This boded ill for my lady. And yet it gave us a red-sky warning afore the storm. After almost everyone had left the rooms, the queen had her uncle take all of the contraband books from her newly locked jewel case and remove them from the court entirely. If it could be proved by any of the queen’s enemies that she was harboring and distributing forbidden literature, much less leading those under her care, including and especially the royal children, astray with them, there would be evidence enough for her to be prosecuted and then perhaps not even the king himself would save her. With all the material removed, Kate announced that she now felt safe, and happiness crept back into her countenance, and mine.
TEN
Summer: Year of Our Lord 1546
Greenwich Palace
Smithfield
In June, the matter of Thomas Seymour marrying the Duchess of Richmond was broached again by her father, the conservative Duke of Norfolk.
“Norfolk knows he is losing power, and when the king dies, it might well rest with the Seymours, who will always have the prince’s best interests, as his family,” Elisabeth said as we whitened our teeth with chalk in our chamber. “Norfolk, on the other hand, covets the throne for himself or his kin. ’Tis unlikely his family shall give that cause up.”
“Shall he meet with success?”
Elisabeth shook her head. “I do not believe so. The king is not inclined to give him any more power by marrying Norfolk’s daughter to the prince’s uncle. And curiously, Henry Howard, Norfolk’s son, dislikes the idea.”
“Father and son butting heads once again,” I said.
“Indeed.” She motioned for me to help her with her laces, as we had no maid to assist us that day. “Whilst they still have them.”
I was glad for the queen. All knew that the king approached midnight and that she likely had many more years to live, as did Sir Thomas, who had remained strangely unmarried for a man of means and title. I put it to his love for Kate and it softened him in my eyes in spite of what I feared about him. I expected they were biding their time.
Within a few days of the quiet announcement that no marriage arrangement would take place, Kate hosted a feast for the king and his courtiers on the grounds of Greenwich. It was a risky thing to do in June, when it rained more oft than the sun shone, but this day the clouds obeyed and being outdoors in the gardens among the flowers put everyone in a merry mood.
The men played bowles on the lawns and Kate had tables laden with sweetmeats and comfits and delicacies of all manner. Minstrels wandered about and the blossoming trees sent delicately perfumed missives to land on gown and doublet alike. “I have not seen you keep company much with Tristram Tyrwhitt,” Kate said to me, quietly, as she made her way among her ladies and the other guests.
“He has not sought me out since I returned to court,” I said. “But we were naught more than friends, after all.”
“He has been occupied,” she said. “Go seek him. You are not unable to speak up, methinks.” A twinkle brightened her expression. She was glad that Sir Thomas would not be marrying Mary Howard, though she could not, of course, share the reason behind her merriment and hoped for romance for me too.
Though I was uninterested in Tristram, to honor my lady, I came up beside him as he was speaking with a group of other young courtiers. Many of them smiled and parted, and all conversation stopped. I nodded my head slightly. “Sir Tristram?”
He looked discomfited. “Mistress Juliana.”
“I have missed your friendship,” I said.
He smiled weakly, took my arm, and walked me toward a far table, alone but for the festive ribbons tied on it, streaming in the air.
“I have been remiss in not speaking to you, I admit. And I hope you’ll forgive me,” he said. We took a seat near one another and he kept his voice low though the minstrels would have covered our conversation in any case.
“After you left court, afore Christmas, I sought out your company. Mistress Dorothy told me that you’d gone back to Marlborough. She and I passed the season together and we grew … close. When I asked of you again and again, and she knew of my great affection toward you, she, as a friend to us both, sought to put me out of my misery, though more misery followed upon the disclosure.”
I looked in his eyes and I knew what he was going to say afore he said it. The flute in the background mourned, and I forced myself to take deeper breaths and wished I’d have worn looser stays.
“I am sorry that you were so cruelly attacked,” he said. “But I did warn you not to give John Temple any reason to believe you favored him.”
I drew away. “And what makes you believe that I showed him any favor at all?”
“I saw you dance together many times that evening. I saw you leave with him, arm in arm.”
He’d been watching me! “As you and I have danced and walked many times. And as you and Dorothy no doubt do even now.”
“Ah yes, but I am not John Temple.”
“And I am not the fair Dorothy—is that your next thought, Sir Tristram?”
He drew near. “I have my own reputation to think of as a man of integrity and a reformer, should this ever circulate,” he said coldly. “I do not desire to plant where another man has plowed.”
I recoiled from him in disgust. “You are detestable.”
“Come now,” Tristram said. “Mayhap this is all a result of you rooming with the harlot Elisabeth Brooke.”
“Harlot?” I could scarce keep my voice at a level that would not draw an unwelcome gaze.
“She cavorts with a married man most nights. It’s a wonder her father allows it to continue, but mayhap not, as his sister was notorious as well. She will be ruined if Parr turns from her.”
“I do not know what Lady Brooke does or does not do when she is not in the chamber with me,” I said. “But I do know that Sir William’s wife abandoned him for another man, committing the sin of adultery, and lives with him even now as man and wife. According to the Lord himself in the book of Saint Matthew, she has broken her wedlock. Sir William may not be free to remarry according to the king’s law, but he is according to the Lord’s. It is the latter you seem so concerned everyone live by, Sir Tristram, and not the former.”
He was caught and knew he could not both argue the point and keep his lofty ideal of himself. He stood up. “Good day, mistress.” He bowed properly, slightly, and took his leave.
I made my way back to my chamber and stayed there until I knew Dorothy would be back at hers. When that time came, I made my way to her room and knocked sharply.
“Juliana.” She opened the door and looked at me as a cornered mouse might.
I made my way into her chamber and saw that she was alone.
“You told Tristram.”
She said nothing.
I gazed upon her, our once promising friendship now broken into shards, as a dropped vase might be, never able to be reassembled. “’Tis nothing on earth I have ever done to you to earn such disloyalty, such disfavor, such a lack of charity. If there was, tell me now so I can repent of it,” I said, holding back my sobs.
“You were haughty from time to time,” she said in a pleading tone. “You have money and Kate’s favor and you shall find another man and I shall not. Tristram is my only hope and he favored you over me. But I knew he, like any of my brothers, would not want a woman who had been … tried.”
“Tried? Tried? Raped! You had been trusted with a most urgent secret, and you have not held to that faith.” I ran both of my hands through my loosened hair and then placed one at the back of my neck to steady myself.
“He will tell no one,” she said, her voice softer now. “He will shortly speak to his father and mine about being married; we will retire to his family’s estates, and the secret will go with us.” She drew close to me. “You did not want him, Juliana, so there is no harm done.”