be other times and that Colin would not be able to resist her.

20

April 15, 1587

T
wyla found it easy to cook and listen to Thomas Burke at the same time. She'd made gingerbread so often that she didn't have to think about it. It was Colin's favorite sweet, so she'd learned to make it well. Compacted bread crumbs were the basis of the treat, and she added a stiff paste made with honey, pepper, saffron, and cinnamon. This she formed into a square shape and covered with box leaves, then impaled with cloves. She then put it in the special iron vessel she used to bake her pastries. The vessel was seated in a bowl of red-hot coals, and she also put hot coals on the top. She then came back to take her seat across from Thomas.

“I wish you would pay as much attention to me as you pay to your cooking,” Thomas complained.

“Why do you keep coming to see me, Thomas?” Twyla asked. “Your father is rich and he'll want you to marry a rich woman. Also, I live much farther away now. It's a long trip for you.”

Burke blinked in surprise. “Well now, that's coming right out with it!” he exclaimed. “That's what I like about you, Twyla: you say what you think. It gets a little tiresome having women falling all over you. Since I'll have a large fortune one day, I seem to attract them like bees to honey. Not you, though.”

“How much money will you have? I might be interested.” Twyla couldn't help teasing the young man.

He laughed and got to his feet. “You don't care about things like that.” He came over and would have put his arms around her, but she put her hands on his chest and shoved him away. “Be off now, Thomas.”

“I think we'd make a good couple. I've got money and you have beauty. What else is there?”

“There is one reason we could never marry.”

“And what's that?”

“I don't have the feelings for you that a woman should have for the man she's going to spend fifty years in bed with.”

The eyes of the young man flew open, and then he laughed with pleasure. “I can take care of that. After we're married I'll make you love me.”

“Oh, you're impossible! Go along now. I've got work to do.”

“I'll come and get you tomorrow. We'll go into the village, and I'll get you something pretty.”

“I'll think about it.”

As soon as Burke left, Twyla turned and looked over the large kitchen. It was at least three times as large as the old one, but she didn't like it as much. It lacked the coziness of the kitchen in Teague's house. She often thought of how it had been when just she, Colin, and Teague had shared the small house. Also, Colin had hired a cook and a housekeeper. Twyla had protested, but he had insisted, saying, “You've worked enough, Twyla. Now let someone else work for a change.”

Moving to the kitchen window, Twyla looked out at the bright, sunny afternoon. A movement on the ground caught her eye, and she glanced down to see a group of sparrows engaged in a furious battle for the crumbs she'd put out earlier. She suddenly laughed and said, “Well, if birds can't agree, how can men have any hope?” She got a crust of bread, crumbled it, and threw it out through the open window.

Turning from the window, she went to a chest and pulled out her drawing papers. She was working on drawings for the new edition of the anatomy book. It gave her a feeling of pride that she had been such help to Colin. She hadn't been drawing long when the door opened and Colin entered. He wore a displeased expression and said at once, “I saw that pest walking down the street. Has he been here to see you?”

“No, I haven't had any pests here.”

“He looked as if he came from here.”

Twyla looked at him, her eyes wide with innocence. “No, the only visitor I've had is Mr. Thomas Burke, a fine young man admired by all. I wouldn't call him a pest.”

“Well, he is!”

“He wants to marry me.” This wasn't exactly true, for although Thomas had teased her about marriage, she knew his father would never permit it. It pleased Twyla to see Colin looking jealous.

He said stubbornly, “You don't love him.”

Twyla laughed aloud, for she had learned to put up with Colin's persistent attempts to control her love life, such as it was. “Who made you an expert on love? Is your next book going to be on courtship and marriage, Colin?”

Colin was obviously irritated. “It bothers me that you
still
don't understand young men,” he said stiffly. “I've told you a hundred times they aren't to be trusted!”

“I trust you utterly, Colin.”

“Why, I didn't mean
me
! Of course you can trust me, but not that fellow Burke.”

“Why can't I trust him?”

“He's got a look about him I don't like.” Colin struggled to find the right words to say. “He looks like a sneak.”

Twyla would have answered, but the outer door opened and the entire door frame was, it seemed, filled by the large figure of Adam. He looked troubled, but he brightened up when he saw
Twyla. “How are you today, my dear?” He reached out, took her hand, and kissed it. “You're looking especially well.”

“Thank you, Adam. You look well too,” Twyla answered with a shy smile.

“What's that I smell? Fresh bread? I'm starved to death!” Adam exclaimed.

“You two sit down. There's plenty of food. It was Kate's day off, so I did all the cooking, and I can cook better than she can anyway.”

“You certainly can!” Adam exclaimed.

Twyla brought the food, and as the two men ate, she asked, “Are we really going to have a war with Spain?”

“Why, of course we are! No question about it! Walsingham's spies say the dons are building an armada with as many as two hundred ships. We don't even have forty! But we'll beat them! The queen's been prudent, but she knows she has to have a powerful navy. We can never beat Spain on the field, for we don't have the soldiers for it or the equipment. But they have to get here to put their army ashore, and that's how we'll stop them.”

He leaned forward and his eyes gleamed. “The queen has had Sir John Hawkings working on a new design for a ship. The old galleons only did one thing: they put themselves next to an enemy ship and tried to board. All the time the cannons were blowing the sides of both ships apart. That's not what our new ships will do.”

“What will they do?” Twyla asked.

“They're built to stand out of range of the enemy's cannon. We'll have specially made cannons called demi-culverins. They can throw a shot ten times farther than the Spanish cannons.”

“Do you really think it'll work?” Colin asked doubtfully. “People are calling it
The Invincible Armada.
”