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Updated: July 18, 2025
"It was that fool Rochester who set the rumor afloat." After standing through an awkward minute or two, Castlemain bowed stiffly to the king and the duchess, turned away from our group, and soon left the ballroom. When Castlemain was gone, we all laughed save the king. Presently he left us, and I saw him beckon Wentworth and Berkeley to his side.
"The dress at that time was well calculated to set off a woman to advantage. Lady Castlemain was dressed in white and green, with an open boddice of pink, looped with diamonds. Her sleeves were green, looped up full on the shoulders with jewelry, and showing the white shift beneath, richly trimmed with lace. The boddice was long and close, with a very low tucker.
Don't you remember I said, after we had lighted the candles, that I wished my husband could afford to give me wax in place of tallow?" We all laughed except the king, who became very much interested, and of course, excepting Castlemain, who was rapidly losing her head in anger. After the duchess had spoken, the king asked, with as careless an air as he could assume:
"Of what adventure, la Belle Castlemain?" asked Frances, smiling sweetly. "Why, when you were kidnapped and carried to a country house for the night," returned Castlemain, with a vindictive gleam in her eyes and an angry toss of her head. "I kidnapped Sunday night?" asked Frances, in well-feigned surprise. "No such romantic adventure has befallen me."
"But here comes old Lady Castlemain," said Frances, turning to leave the king. "I can't quarrel with her, because I can't swear with her. May I take my leave, your Majesty?" "I am sorry to grant it, but good-by," returned the king. "Good-by, your Majesty, and thank you," returned Frances, grateful for much that the king did not know he had told her.
"Yes, kidnapped Sunday night," returned Castlemain, showing her teeth. "Of course you were kidnapped! I'm sure nothing would induce so modest a lady as the fair Jennings to go of her own free will. She would insist on being taken by force. Ha! ha! Force!" She laughed as though speaking in jest, but her real intent was plain to every one that heard her.
When we entered the barge, Frances clung to my hand and sat down beside me, but the king, who was sitting with the duchess on one hand and Castlemain on the other, beckoned Frances to sit beside him. She went to him reluctantly, and he moved toward the duchess, making room for Frances between himself and Castlemain.
"Evidently some one has been hoaxing you, Lady Castlemain. Mistress Jennings was not kidnapped Sunday nor any other day. She has been with me constantly of late, excepting Sunday after four o'clock, and she has accounted for herself from that time till her return to my closet." Castlemain was whipped out, so she turned the whole matter off with a forced laugh, saying:
At one o'clock, according to instructions, I went to the royal barge waiting at Bowling Green stairs, where presently came the king, the duchess with one of her ladies, Frances, my Lord Clarendon, and my Lady Castlemain, the last named bearing in her arms a young baby. In a barge which was to follow us were several gentlemen of the court and a halfscore of the king's guardsmen.
But that fair lady objected and moved up to the king, indicating by a nod that Frances might sit on the spot her Ladyship had vacated. But the king said, "You are to sit by me, Mistress Jennings." "She'll do nothing of the sort," exclaimed Castlemain, with an oath. "She'll sit on the other side of me or in the bottom of the barge, or in the river, I care not which."
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