CHAPTER 16

THOSEon the Privy Council who were in sympathy with the Howards came to the queen and helped her to write a letter to the king, begging his forgiveness. Catherine was not the most intelligent woman, but she realized now that her only hope lay in her husband”s love for her. If she could move him to forgive her, then he would stop the archbishop from digging further into her activities after she became queen. Her uncle had carefully explained how explosive the situation really was. This had enabled her to pull herself together. If she stayed afraid, she could not possibly hope to act to save herself, and her family. Dereham was jealous of Culpeper. She had rejected Dereham. Dereham, she sensed, knew what was going on between her and Tom Culpeper. She had to get Dereham and her lover released from the Tower before they were tortured and succumbed to confessing their involvement in her life.

I, Your Grace”s most sorrowful subject and vile wretch in the world, not worthy to make any recommendations unto Your Majesty, do only make my most humble submission and confession of my faults. And where no cause of mercy is given on my part, yet of your most accustomed mercy extended to all other men undeserved, most humbly on my hands and knees do desire one particle thereof to be extended unto me, although of all other creatures most unworthy either to be called your wife or subject. My sorrow I can by no writing express, nevertheless I trust your most benign nature will have some respect unto my youth, my ignorance, my frailness, my humble confession of my faults and plain declaration of the same, referring me wholly unto Your Grace”s pity and mercy. First at the flattering and fair persuasions of Manox, being a young girl (I) suffered him at sundry times to handle and touch the secret parts of my body, which neither became me with honesty to permit, nor him to require. Also Francis Dereham by many persuasions procured me to visit his vicious purpose, and obtained first to lie upon my bed with his doublet and hose, and after within the bed, and finally he lay with me naked, and used me in such sort as a man doth his wife, many and sundry times and our company ended almost a year before the King”s Majesty was married to my Lady Anne of Cleves, and continued not past one quarter of a year, or a little above. I humbly beseech you to consider the subtle persuasions of young men, and the ignorance and frailness of young women. I was so desirous to be taken unto Your Grace”s favor, and so blinded with the desire of worldly glory, that I could not, nor had the grace to consider how great a fault it was to conceal my former faults from Your Majesty, considering that I intended ever during my life to be faithful and true unto Your Majesty after, nevertheless, the sorrow of mine offences was ever before mine eyes, considering the infinite goodness of Your Majesty towards me from time to time ever increasing and not diminishing. Now I refer the judgement of all my offences with my life and death wholly unto your most benign and merciful Grace to be considered by no justice of Your Majesty”s laws but only by your infinite goodness, pity, compassion and mercy, without the which I acknowledge myself worthy of extreme punishment.

This sad little plea was brought to the king, and when he read it, he felt a good deal better than he had in days. His poor little Catherine, led astray by these wicked and dissolute young men. There would have to be an annulment, of course, for he could not continue his marriage to an unchaste woman who might have been precontracted, but at least he would not have to execute her as he had her cousin. He smiled. He might even keep his little Catherine as a mistress. She was a great pleasure to him in bed.

The archbishop was announced, and glided in quietly.

”Well, Tom?” the king demanded.

”There is no doubt, Your Grace,” the archbishop said, ”that Catherine Howard was precontracted to Francis Dereham. Your union with her will have to be annulled, I fear.”

The king offered his cleric the queen”s letter. ”Aye, she admits to it here. I am relieved, although I shall be sorry to lose her. She has been a most agreeable wife, the most agreeable of all my wives, in fact. I cannot, however, remain wed to an unchaste woman.”

”There may be more,” the archbishop said.

”Nay, Tom, no more,” the king told him. ”I am satisfied with the results. I loved my Catherine, my rose, as I never loved any woman, but my love has now abated. Let it be.” Then the king returned to Hampton Court, and threw a dinner party, sitting at table with twenty-six of the handsomest ladies at the court. He was suddenly at his gayest, and flirted as of old with all the women. He did not see his wife.

Two days later the king rode off as if to go hunting, but in reality he rode to London, going to Whitehall, where he met with his Privy Council until early the next morning. He rested briefly and ate, returning to the council for most of the day.

Thomas Cranmer was certain that given time, he could discover evidence of the queen”s adultery. The thought that Catherine Howard could possibly have foisted a bastard prince on England horrified him. He convinced the council, for on the council those who were not allies of the Howards were in the majority. They felt the archbishop should be given his time; that the queen should not escape their justice. The king, not wanting to be embarrassed further, argued against it, but he finally gave in to the Privy Council”s demands.

