The Redheaded Princess: A Novel (5 page)

I was polite to her and her sister that night, but I was glad that they went home the next day. Lady Jane annoyed me, if only because I knew I might be like her if I didn't fight against my fears and my lack of courage every day. When she parted from Katharine, Lady Jane smiled up at her. "So Sir Thomas will come soon to ask my parents?" she asked.

"As soon as we are settled and he can," Katharine promised. What was this? Sir Thomas Seymour? Come where? To Lady Jane's house? And what did she mean, "As soon as we are settled?" After they departed I looked at Katharine, but before I got the chance to ask, she reached out her hand to me.

"Come inside. I must talk with you," she said. "Elizabeth, we have much to discuss." We were seated in her bedchamber. An applewood fire burned in the hearth. Yeomen of the guard stood at attention outside her door. Her bedchamber was more than for bed. She would sometimes, I was to learn, receive visitors in here, sometimes entertain her closest friends. Rich tapestries sealed off the bed. Sweetmeats were offered, and I sensed that something important was coming. I was, for the moment, frightened. As far as I knew, she did not know of Sir Thomas Seymour's proposal to me, and I vowed to keep it secret. But I was afraid now that she had found out and was offended.

"I admire your intelligence so, your education. But I think it is time for you to have a new tutor. I think you have learned all there is to learn from Mr. Grindal."

I tried not to show my relief. "Yes," I said.

"Elizabeth, there is a man who was Grindal's teacher. His name is Roger Ascham. He is a humanist scholar of Latin and Greek classics, and was appointed to be a Reader in Greek at St. John's College, Cambridge. He has written a book, has a passion for archery, and for a while tutored your brother, Edward. What say you?"

I said yes. Mr. Grindal, she said, would not be hurt. He had the urge to travel. But there was more. "The Lady Jane is going to come and live with us. Sir Thomas has paid her father, bought himself her guardianship. He has a great interest in the girl, who has had an unfortunate home life. I wish you to be a friend to her." I said nothing. "Elizabeth, keep in mind that you may someday be Queen," she said softly. "Everything we do, Sir Thomas and I, is with that possibility in mind." And then she said something else. "I promised my husband I would speak to you about it. He has great expectations of you." From outside came the barking of dogs. Downstairs a door slammed. I heard someone drop some dishes in the kitchen.

Husband? My father was dead scarce two months. I am afraid that my mouth fell open. "Who?" my voice cracked, but I already knew. I already felt the knell of doom.

"That is the other favor. That you keep my secret. I'm planning on getting married. To Sir Thomas Seymour. He has asked for my hand, and you know he was an old love of mine." Know? Certainly she was jesting.

"Yes," I said.

"The grand courtier. All women, children, and dogs are in love with him. When are you planning on doing this?”

“As soon as possible. But I haven't asked Edward's permission.”

“Edward. My little brother?”

“The King," Catherine said. "Don't forget he's the King."

"You would marry in secret, then?"

"Yes. Do you think Edward will be very angry when he finds out?”

“I know Edward loves you.”

“You know Sir Thomas and I were near to plighting our troth before your father asked me to wed him. We have been in love for a long time. I have wed three times when I was not in love, because it was my duty to do so. Now I want to wed for myself. For me.”

“I know Edward loves his Uncle Tom too," I said. "Sir Thomas always treated him more like a man, not like a child the way his brother, the Protector, does.”

“Will you keep my secret, then? I plan to go away for a week after we wed.”

“Yes.”

“I'm telling everyone I'm going to stay with my sister. Do you promise?”

“I promise," I said. "But I thought... that I was to be the only one here. I mean, to enjoy the hospitality of your house.”

“You will still be the most important. Thomas is very impressed with you. We want to say we had a part in your upbringing. Come now, don't pout. Thomas doesn't like ladies who pout."

***CHAPTER SIX

"What do you mean, you're leaving?" He stood before me, Robin did, in all his new height, more like a seventeen-year-old than his thirteen years, his head bowed.

"We're leaving court, my father and brothers and I."

"Why?"

"My father had a fight with Gardiner, the Lord Bishop of Winchester. They came to blows. My father hit Gardiner in the face."

"Robin, one doesn't do that in court." He drew himself up proudly.

