Chapter 10
To my relief, though, Jess and Nora seemed to settle in very well with Mary Stafford. Though I couldn't go to visit them, not straight away; not without a reason or an invitation, I did receive a letter from Mary within the week to say that they were well and, if not happy yet, well on the way to becoming happy.
Delighted, I carried the letter through to Blanche's bedroom, kissing her good morning and seating myself on her bed to watch as Lady Bryan brushed her hair.
"Blanche, I just had a letter from Lady Mary Stafford. You know, Anne's sister."
"Oh? How are the twins? Jess and Nora? Have they settled in with her?"
"I thought you might ask that." I smiled, glancing at my little sister in the mirror.
"Why wouldn't I? They're my sisters as much as yours, Bessie. So how are they?"
"Well, actually. Mary writes that they're well and that, although they miss us, they are opening up to her now. And to Katy. They're still somewhat shy around Sir William Stafford, it seems."
"Why? Is he not kind to them?" Blanche's voice rose with indignation and I knew that Jess and Nora's well-being was the most important thing in the world to her right now. If she thought that they weren't being well treated, she'd beg me to bring them back to Hatfield. I knew she would.
Therefore, reassuring her was of paramount importance right now. Crossing the room, I waved Lady Bryan aside and laid my hands on Blanche's shoulders for a moment.
"Of course he's kind to them, Blanche. Mary writes that her husband hasn't treated them any differently from Katy since the moment he met them. It's just that they've never lived around a man like him for any length of time before. You know that. Papa never wants to see them when he comes, remember? Of course Sir William's kind to them. Do you really think Mary wouldn't marry a kind man? Do you think she'd have taken them in, or that I'd have let them go to her, if I didn't trust her husband with them? Don't you trust me, Blanche?"
"Of course I do, Bessie. I'd trust you with my life. You know that. I'm just worried for the twins, that's all. They've been through so much already."
"I know they have and I know what you're saying. But trust me; they'll be fine with Lady Stafford. I know they will."
"Can we go and see them soon?" Blanche begged, her voice shaking with an indecipherable mixture of emotions.
"That's what else I wanted to talk to you about. It seems Mary's pregnant again. She wondered if you'd like to be the Godmother, since she knows that our mother was Katy's Godmother and that Anne will more than likely choose me to be Godmother if she has a child of her own. Would you like to? It would mean you'd have to go for the Christening in a few months and then you could see the twins as well."
Blanche didn't need to be asked twice. Her eyes lit up and she nodded vigorously. "Of course!"
"All right then. I'll write to Lady Stafford and tell her you've said yes while Lady Bryan helps you finish getting ready."
Leaning over my little sister, I hugged her briefly, before turning to leave the room and find some parchment so that I could write back to Lady Stafford.
One morning, not long after that, Lady Lucy came to me, her eyes sparkling.
"Have you heard, Princess?"
"Heard what, Lady Lucy?" I pushed away the translation that I had been working on and turned to face my maidservant, smiling as I saw the expression on her face.
"You have gossip in your eye, Lady Lucy. I know there is something that you wish to tell me. Well, go on. I have no objection to hearing it."
"I've just had a letter from my brother, Princess. "
"And? What does he say?"
"Would you believe it if I told you that your royal father's been pushing for the Duke of Richmond's marriage to the Infanta Joanna?"
"What? Even after the disastrous banquet for the Tuscan Ambassadors?" I exclaimed, but the exclamation was more as a matter of course than anything else. I believed her. Of course I believed her. Father would do anything for that boy. He might have banished him for disrespecting the Queen on her own coronation day, but that didn't mean much. Edward, bastard or not, was Father's only son. His pride and joy. Of course he'd want to secure him the best marriage he could, even though no one else thought as highly of Edward as he did. He wanted to marry him to a Daughter of Spain, no less. The Emperor, naturally, was nowhere near as enthusiastic. "How did the Emperor react?"
Lady Lucy smiled merrily. "That's the best bit, My Lady Princess. It is said that the Emperor didn't even hear the Ambassador out before dismissing him, so infuriated was he by the affront of the renewed proposal. Apparently he also later told him that if King Henry of England was so keen on an Anglo-Spanish alliance, then he could have no qualms about betrothing the Princess Elizabeth to his heir, Don Felipe. What do you think of that, My Lady?"
It was just as well I was sitting down, for otherwise I might have collapsed. The Emperor was offering to make me Queen of Spain. In other words, over a decade after his aunt's marriage to my father had been annulled, he was finally openly acknowledging me to be my father's heiress.
The moment was sweet and I closed my eyes to savour it, barely hearing what Lady Lucy said next.
"Shall I fetch you some parchment, Princess, so that you can write to His Grace, commiserating with him on the collapse of his would be betrothal?"
For a moment, revelling in my triumph, I almost said yes, but then common sense prevailed and I shook my head.
"No, Lady Lucy. Let it be. To do anything else would be seen as gloating and a true Queen to be would never gloat. There has been enough strife in this family already. Let us pretend that nothing at all has happened, at least until we know how my father reacted to the Spanish proposal."
I could tell Lady Lucy was surprised; she'd expected me to jump at the chance to best my half-brother for once, but she was an experienced courtier, skilled at hiding her emotions at the best of times, so she merely fell to the floor in a deep curtsy, deeper than any she had swept me for a long, long while and said "As you wish, Your Highness" before leaving me to attempt to finish my translation, mind whirling with possibilities.