The court, arriving from Hampton Court, saw the council as it broke up, coming from their chamber. The Duke of Norfolk looked very unhappy. The queen had been left at Hampton Court still under house arrest.

Aware that the court had departed, leaving her behind, Catherine Howard grew frightened again. The following morning the archbishop came to Hampton Court to see her.

”Why have I been left here?” Catherine demanded with a touch of her old queenly imperiousness.

”You will not be here long, madame,” he replied. ”It has been decided that you will be removed to Syon House in Middlesex for the interim.”

”Syon? ”Tis in the country! Why can I not return to court? Will the king, my husband, not forgive me? Is this to be my punishment—to be exiled to some dreadfully dull country house, my lord? For how long must I stay there?”

”Madame, I am not at liberty to give you any explanations, excepting that you are to be removed from Hampton Court to Syon. You will be allowed four attendants and two serving women. You will be served as befits a queen. Prepare yourself to depart in two days” time.”

”I cannot pack in such a short time,” Catherine complained, stamping her feet at him. ”You have taken all my servants from me.”

”A new wardrobe will be given you, madame. You will have need for little in your new circumstances. Sir Thomas Seymour will remove your court clothing and seal your chests. They, along with your jewels, will be returned to the king, from whence all your good fortune has come.”

Lady Rochford gasped. The queen was frozen with shock, and could not speak for a moment.

The archbishop fixed Jane Rochford with a hard look. ”You are to be sent to the Tower, Lady Rochford, for you know far more of your mistress”s behavior, I think, than you have told,” Thomas Cranmer said sternly. ”You must be thoroughly questioned.”

”If you take Rochford from me,” Catherine cried, her speech returned, ”who will I have to keep me company, my lord? Surely you will not leave me to be alone?”

”You will have your gentlewomen and chamberers, madame. They will be your company. They will serve you,” he answered her.

”May I choose my own ladies?” the queen asked.

”Nay,” he replied, shaking his head.

”Just one of the four, sir,” she pleaded. ”My cousin”s wife, Nyssa de Winter, the Countess of March. Oh, please, my lord!”

”I will think on it,” the archbishop promised. In the end, however, he allowed her to have her choice of three of the four. The fourth lady would have to be Lady Baynton, whose husband, Edward, was to be the queen”s chamberlain at Syon. Catherine asked for her two old companions—the king”s niece, Kate Carey, and Bessie FitzGerald.

Varian de Winter was furious at his foolish cousin for involving his wife, but Nyssa said gently, ”They seek to find a way to kill her, Varian. And they will find it even if they must bend the truth, or stretch it a little. One thing I have learned at court is that when the mighty desire something, they will always discover a way to get it. Your grandfather and Bishop Gardiner wanted a queen who was more Catholic than Anne of Cleves. They managed to obtain their wish. Now the archbishop wishes to pull down this queen and replace her with a more reformed one.

”Poor silly Cat has given him the ammunition he needed. They will seek until they find evidence of adultery. Then they will kill Catherine Howard for her foolish, romantic notions. If the king were to divorce her, or find a way for an annulment, there would always be the chance he would forgive her. He has loved her more than the others. The reformers do not want him to forgive Cat. She is a doomed woman. She may not admit to it yet, but she knows it. That is why she wants her few friends about her. I go gladly, even if I am still angry at Cat for her stupidity.”

”What am I to do without you?” he asked her. ”We have never been apart since our marriage. I do not think I shall enjoy sleeping alone again.” He drew her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. ”Once you are at Syon, I shall not see you until it is all over. Who knows how long that will be, Nyssa, my darling love?”

”The king”s intentions toward the Howards and their kin is still a dangerous and dark thing, Varian,” Nyssa told her husband. ”You must be as quiet as a rabbit in its nest, outwaiting the fox, my lord.”

”I will escape the fat old fox,” he promised her, ”and I will be waiting for you, Nyssa, to come back to me.”

The Duke of Norfolk joined them with new information. ”You will be allowed to take little,” he told his grandson”s wife. ”The queen is only being allowed to have six changes of clothing, and nothing can be sewn with jewels. A bit of gold or silver, but that is all. Choose your own clothing with equal discretion. If you want, your tiring woman can go with you. They may allow the servants in and out, but I cannot promise you that for certain,” he said.

”If anything should happen to Varian, or me,” Nyssa said, ”you must promise me that you will send Tillie home to RiversEdge, my lord.”

”You have my word,” he agreed, ”but I do not think you need fear for yourselves, madame. You and Varian are de Winters, after all, and not Howards.” He smiled grimly at her.

