She hid the cloak in a chest in her room and found that fortunately her absence had gone practically unnoticed. The Maids of Honour were talking too excitedly of what had happened during the day. Only Elizabeth Throgmorton was silent with a dreamy look in her soft blue eyes as she sat on her bed thinking of Sir Walter.
“I shall win my Lord Essex from the Queen. What do you wager me?” Lady Mary was asking, her face sparkling with mischief, as Lizbeth crossed the room.
“How can you dare say such a thing aloud?” one of the Maids of Honour asked. “The Queen will send you to the Tower if you so much as look at him.”
“I shall do a great deal more than look,” Lady Mary threatened.
The others cried out at that, telling her she was crazed: but she only laughed at them and flung herself down on
