CHAPTER 12

THEqueen felt freer on progress than she had anywhere else since her marriage a year ago. Suddenly she was surrounded by a group of attractive young people whose sole goal in life was pleasure. Her best friend in all the world had arrived to keep her company and share her secrets. They would hunt all day along the route, and dance the night away. Henry was a fine companion in the mornings, but after his dinner, he usually wanted to sleep. She need only spend half the time pleasing him. The other half was her own time, and she would spend it as she pleased.

Nyssa hated the royal progress. It was the worst time of her life. Am I getting old? she wondered. Why can I not lose myself in the mindless pleasures that Cat does? Would it have been different if Varian and I were not wed; if we did not have children? But she knew that that was not so. There were many young married couples in the court, and they all seemed to be having a wonderful time. All Nyssa could think of, however, was that there was soap and perfume, jams and conserves to be made. Meat and fish had to be salted for the winter. How was this going to get done if she was not there to supervise? Oh, young Mistress Browning was capable, but Nyssa wanted to be home, overseeing her own household, not trekking all over England in the company of the court.

”Why can I not enjoy myself?” she asked her husband.

”For the same reason I cannot,” he told her. ”You and I are country people at heart. We are not courtiers who can while away their days in frivolous pursuits. I know Master Smale can oversee the harvest and the shearing, but I would prefer to be there myself.”

”There is something strange happening with Cat,” Nyssa told her husband, ”and whatever it is, Lady Ferretface is part of it.”

”What do you mean?” he responded.

”If it were anyone else but the queen,” Nyssa said slowly, ”I would say there was a man involved, but that cannot possibly be.”

Varian de Winter felt a shudder ripple down his spine. Could his cousin be foolish enough to have taken a lover? Holy Mother! He prayed it was not so. The Howards had lost one queen to the headsman”s ax. If Catherine were stupid enough to involve herself with a man not the king, she would eventually be found out. There was always someone watching when you least expected it. And a queen”s adultery was considered high treason.

”Can you find out?” he said. ”I do not want to speak to my grandfather unless you are certain of what you suspect.”

”I will have to spend more time with her,” Nyssa said, ”and I have been avoiding it so we might be together.” She leaned over and kissed him softly. ”I prefer to spend as much time abed with you, my lord, as I can. Bed has ever been your strong point,” she teased him, running a single finger down his thigh.

”If Catherine is silly enough to have taken a lover,” he told her seriously, ”we are all in danger of the king”s wrath.”

”We are not Howards,” Nyssa said. ”Why should the king hold us responsible if his wife”s behavior is light? What have we to do with Catherine Howard, Varian?”

”You do not know how the king thinks, sweeting,” he told her. ”I was raised at court. He will accept no blame for anything. He seeks scapegoats whenever he finds himself liable for a fault. If Cat betrays him, he will not consider that part of the fault lies with him—that a man of his age should not have wed a chit so young and ripe to bursting, that Cat is not a rose without a thorn, but a flighty little girl, who thinks only of herself and of her own pleasures. The king will feel abused and ill-used by everyone about him if he runs true to form, and he will. He will blame everyone else for what happens. He will blame my grandfather in particular, and the Howards in general. My mother was a Howard, and I am Duke Thomas”s only grandson. We will not escape his anger if Cat behaves badly.”

”I will see what I can find out,” Nyssa said, now genuinely concerned. ”If there is another man, Varian, I am certain that it is just a harmless flirtation. Cat would never violate her marriage vows.”

”I pray you are right, sweeting,” he told her, and pulling her into his arms, he kissed her deeply.

To the queen”s delight, Nyssa began to spend more time with her. She had also, to everyone”s relief, ceased talking constantly about her twins. Other people”s children were always so boring.

The progress moved on to the port of Boston so the king might indulge his naval fantasies. The queen and her court, however, boated on the waters of the river Witham past the elegant tower that soared above the church of St. Botolph. The boaters pelted each other with flowers, until the waters about them looked more like a field than a river. Then laughing and singing, they picnicked along the riverbanks.

The progress moved into Yorkshire and Northumberland, heading for Newcastle, the farthest north Henry Tudor had ever been in his kingdom. Varian de Winter left his wife to her own devices, attaching himself to the king”s group of gentlemen in order to learn any gossip that might filter in from their wives or ladyloves. It was better that he and Nyssa not seem too close if they were to learn the truth.

Tom Culpeper, although a gentleman of the king”s privy, was spending more time with the queen these days. One of his closest friends, Sir Cynric Vaughn, had singled out Nyssa and was pursuing her shamelessly.

”Now that you have stopped being an old goodwife,” Cat said, ”the gentlemen can see what a charmer you really are.”