She curtsied to him, saying, ”I had best go and ready myself.”

”You are a brave woman . . . Nyssa,” he said, using her name for the very first time. ”I did not intend it, but I seem to have done my grandson a favor when I managed his marriage to you.” It was the closest he would ever come to apologizing to her.

”I shared in the favor, my lord,” she answered him, ”for love remembered me when I found myself matched with Varian. I have learned to love in return.” It was the closest she would come to telling him she accepted his apology.

Varian watched this exchange between the two people he loved the most in all the world, excepting his children; marveling at how alike and yet how dissimilar his grandfather and his wife were. In time, he thought, these two might even become friends, providing they all survived the debacle of Catherine Howard.

Nyssa went to their bedchamber and told Tillie her news. ”You need not go with me,” she said. ”If you choose, I will send you home, and hold no grudge against you for going.”

Tillie pursed her lips. ”I”ll not leave you, m”lady. Why, me aunt Heartha would have me hide if I did. Besides, this new adventure will give me something to tell my grandchildren one day.”

”You must have children to have grandchildren,” Nyssa teased her tiring woman. ”Have you a husband in mind, Tillie?”

”Aye,” she admitted. ”That Toby of his lordship”s will do me nicely when we get back to Winterhaven, m”lady. He”s shy, and a bit slow, but I see ”im eyeing me. It”s time we both settled down.”

Nyssa chuckled. Poor Toby, she thought. His fate was already sealed, though she would wager he did not yet know it. Still, he and Tillie would make an excellent pair. She explained to her servant that she could have but six changes of clothing, as that would be all the queen was allowed; and her garments must be plain, without adornment. Together they chose velvet skirts in black, a rich golden brown, deep blue, forest-green, violet, and orange-tawny. The matching underskirts were of plain satin and satin brocade. The duke found a seamstress among his household who helped Tillie remove the magnificent adornments from Nyssa”s bodices, rendering them simple, with naught but gold or silver embroidery about the necklines. There were petticoats and chemises of cotton, lawn, wool, and silk; knitted stockings, and a single fur-lined cloak. Nyssa took no jewelry with her, wearing only a small gold and pearl crucifix about her neck, and her wedding band.

”You”ll be needing French hoods,” Tillie said. ”You know the queen likes her ladies to wear them.”

”They can”t be jeweled,” Nyssa said.

”We”ll make them up new with just a bit of gold, m”lady,” the seamstress said helpfully.

”Thank you,” Nyssa told her.

Within the two days” time, her wardrobe was ready, and on the morning of the thirteenth of November, Nyssa joined Kate Carey and Bessie FitzGerald for their trip to Syon House in Middlesex. They would go by barge from Whitehall. The queen would travel in the same fashion from Hampton Court in the company of Lord and Lady Baynton. It took all the courage she had to kiss her husband good-bye, but Nyssa managed to keep her composure. Then Varian and the Duke of Norfolk escorted her down to the Water Stairs, where her two companions waited. She did not look back as the barge moved upriver, making its way into Middlesex.

The three young women sat within the comfortable cabin. A small brazier heated the space. Kate and Bessie were very quiet as they traveled along. The two girls did not know what to say under the circumstances. Finally Kate said, ”Do you think she really cuckolded the king?”

”I think she may have,” Bessie said low, then turned to Nyssa. ”Remember how she was always disappearing from her bedchamber at night when we were on progress? She would not come back for hours.”

”How do you know that?” Nyssa asked her. God”s boots, Cat had been appallingly indiscreet. Obviously everyone knew, but no one dared to say anything. She felt better about withholding her own knowledge.

”You were with your husband, I forgot,” Bessie said. ”Several nights she would disappear about eleven o”clock, and not return until three or four in the morning. I was always awakened by her return.”

”I have heard,” Bessie continued, ”that Lady Rochford went mad when they took her to the Tower. They say she cackles, and babbles to herself all the time. I even heard that she talks to her dead husband, George Boleyn, and to his sister, Anne. They have taken everything from her, for they fear she will harm herself before they may hear her testimony.”

”What good will testimony be from a madwoman?” Nyssa wondered.

”She has some lucid moments,” Bessie replied. ”I think they plan to question her during one of those times.”

”You realize that the queen will be found guilty,” Nyssa said.

”What do you know?” Kate demanded.

”I know nothing,” Nyssa answered. ”But it is obvious from the way things are going that Cat”s reign is over. The question remains as to whether they will kill her, or not.”

