“We are acquainted.” Sir Thomas took my hand in his again and explained to all how he’d listened to me read in church that morning. He introduced me to the other courtiers around him, all finely garbed, and I had the opportunity to show, by my manners, my learning, and my use of language, that my mother had brought me up well. One or two gazed upon me admiringly and that pleased my mother not at all, but it made me feel young and desirable and hopeful for the first time in many years. Within a few minutes the musicians stopped playing and my mother’s chamberlain led us into the dining hall.
After a fine meal of roast chicken with honey and almonds, several of Sir Thomas’s retinue begged their leave, and we four—my mother; Sir Thomas; my brother, Hugh; and myself—were left at table. I kept waiting for my mother to dismiss my brother and me but she did not. And then, Sir Thomas made an announcement.
“Mistress Juliana,” he said, looking at me. “I have a proposal for Lady Frances’s consideration.”
I felt a flush up the back of my neck and my mother looked alarmingly from Sir Thomas to me and back again. ’Twas clear she had not anticipated this.
“Indeed, Sir Thomas?” I asked demurely.
“My friend Lord Latimer’s lady, Kateryn Parr, is a fine woman who loves reading, and Scripture, and cultivating young women of good birth in her household. It is seemly for every maiden to spend some time in a good household, besides her own, of course, to further her education and polish.”
I could sense that my mother was about to object when he said, “You were a companion to my sister Jane, were you not, Lady Frances?”
“I was indeed,” my mother admitted. “Afore I married Sir Hugh.” There were familiar shards in the tone of her voice at his rebuke, so I did not voice my incredulity that my mother had once known a queen. The servants, recognizing her tone, too, melted into the background. “But, Sir Thomas, it had been my husband’s understanding that you were going to take our son, Hugh, and place him with a household, so that he may learn better the ways of the world. And make connections that will help him when he assumes his father’s business.”
“All in good time, lady,” Sir Thomas said. “He is young.” I looked at Hugh, who seemed crestfallen that he would not be leaving Marlborough immediately. “After hearing Mistress Juliana read today, I knew that Lady Latimer would immediately take her to heart and it is now my wish to see her placed there. Unless you object?”
His voice was a challenge and the room grew quiet. I thought it bold that Sir Thomas could speak so confidently about placing me in another man’s household and wondered exactly what his ties were with Lord and Lady Latimer.
My mother did not answer directly. She preferred Hugh above all others, and I suspected she was unwilling to let him leave yet anyway.
“Not at all … if Juliana wishes it,” my mother said, forfeiting.
“Good!” Sir Thomas grew jovial again. “I have reason to believe that soon enough there will be a place for Master Hugh in one or another fine household. And now, young Hugh, whilst I get my horses from your stable, shall I teach you a sea song that we sailors sing when no ladies are present?”
Hugh broke out in delighted laughter and Sir Thomas thanked my mother profusely for her hospitality.
I had noticed something alarming about Sir Thomas, though, and I knew I had to ask my mother one question before I could consider Sir Thomas’s offer. I knocked gently on her chamber door.
“Yes?” she called out as she sat at her dressing table while Lucy’s mother unwound my mother’s hair. I went in and stood next to her.
“If I leave with Sir Thomas, will I be safe? I mean, is he safe? With me?”
My mother barked out a laugh. “Even Sir Thomas would not stoop that low,” she said, waving me away with nary a glance in my direction. “He has the pick of the realm.”
“Thank you, lady,” I said as I withdrew, crushed, but keeping a steady look upon my face so she wouldn’t realize my pain, if she looked up to glance at me, that was. If I hadn’t suspected already that she found me unlovely, I knew it now.
Late that night, I visited Hugh in his chamber. “Will you go to London with Sir Thomas?” he asked.
“Yes I will. I will miss you greatly, Hugh, and home. Truth be told, I am a bit afraid of what I may find in London, especially as I shall be alone but for Lucy in a household that is mighty and grand and well beyond what we’ve ever experienced.” I thought back upon my vision, and the timing of my discussion with Father Gregory, who had urged me to be faithful to my gift, and Sir Thomas’s appearance in Marlborough. “But I believe that going is the right thing to do.” I smoothed the coverlet at the foot of his bed. “And so I must.”
“Sir Thomas liked our wolfhounds,” Hugh said approvingly. Then he asked, “Will you come back to marry Matthias? You do not wish it, do you?”
“Nay,” I said, my heart and voice resigned. “But I believe that is what our lady mother wants and therefore that is what I shall do. But there is time.” Time for our Lord to fulfill this prophecy and bring no more, I thought hopefully.
“I shall miss you,” Hugh said. “We’ve not ever been apart.”
“God forbid that we be apart for long,” I quietly replied. Hugh was all I had. “Shall I tell you about the knight Saint George?” He was really too old for such fooleries. But he nodded and I began to recount a story our father had oft told us when we were children because it comforted us both, then and now.
“Now this knight was heroic, and chivalrous; he lived by truth and honor and justice, having won great esteem in his lord’s wars, and was well liked in both Christian and heathen lands,” I began.
“Like our father,” Hugh said sleepily, half-man, half-boy. I agreed and continued the story.
Later, I returned to my chambers in darkness, after Lucy had also retired to her own room nearby. I lay in bed stark awake. It was not in fear of another dream but of something yet more dreadful in the present reality, the knowledge of which I wrestled with.
At dinner I had noted, with apprehension, that Sir Thomas wore a gold and black onyx signet ring on his left small finger. He was, without a doubt, the man with the dagger, slashing the maiden’s black dress, in my prophetic dream.
TWO
Summer, Autumn, and Winter: Year of Our Lord 1542
Charterhouse
My father had settled us in Marlborough because it was between Bath and London, which made it convenient for shipping and selling. He’d brought our family to London once and we’d seen the Thames and the fearsome Tower perched upon it. Some of his seafaring friends had taken us in a rich skiff to view the royal palaces of Greenwich and Whitehall; from the water Hugh and I had marveled at them while my mother was a guest at the London home of a friend. So it was not as if I had never been to London.
But I had never been to London to stay. My thrill near spilled beyond containment.
Several months after his visit to our home, Sir Thomas had sent a fine litter and several of his men from Wulf Hall, his family seat nearby, to convey my belongings, myself, and Lucy to Lady Latimer’s home in London. ’Twas near fifty miles along the Great Road, so by leaving early in the morn we would arrive while there was still light. I rolled up the rug at my feet along with several boxes of gifts for Lady Latimer. Lucy sat behind me. She chattered and I chattered back, though my mother had warned me not to mix with her overmuch.
“You are a knight’s daughter, and Lucy is your maid, not your friend,” she’d said.
“Yes, my lady,” I’d answered. “I will obey you and bring you honor while in the Latimers’ household.” But I knew, too, that my mother confided in Lucy’s mother as much as any other so there was some margin to the rule.