As the weeks passed, Jane got to know her cousin by marriage, Katherine Howard, quite well.

"The King likes not his new Queen," Katherine told Jane. "He never comes to her bedchambers, and I've seen him looking at me with lust in his eyes."

Eventually the inevitable happened, and the King's marriage to Anne of Cleves was annulled. Not long afterwards, Katherine came to visit George and Jane in a state of distress.

"Uncle Thomas says that I must marry the King," she told them. "Yet I don't love him. He's fat, and the sores on his legs stink. I can't bear the thought of having to share his bed." Katherine was near tears.

"Would you like for us to talk to him for you?" asked George.

"Would you do that, please? I'd be ever so grateful."

George and Jane approached the Duke of Norfolk the next day, but he refused to even listen to them. "Your cousin must do her duty for the advancement of the family, just as you and Anne have done," he told them.

So the wedding of King Henry VIII and seventeen-year-old Katherine Howard took place as planned. Afterwards Katherine had a request for Jane.

"Would you please be my lady in waiting? It would give me great comfort to have someone I know and trust nearby," she asked.

"Why, of course! I'd be honored," Jane told her.

One day, a young man Jane had never seen before came to Katherine's chambers. He was very nice looking, with light brown hair, blue eyes, and a winsome smile. After he had gone, Jane asked Katherine who he was.

"His name is Thomas Culpepper, and he's the King's new Gentleman of the Bedchamber. I'd really appreciate it if you could help us to see one another in secret from time to time. He and I are in love, but we have such a difficult time finding opportunities to get together without the King finding out."

Jane gasped. "What you're suggesting is treason!" she exclaimed. "I'm sorry, Katherine, but if I were to be a party to such a scheme, and we were ever to be found out, it would mean execution for both of us, and for Thomas as well. I couldn't bear to leave little Georgie motherless, as so very nearly happened to my little niece Elizabeth once."

"Very well," Katherine said curtly. Jane could tell that she had been angered by her refusal to go along with the plan, but she knew that what she had said was true, and that it wouldn't be worth the risk.

One day not long afterwards, George and Jane were having lunch together when Jane hurriedly excused herself. She made it to a basin just in time. She was just cleaning up when George appeared, looking very concerned.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"I just suddenly felt queasy," Jane told him. "But I'm fine now."

George smiled. "How are your monthly courses? Did they come on time?"

"As a matter of fact, I am late this month. I didn't say anything about it because it's really too soon to tell for sure and I didn't want to get your hopes up."

George came to her and lightly touched her belly. "You are with child. I just know you are."

The next day Jane was in Katherine's chambers when she heard a slight noise and turned to see Thomas Culpepper staring at her with hard, cruel eyes. She tried to step past him, but he blocked her way.

"As it is your fault that I am prevented from bedding Katherine, I shall bed you instead," he told her.

Before Jane had time to react, he had shoved her against a table and torn away her undergarments. She felt a searing pain as he thrust himself into her.

"Please, Thomas, no! I'm with child!" she cried. His only response was to thrust into her harder and faster.

Suddenly George was there, pulling Thomas off of her and taking her into his arms. He held her tightly and rocked her as if she were an injured child. "There, there. It's all over. He can't hurt you anymore. I'm here now." All she could do was to cling to him and sob.

George carried her back to their chambers, where he removed her torn clothing and cleaned her up as well as he could. Then he helped her into her nightgown and held and comforted her some more. Anne and Henry, Mark and Thomas Tallis all came by, and George told them how he had found his wife being ravished by Thomas Culpepper. They were all shocked and saddened and insisted that the King be told as quickly as possible.

That night, Jane felt that the sheets were sticky and wet and, to her horror, discovered that she was bleeding quite heavily. "Oh no..." she groaned.