”If the king is angry enough,” Kate said, ”he will show her no mercy at all.” Kate”s mother was Mary Boleyn, who before her sister, Anne, had been the king”s mistress. It was believed that Kate”s eldest brother, Henry, was the king”s son, but the king had never acknowledged him.

The young women fell silent again. The cityscape had given way to the rural landscape of Middlesex. The leafless trees were silhouetted black against the gray November sky. There was no wind, and the Thames ran dark and smooth. Rounding a bend in the river, they saw Syon House. Until recently it had been a convent. There seemed to be a macabre humor in incarcerating Catherine Howard here. The barge nosed its way into the quai serving Syon House. Upon landing they learned that the queen had not yet arrived.

The majordomo assigned to Syon led them to the apartment assigned to the queen. It consisted of three rooms, and was furnished modestly. There was a bedchamber for the queen, with a small dressing room, as well as a dayroom and a small dining room where they could eat.

”Where will we sleep?” Nyssa demanded of the majordomo.

Recognizing the tone of authority in her voice, he said politely, ”A single chamber has been set aside for the ladies, madame.”

”I am the Countess of March,” Nyssa told the man. ”Is there a dressing room for us to store our garments in and where our tiring women may sleep, sir? I realize our purpose here is serious, still, we must have some small comforts.” She favored him with a smile.

”The room is spacious, with its own fireplace for warmth, m”lady, and there is not just a dressing room, but a smaller interior room for your servants.” He bowed, and then asked, ”Might I know the identities of the other two ladies?”

Nyssa nodded graciously. ”This is the king”s niece, Mistress Katherine Carey, and Lady Elizabeth FitzGerald, sir.”

The majordomo bowed politely to the trio. ”May I welcome you to Syon, my ladies,” he said. ”Allow me to show you your own quarters.”

He led them from the queen”s small apartments down the hallway and opened an oak door, beckoning them into a large square room, the walls of which were done in a linen-fold paneling. A bowed window with leaded panes and a window seat looked out upon the river. There was a fine fireplace in the room, and opposite it, a good-sized bed hung with tapestry curtains, dark green on natural linen. The draperies at the windows were heavy, dark green velvet.

”The bed will sleep two comfortably, m”lady,” he addressed Nyssa, as the senior in rank of the three. ”There is a fine trundle beneath that can be pulled out to sleep a third person.”

”Excellent,” she said to him. ”I assume there is a trundle beneath the queen”s bed as well, for one of us will always be with her.”

”Aye, m”lady, and Lord and Lady Baynton have their own bedchamber.”

”Very good, then,” Nyssa answered him. ”Since the queen is not yet come downriver from Hampton Court, will you have our baggage brought in so we may settle ourselves? Please notify us the moment the queen”s barge is sighted. We must be at the quai to welcome her.”

”Yes, m”lady,” he said, and departed.

Kate and Bessie had elected to share a single tiring woman between them. Her name was Mavis, and she was a motherly, older woman. She and Tillie had hit it off immediately. The two women chatted amiably as they unpacked and stored away their mistresses” clothing and other possessions. They were pleased with the tiny room, and with the good-sized bed that they would share. They considered their quarters quite luxurious. It backed up on the large fireplace, and consequently would always be quite warm as long as the fire was going.

While the servants worked to make their small quarters comfortable for them all, the three young women went out into the gardens of Syon House. Wandering about, they found some late roses, not yet touched by frost, blooming pink against a south-facing wall. They gathered the fragile blooms and brought them indoors to arrange in the queen”s dayroom, for they knew how much Cat would appreciate the little touch.

The majordomo came to tell them that the queen”s barge had been sighted. They hurried down to the quai to greet their old friend.

”I wonder how she is feeling,” Kate said.

Nyssa wondered too. She did not know whether to be shocked or surprised when Catherine, stepping from her barge, greeted them as if there were nothing wrong at all and she was not in a fight for her very life. She kissed and hugged each of them in turn, expressing her delight that they were to be with her.

”I suppose you are most put out with me, Nyssa,” she said with her most winning smile. ”I know that you hoped to be home at your beloved RiversEdge for the twelve days of Christmas.”

”I am not in the least distressed, Your Grace. I am honored that you would ask me to serve you in your trying hour,” Nyssa replied.

”Henry is most put out with me,” Cat said, linking her arm in Nyssa”s and walking up to the house with her. ”I wrote him a very beautiful letter. I am certain that he will forgive me eventually. In the meantime he will isolate me here in the deep country to punish me, but,” she laughed gaily, ”we will make ourselves a most marvelous twelve days of Christmas, won”t we? It shall be like when we were all children. No cares, and no gentlemen to worry us.”