"My father had just cause."

"What was the fight about?"

"A matter in the Privy Council. The division of power. It is tipping."

"In whose favor?" He didn't say. "They await me, my father and brothers. I must leave."

He came and knelt on one knee at my feet. "My childhood friend, I don't know when I will see you again." I raised him up and we stood but a foot apart. His face already showed the hint of a beard. Already it was molded in the lines of a man. I felt a pang of fear. Was I losing everybody? First Sir Thomas because of his marriage to Katharine, and now my dear friend Robin?

"God go with you," I said. He nodded and kissed my forehead.

"Be careful, Elizabeth. There is danger all around."

"I'll be safe here." He shook his head no, ever so slightly. "All around," he said. He had taken my hand in his and now he turned to go, reluctantly dropping my fingers. His sword clattered, his boots sounded as he left the room. I had not told him of Sir Thomas's marriage proposal, but somehow I had the feeling that he knew all about it. And more. My sister, Mary, had spies. She had to. As someone who was next in line for the throne, she had to know whom she could and could not trust. I knew she had spies in court, and likely even in the Privy Council. Now she wrote to me from Wanstead, one of her estates, asking me to come and live with her, telling me I was more than welcome and saying that since Katharine was marrying the Lord High Admiral, things must be uncomfortable for me at Chelsea. So she knew about the wedding, just as it was about to happen. She knew about my former attraction to Sir Thomas. What else did she know? Something told me I must be kind, yet wary, toward this sister who was seventeen years older than I. Someday she would be Queen, a devout Catholic Queen, determined to bring England back to Rome. As a member of the new Reformed Faith who despised everything Catholic, where did that put me? Katharine left to wed Sir Thomas. She left with a bevy of her ladies and yeomen of the guard for London, where the wedding would take place at the home of her half-sister and brother-in-law, Lady and Lord Herbert. They returned in two weeks. Sir Thomas had with him a whole complement of men on horseback, including knights and guards. He had extra horses, dogs, and even his hawks. The big house became alive the way it does when a man is about, alive with laughter, back-slapping, joking, wagering-- even cursing--boots scraping, servants bowing and attending, and dogs everywhere, wagging their tails and settling at their masters' feet. I heard it all from upstairs in my chamber.

I had a sick headache, something I'd been suffering from lately. I was fourteen now and subject to womanly ailments. I even had a fever, which gave Katharine a start and caused her to fuss over me in a way that made me feel as if I were loved. I was sorry for myself. After all, I was an orphan, with neither mother nor father. I was going to be living under the same roof now as the man I'd always been attracted to, growing up. And he was married to the only woman who had ever really fulfilled the role of mother for me. I could be Queen someday, yet I couldn't even have a meeting with the brother I loved. And I was afraid of my only sister. Katharine gave me a remedy for my headache and Cat Ashley brought up some soup and muffins for me. I ate hungrily. Then Katharine left to attend to the men downstairs with her husband.

Cat Ashley helped me change into a frilly nightgown and brushed my long red hair. "You're going to have a visitor," she said.

"Who?" I never dreamed it would be he. But it was. In the next minute he was there, standing in my chamber in all his maleness, bringing in the scent of horse and outside, of health and vigor.

"Well, we meet again, Princess.”

“My Lord." I nodded my head, and my eyes went over him, his leather jerkin, the ruff at his neck, the soft velvet of his jacket, his high black boots, his sword, his hat with the feather in it. And I thought, He should have been mine. Devoted only to me. Like Robin and Cat Ashley. He came to the bed, bowed, took my hand and kissed it. He sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I am your stepfather now," he said, as if that excused the familiarity. "Cat tells me you haven't been eating."

"I ate this night.”

“Well, I bid you get well. There is a favor we need from you.

“And what could I possibly do for a Dowager Queen and a Lord High Admiral?”

“We didn't get permission from the King for our marriage. Or from the Privy Council. The council will be livid, as will my brother. If your brother forgives us and gives the marriage his blessing, all will be well. Would you like to visit Edward and clear the way for us? He'll do it if you ask." Well, I thought, he did ask me to wed him first. Had I said yes, he wouldn't be wed to Katharine now.

