The Miracle at St. Bruno's (18 page)

“It could never be a good arrangement—even if it worked.”

“It’s going to work for me,” said Kate blandly.

Whatever topic we started with, Bruno would find a way into our conversation. Kate would soften a little when she spoke of him. She often recalled details of those days when we used to go through the ivy-covered door and find him waiting for us. I was sure that at times she believed that Bruno was something more than human.

“Do you think we shall ever knew the truth about Bruno, Kate?” I asked.

“Who ever knows the whole truth about anybody?” was her reply.

I dispatched a messenger to my father to tell him of my safe arrival. I said I would be coming home shortly after the baby was born. I knew that Kate would not wish me to go. I had an idea that she visualized keeping me there as a companion for herself. She told me once that she needed me.

“And since you don’t altogether fancy Rupert I might arrange a grand marriage for you,” she promised me.

“My father would expect me to go home.”

“I am sure he is eager to see you married.”

But with the baby due to arrive at any time we were both awaiting the signs so that our conversation was often of the imminent birth. I went through the layette which had been prepared for the child and Kate and I discussed the names of boys and girls which we thought would be suitable for the infant.

Kate liked to talk about the Court and the King’s affairs and her recent adventures at Windsor made her feel that she was really very knowledgeable—particularly compared with a stay-at-home cousin.

The King’s marriage was the great topic for we all knew that he was greatly dissatisfied with his bride.

“It is a most unfortunate affair,” said Kate happily as we sat in the pond garden. I was stitching at a little garment I was making for the baby. Kate sat idly, her hands in her lap, watching me.

“Of course poor Anne of Cleves is a most unsuitable wife. The King would never have thought of taking her but for the state of affairs on the continent.”

I begged to hear more. I had heard rumors but I liked listening to Kate’s more racy version than those which had been vaguely alluded to at our dinner table.

“The King always hated the Emperor Charles and the King of France,” Kate explained, “and the thought of their joining up together was quite alarming. They say that he believed they were plotting a mischief against him. So he wanted allies on the Continent. Cromwell believed that the Duke of Cleves would be that ally; so why not make a firm alliance through marriage with the Duke’s sister?”

“And the lady was willing,” I said. “Did she know what had happened to Queen Katharine and Queen Anne?”

“Surely the whole world knows! It was bruited about Europe as I believe no other affair ever has been. The King’s Secret Matter was undoubtedly the world’s most well-known scandal. Ladies were not too willing. There was Mary of Guise—and she a widow. Very comely, said those who knew her. The King fancied her but she refused him for the King of Scotland. That is something he will not readily forgive the Scots. And now he is angry with Master Cromwell, because the lady of Cleves does not live up to his expectations. Remus saw the account which Cromwell’s man sent him of the lady. It compared her beauty with that of other ladies as being like the golden sun to the silver moon. She was said to surpass them all. And Holbein the artist made a portrait of her but omitted to put in the pockmarks. Her face is pitted with them. They say that when he saw her the King was horrified and disgusted and naturally furious with those who had brought her to him.”

“Poor woman!”

“She could not speak a word of English so she did not know what was being said about her.”

“She must have sensed the cold reception.”

“I was sorry for the King. I wondered whether he compared her with that other Anne. Do you remember her, Damask? How fascinating she was riding in her litter! Did you ever see anyone like her? So elegant…so attractive….She was a real Queen. I shall never forget her.”

“Nor I the day you blackmailed poor Tom Skillen into taking us up the river to see her pass by.”

“How grateful you should be to me. But for my astuteness you would never have seen Queen Anne Boleyn. No, I shall never forget her. She was unforgettable. How could the King have let her go for the sake of Jane Seymour! That is something I have never been able to understand. Jane was so simple, so dull….Compared with all that brilliance….”

“Perhaps men sometimes tire of brilliance and fancy a little peace.”