The two women were together in the queen”s privy chamber of her pavilion. Kate Carey and Bessie FitzGerald had joined the progress, at the queen”s invitation. But for their change in status, it was like old times, Nyssa thought.

”I do not think the gentleman should be so obvious in his attentions toward me,” Nyssa said, almost primly. ”After all, I am a married woman, Your Grace. Besides, I suspect he has earned his nickname, and not in a way any respectable woman would approve of,” she noted. ”A gentleman named ”Sin”? It sounds quite wicked.”

Cat giggled. ”He is wicked,” she said, and she lowered her voice. ”I hear he makes it a habit to seduce married women, and get them to fall in love with him. You had best beware, Nyssa, for Tom says Sin is madly in love with you, and means to have you!”

”How do you do it?” Kate Carey asked. ”It seems every time you come to court, some gentleman desires you. I have not been so fortunate. I shall be married off to some dull fellow in due time without ever having known passion and mad abandon.”

”Maybe when you are wed, the gentlemen of the court will feel free to indulge their passions for you,” Bessie said mischievously. ”They said it is dangerous for them to tamper with virgins unless they plan to wed them.”

”True,” the queen agreed wryly. ”After all, if the road to paradise is already an open road, who is to know who has traveled it before? Still, the truth of the matter is that men are usually in such a hurry to couch their lances that they quite often do not even know if a maid is pure or not.” She laughed. ”Men can be managed, my dears.”

Nyssa was shocked. This was a side of Cat Howard she had not seen before. It was cynical, and perhaps even a trifle dishonest. She had never before considered her friend in these terms. Wisely, she held her tongue, for they would just tease her about being a backward country lass even if she was a married woman.

”But if a girl is not a virgin, can a man not tell?” Kate Carey asked curiously. ”When Nyssa married Lord de Winter, my uncle, the king, insisted that proof of the consummation be brought to him the following morning. That proof was a bedsheet with the stains of Nyssa”s virginity upon it. If there is no blood, what can a man think but that his bride was not pure? I would be very afraid of such a thing.”

”Do not be such a goose, Kate,” the queen said. ”Many a girl has gone to her marriage bed with a chicken”s bladder of blood secreted beneath the sheets to give evidence of her purity.”

”But a girl could become enceinte playing the wanton,” Bessie FitzGerald replied nervously.

The queen motioned them closer and said, ”A girl can meddle with a man and not become enceinte if she knows what to do.” She smiled knowingly, showing her small white teeth.

Her words disturbed Nyssa further. Why was the queen suddenly so knowledgeable? Was it because she was a married woman, or did her enlightenment stem from another time, a time prior to her marriage? It was a frightening thought.

”I want to dance!” the queen said, jumping up. ”Kate, go and call the musicians. See if there are any gentlemen in the outer chamber, and tell them that we shall join them immediately.”

The queen”s musicians were summoned and began to play. The young men and women danced the spritely country dances. Wine was being served with small sugar wafers.

Sin Vaughn stood watching them for a time, contemplating his attack. The Countess of March was without a doubt the most exciting woman he had ever met. Her very coolness to him, her air of respectability, enticed him greatly. Very tall, and slender, he stood head and shoulders above most of the court. The ladies adored him, and his charm was legendary. His oval-shaped gray eyes had the habit of narrowing almost to slits when he was considering some matter he deemed to be of importance. He had thick, wavy, ash-brown hair that was filled with golden highlights, and he was clean-shaven, unlike many at court. His chin was squared, and there was a deep cleft in it that set maidens to swooning when they looked upon him. His mouth was big, in keeping with the rest of him.

Snapping up a goblet of chilled wine, he was at her side as the dance came to an end. Her partner, seeing his rival, slipped into the background. ”Madame,” he said, handing her the goblet. She looked absolutely delicious, all flushed and breathless.

”My thanks, my lord,” she said with a small smile. She was going to have to encourage him, she knew. He would be privy to all of Tom Culpeper”s secrets, and Tom Culpeper was paying marked attention to the queen at all these little gatherings when the king was not present. Both he and Cat were quite proper in their behavior, but there was a tension between them that to Nyssa was almost palpable. Did no one else see it, or sense it? Was she imagining things? ”You do not dance, my lord,” she said to him.

”I have not the knack for it,” he replied, smiling into her eyes and taking her free hand in his. ”I have other talents, madame.”

”Are you flirting with me, my lord?” she asked him.

He was amused. Usually women simpered at his attentions. ”I believe I am, madame. Do you mind?”

”I am a married woman, sir,” she said with an answering smile.

”Then perhaps I should ask if your husband minds?” he responded.

