Jean Plaidy - The Sixth Wife: The Story of Katherine Parr

• Название: The Sixth Wife: The Story of Katherine Parr
• Автор: Jean Plaidy
• Жанр: Прочая старинная литература

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Elizabeth twisted from his grasp, but, as she did so, her gown was torn, exposing her shoulders. She knew that he had deliberately torn it.

“She hath a tolerably white skin,” said Thomas. “Hath she not? Methinks it is a pity to hide such sweetness under this ugly black cloth.”

“You have torn it,” cried Elizabeth, “and you will have to pay the cost of a new one.”

“You see how avaricious she is!” He caught her skirt as she would have run away.

Katharine began to laugh. “Oh, Thomas, you must not be so childish. You play such games. Are you really a man or just a boy?”

“Do not heed him,” said Elizabeth. “He must amuse himself. It is naught to me that he doth not like my gown. It is naught to me that he hath torn it, since he must provide me with a new one.”

“Undutiful!” cried Thomas, lifting her skirts. “Oh, most undutiful!”

They were both tugging at her skirt, and the stitches gave way.

“Would you then tear the clothes from my back?” she demanded. “Here…in the gardens?”

“I would,” he said.

Her eyes were shining; her mouth was laughing. She could not help it if she loved to play thus with him. It was so safe, with Katharine standing by; it was safe and yet so dangerous. This was the part of courtship which was most enjoyable.

Katharine was quick to see her amusement. Is she completely blind? wondered Elizabeth. Did she not know this man she had married?

He had turned to her now. “Kate,” he said, “help me… help me tame this wild cat. We’ll teach her to parade our gardens in black cloth.”

“Thomas… Thomas…have a care,” laughed Katharine.

“Whose side are you on?” demanded Elizabeth. “His or mine?”

“On mine, of course!” cried Thomas. “Hold her, Kate. Hold her, I say. Take her arms and stop her fighting, and I will show you what we will do with her.”

Katharine obediently ran behind Elizabeth and put her arms about her.

“No,” said Elizabeth.

And “Yes,” said the Admiral.

He had taken the jeweled dagger from his belt and, his eyes gleaming with desire for her, he slashed at her skirt with the dagger; he put his hand in the neck of her bodice and ripped it down the front, so that she stood there in her silken petticoats, flushed and laughing, and loving him, exulting in the feelings she could arouse in him.

“Thomas!” cried the Queen. “What have you done?”

He had his hand on Elizabeth’s bare shoulder.

“I have taught our daughter a lesson, I hope.”

“She should not stand here thus. It is most improper.”

“Aye!” he said. “Most improper. But she must not come parading herself in her black gown, looking like a grownup Princess. She must not blush when we question her as to her secret lover.”

“Elizabeth, run in quickly,” laughed the Queen. “I pray none sees you.”

Elizabeth wrenched herself free. She heard their laughter behind her.

The Admiral put his arm about his wife.

“Dearest,” said Katharine, “how I long for a child! And if I am an even more fortunate woman than I count myself already, how that child will love you! Why is it that you, who are so bold, so much a master of men, a great sailor and statesman, know so well how to amuse children?”

“And is the Princess such a child?”

“Indeed yes. Did you not see how she enjoyed your game?”

“She did, did she not,” said the Admiral somberly; and he tried to forget the passion Elizabeth aroused in him, in his tenderness for Katharine.

KAT ASHLEY ASKED if she might have a word in private with the Admiral.

“My lord,” she said, when they were alone, “I trust you will forgive my impertinence, if impertinence it is.”

“I would hear it first,” said Thomas.

“The Lady Elizabeth came in from the gardens this day—her dress cut away from her, her skin bruised by rough handling.”

“And you, Mistress Ashley, witnessed our play from one of the windows?”

“You know that?”

“I know Mistress Ashley,” he said wryly.

“It is my duty to look after my young lady.”

“That is so.”

“My lord, I beg of you to forgive me, but if any but myself had seen what happened in the gardens this day…”

“Well, Mistress Ashley, what then?”

“They… they might think it unseemly for a Princess so to behave and… and for a gentleman such as yourself….”

“Bah, Mistress Ashley, there was nothing in it. It was but play.”

“That I know, my lord, but others have thought differently.”

“Rest happy, Mistress Ashley; there is no harm done.”

“I trust not, my lord.”

“Your Princess is well able to look after herself, were that necessary. The Queen joined in the play, remember.”

“I know, my lord. But a dress…to be cut off a young lady in such a manner!”

“Never fear. She insists that I pay for another dress. You see, your Princess knows well how to guard her interests.”