Nyssa could hardly believe what she was hearing. Did not Cat understand the seriousness of her position? Obviously she did not.

”Lady Rochford, they say, has gone mad,” she said quietly.

”I am so relieved to be rid of her,” Cat exclaimed. ”She was always badgering me. I thought she was nice, but she is really quite nasty. ”Tis no wonder she never remarried. Who would have her?”

They entered the house, but when the queen saw her apartment, she immediately complained. ”This really will not do! I cannot be expected to live in such cramped quarters. Oh, damn Henry! He is just doing this to be mean!” She whirled about and said to Edward Baynton, ”My lord, you must write to the king and tell him I need more space.”

”The king believes he has provided generously for you, Your Grace,” the chamberlain answered the queen stiffly. ”I cannot complain to him.”

”Oh, very well,” Cat said. ”I shall write him myself.”

”Perhaps we shall not be here very long,” Nyssa said gently, attempting to cajole the queen. ”By the time you write to the king, and he thinks it over and then answers you, your circumstances may have changed for the better, Your Grace.”

”That was very nicely done,” Lady Baynton said to her afterward. ”You know how to handle her, and I am most grateful for it, Lady de Winter. Despite it all, she is imperious, and very difficult.”

”She is afraid,” Nyssa said.

”You would not know it,” Lady Baynton replied.

”No,” Nyssa answered the good woman. ”She does not show it. She is a Howard, after all.”

HENRYManox, the lutanist from the dowager duchess”s household, was the first person to be questioned by the Privy Council. He readily admitted to attempting to seduce Catherine Howard when she was but twelve and a half years of age. ”She was very well-formed for a girl of her tender years,” he related. ”She had the breasts of a maid of sixteen, I”ll vow, my lords.”

”Did you know her in the biblical sense?” the Duke of Suffolk questioned the man. ”The truth now! Your life is at stake,” he warned.

Manox shook his head. ”I was the first man ever to handle her. With an untried maid, one must go slowly,” he explained to them. ” ”Tis like introducing a mare to the bridle for the first time. By the time I had her accustomed to it, she bolted and threw herself at that bloody Dereham. For all my trouble, and time, he was the one to have her maidenhead, damn him! Even so, I”d have liked a bit of her. She had a great taste for passion, did Cat!

”I tried to rid myself of the Dereham fellow so she would have to come back to me, but I failed, alas. I told the old dowager that if she were to pretend to retire at her usual time, and then an hour later visit the dormitory where Mistress Catherine Howard slept, she would see something that would both displease and shock her.”

”And did she go?” the Duke of Norfolk asked sharply.

”Nay,” Manox said. ”She smacked my face, and said I was nothing but a troublemaker, and I would lose my living and her patronage if I did not cease my wicked and scandalous innuendo. I could do nothing more.”

The Duke of Norfolk”s narrow lips stretched themselves narrower in a grimace of disapproval. His stepmother had behaved very, very stupidly.

The Privy Council debated. They decided that Henry Manox could be of no real help to them. He was obviously not important in the scheme of things. To the musician”s great relief, he was released from custody and sent on his way. He disappeared from London soon after, and was never heard from again.

The Privy Council next called Mistress Katherine Tylney, the chamberer who had been with the queen both before and after her elevation. She was a very distant relation of the queen”s, a plain young woman with nothing special to recommend her.

”You have been with Catherine Howard for some time, is that not so?” the Duke of Suffolk asked the woman.

”Aye,” she said. ”Since we were girls at Horsham. She, of course, being a Howard, was of better birth than I was. I considered myself fortunate to go up to Lambeth with her.”

”What kind of girl was she?” the duke queried further.

”Headstrong,” came the blunt reply. ”Catherine Howard must always have her own way in everything. Not that she wasn”t pleasant about it, for she was. And she has a good heart, but she is headstrong.”

”What happened on progress this summer, Mistress Tylney?”

”Please be more specific, my lord,” she asked him.

”Tell us about the queen”s behavior,” Suffolk gently prodded her. ”Was she all that a good wife should be to her husband, or was she perhaps duplicitous in her conduct toward the king?”

”Actually, she began behaving strangely in the spring,” Katherine Tylney said, now given the direction they required her to go in. ”At Lincoln the encampment was set up complete with the royal pavilion, but the king and queen stayed in the castle. Two nights during our stay the queen left her room late, usually after eleven o”clock. She did not return until four or five in the morning.”

”Do you know where she went?” Suffolk said, and his companions on the Privy Council leaned forward to hear what the young woman would say.

