It was not quite a month since the death of the King, and he saw that snowdrops were beginning to appear in the gardens before the cottages which he passed on his way through the villages, and the purple flowers of the butterbur were blooming along by the river.
Katharine was staying in the Dormer Palace of Chelsea (which Henry had built after he had seized the Manor of Chelsea), with its gardens that ran down to the Thames. Thomas approached the palace by the only road through the village, which wound between the meadows. He crossed Blandels Bridge—very pretty now with the hoar frost on the nearby bushes, but so dangerous at dusk on account of the many robbers who infested the place, and who had so often added murder to their crimes that the bridge had become known as Bloody Bridge.
Lord Sudley’s eyes glistened with excitement as they turned from the small turrets to the long narrow windows, while he hoped for a glimpse of a red head.
He wondered if the weather was warm enough to walk in the gardens with Katharine, for those gardens had been made very pleasant with their lawns and miniature fishponds.
Katharine received him rather cautiously, because several of her ladies were in attendance. How fair she looked! She wore her royal widow’s hood and barb with its sable pall as though she did so with great relief—as indeed she must. She could not hide her feelings for him, so he was glad when she dismissed her women and they were alone together.
He took her hands. “At last!” he said.
“Thomas! How I have longed to see you! But is it not a little too soon?”
“It is most improper,” he replied with a laugh.
He knew she was hoping he would take her into his arms, and how could he refuse? He had never been able to refuse such a thing to a woman.
“Thomas… what if we were seen?”
“Ah, my brother Somerset’s spies are everywhere. Somerset now, remember. No longer merely Hertford.”
“And you are no longer plain Sir Thomas.”
He bowed. “Lord Sudley at your service.”
“Always Thomas…my dearest Thomas.”
“Oh, Katharine, how I have trembled for you in these latter years.”
“And yet you seemed not to notice me. How you made me suffer!”
“How I should have made us both suffer if I had looked at you and betrayed my thoughts!”
“You were the wise one, Thomas. I was foolish.”
“Now you understand how greatly I love you. I can even be wise for your sake.”
“You make me so happy.”
“And when, Katharine, my sweet Katharine, will you make me happier still?”
He was carried on by his feelings, as he always was. He owed his successes at sea to this very impetuousness. He believed so firmly in the destiny of Thomas Seymour that he was able to forget that five days ago he had asked Elizabeth to marry him; now it seemed to him that he had always loved Katharine, that during those years of danger he had deliberately forced himself to think of others for her sake.
Elizabeth, that child! It was a pretty joke, a pleasant game. And, oh, what an exciting game! But how could he marry the Princess without the consent of the Council? Besides, she was a child; and here was a warm, loving woman, so earnestly, so faithfully in love with him.
He took her roughly in his arms. He liked to play the buccaneer. It was usually successful, accompanied as it always was, in his dealings with women, by an underlying tenderness. See the strong man who could vanquish an enemy, see how he curbs his strength for fear of harming the one he loves!
She was a Queen; he could not help it if, in calculating her desirable qualities, he had in mind not only her gentle nature, her adoration of himself, her charming little body, not too mature, but so comfortable, so pleasant and delightful; there were also her lands, her endowment, her influence. The King loved his uncle, but without a doubt the boy idealized his stepmother. The two of them together would make a team to guide the King. With her riches, her influence and her charm, she was irresistible.
“My dearest,” he said, “when?”
“When?” she cried. “And the King not dead a month!”
“I shall not hesitate this time.”
“My love, you must… hesitate a little… for the sake of decency, for the sake of etiquette.”
But he had seized her again. “Do you think I care for these things when love burns in my heart? No, no! I lost you once. Do you think I will allow that to happen again?”
“Nay, my dearest, you must be patient.”
“Patience and love, dear Kate, go not hand in hand.”
“What would be said of me if…my husband not dead a month…I took another?”
“I would take my fists to the ears of any who spoke ill of you, Kate… from the lowest to the highest. Take off the hood.”
“I dare not.”
“Then I will.” He seized it and flung it from them.
She looked at him and laughed aloud. There was a note of the old hysteria in her voice when she said: “It is the end… the end of fear. Oh, Thomas, you cannot guess what it was like. Every time I heard footsteps I wondered whether they came for me.”
“My darling Kate, my dearest Kate, none shall harm you now, for Thomas will be at your side…as long as we both shall live.”
“It is so wonderful, my darling. I think I shall die of happiness.”
“Die! Ye shall not! You have done with death. Kate, we shall marry soon… this very week.”
“Now let us talk seriously.”
“I speak with the utmost seriousness. I’ll brook no delay.”
He lifted her in his arms while she laughingly begged to be put down. “For if we were seen, I know not what would be said or done against us.”
He refused to release her. He sat on a stool and held her against him.
“Nothing will be done against us, Kate. None would dare.” He was about to outline the advantages of a marriage between them, to explain how the little King would be as butter in their hands; but at such moments it was wiser to talk of love and nothing but love. If he was a reckless statesman, experience had made him a perfect lover; and in any case, love between them was a very pleasant topic.
“I am a most impatient man, Kate.”
“I am an impatient woman where you are concerned. But, Thomas, I am as yet unready. I have nightmares still.”
“You need me beside you to comfort you.”
“I dream …”
“Forget those dreams. Let us talk of others…when you and I shall be married.”
“The earliest would be May.”
“May! Three whole months away!”
“We dare not before.”
“Who says I dare not when I will?”
“My dearest …” But he stopped her protests with kisses while his thoughts were racing on.
“A secret marriage,” he murmured in her ear.
She caught her breath. “No. No. It would be dangerous.”
“May, for our official ceremony then,” he went on. “But I shall visit you. I shall come by night.”
“No, Thomas.”
But he insisted: “Yes.”
“You will ride out to Chelsea after dark? No, Thomas, I forbid it.”
“But I shall forbid you to forbid it when you are in my arms.”
“Across the fields…over Bloody Bridge?”
“Why not?”
“At night! It is most dangerous.”
“So you think I could not defend myself?”
“I know you are the bravest, the strongest…”
“Yes,” he said. “I shall come. For I cannot wait till May.”
“No, no.”
“But yes!” he cried; he laughed and she could not help but laugh with him.
There had never been happiness like this in the whole of her life. Her widow’s hood lay on the floor—a symbol of her freedom. She knew that she would deny him nothing, for there was no happiness for her apart from him.
And when Thomas rode away from the Dormer Palace he was affianced—though as yet in secret—to the widow of a King not four weeks dead.
From one of the windows, the Princess Elizabeth watched him ride away. She tossed back her hair and smiled secretly.