That made Kate laugh. “His Grace the King? Never! Well, he would have quickly tired of her had she lived, so, poor soul, perhaps it was as well she died. When I saw the new Queen at Shooters Hill whither we had ridden out with the King’s party to greet her, I was mightily astonished. I had insisted on Remus’s taking me, although he had feared I should not ride at that stage of my pregnancy. But I insisted and there she was. Damask, the pity of it. So plain! That dreadful skin and her clothes! If they had tried to make her look ugly they could not have succeeded better. She had some twelve or so ladies with her—all as ugly as she was. They are fat, these Flemings, and have no style. How different from the French. Anne Boleyn was Frenchified, was she not? Do you remember the way she held her head? And the King. He looked magnificent…although I will whisper to you that he no longer has that golden look he once had. His face is red and he is fat and his eyes have grown smaller and his mouth tighter…and when he frowns he is quite terrifying. But on this day he was in a coat somewhat like a dress—purple velvet, embroidered with gold thread and trimmed with gold lace. The sleeves were lined with cloth of gold and the coat was held together by buttons which were diamonds, rubies and pearls. His bonnet was a glitter. And his new Queen! She was in a gown of raised cloth of gold and on her head was a caul and over that a bonnet. How hideous are the Dutch fashions! To see them meet was most revealing. The people cheered and the King could not give vent to his real feeling, but those near him knew that the thunder was rumbling and those responsible for bringing Anne of Cleves to England trembled then and have been trembling ever since.”

“Surely that was Cromwell.”

“Cromwell, yes, and there are many who hate that man and will doubtless be pleased to see befall him that which has been the fate of many others.”

“He is too powerful a man to suffer because the King does not like the look of a woman.”

“Powerful men have fallen before. And they say that the King never loved Cromwell. He has accorded him scarce any dignity nor respect. ’Twas different with the Cardinal—yet look what became of him.”

“It is dangerous to serve princes.”

“You are not the first to have mentioned the fact,” said Kate with a wry smile. “Do you know that after he had seen her for the first time the King was so incensed that he cried out: ‘Whom shall men trust? I promise you that I see no such thing in her as hath been shown to me by her pictures or report. I love her not.’ ”

“Could he expect to love her on such a short meeting?”

“He meant he had no desire for her. And so long had he been without a wife that this was ominous. To tell the truth I believe he already had his eye on Katharine Howard and if this were so this would doubtless make Anne of Cleves seem even more repulsive than she might otherwise have been thought. Remus said that the King summoned Cromwell and demanded to be told how he could be released from the ‘great Flanders mare.’ Poor Cromwell, he is at his wits’ end. But should we say ‘Poor Cromwell’? Secretly I think not. Perhaps we are smiling a little because he is now himself in that danger in which he has placed so many. When we think of those days when his men came to St. Bruno’s….”

“He was but doing the King’s bidding.”

“Oh, a little more than that. He was the enemy of the monks. But for that man perhaps now Bruno would be living at the Abbey and you and I would be stealing through the secret door to have word with him. But that is all gone. It is as though it never was. And now it is Cromwell’s turn to face the wrath of his sovereign.”

“I pity any who must face that.”

“Have you forgotten? Do you remember the monk who hung on the gibbet…how limp was his body! It made me shudder to look at him. And Brother Ambrose….”

“Please don’t talk of it, Kate. I’d rather forget.”

“There’s the difference in us. I’d rather remember now and say “There, Cromwell, it is your turn now.’ ”

“But has it come to that? He has a great title bestowed on him, has he not?”

“Oh, yes, my Lord of Essex and Lord Chamberlain of England. Remus tells me that the King has bestowed thirty manors on him. Well, I suppose he deserved some to fall to him when one considered how many he has diverted to the King. But that was in April. It is now June. The summer skies are darkening for Master Cromwell and it is all due to this marriage.”

“How knowledgeable you are.”

“These are matters which are discussed at Court and sometimes here when people come from Court.”

“And you find it dull?”

“Not such talk. Not such people. It is the country squires who bore me. Moreover I would wish to be at Court and not merely to listen to what goes on there when good fortune sends us a visitor.”

“And what of Cromwell, Kate? What do they tell you of this man?”