Nyssa laughed. He was witty, she had to admit. ”Since the ladies all flirt with Varian,” she told him, ”I hardly think he can object if the gentlemen admire me. What do you think, my lord?”

”I think you are extravagantly beautiful,” he told her.

”I think you, sir, are possibly very dangerous,” Nyssa said, freeing her hand from his, handing him her goblet, and moving away from where they had been standing.

Cynric Vaughn burst out laughing. The quarry had been engaged, and the hunt was about to begin. She was the most intoxicating woman he had ever met. She was direct, and there was no artifice about her. He meant to have her, and he would.

”You stare at Lady de Winter too hard, I think, Sin,” Tom Culpeper said. ”You waste your time. Her grace says she is virtuous to a fault. Set your sights on an easier prey.”

”No,” came the reply. ”She will be mine, Tom. I am not certain yet how, but she will. I want her as I have never wanted a woman.”

”Beware, my friend,” Culpeper warned him, ”the king is fond of her. Lady de Winter”s mother was once his mistress. How do you think she came to be wed to the Earl of March? He seduced the girl, and the king would not be satisfied until she was wed to him. He saw to it himself, and insisted upon proof that the marriage had been consummated so that de Winter could not legally repudiate the girl and keep her wealth. She is the daughter of the Earl of Langford.”

”So it was no love match?” Cynric Vaughn said.

”There is no enmity between them that I know of, and they have children in common,” Culpeper informed his friend.

”How fare you in your own hunt?” Sir Cynric wondered softly.

”You mistake my intentions,” Tom Culpeper said. ”I simply wish to climb high, as Charles Brandon did, but alas, that was thirty years ago. In those days one became the king”s friend to advance a career, but the king is old now. One must become the queen”s friend today in order to reach one”s goals.”

Cynric Vaughn laughed. ”I do not believe that I have ever heard a better excuse for seduction, Tom,” he told Culpeper. ”But if you get caught, she will cry rape. The king will not let you off as easily as he did with that gamekeeper”s wife. Besmirch his rose without a thorn, and you will find yourself without a head. Is it worth it?”

”My cousin the queen and I are just friends,” Culpeper replied.

The king”s progress moved across the soft rolling hills and moors of Yorkshire and Northumberland. Where the hunting was good, they would remain for a few days, and then travel onward. Nyssa did enjoy hunting, but more for the thrill of the chase than for the kill. Country-bred girls were usually good horsewomen, and she was no exception.

One afternoon her horse began limping even as a rainstorm caught her falling behind the main party. Looking for shelter, she espied the ruins of an ancient abbey and rode into the refuge of its walls. Dismounting, she took her mare”s leg up and saw a stone lodged in its shoe.

”God”s foot!” Nyssa muttered irritably, and then jumped at the sound of a male voice. Whirling about, she came face-to-face with Sir Cynric Vaughn.

”I saw you leave the hunt,” he said. ”Are you all right, madame?”

”My mare has caught a stone, and I”ve no knife with which to pry it loose,” Nyssa told him.

”Which foot?” he asked, and when she showed him, he took the mare”s hoof in one hand, removing the stone from it with his knife in the other hand. ”There, madame. She will be fine now, but we, I fear, must wait for the rain to let up.”

Looking past him, Nyssa saw what had begun as a shower was now a downpour. It was as good an opportunity as she would ever get to make friends with Sin Vaughn and draw him out. ”Have you been at court long, my lord? I do not seem to remember you from my last visit,” she began conversationally.

”I am here most of the time,” he told her.

”You are Master Culpeper”s friend,” she noted innocently.

He laughed. ”Aye, Tom and I are old friends, madame, but if you have set your sights in that direction, turn away. Culpeper has a most jealous mistress, I fear.”

”Thomas Culpeper is of no interest to me,” Nyssa told him. ”I am a married woman, sir.”

”So you have said, madame, on a previous occasion. Is it truly so, or do you say it to convince yourself?” He grinned mockingly at her. Reaching out, he entwined an errant lock of her hair about his finger.

”You are a wicked man, I am told,” Nyssa said softly, looking seductively up at him. She was rather enjoying her little flirtation with him. He was outrageously handsome and he was going to kiss her. Oddly, she was not afraid. She was frankly curious, having never been kissed by any man but Varian. She should feel guilty, she knew, for such naughty thoughts, but it would only be a little kiss.

With his hand, he cupped her face, and lowering his own, he brushed his lips lightly across hers. ”You are delicious,” he said low. ”I want to make love to you, madame. Here and now upon the grass beneath these walls. Think of the ghosts of the long dead monks observing us in our passion, and unable to fulfill their own.” Releasing her head, he clasped his arm about her supple waist, his other hand fumbling at her breasts.

