Her Highness, the Traitor (32 page)

In early March, my stepmother, Katherine, came to stay a little while at her manor at Kew. While there, she came to visit me. After she had spent some time condoling me upon the loss of my daughter and my husband, and I had spent some time asking her about the baby, Susan, she had borne Master Bertie in January, Katherine cleared her throat. “Have you thought about your future?”

“Future?” I asked blankly.

“Don’t you realize how vulnerable you are? You’re as close to the crown as you ever were—closer, with King Edward gone and the lady Elizabeth suspected of plotting with Wyatt. I don’t think the queen would put you in the Tower to keep herself safe, as she’s had plenty of opportunity to do so, but I do think that she will put you in bed with a Papist. Personally, I’d as soon be in the Tower, but that’s just my own taste.”

“She would never force me to marry.”

“How can you be sure? Didn’t she as good as promise you that Jane’s life would be safe?”

“Yes. But that was before Harry committed treason.” I dabbed at my eyes with a handkerchief.

“Well, has she ever promised you that she wouldn’t have you remarry?”

“I’ve not seen her since Jane’s and Harry’s deaths. But I can’t believe—”

“Frances, think! The queen’s no fool. Northumberland found that out the sharp way. Unless she has a child, which is about as likely as my little dog giving birth to a litter of kittens, your royal blood is going to be a threat to her—unless she can marry you to someone she trusts. Or to someone she wants to keep sweet. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t have the Earl of Devon in mind for you.”

“He’s a prisoner.”

“Prisoners can be set free. And you don’t need me to tell you how he acted after getting set free last time. Do you want his whores lounging in your great hall, taking up the guest chambers? Do you want him putting his prick inside you after it’s been God knows where?”

I shuddered. I was beginning to realize that in some ways, I had led a very sheltered life in my marriage. Faults he might have had, but Harry had never subjected me to such indignities. “But this is sheer speculation.”

“True, but I wouldn’t take the risk. Why not be certain? Do as I advise you now. Marry a man of your own choosing.”

“Marry? But poor Harry is barely cold!”

“You can wait on consummating the marriage. It’s best if you wait, anyway. If you got with child, it might be considered Harry’s.” Katherine looked at me sharply. “You are not with child, are you?”

“No. We had not had relations in a while. Harry had the stone, and with Jane in the Tower…” I sighed, then lifted my head. “What is all of this about my conceiving a child, when I haven’t even remarried? And you say, remarry, as if it were as easy as getting a new gown!”

“For you, it could be,” Katherine said. “There’s a man in your household who would marry you in a trice if you asked. Master Stokes.”

I blinked. “Harry said almost the same thing. But that’s nonsense.”

“Why?”

“He is not of my station—”

“Oh, pshaw on that! Look at my marriage to Master Bertie; I couldn’t be happier. Mind you, I was fond of your father. But there were all the other entanglements that went with being married to the king’s close friend. I had enemies among people whom I wouldn’t know if I met them in the courtyard of St. Paul’s, just by dint of my marriage. And—well, may I speak freely?”

“When have you ever done otherwise?”

“Your father wasn’t chaste at the best of times, as you know, and having a young wife didn’t change his stripes in that respect. There is none of that with Master Bertie. He sleeps in one of two beds, mine or his, and attends to two spheres of business, mine and his, and that suits me fine. Master Stokes, I daresay, would treat you just as well as my Master Bertie does me.”

“But what makes you think Master Stokes would agree?”

Katherine snorted. “Considering that you’re of royal blood and haven’t lost your looks, I can’t think of any reason why he would refuse. Besides that, he’s fond of you; all anyone has to do is look at your horses to see that. I’d wager the stable boys live in terror of anything being the slightest bit amiss.”

“That Master Stokes is very competent at his position hardly means that he is sighing with love for me.”

“He accompanied you to your daughter’s trial. He attended her execution. He was the one who warned you of your husband’s rebellion. What more proof do you need of the man’s devotion? He will do anything you ask—and you’re not asking him to do anything disagreeable, after all.”

“I can’t decide this now. I must think about it—and pray about it.”

