Secrets of the Tudor Court Boxed Set

30

My time at Chelsea Manor passed slowly. I felt cut off from the outside world. The many-turreted redbrick house had been designed as a country retreat and could only be reached by water and by a single narrow road that led to a tiny village of no importance.

I saw little of the princess, who was busy with her studies once Master Ascham arrived to take charge of them. Most of my time was spent with my two sisters-in-law and their ladies, including Mary Woodhull, and with Will’s nephew, three-year-old Edward Herbert. I enjoyed being “Aunt Bess” to the boy. Will and I had talked of having a child, but we had taken precautions to prevent conception during our time together, even after we were living as man and wife at Norfolk House. We’d wanted to be sure there was no question of legitimacy when I bore his heir.

In March, Mistress Lavina Teerlinck the paintrix arrived to make a portrait of the little boy. While she was at Chelsea, I commissioned her to paint me in small. When the miniature was finished, I gave it to Tom Seymour to take to Will. No one had thought to forbid him to own my likeness.

At long last spring arrived, making it possible to stroll out of doors along newly mown alleys and enjoy the gardens. I wandered beside hedges of privet and whitethorn and between banks of rosemary and borders of lavender, inhaling their warm scents. If I closed my eyes, I could almost imagine myself back in my own garden at Norfolk House.

I ventured into the orchard as well, where a mixture of trees had been planted less than ten years before—cherries, filbert, and damson. There were also two peach trees, already in flower and giving promise of a bountiful crop. The orchard was surrounded by fields. Sometimes, looking out across all that open space, a vista filled with cowslips, daisies, and gillyflowers, I found it difficult to remember that I was only a few miles from the center of London.

I walked as far as the postern gate that led to the road but I did not pass through. There was nowhere to go. I glanced back at the house that had been my home for more than three months. Surely the commissioners would make their decision soon.

My spirits lifted when I saw that young Edward had come outside with his nurse. There was a little stone basin in the privy garden that had been turned into a fishpond. Edward had his pole at the ready and the queen dowager herself was giving him instructions on how to land a fish.

She smiled when I joined them. “Are you an angler, Bess?”

“My brothers tried to teach me but I lacked the patience for the sport.”

“Why does that not surprise me?”

We stood side by side to watch Edward try his luck. Several minutes passed before I noticed that Kathryn kept touching her hand to her abdomen. “Are you unwell, Kathryn?”

A shy smile reassured me even before she answered. “Very well indeed, Bess. I am with child.”

I struggled to find words. This was most unexpected. Kathryn had been married three times before without conceiving. For a barren woman of thirty-four to suddenly prove fertile was the next thing to a miracle. “I envy you,” I said at last.

“Your turn will come.”

I hoped it would arrive before I was as old as she was, but I gave her the smile she expected before we went back to watching our mutual nephew catch fish.

A few days later, my sister Kate arrived at Chelsea. It had been years since I’d last seen her. At nineteen, her resemblance to our mother was striking. That was shock enough, but the news that she was en route to her new home in the company of a husband left me speechless.

Experienced at smoothing over awkwardness, the queen dowager expertly separated the newlyweds, engaging John Jerningham in conversation so that Kate and I could steal away to my chamber. I’d heard not a word from anyone in my family since I’d arrived at Chelsea. The letters I’d sent to Cowling Castle had gone unanswered.

I did not know what to ask Kate first. Before I could decide, she rushed into my arms and embraced me. “I have missed you, Bess! It was very bad of Father to forbid us to write to you, but he was furious when he heard you were Northampton’s mistress.”

“I am his wife, Kate.”

Her eyebrows winged up. “If you say so.”

“I do. And I do not need Father trying to arrange my life.”

“He means well,” Kate said. “And I am well pleased with the husband he picked out for me.”

“Then you are fortunate. I doubt I would have been happy with the results of his matchmaking. I have nothing against Sir Edward Warner, but I do not want him as a husband.”

Kate’s eyes widened. “Sir Edward Warner? Is that why he came to Cowling Castle?” She started to laugh.

“Why is that so funny?” I had the feeling I’d been insulted, but I could not fathom how.

“Because he’s to marry Elizabeth Brooke, after all. Just not you.”

That took a moment to work out. Then I was the one gaping. “Aunt Elizabeth?”

Kate nodded. “They announced their betrothal last month.”

She rambled merrily on, telling me all about my brother William’s new wife, and what the younger boys were up to, and how excited she was to be going to her new home. It was the lot of daughters to wed and leave their childhood homes behind. Sometimes they moved so far away from their parents and siblings that they never saw any of them again. Tears welled up in my eyes. I was not so very far away, but because of the lord protector’s vengeful wife and her hatred of the queen dowager, I had lost both husband and family. I flung my arms around Kate and hugged her as tightly as she’d earlier embraced me.

“Promise me we will see each other as often as possible,” I begged her. “Swear to me that Father’s disapproval will no longer keep us apart.”

Kate used her own handkerchief to wipe away my tears. “I promise. Oh, Bess, if only you could be as happy with your Will as I am with my John.”

After Kate’s visit, it was harder to convince myself that everything would come out right in the end. Try as I might to distract myself from longing for Will, he was always in my thoughts. There were even times when I imagined that I heard his voice.

I was walking in the garden, inhaling the soothing scent of the lavender border, when it happened again. Resolutely, I continued on my way, certain my mind was playing tricks on me until I heard the thud of running footsteps and turned to see my own dear Will loping toward me.

He caught me by the waist and swung me around, grinning from ear to ear. “My lady Northampton,” he said, “are you ready to come home with me?”