Nyssa pulled quickly away. ”Fie, sir! You move too quickly to take liberties. I am not some shepherdess to be tumbled in the open. Look, the rain has stopped. We must get back lest we are missed.” Without even asking for his assistance, she pulled herself into her saddle. ”Are you coming, my lord?” she asked him, and then without waiting for an answer, kicked her mare into a trot.

Watching her hurry off, he smiled to himself. For all her protests of a husband, she was hot for loving. There would be time.

The progress moved on to Newcastle, visited the town officially, and turned south again for Pontefract Castle, reaching it toward the end of August. They would remain at Pontefract for a week.

On a rainy afternoon, as the queen and her women sat playing cards in her apartments, Lady Rochford came to tell Cat that there was a gentleman seeking an audience with her. He waited just outside the queen”s anteroom.

”Who is he?” the queen asked Lady Rochford.

”He says his name is Francis Dereham, Your Grace. The dowager duchess, your grandmother, has sent him to you, and requests that you offer him a place as secretary in your household.”

Catherine grew pale, and for a moment it appeared as if she would swoon, but then she said, ”I will see Master Dereham in my privy chamber, Rochford. If my grandmother has sent him, then I must be kind.” She arose and went into her private rooms. Her heart was hammering violently. What did he want? Was this to be another incident like those with Joan Bulmer and the others who had come to her requesting positions in her household, wondering if the queen remembered them and the dear old days they had all spent together at Lambeth Palace? Catherine had made them chamberwomen, and their service was faultless, but she resented the way in which she had been coerced, for their reminders of their time together at Lambeth had just stopped short of blackmail. Now he had come to request her favor.

The door opened and Lady Rochford escorted a man into the room. ”Master Dereham, Your Grace,” she said.

He doffed his cap to her, bowing elegantly as only he knew how. ”I am honored, Your Grace, and bring greetings from the lady Agnes.”

”You may leave us,” Catherine told Lady Rochford, who withdrew. The queen glared at the man before her. She had remembered him as being more handsome. He was swarthy, with an elegant, tailored black beard, black hair, and black eyes that were dancing devilishly. There was a gold earring in his ear. ”What do you want of me?” she demanded coldly. There was no welcome in her voice.

”What, little wife? No words of joy upon my return from Ireland?” he said, smiling toothily at her. His even white teeth had always been among his best features.

”Are you mad?” Catherine said angrily. ”How dare you address me in such a manner, Master Dereham! What do you want?”

”Why, merely to share in your good fortune, Cat,” he told her. ”Should not a husband share in his wife”s good fortune?”

”We are not man and wife,” she said tightly.

”What, Catherine, have you so easily forgotten that we pledged our troth to one another at Lambeth just three years back? I have not forgotten,” Francis Dereham told her.

”I was fourteen then,” Catherine responded, ”and nothing was formally settled. It was the silliness of an innocent girl. You can prove nothing, and should you attempt to cause a scandal, you will find yourself facing the headsman”s ax, Master Dereham. The king dotes upon me, and will not be interfered with.”

”Our troth was no secret, Cat,” he replied. ”Everyone at Lambeth then knew of it. I understand that Joan Bulmer and the other girls are now in your service. It was kind of you to find a place for them. I am certain that you can find a place for me as well. The dowager duchess, dear lady she is, thought I might suit you as a secretary.”

”My household is full,” she said stubbornly.

”Make a place then,” he answered her threateningly.

”I must ask the king,” she said. ”Without his approval, I cannot appoint you. He is not an easy master.”

”But he dotes upon you, my beauty. You have said so yourself,” Francis Dereham said.

She hated him now with the same dark passion that she had once loved him. She was beaten, and he knew it. ”You may lodge with the gentlemen ushers of my household temporarily until I have spoken with his grace,” she said coldly. ”You may go now, Dereham.” She turned her back on him and waited tensely until she heard the door close behind him. Then Catherine Howard”s fingers closed upon the nearest item she could find, and with a shriek she flung it against the stone wall. ”Nyssa!” she shouted. ”Come to me at once!”

The ladies in the queen”s outer rooms heard her shout, and startled, looked at one another. The queen had never before shouted. Nyssa arose quickly and hurried to answer her friend”s call.

”What is it, Cat?” she asked as she closed the door behind her.

The queen began to sob hysterically. Nyssa quickly poured her a goblet of strong red wine from the tray on the sideboard. She forced her friend to drink. When Catherine Howard had calmed a bit, Nyssa repeated her question.

”Oh, Nyssa,” the queen said, ”I am forced to take that rude fellow into my household. I hate him!”

”Why?” Nyssa demanded. ”The truth, Cat! Perhaps I can help.”

