“My lady,” Joan had said, “there has been great trouble in the Queen’s household. It concerns the Admiral and the Princess Elizabeth.”
“That surprises me not,” said the Duchess. “The wonder is that the stupid woman did not discover, long ere this, what the rest of her household seemed to know so well. Did you hear how she took the discovery?”
“Most bitterly, my lady. Her servants said that she became hysterical, as she did before… when the King was her husband and so many thought he would have her put away from him.”
The Duchess smiled and suckled her baby.
Later she talked to her husband.
“I shall never be happy while your brother lives,” she declared.
“Would you wish his
“As I would the death of all who stood to harm you, my lord.”
“And the Queen?” he asked.
“The Queen is a foolish woman. I fear her influence, but not herself. They say she is a bitter woman who cares not whether she lives or dies. Oh, my lord, a woman in her state and of her age…who has never before had a child…”
“Yes, my love?”
The Duchess shrugged her shoulders. “I do not know. But it would not greatly surprise me if she did not survive the ordeal before her.”
“That is what you hope.”
“I like her not. But it is your brother whom I fear.”
“My dear wife,” said the Duke, “even if we proved a case against him, the King would put up a fight for his beloved uncle.”
“The King! He is but a feeble boy.”
“Feeble in body, but not so in mind. He puts on dignity with each day. If he is but a boy, he is a Tudor; and you know well the strength of his father.”
She was silent for a while, then she said: “If the Queen were to die, and it could be shown that the Admiral had helped to bring about her death, the King might not feel so kindly toward his favorite uncle.”
“Thomas bring about her death! Nay! He is a philanderer, but he would not murder his wife.”
“She is sad, I hear. She cares not whether she lives or dies. This is due to her husband’s treatment of her.”
The Protector bent over his wife to look at his newborn son.
He smiled at the Duchess, and their eyes were alight with a kindred ambition.
IN HER LYING-IN CHAMBER at the Castle of Sudley, Katharine lay, her body torn in agony. But no bodily agony could compare with the distress of her mind.
All through those paindazed hours she was aware of the cloud about her; she was aware that the happy life, the thought of which had sustained her through all her miseries, was nothing more than a myth and an illusion.
Thomas, waiting for the birth of his child, paced back and forth from room to room.
“No news yet? No news?” he demanded. “By God’s precious soul, how long…how long?”
Some of those who loved the Queen longed to tell her of his distress, but they knew that she would have no faith in it. She no longer believed in him; all his protestations had failed to move her. He had lied to her; he had deceived her; and she would never trust him again.
It was on the last day of August, when the heat was stifling, that Katharine’s daughter was born.
“A girl!” The words spread through the Castle.
It was a disappointment; everyone had confidently hoped for a boy. The astrologers had prophesied that there would be a son for the Admiral. He had believed that prophecy; he had gone about boasting of the son he would have, a finer, stronger, more handsome boy than the one just born to his brother’s wife.
And now…agirl!
But Thomas would not show his disappointment. Full of remorse for the hurts he had inflicted on Katharine, he longed to assure her of his love and devotion.
Elizabeth was far away at Hatfield now, and he would think only of Katharine, his beloved wife. He would make her understand that it was possible for a man such as himself to be fond of more than one woman at a time. And what, he asked himself, was his lighthearted desire for Elizabeth compared with the deeprooted tenderness he felt for his wife?
He went to her chamber; he kissed her tenderly, and most solicitously he inquired regarding her health. He took the child in his arms and paced the apartment with her.
“Why, bless us, Kate, I’d rather this girl than all the boys in Christendom.”
But the magic failed to work now; the charm was useless. It was like a pretty tinkling toy, and she had grown out of her desire for such.
She watched him with solemn, brooding eyes.
He knelt by the bed: “Get well, Kate. Get well, sweetheart. There is no joy for me in this life if thou sharest it not with me.”
