“And Lady Jane is still there?”
Jane Northumberland nodded. “I had to leave my daughter-in-law behind in the Tower. And now John is there, too, along with all our sons. Not just Gil, but Jack and Ambrose and Robin and Henry.”
And Will, I added silently. My husband. The other half of myself.
Together, two desperate wives, we pushed on to Newhall, but we need not have hurried. We were turned away. The queen would not see either of us.
There was no lodging to be found nearby. Every house, every inn, overflowed with Queen Mary’s supporters. We began to wend our weary way back toward London, disconsolate and miserable.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“Survive,” Jane said.
“I know the choices. Accept the old religion or flee abroad. I imagine that the most dedicated of the evangelicals are already taking ship for the Continent.”
Jane sent me a pitying look. “I would not be so sure of that. Some will be willing to die for their faith, to become martyrs to rally the rest. And others will gladly abandon their religious beliefs in exchange for the opportunity to remain at court. We were betrayed, Bess. By men who swore to support Queen Jane.”
She rattled off the familiar names. The Earl of Pembroke, Will’s brother-in-law, widower of his sister Anne. Lord Clinton, Geraldine’s second husband. Even Lord Cobham, my own father. Although I could not condone their disloyalty, I hoped that Father and Pembroke’s sons, my nephews, would be safe from retaliation by Queen Mary. And my friend Geraldine, too.
“And the Duke of Suffolk!” Jane’s voice vibrated with contempt. “The Lady Jane’s own father. He was always a weakling, but this treachery surpasses understanding.”
“Perhaps,” I ventured, “if my father is forgiven, he will help us to reach the queen and appeal to her for mercy.”
I was struck with a sudden longing to be home at Cowling Castle. It had been years since I’d felt the need of my mother’s reassurance, but all at once I ached to be held in her arms. I wished I could be a little girl again, secure in the love of my family, protected and cosseted by everyone around me.
“We would do better to approach Her Grace through her ladies, I think.” Jane had a determined look on her pale face. “We must discover what women are closest to Queen Mary and solicit their help. If I cannot speak to them, then I will write letters. I will never give up trying to win a pardon for my lord husband.”
“Nor will I.”
When we reached London, we separated. Jane went to her own house at Ely Place. I made my way to the Earl of Pembroke’s residence, Baynard’s Castle. Had Pembroke been there, he’d likely have turned me away, but Henry Herbert, his son and heir, had always been fond of his uncle Will and aunt Bess. He ordered the servants to admit me and my two servants. He even provided much needed food and drink.
As we ate, I questioned him, hoping for news of Will. Young Lord Herbert had inherited Anne Parr’s wide-spaced gray eyes and her open nature, but he had been brought up to obey his father. When I asked about his bride, Lady Catherine Grey, his face hardened.
“She is not my wife. The marriage is to be annulled and she’ll be sent back to her mother.”
I was not surprised. It would be difficult for Pembroke to advance at Queen Mary’s court while the Lady Jane’s sister was married to his son. “I suppose the Earl of Huntingdon will set aside his boy’s marriage to Northumberland’s daughter, Katherine Dudley, too,” I murmured.
“Oh, no. He’s going to keep her,” Henry said. “Father thinks Huntingdon’s a damned fool.”
An hour at Baynard’s Castle was sufficient to convince me that I’d get no help from the Earl of Pembroke, even if he was Will’s brother-in-law. I did not ask to stay, nor did I rejoin my close friend Jane Northumberland at Ely Place. I doubted the queen would allow her to remain there long. All the possessions of a traitor were forfeit to the Crown.
Griggs helped me to mount Prancer. “Do we ride to Cowling Castle, my lady?”
“No, Griggs. I need to stay close to the Tower and to Will.”
And I had remembered something Aunt Elizabeth had told me during one of our shared suppers in the Tower—Sir Edward Warner owned a house in Carter Lane. I would go there.
42
Aunt Elizabeth and her husband made me welcome. They invited me to stay with them as long as I wished. Unfortunately, Sir Edward was at home because Queen Mary had already removed him from his post as lord lieutenant of the Tower. I had been hoping to make use of his position there to communicate with Will.
“Your husband was well when I last saw him,” Sir Edward assured me. “I put him in the Beauchamp Tower and ordered that his own furniture and clothing be brought to him from Winchester House. And I can assure you that he will not want for proper food and drink.”
“But he is still a prisoner.”
“So are many others. I half-expected to join their number myself.”
Aunt Elizabeth, who sat on the arm of her husband’s chair, touched one hand lightly to his shoulder. “You did nothing wrong, Edward.”
“Nor did any of them,” I interjected. “Naught but carry out the king’s last wishes.”
Sir Edward grimaced, making his mustache and his long, pointed beard twitch. “Queen Mary does not see it in quite that way. But take heart, Bess. Suffolk is free. Others may follow.”
“The Lady Jane’s father has been released?”
“He has. The Duchess of Suffolk was granted an audience with the queen at Newhall. Well, why not? Frances Brandon and Queen Mary are cousins and have always been on friendly terms, despite their differences over matters of religion. Her Grace pardoned the Duke of Suffolk the very next day. The duke and duchess have already left London for their house at Sheen.”
“What of the Lady Jane Grey?”
Sir Edward drooped lower in his chair. “Poor girl. She’s been charged with treason.”
I, too, felt sorry for Jane Grey, but I could do nothing to help her and I might yet find a way to rescue Will. Between them, Sir Edward and my aunt had a remarkable number of friends, and some of those friends had kin in the new queen’s household. Through these channels, Aunt Elizabeth gleaned more news. Thus I learned that Anne, Duchess of Somerset, who had been living quietly at Hanworth since her release from the Tower a few months earlier, had also been able to trade upon her old friendship with the new queen. Two of her daughters were to come to court as maids of honor, and young Anne, the eldest, although married to Jack Dudley, was to join her mother and sisters there.
“A pity that young woman cannot be relied upon to beg for mercy for her husband,” I said, “but she has no love for him.” Not when Jack’s father had been responsible for the execution of her father, the Duke of Somerset
My own father’s timely change of allegiance had succeeded in winning him his freedom. He’d prudently retreated to Cowling Castle to await a formal pardon for conspiring to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne in Mary Tudor’s place. Father sent word that I was welcome to come home and my mother wrote to second the invitation, but I chose to remain in Carter Lane. The last thing I wanted was to put more distance between myself and the man I loved. I needed to be close to Will, even if I was not able to see or communicate with him.
By early August, less than three weeks after Northumberland and Will surrendered to Queen Mary’s troops, most of their followers had been pardoned and released. But not Will and not Northumberland or his sons. All of them were shortly to be arraigned for treason. At that time, Will would officially be stripped of his titles, his Order of the Garter, and very probably his life.