She rose to receive him, her lovely eyes suffused with tears. She embraced him, kissed him, and then, nestling to him, as if for comfort, her cheek against his bearded face, she allowed her tears to flow unchecked.
“I am punished,” she sobbed--“oh, I am punished! Had I kept you at home, Murray, you would never have suffered men to entreat me as I have been entreated.”
Holding her to hin, he could but pat her shoulder, soothing her, utterly taken aback, and deeply moved, too, by this display of an affection for him that he had never hitherto suspected in her.
“Ah, mon Dieu, Jamie, how welcome you are to one in my sorrow!” she continued. “It is the fault of others that you have been so long out of the country. I but require of you that you be a good subject to me, and you shall never find me other to you than you deserve.”
And he, shaken to the depths of his selfish soul by her tears, her clinging caresses, and her protestations of affection, answered with an oath and a sob that no better or more loyal and devoted subject than himself could all Scotland yield her.
“And, as for this killing of Davie,” he ended vehemently, “I swear by my soul's salvation that I have had no part in it, nor any knowledge of it until my return!”
“I know--I know!” she moaned. “Should I make you welcome, else? Be my friend, Jamie; be my friend!”
He swore it readily, for he was very greedy of power, and saw the door of his return to it opening wider than he could have hoped. Then he spoke of Darnley, begging her to receive him, and hear what he might have to say, protesting that the King swore that he had not desired the murder, and that the lords had carried the matter out of his hands and much beyond all that he had intended.
Because it suited her deep purpose, Mary consented, feigning to be persuaded. She had realized that before she could deal with Darnley, and the rebel lords who held her a prisoner, she must first win free from Holyrood.
Darnley came. He was sullen now, mindful of his recent treatment, and in fear--notwithstanding Murray's reassurance--of further similar rebuffs. She announced herself ready to hear what he might have to say, and she listened attentively while he spoke, her elbow on the carved arm of her chair, her chin in her hand. When he had done, she sat long in thought, gazing out through the window at the grey March sky. At length she turned and looked at him.