A Matter of the Herberts (& Not Pembroke For Once) Xmas 77

[Defiance]

"You do know that I saw you talking to her?"

 

The older blond lady, still beautiful in a regal way, turned to her son and replied, "Surely if you were watching so closely, Thomas, you would know that she had been speaking to me and our cousins."

 

"And what did you say to her, my lady mother?" he asked, raising a dark brow.

 

"Nothing of any import, darling. Whyever does it matter?"

 

"Are you playing me?" He crossed his arms suspiciously, though not threateningly.

 

"Now, really, Tom. You wish me not to pester you of wives, and so I insist you do not pester me of ladies!" She lifted her chin and gave him a daring sort of look. All the Villiers women shared it. So, too, did the men.

 

"So you did not make her upset?"

 

"Upset? Pfft, if so then I daresay I would have no idea how she'd survive in the service of the Queen!" Cat let her laugh come out at that. "But no, I think I am mostly passed the age of deriving pleasure by tormenting young Maids of Honor."

 

"I am very confused then," he replied, dropping down his hands and his head some too. "Perhaps I have been sent a joke. I think I must have been. The lady sent me a most familiar letter and requested my help yet never came."

 

"Perhaps you have been," she agreed. "Why do you not ask your sister? She would be of more aid than I would, I should think."

 

Tom nodded, making a hmm noise.