”Lady Rochford had rooms two flights up from the queen”s own apartments. The first time the queen left, she took Margaret Morton and me with her. When she reached Lady Rochford”s chambers, she sent us away and then entered. I heard the door”s bolt thrown. The second time she went, she only asked me to come with her. I was required to sit outside of Lady Rochford”s chamber with Lady Rochford”s servant that time. Again we did not return until five o”clock in the morning. I was most uncomfortable, for the hallway was quite damp.”

”Was Lady Rochford in the room with the queen?” Bishop Gardiner asked Mistress Tylney.

”I do not know, my lord. The queen liked me, and so I think she trusted me more than some of the others. I was always taking odd messages to Lady Rochford, and returning with odder messages. It was not that the words were funny, it was just that I could make no sense of them at all.”

”Was it possible that the queen was with Master Dereham?” Suffolk wondered aloud.

”Master Dereham did not join the progress until Pontefract, my lords,” Katherine Tylney said. ”That would have been impossible.”

”Why did you not speak with someone about the queen”s strange behavior, Mistress Tylney?” the Duke of Norfolk asked her.

Katherine Tylney looked at Duke Thomas as if he were mad. ”Who was I to go to, my lord? The king perhaps? And what was I to say, sir? That his wife”s behavior was odd, and secretive? I am a simple chamberer in the queen”s household. I am a servant, not gentry. I had not the right to criticize the queen, and had I done so, neither the king, nor even you, my lord, would have believed me,” she said.

”Thank you, Mistress Tylney, for your cooperation,” Suffolk answered. ”You are now dismissed, but we may ask to speak with you again.”

She curtsied to the Privy Council and was escorted from the hearing room back to her confinement.

”Well, gentlemen,” Suffolk said, ”what think you?”

”It would appear that the queen was engaged in some sort of nefarious conduct,” the Earl of Southampton replied.

”Aye, but exactly what, and with whom?” Lord Russell wondered.

”I do not think there is any doubt as to what she was doing,” Lord Audley answered him. ”The question is, with whom?”

”I may have the answer to that question, my lords,” the archbishop told them. ”I believe Thomas Culpeper is our miscreant, but I have not yet the proof I need. The queen seems very fond of him. He was on the summer progress for the entire four months. He would know her schedule as well as the king would know it, since he is a king”s man.”

”My God, Cranmer!” Duke Thomas said. ”Culpeper was practically raised in the king”s chambers. He came to court as a little lad to be a page. The king is deeply attached to him. It cannot be.”

The archbishop shrugged. ”My suspicions have been aroused.”

”By whom?” demanded Norfolk.

”Your niece herself, I fear,” Thomas Cranmer answered.

”I think,” Suffolk said, ”that we had best continue our questioning. We are next to speak with Margaret Morton, another chamberer.” The duke signaled to the guardsman by the door. ”Bring in Mistress Morton.”

She entered, plump, and plainer than Katherine Tylney, if such a thing was possible. She was very excited to be testifying, and filled with self-importance. She curtsied to the Privy Council.

”How may I serve you, my lords?” she asked, without waiting to be invited to speak. She seemed not to realize her error.

”Mistress Tylney has testified to the queen”s odd behavior on the progress, her nocturnal wanderings and such. Did you notice anything you wish to tell the council about?”

”Oh, aye,” Mistress Morton said. ”Her grace and the Rochford woman were up to something all right, ”tis certain. All those whispered conversations, the messages back and forth, and not one of them intelligible. Then there was the letters that Rochford was always getting from the queen and running off with, as well as those she brought back to her grace.”

”You went out late with the queen, in secret, at Lincoln,” the Duke of Suffolk encouraged the witness.

”Aye, and at York, and Pontefract too, my lords. We serving women are always used to running in and out of the queen”s chamber, but at Pontefract her grace got into a shouting match with Mistress Lufflyn for coming into her bedchamber without knocking. She chased her right out, and forbade any of us to enter her bedchamber ever again without her express permission. Later that night the queen locked herself in the room with only Rochford in attendance. That in itself was very odd, my lords,” she said with heavy meaning. ”The door was not only locked, ”twere bolted from the inside to boot! Well, my lords, didn”t the king himself come to visit his wife? He obviously expected to spend the night in her bed. There he was, no disrespect intended, sirs, in his dressing gown, his nightshirt, and his nightcap, and the door was barred to him.” She looked about to see what effect her story was having, and obviously satisfied by what she saw, continued.