”His name is Francis Dereham. He was at Lambeth when I was there. He . . . he took liberties with me that he should not have. Now he is threatening to tell the king unless I take him into my household. My grandmother knows nothing of this, or she would not have sent him. Indeed she would have seen he met with some unfortunate accident,” the queen concluded.

”Did you not speak to me once about being courted by this Dereham, Cat?” Nyssa looked directly at the queen, who flushed.

”I was but bragging,” she said sullenly.

”I warned you to tell the king,” Nyssa said. ”If you had done it then, before you were married, no one could blackmail you like this. He would have forgiven you, Cat. Now you are caught like an animal in a trap. You cannot tell him now. So you must suffer to have this Francis Dereham in your household.”

”I know,” Cat said despondently, and she drained the goblet.

”Dry your eyes, Your Grace,” Nyssa said, handing her friend a handkerchief. ”No one must see you like this lest questions be asked.”

Catherine took the little linen square and mopped at her face. ”Ohh, Nyssa,” she said, ”what would I do without you? You are my only friend! I never knew being a queen would be so lonely. You must never leave me! Promise me!”

”Nay, I will not promise you such a thing, Cat,” Nyssa said. ”If you love me, you will let me go home soon. I miss my children.”

”If you went home, Nyssa, then you would never see Sin Vaughn again.” She giggled, adroitly turning the subject away from what she considered unpleasant ground. ”He is quite taken with you. Do you think he is handsome? As handsome as my cousin Varian?”

Nyssa laughed. ”He is not as handsome as my husband, but he is a pretty fellow with winning ways. A notorious seducer, I am told. Neither of us should be seen in his company, Cat.” She said nothing of the encounter she had had with Sin Vaughn. Cat would be unable to refrain from gossiping about it with the others; and she would read something more into it than there was.

”Was it Bessie or Kate who once said that handsome, wicked men are far more interesting than handsome, nice men?” the queen asked, and the two young women dissolved into laughter.

That night at the evening meal, the king was in a particularly fine mood, for he had personally killed six stags that day. When Nyssa and the queen danced together for his amusement, he was well-pleased. His little eyes followed their graceful movements as they pirouetted and twirled before him. His wife was wearing a gown of rose-colored silk. It was his favorite color on her, complimenting her lovely russet hair. Nyssa was equally lovely in a silk gown of pale spring-green, the bodice encrusted with pearls and peridots.

Afterward the king took both young women upon his lap, and said first to Nyssa, ”I will grant you a boon for the pleasure you have given me with your dancing, my wild rose. What will you have of me?”

”I would be home with my family by Christmas, Your Grace,” she said sweetly, and then kissed his cheek.

The king chuckled richly. ”You are a wicked chit, Nyssa, for I know your desire conflicts with the desires of my queen, but I have given my word to grant your wish, and so I must.”

”Thank you, Your Grace,” she replied meekly.

The king laughed again. ”You do not fool me, madame. You do not fool me one bit Your good lord tells me how you have wrapped him about your little finger. I did not do so badly by you, Nyssa, did I? You are happy, are you not?”

”I am very happy, Your Grace,” she answered him honestly.

The king turned to his wife. ”Now what new extravagance will you have of me, madame? Another gown, or perhaps a new jewel?”

”Nay, sire, but one small thing,” Cat told her husband. ”The dowager duchess Agnes sent me a distant relative of hers, and begs that I find a place for him in my household. I could use another secretary, my lord. Will you allow me to do the lady Agnes this favor?”

”Aye,” he said, ”for by not coming on this progress and complaining constantly about the state of her health, she has done me a favor. Appoint this fellow if you will. What is his name?”

”Francis Dereham, my lord,” the queen replied, and her eyes met those of Nyssa”s in the shared conspiracy.

They left Pontefract Castle and traveled on to York, arriving in mid-September. The weather was becoming more autumnal, and it was raining more now, which made the journey uncomfortable at best. At York the king hoped to meet with his nephew, King James of Scotland. There had also been speculation that Henry might crown his queen at Yorkminster. The king, however, made it quite clear when queried that Catherine”s coronation rested with her ability to produce another heir for him. She was obviously not with child.

The royal pavilions were set up in the grounds of an old abbey which was being refurbished for use as the site of the conference that Henry hoped to effect between himself and King James. The hunting was excellent. On one day the king and his huntsmen slew two hundred deer. The nearby marshes belonging to the river offered a bounty of ducks, geese, swans, and fish of all kinds. Nothing went to waste, and the cooks in the field kitchens were kept as busy as if they had been at Hampton Court, or Greenwich.

