“Must you depart so soon?” Summer blurted. She blushed, ducking her head, and tried to cover her confusion with another bit of Dante. “‘In that book which is My memory… On the first page That is the chapter when I first met you Appear the words… Here begins a new life.’” Delicately she slipped her hand from his. “Ah, but I am remiss; I have no right claim on your time. Yours is the business of governance.” She smiled up at him, glad to at last have found someone who shared the joys of reading and poetry with her.
“A word to my father will always find me, your grace. I’ll depart with this: ‘Bocca baciata non perde ventura, anzi rinnuova come fa la luna,’ and perhaps you can say it to me in English if we meet again,” she teased, then caught up her skirts for a quick curtsey.
Humphrey had to laugh at the suggestion. Gazing around, they were still alone in the garden. He held her hand close to his chest that pulled her closer, and looked in her eyes. “My Lady shall be mocking me…” he said, “for the message I shall send your father is but the worst messenger, he would sooner ask me to meet him in a single combat for your honor if indeed he is as good a father as he is a speaker. For my messages, they shall not be known by fathers.”
With that, he placed a kiss on her fingers. “So if the mouth that has been kissed loses not its favour, but renews it with the cycle of the moon…” he looked at her, “Tell me, sweet Summer, what happens to mouths that have not been kissed? For it seems to me that you shall let me depart without a kiss on mine, and I know not what would happen to my favour then? A lady so learned as you, shall not be so cruel, or am I wrong?”
“My lord! Certain I was you said you did not speak Italian well! I shall have to set you a harder puzzle, then, methinks.” Summer laughed with him, though a faint blush crept up her cheeks. “What will you have in trade for my kisses, my lord? I shall sell them dearly, you must know, as I have been taught. Or perhaps,” she murmured, gazing at him challengingly, “you are a thief, and steal them away. Art a thief, my lord? Thou hast captured mine hand very neatly.”
“Oh my lady is but merciless!” Humphrey said now, releasing her hand in a dramatic move. “‘One keeps me jailed who neither locks nor opens, nor keeps me for her own, nor frees the noose, Love does not kill, nor does he loose my chains, He wants me lifeless but won’t loosen me…’”
“My lady I cannot be a thief for what pleasure could be brought by such crime, and if my lady doesn’t give willingly, I must doubt my lady would have the pleasure in the kiss if taken by me. If my heart is not enough an offer, what else can a man offer? What is more than the heart of a man who gives it willingly?”
“So I shall depart from you with a longing heart, ‘thrive in pain and laugh with all my tears, I dislike death as much as I do life, Because of you, lady, I am this way.’”
Summer pressed her freed hand to his heart, smiling. “Is’t with thy heart thou wilt buy mine? ‘Tis a fair trade then my lord, for ‘Love placed me as a target for his arrow, like snow in sunlight, or wax in the fire, like a cloud in the wind … your sweet spirit from which I’ve no defence’ pierceth me.” Stretching as tall as she might, Summer brushed her mouth to Humphrey’s, then darted away.
Humphrey laughed in silence watching as she walked away from him. He felt the mixture of triumph and the oh-so-familiar feeling of demand, when his mind is set half-consciously on the prize and he knew he will not settle until he claims it. A beauty with brains and passion for literature was exactly the combination he preferred.
He didn’t see Summer for a good week or so, busying himself in the affairs of the council. Her father was present on some of these meetings, yet Humphrey ensured that even if she would be around they don’t run into each other. Of course he longed for her, he found it harder each day to fall asleep alone in his bed, the sheets cold around him. He kept watching the ceiling with his only relief knowing that she is likely to be doing exactly the same. He wanted her to want him more, and was determined on his path. During the days it was much easier, as he could not spare much of his time to think of her, her own father and the rest made sure of that.
On Midsummer’s eve Harry, as always, threw a merry feast on the most grandiose scale. Humphrey knew that there would be no man – or maid – in London who wouldn’t wish to be present in the great hall of Westminster, and made his own preparations with extra care. He was seated at the high table, on the right side of his brother the King, between brothers John and Thomas, and due to the etiquette there was no chance to talk to her before the feast itself turned into a more unscripted party of drinks and dancing, he knew it. All the better, he thought, and already amused himself of how he will watch the lady and if he could anticipate another kiss, a real one – or maybe even more. It promised to be a splendid, and joyful night indeed.
It never failed to amuse her, how easily a man’s heart could be manipulated with faint promises. Women were more steadfast, Summer thought, and then laughed at herself. Well, perhaps she would give him what he wanted, and then they could settle down and become good friends over the poets.
In the meantime, she set herself not to fret. The challenge had clearly been offered and accepted, and the Duke would come in his own sweet time. She knew he’d not left the city, between her father’s near daily complaints of council and the preparations for Midsummer’s Eve. That would be an auspicious day for the Duke to make his move, indeed, and it would be worth her while to catch his eye amongst the ladies that would be at court that night.
Summer busied her hands with dressmaking, and her mind with the poetry they both loved — though she determined to speak in her own words at their next encounter, rather than let Dante or Petrarch speak for her. Soft green, like new sage leaves, and trimmed with undyed thread; she was not often much for dresses but this one gladdened her heart.
The rush of happiness when she came into the hall and saw him at the high table brought a bright smile to her lips, and anticipation made her eyes sparkle when Midsummer’s Eve finally arrived.