[Gemini Cricket]

"A union with the Duke of Anjou would be a disaster." I said. "I have been there. To a time where you are united with what do you call him, your frog?"
Elizabeth laughed behind her tiny, wispy hand.
"The marriage will cause a rift in England and a there will be a successful attempt on your life."
"What?" She asked. "There is much zeal to the security of my being that nothing of the sort could happen!"
"Your life would be taken by someone close to you, someone you do not suspect." I said.
"Who is it?! Who is this villain? I will have him drawn and quartered!"
"You can not, your majesty. Even if that were to happen, his replacement would be even fiercer that you could imagine. And Mary Stuart takes your place and the Church of England will come to an end."
"God's death!" She exclaimed.
"Just the Protestant one, your majesty." I responded.
Elizabeth sat again in the grass and was quiet for quite sometime.
After several minutes, she spoke, "It was under this tree that I learned my destiny. My destiny to be Queen of England. My life, everything that I held dear to me, every friendship… ended that day. I left the girl I was here and became queen. A new beginning was at hand. And now, the same has happened."
I said nothing. I couldn't think of anything profound or interesting to say.
"You reaffirmed an answer I already had." She said. "He does not love me. Am I right in that?"
"Yes, your majesty." I said. "His affections veer away from the likes of women."
"As do yours." She titled her head.
"Yes, your majesty."
"Margaret, during her covert inspection of you, saw the Duke of Anjou hand you a gift in a flower garden. His eyes and his heart belonged to you, she said." Elizabeth spoke.
"I do not love him. I have not a palate for frogs." I said.
Elizabeth laughed joyously. "You are a villain. And for that, you have my love."
What she did next almost caused me to lose consciousness. Elizabeth kissed me on the forehead.
"Thank you, your majesty." I said.
"Because of rumor and speculation, I was expecting him to be deformed, scarred and ugly. I was surprised upon close inspection that he was not." She said. "But now that the truth is exposed, he proved himself to be ugly within. That is far worse. Using me to gain power and status, to bring England to her knees. I suppose I had known this for many days now. I had put the wishes of many before my own. I need not be married-"
"You are married to your country, your majesty." I told her.
"Yes and since there is no bed big enough to contain everyone, I shall sleep alone." She laughed.
Elizabeth reached into a pocket in her gown and produced a letter. She handed it to me. "I decided this morning that the answer was no. But I was in the process of reconsideration. Your meeting has affirmed what I write here. This copy is for you. It speaks from the heart, my soul on paper. It is my gift to you, sir."
I gently grabbed the letter gently as if cradling a newborn dove in my hands.
"Thank you, Sir Braddoc." Elizabeth said. "Escort me to my carriage. I wager that Walsingham is on the verge of panic."
Walsingham and Burghley scoffed when the queen asked me to help her into her carriage. They stood stunned for quite awhile until she commanded Walsingham to resume his post as driver of her carriage. Burghley was frozen in a deep bow.
"Farewell, your majesty. It was an honor of a lifetime to meet you." I copied Burghley's bow.
"When we meet again, I insist you call me Bess." She said.
"I wouldn't dare, your majesty." I responded.
"A most excellent answer." Bess said. "I have something else, Sir Braddoc. In the last several days, I had a John Shakespeare summoned to my castle. There he presented me with this."
Bess produced a quill from a box that sat next to her in the carriage. "He said his son William is not yet sixteen but writes and writes nightly until he runs out of ink and quills. This one has freshly run its course. Apparently during the transcription of a play. This is now yours, sir. A gift from your Bess."
I could not believe it. I stood there stunned. I waved at the Queen as the carriage began to pull away. It moved two feet before she commanded Sir Francis to stop.
"Sir Braddoc!" She boomed.
"Yes, your majesty?" I asked.
"This Second Queen Elizabeth… Who is afforded more beauty? She? Myself?" She asked.
"You your majesty." I said. "You are fairer, by far."
"That I do not doubt." She said and then hollered to Sir Francis, "Onward!"
Lord Burghley offered to escort me in his carriage back to the marketplace, but I declined. As he pulled away, I played with the quill brushing it against my chin. I cracked the wax seal to the letter the queen had given me. At the top of the letter was printed "On Monsieur's Departure" and at the bottom was signed "Elizabeth R".
I smiled, took a look once again at the two carriages fading into the distance, grabbed a hold of the amulet and said softly, "Home."
The English countryside faded and quite instantaneously I landed face down in my studio apartment January 17, 2010, quill and letter intact.

Fin