Nyssa had a headache and had not gone hunting that first morning in York. She knew that the queen was also in the encampment. When her headache eased, she sought her out, knowing how easily bored Cat could become, and thinking to offer her a game of cards. The guards outside the queen”s pavilion nodded and smiled to her as she passed by them unchallenged. Inside, Nyssa was surprised to find that the pavilion was deserted. There were no ladies hovering, waiting to do Cat”s bidding, no servants bustling to and fro on a variety of errands.

”Cat?” she called softly. ”Cat?” Nyssa passed through from the outer antechamber into the queen”s privy. ”Cat?” There was no one in the little room outside the queen”s bedchamber. Perhaps Cat was asleep. Nyssa drew back the curtain gently, not wanting to waken her friend if she slept. Instead her eyes grew wide with shock.

The tableau before her was so sensual that Nyssa could barely breathe. For a moment she could not even move. She simply stared, mesmerized. The queen and Tom Culpeper lay sprawled and entwined amid the satin and fur coverlet of the royal bed. A single lamp, burning fragrant oil, cast a golden glow over them. Cat was naked as the day she had come into the world. Culpeper wore naught but a silk shirt that was open. Nyssa could see the queen”s full breasts, round and lush as for a brief moment her lover changed position. Then he was between her legs, laboring mightily. Cat, her pretty face suffused with lust, was moaning her pleasure, encouraging him onward.

”Ohhh, God, yesss, Tom! Fuck me, darling! Ohhh, yessss! Don”t stop! I need you, darling! Fuck me! Fuck me!”

”I won”t stop, Cat,” he growled quite distinctly. ”I am not that sick old fool you”re married to, my hot little bitch. I”ll fuck you well this day, as I have before and will again!” He ground himself into her, and the queen groaned lustily.

Nyssa let the curtain fall, finally able to move. Then she fled the queen”s pavilion.

She could not believe what she had just seen. Surely her eyes had deceived her. But she knew they had not deceived her. They had seen what they had seen, and now she was in a quandary as to what to do. She stopped in her flight, closing her eyes, and drew a deep breath to clear her head. The memory filled her brain, and her eyes flew open again. She needed time to think; to compose herself; to decide what she must do, or if she should or could do anything.

Reaching her pavilion, she called to the groomsman, Bob, to fetch her the gelding she liked to ride.

”Will ye be joining the hunt then, m”lady?” Bob said.

”Nay.” Nyssa shook her head. ”I simply wish to ride off this headache. I will not go far, Bob. You need not come with me.”

Entering the pavilion, she called to Tillie to help her change her clothing. ”Bring me the heather-colored riding skirt, and my boots.”

”Yer as white as a ghost, m”lady. Are you all right?” Tillie”s tone was one of great concern. ”Perhaps you should lie down.”

”Nay,” Nyssa told her. ”I need to get away from here, and be by myself for a little time. Ohhh, Tillie! I hate the court!”

Tillie helped her mistress out of her clothes and into a riding outfit consisting of the velvet skirt and a purple velvet bodice edged in gold braid. Kneeling, she fit Nyssa”s boots onto her slender feet. ”Are you joining the hunt then, m”lady?”

Nyssa shook her head. ”I want to ride. Alone.”

”Bob should ride with you, m”lady. His lordship won”t like it that you”ve gone off alone. ”Tis dangerous,” Tillie fretted.

”Living among the court is far more dangerous, Tillie,” Nyssa told her tiring woman. ”I will take my chances in the hills hereabouts. Besides, I will not go far, and his lordship will never know if you do not tell him, will he?” She patted the maidservant”s shoulder and hurried from the pavilion, mounting the horse that Bob had saddled.

She cantered from the encampment, not really even heeding where she was going. The countryside about her was bleak. Outside the walls of York there seemed to be nothing but sky and hills. Here and there bits of autumn color were showing. She rode on and on until finally, as she topped a hill, she drew her horse to a halt, gazing out over the landscape below. Nyssa sighed deeply. She had caught the queen in adultery. What was she to do?

The king adored his young wife. He was unlikely to hear any ill about her from anyone. Particularly not from me, Nyssa thought. I cannot accuse the queen of light behavior without proof, and the mere evidence of my own eyes will not be enough. They will say that I am jealous that the king married Cat instead of marrying me. That I seek to turn the king away from her, and back to me. The question of my marriage to Varian will come up all over again, and my own behavior will be questioned. I can say nothing. I am forced to be silent in the face of this adultery and treason. I dare not even tell Varian, for he will go to his grandfather, and then Duke Thomas will go to the queen. Cat will not like it, and she will surely find a way to get even with me. I am no match for a reigning queen. I must remain silent to protect my family.

”I have never before seen such a serious look in any woman”s eyes,” a familiar voice said, amused. ”What weighty matters do you ponder, my dear Countess of March? You are too beautiful to be so gloomy.”