”Well, my lords, we banged upon the door, and Lady Rochford”s voice finally asks us what we want. The king is here to see the queen, we told her. Then, for I was nearest to the door, I could hear a fierce scuffling going on inside, and Rochford saying she was having trouble with the lock, and the king getting more impatient by the minute. Finally, at long last the door is opened a crack, and Rochford”s face pops out. The queen, she says, is suffering with a tremendous headache, and begs the king”s leave to continue her rest alone that she might be well enough to join the hunt the next day. Of course, his grace acquiesces, being the kind gentleman that he is. God forgive me for saying it, my lords, but I thought to myself at the time, there”s a man in there with her.”

The room was very still. Here was the thing they sought, yet had feared, finally voiced aloud.

”Did your suspicions, Mistress Morton, perhaps give you an idea of who might have been with the queen?” Suffolk asked her.

”I would stake my life that ”twas young Tom Culpeper, my lords,” she told them frankly. ”It could be no one else.”

”Not Dereham?”

”What, that bad-tempered, crude blowhard? Nay! ”Twas Tom Culpeper if it was anyone, my lords. I knew last spring, April, it was, that she was drawn to him. At Hatfield she stood in her window and cast loving looks upon him standing below. He too looked with love upon her, and blew kisses to her with his fingertips. Once, at Hatfield, she was alone with Master Culpeper for some six hours, locked in her privy chamber. When they emerged, they each looked like the cat who had swallowed the canary. You did not have to guess to know what they had both been about,” Margaret Morton concluded archly.

”And you told no one?” Norfolk growled, as he had with Tylney.

”I am a chamberer,” Margaret Morton said. ” ”Twas not my place to inform upon my mistress. If I did such a thing, I should never be able to get a good place in a decent household again.”

”Thank you, Mistress Morton,” Suffolk said smoothly. ”You are dismissed. Your testimony has been most helpful to us.”

She bustled from the room under guard, and when the door closed behind her, the Duke of Suffolk said, ”That was most enlightening, my lords, was it not? It seems, my lord archbishop, that your hunch is about to pay off quite handsomely.”

”This is a great tragedy, my lords,” the archbishop said quietly. ”I take no joy in any of this. The queen is barely eighteen. If these charges are proved further, then she will end her days shortly on Tower Green as did her relative, Anne Boleyn, God assoil her soul.” Thomas Cranmer had greatly admired Anne Boleyn, and tried to save her.

”Why should you care?” Norfolk snapped at him. ”If my niece is convicted, then you can find a good reformed churchwoman to place by the king”s side. Is not that what you and your allies really want, sir?”

”If you had not been in such a hurry to get your niece married off to the king so the Howards might be all-powerful, Thomas Howard,” the archbishop thundered, ”the king should not have been joined with such an unsuitable wife. None of this would have happened but for your ambition. This girl”s death will be on your conscience forever.”

”You would believe chamberers over a Howard?”

”Do you think it, then, a plot by the queen”s chamberers to discredit her, and why would they do such a thing?” Cranmer asked.

”Women are difficult creatures at best,” Norfolk muttered. ”Who knows why they do any of the things that they do?”

”My lords, this bickering is getting us nowhere,” the Duke of Suffolk interposed. ”We have other witnesses to hear today.”

Mistress Alice Restwold was brought in, and she was followed by Joan Bulmer. Both of them said essentially the same thing that Katherine Tylney and Margaret Morton had said. Each added small details that the others had perhaps forgotten, overlooked, or not been privy to, but basically their testimony was identical. They were thanked and dismissed to go back to their confinement in the Tower.

The final piece of evidence that day was a letter found among Tom Culpeper”s possessions. It had been written in the spring of the year in the queen”s own hand. It was dreadfully composed, badly spelt, and ended with the tender words, Yours as long as life endures, Catherine.

There was now no doubt in any of the Privy Council”s minds that Catherine Howard was involved in an adulterous relationship with Thomas Culpeper. No one wanted to tell the king, but Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, knew that the duty would fall to him. He was not only the king”s best friend, but Lord President of the Privy as well.

The king was wild with anger over the discovery of his wife”s infidelity. Suffolk tempered the blow as best he could, but there was really no gentle way in which to impart such news.

”Give me a sword!” Henry shouted. ”I will go to Syon and kill her myself, Charles! Ahh, the false bitch, and I loved her! Never again! Catherine! Catherine!” Then he began to weep.

The council took it upon themselves to issue communiques to their ambassadors in key courts in Europe explaining the latest events in the king”s ongoing marital woes. The queen”s behavior was referred to as abominable.

Fran?ois I, France”s king, and a renowned lecher, sent his dear brother Henry a most sympathetic letter of condolence.

