Jeanne nodded silently, acknowledging as fact the rumors of the Queen"s unsociable confinement. She turned to the far corner of the room and saw the Queen"s “pets,” the group of brightly dressed dwarves who were always in Her Majesty"s company.
“The King still asks me to attend. I try to when I can.” Marie-Thérèse spoke softly, eyes intent upon the animal in her lap. “I do so wish to please him.”
A wave of sadness for this woman roiled over Jeanne even as Marie-Thérèse"s innocence baffled her. No matter how the King humiliated her with other women, she would never betray her husband. Not only would she not, she could not; to cuckold a King was to commit high treason, punishable by death. To Jeanne, what the Queen must have endured through the many years of Louis" involvement with La Vall