Nyssa looked up, startled to see Sir Cynric Vaughn beside her, mounted upon a fine black stallion. ”I am thinking of my babies, and how I wish I were home at Winterhaven,” she lied to him. ”Surely, my lord, you know that I prefer the country life to that at court.”

”When I saw you leave the encampment, I thought perhaps that you were going to meet a lover,” he told her boldly.

”My husband is my only lover,” Nyssa replied, irritated.

”How quaint,” he drawled, ”but surely dull.”

It would be useless to bandy words with him, Nyssa quickly realized. He would not understand the love that she and Varian shared. ”You do not hunt today, my lord?”

”Nor do you,” he countered. ”I am bored with this constant pursuit of game, which seems to amuse the king so greatly. Tell me, madame, what would you be doing if you were at home instead of here?”

”Harvesting apples and preparing to make cider,” she said. ”And then in a few weeks the October ale would need to be brewed.”

He laughed, and his horse danced nervously at the sound. ”Do you not have servants to do these things, madame?”

”The servants do the labor, of course, sir, but they must be overseen. Without direction, servants falter, my mother taught me.”

”What about a steward, or a housekeeper?” he wondered.

”They can help, and in some cases take over for a master, or a mistress,” Nyssa told him, ”but they cannot substitute for them. Estates possessed by absentee lords are frequently poor ones. Their people lose heart when they do not have the direction of their true master.”

”Hummmm,” he considered. ”Perhaps that is why my estate is not a profitable one, but I need a rich wife to restore it, and I cannot find a rich wife without a profitable estate.” He laughed. ”It is a serious conundrum, madame. So I remain at court.”

”Where is your home?” she asked him, beginning to gently nudge her horse back in the direction from which she had come.

”In Oxfordshire,” he said. ”You would like it since all that is bucolic seems to appeal to you. I possess a tumbling-down old hall, a deer park, and a few hundred acres of overgrown fields.” He moved his horse along with hers as they spoke.

”Are your fields not tilled?” she asked him, shocked. ”What of your tenants? Have you no cattle or sheep?”

He chuckled. ”You truly are a serious country woman. ”Tis no pose to make you stand out from the others, is it?”

”Sir, the land and its people are a trust. They are England. The king would tell you that himself,” Nyssa said.

”I stand reprimanded, madame,” he said with a smile. ”You must teach me how to mend my ways and become a model landowner.”

Now Nyssa smiled. ”Sir, I think you mock me.”

”Nay, madame, I should never do such a thing,” he protested.

”Then perhaps, sir, you are again flirting with me?” Nyssa queried him lightly, thinking as she did that it was possible that Culpeper had confided his adultery with the queen to this man. The more people who knew, the more serious the situation had become. She had to find out.

”I think, madame, that it is you who flirt with me,” Sin Vaughn said.

She laughed. ”I thought you said it was Tom Culpeper I”d set my sights on,” she said cunningly.

”Did I not warn you that Culpeper had a jealous mistress?” he growled, leaning over so that their faces were near.

”Why do you care?” she asked him daringly, and smiled into his handsome face. She was amazed at her behavior, but time was growing short. If Cat continued her dangerous course once they returned to London, she would surely be caught. The king”s wrath would fall on them all.

”Because,” Sin Vaughn said harshly, ”I want you, Nyssa! The thought that you should want another infuriates me. Culpeper is a callow fellow. You deserve better!”

”I thought Master Culpeper was your friend,” Nyssa taunted him gently, ”and have I not told you, sir, that I am a happily married woman? I am aware of the direction in which your friend”s interest flows. ”Tis a dangerous game he plays, my lord. You should tell him so.”

”Do you think I have not?” Cynric Vaughn said. ”He considers his lady a benevolent provider of all he desires.”

They had reached the encampment. When they came to her pavilion, Sin Vaughn slid from his horse and, reaching up, lifted Nyssa down from her mount. They were standing very close. When she made to move away from him, his arm pinioned her hard, preventing her. Their lips were quite dangerously close for a brief moment. Then he smiled down into her eyes.

”You are really not experienced enough for this game, madame,” he told her quietly, ”but I will play it with you if you desire,” and then he loosed her. With a quick bow he turned and led his horse away.

”Take yer mount, m”lady?” Bob was at her elbow.

”Aye, take him,” she told the groom. ”I”ve not ridden him hard. Just enough to get the kinks out of his muscles.” She handed the reins of her horse to him and hurried into the pavilion.

What on earth had she been thinking of, trying to flirt with Sin Vaughn? The man was positively dangerous, a man without conscience or morality. She could sense it. I will not dally with him again, she thought. Now I know that he is aware of the queen”s treason.