“Of course you must,” Katherine said. “I will leave you to your thoughts, then.”

***

I did pray and think about my decision, all through that night. I had been a widow for only three weeks. If I remarried, I would be rushing to the altar more quickly than my own parents, who had been considered too precipitate by many. Yet my stepmother had a point: the longer I remained unmarried, the more I risked having a marriage arranged for me by the queen. I knew she would not wed me to a brute, but she might well marry me to one of the men who had betrayed my daughter, or one of the men who had watched scornfully as Harry walked to the scaffold. The idea of giving my body to such a man repelled me. With Adrian Stokes, I knew I would be getting a husband who had always been loyal to me and who was kind, as well.

And I would be getting a man whom I liked—nay, a man whom I had even imagined in my bed. Even as I flushed at the memory, I realized a woman could do far, far worse than to share her life with such a man.

I knelt and prayed once more. This time when I arose off my knees, I felt I had received a heavenly answer at last. Or at least, I hoped it was a heavenly one, and not my own desire speaking.

***

Master Stokes stood before me in the chamber where I conducted my business. Beside me, silent for once, stood my stepmother. I had asked her to be with me lest I lose my nerve. Besides, if Master Stokes refused, at least he would not have the ill manners to laugh in front of a third person.

“I have called you here to ask you to do me a great favor, Master Stokes,” I faltered.

“Ask it, Frances,” Katherine hissed.

“I want you to marry me,” I blurted.

“Your Grace?”

“That’s what she’s asking,” Katherine said. “She—”

“I can speak for myself,” I said. I looked pleadingly up into Master Stokes’s fine blue eyes and saw astonishment, but not unfriendliness, in them. “I fear that the queen will force me to remarry someone I do not care for, even someone who might use Harry’s treason as an excuse to treat me unkindly. I would much rather be married to someone I trust and respect and like, and that person is you.”

“Your Grace, you must know you could do much better. I am merely a gentleman’s son.”

“I know I could be truly miserable. And there is another reason I want to marry you. No one will ever try to put Mistress Stokes, or her children, upon the throne. I want no part of any more such schemes. Please, Master Stokes. You will be doing me the greatest of kindnesses.”

“In that case, I will be pleased to marry you, Your Grace.”

“Frances.”

“Frances,” Adrian agreed. He stepped closer to me.

I drew back. “But there is something else. Two things. I would like to delay consummating the marriage. I am still mourning my husband.”

“And if she quickened with child so soon,” Katherine put in, “the babe might be thought to be the duke’s.”

“Yes, that’s reasonable. The other thing?” Adrian asked quietly.

“Some will say that I married for lust, or to spite Harry’s memory. I do not want to hear such unkind comments. For that reason, I would like to keep our marriage secret for now. Will you agree?”

“Yes.” He hesitated. “Let me speak to you alone for a moment, Your—Frances.”

Katherine obediently exited the room.

Adrian looked at me, his blue eyes grave. “Are you sure about this, Frances? I have little love for Queen Mary, but I do not honestly believe she would force you into a marriage with someone you disliked. Nor do I believe that after this latest rebellion that anyone would attempt to seize the throne through you. I am honored to be your choice, but there may be no need to take such a drastic step as you are thinking of taking.”

“I would prefer not to risk it. Besides, there is another reason, which I could not admit to in front of Katherine.” I swallowed. “She did very well on her own after my father’s death. I am not like her. The thought of managing in this world all alone terrifies me. I know that makes me a foolish creature, but that is what I am.”

“I do not think you do yourself justice. But do you believe you would be happier if you were married?”

“Yes,” I admitted.

“Then may I kiss my future bride?”

I nodded. Gently, Adrian put his lips to mine. “I’ll take good care of you, Frances,” he said, patting my cheek. “Just as I promised your husband.”

***

Two days later, on March 9, Katherine and my two most trusted ladies rode to Katherine’s house at Kew, accompanied by Adrian in his usual position as my master of horse. No one could have guessed that we were a wedding party.

