[Gemini Cricket]

He placed my glasses in my hand and I quickly rubbed them clear of all smudges. Off in the distance, I heard the thunder of horse hooves and the creak of a carriage. The carriage which rose above the horizon was dark and simple. Almost a peasant's carriage, not what I was expecting. A man in a black hood led two horses before the wheeled cart.
"Is this some sort of game, Lord Burghley?" I asked him.
"Foolish boy, the queen wishes not to make her presence here known to anyone but Sir Walsingham and myself." Burghley burped. "Use the good sense that God gave you."
"Ah, I understand."
As the carriage came to a halt in front of where we stood, I quickly tucked away my glasses. The hooded man stepped down from where he sat. He bowed slightly and spoke to the carriage door; a window in its side was covered by a black curtain.
"If you would allow me a moment, your majesty." He said.
"You may have it, Walsingham." A woman's voice replied. It was a low, stern voice.
Walsingham turned towards me and pulled his cowl to his shoulders. A black cap topped his head and a pointy beard the same color adorned his chin.
"Sir Braddoc, as you wish to be called, I warn you. I will be a breath's distance from your side. One false move towards her majesty and you will be dead before you hit the floor." Walsingham pulled his cloak back to reveal a sharp blade tucked into his belt. It looked as if it were newly sharpened. "Considered yourself properly and sternly warned."
I nodded my head. "Yes, Sir Walsingham."
He snorted and turned to open the carriage door.
The first thing I saw was an elaborate gown resting on the inside of the door. Golden embroidered palm fronds adorned the dress, each one adorned with shiny amber thread. A lily pale hand, encircled with lace at the wrists awaited Walsingham's own hand. He helped her out of the carriage. A blaze of fire encircled with a crown tilted up and there before me stood Elizabeth of England.
She looked at me as if I were a squashed rat in the street: with disgust, with curiosity and somehow also indifference.
"Your majesty." I said and bowed a bow I had practiced for two weeks.
"That was emphatically abhorrent." The expressionless face said. Two seconds later and her crimson lips broke into a slight smile. "But somehow amusing."
"My unending apologies, your majesty." I said. "Shall I try again?"
"I have neither the patience nor the desire to have it echoed."
There was a long silence as I felt her eyes upon me. I decided to bow my head humbly.
Queen Elizabeth circled me, examining me as a drill sergeant would his lowliest private.
"Sir Braddoc, you will walk with me. There is a tree about where we shall speak." She turned to Walsingham. "In private."
Walsingham cleared his throat, "Your majesty, I must intervene. I highly advise that myself or Lord Burghley should accompany you."
"No, Sir Francis." Elizabeth said. "I will walk alone with my guest."
I gave a humble look to Walsingham that could have been easily read as meaning, 'Suck it, m'Lord.'
"Your majesty-" Burghley decided to chime in.
Unfortunately, Elizabeth decided to strike them down with a loud booming voice. The voice of their leader and queen, "God's death! I have spoken!"
Burghley and Walsingham returned her shout with bows and complete compliance. As she walked ahead of me, Sir Francis cleared his throat. I turned and he patted the sword at his belt. A warning.
I nodded.
We walked about a quarter of a mile to the center of a green, lush meadow. Beneath a solitary tree in the center of the emerald field, the queen stopped. She stretched out her hand to an area in front of her.
"Sit."
I did.
"I will join you." She smiled. As she began to kneel, she saw me lean forward to aid her; she glanced at me with a seasoned look that told me that no help was required. I complied.
"My Maid of Honor, Margaret Russell was right about many things about you. One was that you have a charming smile, Sir Braddoc." Elizabeth titled her head fondly. Beneath the regal white powder adorning her face, I saw a young beautiful maiden that longed for something. Love, companionship, a trusted ally, maybe all of the above and maybe all in one person, one man.
"Thank you, your majesty."
"Upon my command, she was to follow you for three days." Elizabeth said. "She said you spent much time in the marketplace, watching the guard march about and inquiring about a certain fellow."
"Oh dear." I shook my head.
"Someone named Shakespeare." She smiled. I blushed. I had remembered two days into my visit that William Shakespeare was around towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign and was but a child at this moment in time. I came to this realization when I realized how old Dame Judi Dench was when she played QEI in Shakespeare in Love. The woman before me was but a woman in her twenties. "Is he someone I should know?"
"Oh yes, your majesty. A hundred times, yes. But not until later on. He will entertain you beyond words."
"But I have many words, Sir." She smiled. "He will have to be of extraordinary talent to turn this crowned head."
I nodded.
"Can I see the necklace?" Elizabeth asked. "Your letters…" she raised an eyebrow and lowered her voice, "Your many letter spoke of the necklace that brings you here to me. To my time from yours."
I smiled. "Can your majesty afford me a favor?"
"A favor?" She said confused.
"Can you tell me you demand it?"
"What?" She laughed.
"You know, with all the power and ferocity of the God appointed Queen of England!" I said sheepishly.
"God's death." She whispered. "A queen lowering herself to the role of actress."
I was about to give up on the idea when she stood suddenly and turned her back to me. She took a second and turned ferociously.
"Sir Braddoc! I command you as the God appointed Queen of England, the daughter of King Henry the Eight and Gloriana of the Tudor Dynasty… show me the necklace!" A fire from somewhere within her skull lit her eyes and crimson blood flushed her face.
"Yes, your majesty! Yes." I said and pulled the necklace from my shirt and presented it to her. I couldn't help but quiver in front of her.
"You are nothing more than the fool of a fool." She laughed. I returned the laugh. She suddenly stopped hers and looked at me with anger. Uh oh, I did something wrong, I thought. I pissed her royal majesty off. Seconds later she laughed again, she fooled me with faux anger.
"Thank you, your majesty." I said.
"How did I do?" She asked.
"Consummate mastery of skill." I said.
"I see." She laughed. She stretched out her ivory hand and touched the shiny amulet soldered to a gold chain. When she touched it, I felt a bolt of electricity circle my neck and cascade down my spine. It was an odd sensation that was quite painful. But I made sure not to react. I feared that any wince would be misconstrued as mistrust by Good Queen Bess.
"And you say it can take you anywhere you desire?" She asked.
I nodded.
"And if you asked it to take you to stop an execution, the death of an innocent… would it take you?"
"It would, your majesty. But if I prevented it, the consequences could be extraordinary. Everything you know and everything that is would be forever changed. Maybe in the worst possible way." I said to her.
"The restoration of a mother, someone whose life was taken from her unjustly could threaten my very existence?" She asked me.
"Yes. Quite possibly, yes."
"I had considered that when I heard of your amazing gift. I can not ask that of you. Although my heart truly desires it, it is not something I should ask. It was something God deemed a necessary deed, it is not my place to undo it." She sighed and tucked the amulet into my shirt.
"But there is something I wish to speak with you about that will be far more help to you, your majesty."
"My impending marriage. Surely you know something. Your letters did not divulge the course of action that I should take." Elizabeth spoke slowly, brushing a piece of dried grass from her gown. "Tomorrow, I have promised to make a final decision about my marriage to the Duke of Anjou. And what say, you, good sir? What do you have to tell me? What could you, a peasant, a foreigner, someone not even from this world… what can you tell me of marriage, what can you tell me of love?"

cont'd