If Cat Howard fell, then all the Howards would fall, Nyssa knew. She remembered what Varian had said about it. I am the duke”s only grandson. Surely the king in his anger would not strike out at the de Winters, but he could. Henry Tudor was a ruthless man. Everyone knew that he had slain Anne Boleyn when she could not produce a living son for him, and his eye lit upon Jane Seymour. Look how he had untangled himself from his marriage to the lady Anne of Cleves; had allowed Lord Chancellor Cromwell to be executed; had murdered the Countess of Salisbury. Nyssa shuddered. She had to know if anyone else knew of the queen”s adultery.

The king issued an invitation to his nephew, James V of Scotland, the son of his sister Margaret, to join him at York. The ancient abbey stood refurbished and ready for the meeting between the two kings. James”s queen, Mary of Guise, was enceinte with a third child. She must be brought safely to term, as their two young sons had recently died and Scotland had no heir. She did not want him to go. His council did not want him to go. James was no fool. Once he crossed over the border, putting himself into the lion”s mouth, he could find himself a prisoner of his most dearly beloved uncle of England. He did not come.

Each day the English, stationed at vantage points on the border, sent word to Henry Tudor. There was no sign of the Scots. Indeed the border, usually a hotbed of activity on both sides, was unusually quiet. After five days the English king gave up and faced the truth. His nephew was not coming. Henry was not pleased by the slight, and those around him tread lightly until his temper had worked itself out. The queen was particularly clever at coaxing him. When finally his good humor was restored, the king gave the word that they were to move south. The time had come to return to London. Autumn was upon them, and the weather was beginning to turn colder, and wetter.

They crossed the Derwentwater moving southeast for the town of Hull on the Humber River. The emerald-green hills were almost treeless. The royal progress plodded on relentlessly. Its coaches and baggage wagons lurched over the gentle inclines, the court laughing and riding with it, the great packs of hounds barking excitedly, keeping pace with the horses.

Hull, a fishing port, had been granted a charter in 1299 by Edward I. It had originally been called King”s Town upon Hull. Why the king wished to go there, no one really knew, but when he arrived on the first day of October, the weather changed for the better, to everyone”s relief. The blue skies were cloudless, and the sun shone down brightly. The air was mild. It blew fresh and salty from the sea beyond. The pavilions were set up overlooking the water. The king, it seemed, wanted to fish. His energy appeared to be inexhaustible. But at least one could sit in a boat or stand upon the beach when fishing. The ladies, excused from such activity, took the time to rest, bathe, and repair their clothing, for the king had announced they would remain five days.

Arriving to wait upon the queen one afternoon, Nyssa saw Lady Rochford in deep conversation with Tom Culpeper, standing in the shadow of the pavilion”s awning. They did not see her as she moved quietly past them, and then, safe from their view, stopped to listen.

”You must be patient, Tom, my laddie,” Lady Rochford said. ”She is as eager for you as you are for her, but we are not safe here. Too many of the ladies are about, and there is no excuse to send them away from her without arousing suspicion. There are many who are jealous of her, but of course she will not believe that. Her heart is so good. It is beyond her ken to even consider that many would betray her. We must wait for a more propitious time for you to meet again.”

”You know that I would not place her in any danger, Jane,” Culpeper said. ”God help me, but I love her, yet I can barely stand the time I must be away from her. When I hear the king brag of how he has used her, and how she cried out with his expertise, I want to puke!”

”You must not be jealous, Tom laddie, or you will spoil everything,” Lady Rochford cautioned him. ”The king is an old man. How much longer can he live? Then you will be free to pursue Cat without fear. For now, however, you must not place her in any danger.”

Nyssa moved on. She did not want them to catch her, but she also did not want to hear any more. The whole situation was appalling. That they dared to speak of the king”s death! Such a thing was treason in itself, but should she accuse them, they would deny it, and it would simply be her word against theirs. She was Nyssa Wyndham, who had once had the king”s eye and lost it to Catherine Howard. Nyssa Wyndham, who was mysteriously married off to the Duke of Norfolk”s grandson. It was an impossible situation. What was she to do?

Perhaps if she spoke to the queen. Reasoned with her. Were they not friends? Aye! That was what she would do! She would go directly to Cat and tell her she knew her secret. That she did not want to hurt her friend, just bring her to her senses. That she wanted to help. That Cat must not continue to betray the king, for she was sure to be caught in the end. That they would all fall victim to the king”s anger and hurt. Cat was not stupid. Cat would see the sense of what she told her. She would realize that Lady Rochford was nothing more than a bawd, encouraging her to bad habits. Aye! She would speak to the queen.