A Powerful Little Love

Chapter 60

"Don't you think the subject matter is a little questionable Claude?" Amorette cried as she stared down at the pamphlet her friend had just thrown into her lap.

"Oh Amorette I don't know what you mean!  It's a love story,"  announced Claude, "With all of the romance and aggression that everyone loves in a play!"

Amorette rolled her eyes.  "Claude it's an English play."

"No it isn't it's set in Verona!"

Amorette shook her head incredulously at her friend.  "Claude it's Shakespeare!  It was written by an English playwright and anyway that's not my point.  Why on earth would the King find it amusing?  He never likes romances!"

"Well the Queen is determined he shall like this one," Claude quipped before turning on her heel to stalk away.

"Constance, surely you see my point?" Amorette desperately pleaded.  "Two lovers forbidden to be together who marry in secret and kill themselves because they can't be together?  Surely the Queen sees how close to the bone this all is!  It's going to cause a scandal!"

Constance patted Amorette's shoulder gently.  "Amorette, I do know what you mean, but look at the Queen.  She's going to go mad with boredom!"

Amorette turned her eyes upon the Queen who sat amongst her group of ladies as they rehearsed their lines of the play.  Heavily pregnant and very close to her lying in period, the Queen had commissioned a play to be presented before her husband the King to signify her last days attending court before she removed herself to her apartments to give birth to her second child. 

"But why this play?"

Constance shrugged.  "Amorette the King will watch the few opening moments and then slip away as he always does.  He finds theatre and the arts tiresome."

"It doesn't mean this won't cause scandal though!" Amorette retorted.  "All it takes is one courtier clever enough to read between the lines and the Queen will drag Aramis and all of us down with her! Romeo and Juliet...I mean; I could kill Claude for choosing such a play!"

Constance sighed heavily.  "Amorette, you forget that Claude knows nothing of the Queen's relationship with Aramis.  I know she suspects that the Queen has lovers but she does not know who they are.  She still speculates.  Claude's very free thinking-"

"Too free thinking!" Amorette interrupted.

"perhaps," Constance mused.  "Either that or we worry too much."

"I don't think anyone can blame us given the situation," replied Amorette.  "With everything up in the air as it is right now, sometimes I think that my worries are the only thing keeping me going."

Claude appeared again brandishing quill and ink.  Taking Amorette's proffered script pamphlet she began to scratch little notes onto the top of the parchment.  "Constance, you have Benvolio, and Amorette you have Mercutio!  How does that sound to both of you?"

Constance nodded solemnly.  "A plague upon both your houses..." Amorette mumbled as she took back her script and glanced down at the now marked lines that Mercutio spoke in the play.  "How ironic."

"Oh Amorette stop being so glum about it all!  It's just a little fun and we don't even know if we will be presented before the King.  It occupies the Queen in her time of restlessness," cried Claude. 

Constance frowned.  "Claude I hope you realise that all of those costumes will be useless to us if this is to be performed for the King.  It's against the law for a woman to dress as a man.  I don't mind trying things on and sharing a laugh amongst just us ladies but parading about the palace in men's breaches is only going to cause more trouble than its worth."