"I would love to see Edward," I said. "When can I go?" He smiled and took my hand.

"Get well first, and then as soon as possible," he said.

Katharine had left Whitehall Palace without her Queen's jewels. So she wrote, asking Sir Thomas's brother, the Lord Protector, for them. A letter came to her with great dispatch. The Lord Protector was so angry that they had married without his permission that he refused to send the jewels. "Suppose you are with child?" he asked her. "How are we to determine if it is the late King's or not? You are destined for a more profitable match on the world stage," he wrote. "My brother had no right to steal you away." No. The jewels would stay where they were, in the Treasury, until such time as the King married. Then they would go to his wife.

Katharine was furious and refused to go to court all spring, especially, she said, because she knew the Lord Protector's wife would be prancing around in the jewels. To assuage his brother's anger at Katharine's being refused the jewels, the Lord Protector gave Castle Sudeley to Sir Thomas, which dated from the fifteenth century. Sir Thomas was delighted. It was just south of the village of Winchcombe, in Gloucestershire, in a beautiful park. He ordered it refurbished. And there was peace in our house again. Though Katharine still wanted those jewels, which had been left to her by the King. That spring it was cold and rainy and sometimes the rain turned to snow. It was no time to travel. The roads were not to be borne. Then I got a cold and had to stay abed, so it was late spring before finally I got to see my brother, Edward. I traveled to London with my ladies-in-waiting and knights. I had heard how Edward embraced the New Faith more and more every day, how he decried the waste and spending in the court, so I discarded all my frippery and had a plain gray velvet dress made, so modest and simple that I thought it near elegant.

"You're doing the wrong thing," Cat Ashley told me. She was near tears. "You are so beautiful. You should wear your best." But I had a favor to ask of Edward. And if I ever intended to obtain his blessing for the marriage of Sir Thomas and Katharine, and assuage his anger at not having his permission asked, I must present myself as humble and plain, and not show myself to be just another flamboyant woman. I wore no bejeweled headdress. I had my hair done simply, parted in the middle and allowed to hang down my back. The dress had a modest neckline. I wore no neck jewelry, no rings on my fingers. There were no earrings, no rope of pearls around my waist, and I wore no scent to attract a man.

In court I was greeted with gasps and sighs. "Make way for the Princess Elizabeth" was the cry, and all eyes turned, wide, surprised at my plainness. Never had I seen women so dazzling in frippery, in finery. Their hair was worn in curls piled high on their heads and interwoven with pearls. Their white ruffs were like snow, gossamer thin and standing up on their necks. Their gowns were the colors of the rainbow, brocaded, with slashed sleeves that showed the finest of silks and velvets. I approached the throne, which was under a red velvet canopy tied back with gold ropes. To reach it I had to pass through rows of armed men.

"Make way, make way, for the King's most honored sister!" Everyone parted ranks. At the foot of the throne I knelt, as I would before my father.

"Approach. I give you leave," I heard Edward's voice, no longer high and thin but firm and manly. I raised my eyes. Near the throne was a huge arched window overlooking the Thames River. On the river were sailboats. Edward's little dogs were at his feet. On a nearby desk I saw a telescope and papers, charting ... what? The tides? The movement of ships? He looked so lonely and forlorn in his robes of state.

"The Princess Elizabeth," they announced me. Edward rose to raise me up. He hugged me. I was surprised to notice that he was taller than I now. His state robes were red and trimmed with white ermine, and under them he wore a plain gray silk suit, black hose, and shoes. At once I noted how thin he was, how pale. How his eyes were sunken in his head. We embraced. I wiped tears from my eyes at the sight of my little brother surrounded by guards and men of his chamber.

Now he looked at them all and waved a disdainful hand. "I would be alone with my sister, the Princess. Leave me. All of you."

Reluctantly they left and there was no one left in the throne room. We were alone. He bade me sit beside him and showed me the journal he was keeping, and his charts. I was right: The charts kept track of ships that passed his window on the Thames. "London looks so busy," I told him.

"There is so much building going on.”

“Yes. For one, the Lord Protector is building himself a new manor house. It must be worthy of his position, he says. He pulled down the north side of St. Paul's to do it. Men are so greedy, Elizabeth."