Katherine had a priest—one who would soon be going into exile abroad—waiting for us. As Katherine, Master Bertie, my ladies, and Adrian’s younger brother William looked on as witnesses, we said our vows, Adrian in a firm voice, mine slightly shaking.

Afterward, we had a small celebration—very small, lest those in Katherine’s household not in the secret suspect something odd. Then we rode back to Sheen as if this had been nothing more than a social visit to my stepmother. Adrian looked at me a little wistfully as our odd wedding party began to break up, but asked in his usual manner as a groom led my horse away, “Will your grace wish to ride tomorrow?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

At the ceremony, Adrian had slipped a lovely gold ring—one upon which he must have spent a considerable part of his earnings—onto my finger. I had concealed it under my glove when I returned to Sheen. Alone in my chamber, I sat twisting the band, wondering what on earth I had gotten myself into. Then I slipped my wedding ring from my finger and placed it in a little coffer.

***

Though Harry’s brother Thomas was executed in April for his part in the rebellion, my own position remained little changed. Bradgate was forfeit to the Crown, but I was given nearby Beaumanor and other lands, and I was allowed to remain at Sheen. I even had three girls in my care again: Harry’s niece Margaret Willoughby had joined my household.

In early June, soon after Margaret arrived, my stepmother again visited, having been doing business in London. It was important business, I soon learned: Richard Bertie had left England. “And I am going to join him as soon as I can wrap up my affairs here,” said Katherine. “Bishop Gardiner called Master Bertie to him and made it very clear that if we did not conform to Papist teachings, England would be a very unpleasant place for us. He even dragged out the old story that I dressed up my dog in priestly robes and named him ‘Gardiner’ and taught him to beg.” Katherine sighed. “Master Bertie denied it, which was quite honest on his part. That was a prank of my eldest son, the clever boy, not one of my doing.”

“You would leave your country? Your little daughter?”

“Not my little Susan, certainly. She will go with us. My country—well, with Prince Philip coming, it may not look like my country anymore. I know, I know!” I had raised my hand. “You don’t want anything said against him here after what happened to your husband and to Lady Jane, and I don’t blame you. But I do wish you would consider taking your girls—oh, and Master Stokes, too, of course—and leaving. You would be most welcome abroad, as Lady Jane’s mother. Do you know that your daughter’s letters are being printed, here and abroad?”

“I am well aware of that.” I had my own printed copy of the letter to Harding, hidden well away in some old account books. “I allowed them to be placed into the printer’s hands. It was what my daughter—and Harry—would have wanted. But they would not want me abroad. Harry once told me that I had no strong feelings about religion and could not understand those who do. He was at least half-right. I have gone without Mass, and I have gone with Mass, and I feel exactly the same way about our Savior with either one. Why would I leave my country and wander abroad merely to avoid hearing a Mass?”

Katherine shook her head.

“Besides, I have already let you talk me into one great change.”

“Ah, yes. How do you and Master Stokes get on?”

“Very well,” I said. In fact, except that he no longer addressed me in private as “Your Grace,” and that we made the major decisions about the running of my estates together, our relationship had scarcely changed since we married.

“Do you share a bed with him yet?”

“No.”

“Don’t make the poor man wait forever,” Katherine advised. She sniffed. “He’s a good man, Frances, but he’s not
that
good.”

“I’m not ready yet,” I said firmly. “It is far too early.”

***

In July, Mary finally married Prince Philip at Winchester Cathedral. The girls and I were not invited—that would have been unthinkable, as this was a marriage my husband had died trying to prevent—but after the queen and king, as Philip would be known, arrived at Richmond in August, I was commanded to see the queen.

I had never seen Mary looking better in her life, or dressed more colorfully. She was festooned from head to toe in scarlet, relieved by lace and gold trim. “We regret having to execute sentence upon your daughter and your husband, my lady,” she said. “It was a necessity. We cannot encourage future rebellions by appearing weak.”

There was nothing I could say to this except for, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“But now we wish to put the past behind us,” the queen continued, and I realized this was the last I would ever hear of Jane and Harry from her lips. “How old is the lady Katherine?”

“She is almost fourteen, Your Majesty.”

“She is an attractive girl, as I recall?”