But my father never did react to the Emperor's proposal. A week later, I received a letter from Anne; a letter which, when I opened it, sent me reeling and shrieking for Kat.
"My Lady! What is it? Elizabeth! What is it?" Kat let me clutch at her, desperately fighting tears, before she led me, trembling, to a chair. Unable to speak, I gestured to the letter.
Snatching it up, Kat skimmed the lines of bold penmanship, realising within seconds, as I had, that my father was dangerously ill and that Anne was summoning all the royal children to Court in order to present a strong united front to both the Court and the common people.
"We have to go." I passed a hand over my face, forcing myself to relax. I was Elizabeth Tudor, Princess of England. I would be Queen one day. I had to be able to remain outwardly calm, no matter what the circumstances.
Kat nodded. "I'll tell Lady Bryan. We'll start packing. You tell Blanche. She'll do better to hear this from her sister."
I nodded back as Kat left the room, but I didn't rise. I couldn't. Shock had dulled my legs, made it impossible for me to move. Though I knew I should go and find Blanche, I didn't. She found me instead.
"Bessie? What's going on? Why are Kat and Lady Bryan packing? Are we going back to Court?
I shifted up on the stool I was sitting on silently, creating space for her to perch at my side, though, at nine, she preferred to stand at my shoulder.
"We are. I got a letter from Anne this morning."
"From Mama? But then why are you so sad? Why aren't you happy? You love visiting Court, don't you?"
"Of course I do, Blanche, of course I do. It's just…oh, Blanche…that letter…we're going back because Papa's ill. Really ill."
"You mean…you mean he might die?" Blanche asked, reading between the lines as she so often did so very well and picking up on what I did not want to say.
"I hope not." I replied, as I twisted on the stool and pulled her down on to my lap, seeking comfort as much as hoping to give it.
"But you think he might?"
"There is a possibility, yes."
"But what then? What will happen then? I don't want Papa to die!" Blanche cried, distressed as always by the thought of something happening to disturb our by now more or less peaceful family circle. I half-rocked her on my lap, trying to soothe her as I spoke in a fierce whisper.
"Let's pray he doesn't, then. But Blanche, I promise that, whatever happens, I'll look after you. I won't let anything happen to you. You have my word."
Kissing her forehead, I held her close for a little longer before nudging her off my lap and sending her to find Lady Bryan. We needed to leave. Fast.
No sooner had we rolled into the Courtyard at Richmond than Sir George Boleyn, Anne's brother, was at our carriage door, helping us down.
"Princess Elizabeth. Princess Blanche. Thank you for coming so quickly."
"It is no trouble at all, Lord Rochford. After all, it is our duty both as His Majesty's daughters and as his most loyal subjects. Should we go to wait on our Queen, your sister?" I asked, eager to appear the composed heiress, as I knew was so vital at this dark hour.
"She asks for you, Princess Elizabeth, but she wonders if the Princess Blanche might like to ride out hawking with me once you have changed from your travelling clothes."
"Blanche is my sister; the King's beloved daughter as much as I am. Surely she ought to be with the Queen at this terrible time?" I asked in a whisper as we headed for the doors of the palace.
"She is also only ten years old and sensitive. Sometimes, Princess, it is best to let girls of her age act their age, no matter what their rank. Princess or not, she does not need to be trapped in a place as gloomy as this right now." George murmured in reply, before he dropped back to ask Blanche again whether she would care to hawk with him as soon as we had changed and refreshed ourselves.
She agreed, so that, half an hour later, I was alone when I entered Anne's rooms and dropped to one knee before her.
"You may rise, Elizabeth. It is good to see you."
"And you, dear cousin." I responded as I rose to hug Anne, somehow knowing that today, of all days, was not a day for protocol. "How is my father?"
"I have just sent the Lady Mary to inquire after His Majesty's health." Anne replied, gesturing to me to take a seat.
"Then before she gets back I'd like to ask why you suggested Blanche should go hawking with your brother, if I may. As a Princess of England, she ought to be here, with us, not out hawking."
"As a Princess of England, perhaps. As a ten year old girl, she shouldn't. You know better than anyone how sensitive your sister is. The mood in the Palace would distress her terribly. I want to shield her from that as much as I can."
"But…"
"I'm also conscious of how much you two lean on one another for support. It's more than you may realise. That was all well and good when you were younger; when you'd just lost your mother, but now you are both growing up. You could be wed at any moment, Elizabeth, and Blanche is not far off legal womanhood either.
It's time you stopped relying on each other quite so much. Let Blanche spend some time alone under the eye of my brother. He'll let no harm come to her and it'll do the both of you the world of good."
I might have argued further, but at that precise moment, the doors swung open and the herald announced "The Lady Mary Tudor!"
Anne and I both spoke at once, swinging around to face her.
"How is he? How's the King?"
"How's my father?"
Like me, Mary wasted no time on protocol or ceremony, locking eyes with Anne instantly.
"Dr. Linacre says they have managed to drain the pus off the old jousting wound, but his fever remains dangerously high."
Anne nodded. "Then I'd better make a public announcement to the Court. Will you come with me, both of you?"
Mary and I exchanged glances, shock making us civil to one another for once. The decision was clear, we both knew that. "Of course, Anne."
The two of us fell into step behind our Queen and we went out to try and keep the political ambitions of the courtiers at bay as best we could. Both for England and for ourselves.