The strange thing was, mused Kat Ashley afterward, that when you were with him, you believed all he said. He became the benign stepfather, anxious to make a happy home.

But what should be done? wondered Kat.

He must be right. All was well, because it was true that the Queen, his wife, was present.

THE MARQUIS OF DORSET called at Seymour Place in response to an invitation from the Lord High Admiral.

Dorset was the father of Lady Jane Grey, and he guessed that he had been invited to discuss her future, for he had been warned of this by Sir John Harrington, a friend and servant of the Admiral.

Dorset was warmly received, and Thomas made a point of dismissing all servants before he began to speak.

“My Lord Dorset,” he said, “you have some inkling of why I have asked you to call?”

“I understand it concerns my elder daughter.”

“The Lady Jane is a charming girl—accomplished, beautiful, and of your noble House. We agree on that matter, and I doubt not that we could agree on others.”

Dorset was not displeased. He was himself a member of a great house, but none but a fool like Surrey would refuse a chance of linking himself with one of the Seymour brothers. It was said that young Thomas was biding his time. He was the King’s favorite, and the King would not be a minor for ever. He had already married the Dowager Queen. The Princess Elizabeth was being brought up in his household. Obviously Thomas Seymour, Lord Sudley, was already a power in the land, and was going to be of even greater importance.

Dorset was flattered.

“How so, my Lord Sudley?” he asked.

“The affairs of this country need to be closely watched, Dorset; and it is for such as you and myself to do the watching. It is ever so, when a boy King is on the throne. They are already disputing one with another in the Council.”

Dorset was becoming excited.

“I should like you to know,” went on Thomas, “that I am your friend. And as a token of friendship I should like the wardship of your daughter.”

“Why so?”

“The Queen loves her, as you know. We have often spoken of her future, and we should like to have her under our care so that she might be brought up in a royal manner, and that we might have the means of matching her.”

Dorset’s eyes glistened with excitement. “You have a match in mind, Sudley?”

“I have, sir.”

“And the future husband of my daughter would be…?”

“Cannot you guess? They love each other already. I doubt not they have made up their young minds to it.”

“You mean… the King?”

“I do, my lord.”

Dorset smiled.

“She is worthy of the match,” went on Thomas. “I know of none more worthy.”

“I have heard that the Lord Protector would match his own daughter with the King.”

“His ambition… and his wife’s, drive him hard. My lord Dorset, you might wonder that I work against my brother. But I would work first for what I believe to be right for this realm. The King has said to me—for as you know, he is my friend and I am his bestloved uncle—he has said to me that he will not have Jane Seymour, and that it is Jane Grey whom he loves.”

“You could further this match?”

“If I had the wardship of the Lady Jane, if the Queen could direct her studies… Marry, I doubt not that you will one day see her wearing the crown.”

“My Lord Sudley, I could not refuse an offer which would bring so much good to my daughter.”

The bargain was struck, and Dorset’s hopes ran high. Thomas Seymour, Lord Sudley, was his friend, and he was pleased with himself. So was Thomas who saw there would be little difficulty in bringing about this match. He 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. Edward will obey his dearest Uncle Thomas…as will Jane Grey. We shall see that the most important people in this realm will be my Lord High Admiral and his Dowager Queen.”

“I believe he has done this deliberately to frustrate us.”

“Of course he has.”

“It is a sad thing when brothers cannot work together.”

“But you are the elder, Edward; and he, because he has a way of charming women and children, believes he should have your place. He thinks that the manners of Master Admiral are of greater importance to this realm than the cleverness of you, my darling.”

“Dearest Anne, calm yourself. It is bad for you to become excited.”

“I am not excited, my love. I only know that I shall not stand by and see Lord Thomas play his tricks on us. The King shall have our Jane, and Jane Grey is to marry our boy. As for Master Thomas, if he becomes too dangerous…”

“Yes?” said the Protector.

“I doubt not that you, my lord, will find some way of making him … less dangerous.”

Her eyes were wild, and her husband was at great pains to soothe her. Such excitement he knew to be bad for her condition.

But while he soothed her, he told himself that there was a good deal in what she was saying. Thomas was working against his brother, and that was something which no wise man, if he were Protector of the realm, could allow.

EARLY MORNING SUNSHINE coming through the window of Elizabeth’s bedchamber in Chelsea Palace, shone on the Princess who lay in her bed.

She was startled. She had been awakened from her sleep by the sound of the opening of her door. She would have leaped out of bed and run to her women in the adjoining chamber, but she saw that she was too late. She heard the low laughter and, pulling the bedclothes up to her chin, she waited with an apprehension which was tinged with delight.