“That the Cleves marriage has been a mistake from beginning to end. The King loves only attractive women and they procured for him a Flanders mare. The marriage was necessary, said Master Cromwell, because the King must placate the Duke of Cleves since the Emperor Charles of Austria and King François of France have put their heads together and have made an alliance which is surely to attack England. The German States could be brought to England’s side because of the union with one of them and the unhappy King could see that he must do as his statesmen bid; and so against his inclination he married Anne of Cleves but declared that he could not bring himself to consummate the marriage.” Kate began to laugh. “Imagine it! He went into the nuptial chamber but he had no inclination to go farther.”

“I am sorry for her,” I said.

“They say she was terrified. She feared that wishing to be rid of her he would trump up some charge against her. And now the Emperor Charles and King François have fallen out, and while this should be a matter for rejoicing, when the King knew what had happened he was furious, for it seemed he had married for no reason at all. He did not care now whether he had the support of the German States or not, for his two great enemies were even greater enemies of each other and while this state of affairs persisted he had nothing to fear. He demanded that Cromwell should extricate him. Cromwell does not know which way to turn. The clever man is caught in his own net.”

“I wonder any man desires to go to Court. Look at the peace of this garden! How much more pleasant it is to watch the lilies on the pond and the bees in the lavender than to be concerned in the King’s business.”

“The rewards are great,” said Kate.

“And to gain them one must risk one’s head?”

“Damask, you are without ambition. You do not know how to live.”

“But it is precisely what I would wish to do. It is you who think that there is some virtue in gambling with death.”

“I would rather live boldly for a week than dully for twenty years. I am sure my way of life is more to be desired than yours.”

“When we are old, we will remember this day and perhaps then we shall understand who is right.”

We were silent for a while. Then she said that she thought her time would be sooner than she had believed possible.

“We must send for your husband,” I said.

But she shook her head. “We shall do no such thing. I do not want him here, intruding on us.”

She was adamant. I was a little alarmed. There was a feverishness about her. I kept thinking of Keziah lying in Mother Salter’s cottage with the sprig of rosemary on the sheet.

Lord Remus came to the Castle. Kate was disappointed that he had returned so soon, but he told me that he must certainly be present when his child was born. There was no doubt that he adored Kate. I was surprised because she was not always gracious to him; but he reacted to her tantrums as though she were a favored child, as though everything she did must be accepted because she did it so charmingly.

But at least what he had to tell was of interest to Kate.

Kate had insisted that she was in no mood to entertain and we took our meals as before in her room. The difference was that Lord Remus was often with us. Kate would have preferred him to be absent but when he talked of the Court affairs she became animated and interested.

Because of his post in the King’s household Lord Remus could talk knowledgeably of affairs and although I imagined that ordinarily he was a man of discretion Kate could worm anything out of him. She wanted to know the truth about Cromwell and therefore she had it.

“The man is in a frenzy of anxiety,” Lord Remus told her. “He has been arrested at Westminster. I heard from my Lord Southampton, who was present, that he was taken completely off his guard. He came to the Council and as he entered the room the Captain of the Guard stepped forward with the words, ‘Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, I arrest you in the name of the King on a charge of High Treason.’ Southampton says he never saw a man so astonished and then afraid.”

“How many times,” cried Kate, “had Master Cromwell called for the arrest of men who were more innocent than he!”

“Be careful, Kate.”

“What nonsense!” she retorted. “Do you think Damask will inform against me? And of what should she inform?”

“It is necessary to guard the tongue, my dear. We do not know who may be listening or how words may be distorted. We cannot trust our own servants these days.”

“Tell us more,” commanded Kate.

“The fellow was near hysteria. He threw his bonnet to the ground. He called on the members of the Council to support him. They knew he was no traitor, he said. But all were against him to a man. They have always hated the fellow. He went straight to the Tower and before the day was out the King’s men were ransacking his houses. I have heard he had accumulated much treasure during his days of power and that the King’s coffers will be much enriched by it.”