was determined that he was not going to let his brother usurp the power he had with the King, by marrying him to young Jane Seymour.
Nay! The King should remain the pet of his dearest Uncle Thomas; he should continue to adore his stepmother; and the King’s bride should be a girl who was guided by Lord and Lady Sudley, and one who would love them and help them to keep in power.
So Lady Jane Grey came to live under the roof of the Admiral and the Dowager Queen.
THAT YEAR PASSED QUICKLY for Katharine. It seemed to her that her happiness had made wings which it set to the days.
Summer, autumn—and then the winter was upon them.
She went occasionally to court and spent hours in the company of the King. He had changed a little since his accession; he was growing firmer, and the Tudor in him was becoming apparent; there were occasions when he reminded Katharine of his father.
The little boy, whose mother had died when he was born, and who had known only stepmothers, and most of them briefly, had looked to the last of these for affection, and Katharine would always be his beloved mother. He had not looked in vain to her, and if he adored Uncle Thomas and was stimulated by his sister Elizabeth and loved little Jane Grey, he idolized his stepmother.
He wrote lovingly to her when they were apart and, if he was particularly pleased with some Latin verses he had written, it was his stepmother’s opinion for which he was most eager.
Katharine knew that the Duchess of Somerset was her greatest enemy, but she was too happy to worry very much about her enemies.
And when Christmas was past and Katharine was sure that that for which she had scarcely dared hope was to come to pass, she believed herself to be the happiest of women.
Thomas was delighted.
“It will be a boy,” he said.
Her face clouded, for those words brought back such terrible memories.
But Thomas understood, and he was all tenderness at once.
“But if it should be a girl,” he assured her, “then we shall doubtless discover that a daughter of my Lord and Lady Sudley is worth the son of any other pair.”
“Thomas, you are the dearest person in the whole world.”
He laughed his great booming laughter. “By God’s precious soul, I believe I must be, for you are a wise woman, Kate, and you say it.”
She took his hand and kissed it fervently. “I can never thank you enough for all you have given me. You snatched me from the dark pit of despair, of horror, and you set me here in the sunshine.”
“Speak not of those terrible days. The past is done with, Kate. Think of the future.”
She said: “I shall tell Elizabeth first. She will expect to be told. Why, she is like a daughter to us.”
He was silent then; he went to the window and stood there, looking out over the gardens of Seymour Place.
Katharine went to his side and slipped her arm through his. “Of what are you thinking?” she asked.
He was silent for a while, then he turned to her and swept her into his arms. “I love thee, Kate. I love thee… thee only,” he said.
THE DUCHESS OF SOMERSET found at this time that she also was going to have a child. She was delighted.
“I should be delivered a few weeks before your brother’s wife,” she told her husband. “It is strange, is it not, that we should both be in this condition at this time. I would not care to be in her place. This will be her first child… and she is not young.”
“It may well be dangerous at her age to have a first child,” said the Protector.
“Mayhap your brother has thought of that,” said the Duchess slyly.
Somerset looked askance at his wife. She was always bitter against Thomas, but since her pregnancy her venom seemed to have increased; she delighted in making the wildest accusations against Thomas and his wife.
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
“If she died in childbirth, he would be left free for higher game.”
“You mean… the Princess Elizabeth? The Council would never allow him to marry her.”
“I was not aware that he asked the Council’s consent to his marriage with the Queen.”
“The Queen was not as important to the Council as the Princess would be.”
“It was disgraceful. Why, had she got with child a little earlier, some might have thought it was the King’s.”
“But she did not, Anne; and no one can suspect this child of being fathered by any but Thomas.”
“He plans to destroy you, Edward. You see how he plots with Dorset. He will do everything to thwart your plan of marrying our Jane to the King.”
“Yes, that he has already done, and the King grows obstinate. He grows up; he declares he will not have our daughter.”
“So Thomas plans to bring forth Dorset’s girl, and meanwhile he and the Queen are bringing her up in the way they wish her to go! Very clever! They will have both the young Queen and the King doing all they ask of them.
