This idea will not leave me alone, so even though I've written so much about difficult toddlers and colicky babies recently, I have to post it anyway. Maybe now I'll get some sleep at night...
As Though She Already Knows
"Waaa! Waaa! WAAA!"
Princess Elizabeth's screams echoed through the passages of Hatfield Palace, making all her attendants' hearts sink as they heard them.
It wasn't that the newest occupant of the nursery was a hard charge. Indeed, she was far from it, most of the time. It was just that, when she did have one of her restless days, rather than whimper or fuss mildly, as most babies did, she howled. Howled or roared like one of the lions on her father's battle standard.
Lady Bryan and Lady Shelton, the Princess's Lady Governesses, hurried into the chamber that was the source of all the noise, to find the Princess's wet nurse, Susanna, standing by the fireplace with the Princess in her arms, rocking her fruitlessly.
"Hush, little lady, hush, please. Come on, come on now. Hush," Her words were an almost helpless litany, one that was having no effect on Elizabeth's anguished howls and one that Lady Shelton cut across sharply, "Are you sure you've tried everything?"
"Yes, Lady Shelton. Everything that it's in my power to do. She simply won't feed. Look."
To prove her point, Susanna cupped the roaring child's head in one hand and guided it towards her bare breast. In response, Elizabeth arched her back and thrashed in her wet-nurse's arms as she struggled to twist her head away from the nipple, yelling, if possible, even louder in her displeasure.
"Has Margery bathed her? Changed her?"
"Of course. The cold air on her legs just made it worse...and well, bathing her? In this state? I think we were more worried she'd swallow water and drown. It's hard enough just holding her, never mind trying to wash her too."
Lady Shelton would have argued, but Lady Bryan stepped in before she could blame Susanna for something the poor girl couldn't help. Taking Elizabeth into her arms and pacing the room with her, which at least quietened her enough for them to have a conversation without shouting at one another, she glanced at her fellow governess.
"You've raised ten children of your own, Anne. You should know by now that sometimes, there simply is nothing you can do to soothe them. I think we'll just have to leave Her Highness to cry it out this time."
"The King's not going to like that," Dorothy Barnett, one of the young maids of honour, murmured from where she was sorting linens by the window. Lady Shelton rounded on her. "What the King doesn't know won't hurt him, Mistress Barnett."
"Begging your Pardon, Lady Shelton, but His Majesty is riding into the gates as we speak."
If the women's hearts had been low before Dorothy's words, now they were well and truly in their boots. How were they going to explain why Her Highness was so clearly unhappy to the King, when they themselves didn't know the answer?
Lady Bryan thrust Elizabeth into Lady Shelton's arms, "Put her in her crib, Anne. I'll try and delay His Majesty and hope she settles in the meantime."
Lady Shelton's face was white, but, knowing they had no choice, she nodded. Hissing at Susanna to get out of sight and make herself decent, she swept the Princess off to the next room.
Lady Bryan, meanwhile, hurried down the stairwell, relieved that Elizabeth's cries had faded from earshot by the time she greeted His Majesty with a curtsy, "Sire."
"Ah, Lady Bryan. I was on my way back from hunting and thought to look in and see how my daughter did. How is she?"
"Well, Sire, thank you. She's in the best of health."
"I'm glad to hear it. Will you not take me up to her?"
Lady Bryan's heart sank at his words, but she had no choice but to smile and wave him on ahead of her, "Of course, Sire."
As they went up the stairs and entered the nursery wing, the King turned back to her, "What's she like to care for on a day-to-day basis?"
"She's good in every way, Your Majesty and hardly cries at all; it's as if she already knows she's a Princess."
"It wasn't really a lie," Lady Bryan reassured herself the second the words were out of her mouth, "Elizabeth is an easy child, most of the time. It's just days like today when she's a challenge."
To Lady Bryan's surprise, however, when they walked into the nursery wing, it was blissfully silent. It appeared that Elizabeth had howled herself to the point of exhaustion. She'd fallen asleep the moment she'd been laid in her crib and left to her own devices.
"That's what we should have done far earlier," Lady Shelton mouthed at Anne, "Trying to soothe her was only keeping her awake, it seems."
Lady Bryan nodded, though had to stop her heart missing a beat as His Majesty reached into the crib and picked Elizabeth up. If he woke her now...
But no, Elizabeth was so exhausted she didn't even stir as her father rocked her gently to and fro in his arms. For a few moments, King Henry watched her little face dotingly as she slept, then he turned to Lady Bryan.
"Take good care of my rose, Lady Bryan. Who knows, one day this little girl may preside over Empires."
"Majesty," Lady Bryan nodded, curtsying as he apologised to Elizabeth for not being able to stay longer, kissed her on the brow and then laid her back in the crib tenderly.
Lady Shelton hurried to show him out and Lady Bryan tucked a blanket around Elizabeth to keep her warm. Looking down at her, she shook her head slightly.
"Elizabeth might not always know she's a Princess," she thought, "But at least she already knows not to let His Majesty see her cry. At least she already knows that Tudors don't take kindly to weakness of that sort."