“Be seated, Mistress McCraggan,” the Queen commanded. “I wish to talk with you.”
Sheena seated herself nervously on a low chair.
“The Marquis has told me of the kind things you have said about me,” the Queen went on. “I am touched that someone from so far away should understand so clearly all that I suffer and endure in this great Palace, which is really little more than a prison.”
Sheena looked startled. The Marquis, she thought wryly, must have embroidered very considerably anything she had actually said and have invented the rest.
The Queen clasped her hands together.
“Oh, Mistress McCraggan, I am so unhappy and so miserable. In fact, if it were not for my dear devoted friend here,” she then indicated her Lady-in-Waiting, “I would often wish myself dead.”
“No, madame, you must not
