“Tell me, what money does Your Grace need?”
“I will show you. I have written out what I need and what I owe.”
“Then let Uncle Thomas take care of that.”
“Dear Uncle, it seems so strange. I am a King, and yet I have to do what I am told. I am kept short of money, and I have my tutors who call me ‘Majesty’ and yet hint at stern punishment if I fail in my duties.”
“Be of good cheer. To be a King is a great honor. But more so when the King is no longer a boy. Now if you were a man like myself or like your father…”
“How I wish I were! Yes… like my father, so that I only had to raise an eyebrow to have everyone trembling. How fares my mother? Have you seen her? It seems long since I have. I often think of the days when she would spend long hours with us…my sister Elizabeth and Jane Grey… while we were at our lessons. I miss them all sorely.”
“They are all well. They miss Your Majesty.”
“It seems a sad thing to be a King and not to have those you love about you. Oh yes, I would I were like my father.”
“Marry! He was a boy once. Soon your boyhood will be over, dear Edward. You will be a man; you will marry a wife…and, if you are like your father, mayhap six.”
The little King smiled sadly. “One would suffice for me.”
“You are wise, dearest Majesty. I myself would be happy with a wife, I am thinking.”
“It surprises me that you have not one. You are no longer young and, from all I have heard, the ladies are fond of you.”
“My lord King, if you were to command me to marry a wife, then I should have no excuse for remaining single.”
“I? Command you? Dearest Uncle, what do you mean?”
The Admiral’s eyes were alert. He loved the boy; indeed he did; and he was enjoying this moment. He had committed a great indiscretion. He had married the Dowager Queen, although her husband had been dead little more than three months. It was, to say the least, a great breach of court etiquette; he was not sure that it would not be regarded as a crime. The Council would be furious at his conduct, and he needed the approval of the King.
“If you were to choose a wife for me, whom would you choose? Think carefully, dearest nephew. When I was your age I used to imagine the people I loved best, married to one another. Just tell me; if you could pick a bride for me, on whom would you decide?”
Edward smiled. Like many whose minds are heavily burdened with learning, his humor was a little childish. He shut his eyes.
“I must think of a lady of your own age,” he said. “The lady must be one whom I love as much as I love you. There is only one grown lady whom I love as I love you.”
“Then you should command me to marry her, Sire.”
“How can I do that, my lord?”
“You are the King. Your Majesty has only to command. Tell me her name, Sire.”
“It is my stepmother, the Queen.”
“But…I love her. How did you know? Your Majesty, you are most astute! If I might choose from all the ladies in this land…nay, in all the world, I would choose Queen Katharine. So Your Grace commands me to marry her?”
“Yes,” said the King. “I do.”
Seymour knelt and kissed his hand.
“And none dare disobey the King’s command!” he said with a wink, and they laughed together.
“I shall be glad,” said Edward, “when I have a wife.”
“I know the very one for you. I know the lady of
“Who then?”
“The Lady Jane Grey.”
“I love her dearly,” admitted Edward. “It would be wonderful to have her with me always. I am so lonely sometimes.”
“I cannot command Your Majesty to marry, as Your Majesty commands me.”
“But if you could, Uncle Thomas, would you command me to marry Jane?”
“I would, dearest nephew. But as I cannot, I will do everything within my power to bring about the match.”
“How will you do that?”
“As yet I cannot say. But, by God’s precious soul, I will do my utmost. There! You have my oath on it.”
They laughed together and the pleasant interview continued until some of the King’s ministers demanded an audience.
Seymour left, promising the King to return soon. He was pleased with the results of his little game. He had received the King’s consent to his marriage; and it would certainly be in the interests of the Reformed Party, to which, for political reasons the Seymours belonged, to have the King married to Lady Jane Grey, for little Jane had been brought up in the reformed faith, and the Catholic influence must be suppressed.