I am sorry to hear of the displeasure and trouble which has been caused by the lewd and naughty behavior of the Queen. Albeit, knowing my good brother to be a prince of prudence, virtue and honor, I do require him to shift off the said displeasure and wisely, temperately, like myself, not reputing his honor to rest in the lightness of a woman, but to thank God of all, comforting himself in God”s goodness. The lightness of women cannot bend the honor of men.

Privately Fran?ois I said to the English ambassador, Sir William Paulet, of Catherine Howard, ”She hath done wondrous naughty,” and then he chuckled with a great appreciation of the queen”s sexual behavior.

On the twenty-second day of November the Privy Council voted to take away Catherine Howard”s title of queen. She was now simply Mistress Howard again. Two days later she was indicted for ”having led an abominable, base, carnal, voluptuous, and vicious life before marriage, like a common harlot with divers persons, maintaining however the outward appearance of chastity and honesty.” She was further accused of having led the king on, and having married him under false pretenses, and for having imperiled the crown with the possibility of bastards.

The indictment, read to the former queen at Syon House, elicited far less response than the knowledge that she was no longer queen. When the members of the council had gone, Cat looked to Nyssa and asked, ”Will they kill me?”

Lady Baynton looked startled by the young woman”s frankness, while Kate and Bessie began to cry.

”If you are found guilty,” Nyssa said, ”aye, I think they will. For a queen to cuckold her king is treason.”

”Oh,” Cat replied, then she grew more cheerful. ”They have but the word of my chamberers,” she said. ”Surely they will not believe them if I deny it? I am a Howard.”

”They have others to question, Cat. There is Lady Rochford, and Masters Dereham and Culpeper as well. How could you trust old Lady Ferretface, Cat? Particularly after what she did to your cousin Anne. I never understood why Duke Thomas tolerated her after that.”

”Because she was vulnerable, and he could use her,” Cat said bluntly. ”Lady Ferretface.” She giggled. ”Is that what you called her? She does look rather like a ferret, doesn”t she?”

”My brothers called her that,” Nyssa said.

”Is that adorable cherub Giles still with the lady Anne?” Cat was once again turning the subject away from the unpleasant.

”Aye, he is,” Nyssa told her.

”We must really begin to think of Christmas,” Cat said. ”There is a most marvelous stand of trees just beyond the house to the north. Lady Baynton, do you think we will be allowed to gather branches? And we must have candles, and a Yule log as well.”

The subject of death, of treason, of all things unpleasant, was now closed. And why not? thought Nyssa. She understands even if she will not admit to it. This may be her last Christmas, and she wants to make it merry. Why shouldn”t she? ”We must have a wassail bowl, and roasted apples too,” Nyssa told Cat. ”We always have them at RiversEdge.”

”Do you think we will have a boar with an apple in its mouth?” Kate Carey wondered aloud. ”I always love it when the boar is brought in!”

”And will there be music, do you think?” Bessie asked.

”Oh, I hope so!” Cat said.

”She is mad to be planning for a festive Christmas,” Lady Baynton told Nyssa softly. ”Does she not care that her reputation is gone? That her marriage will be dissolved? That she is ruined?”

”She cares, but she will never allow you to see her innermost thoughts and feelings. She is too proud,” Nyssa answered. ”Besides, it is all unpleasant, and Cat has never been one to bravely face that which displeases her. She will not change now. So she plans for Christmas. Who knows what will lie beyond Christmas?”

”They say,” Lady Baynton said confidentially, ”that the king will go back to the lady Anne. ”Twould be a good thing if he did. She is a most charming and gracious lady.” Lady Baynton liked Nyssa. She too was a married woman with children, and certainly more than sensible. Besides, there was no one else to talk with, for the other two girls were so young.

”I would not count upon the king and lady Anne reuniting, madame. They are the dearest of friends, and have the greatest respect for one another; but they do not like being married to each other, I fear.”

”What a pity,” Lady Baynton replied. She accepted Nyssa”s opinion on the matter, for she knew that Nyssa was friendly with the lady Anne, and that her brother was one of the princess”s pages.

”Do you know when Lady Rochford will be examined?” Nyssa asked.

”The council told my husband they will do so tomorrow,” Lady Baynton said. ”I cannot understand why a woman of her years and her experience, particularly given her past background, did not guide the queen better. It would almost appear as if she encouraged her in her perfidy, if indeed the chamberers are to be believed, and I do not know why they wouldn”t be. If I were in her position, I should be terrified.”

Lady Rochford, however, was not terrified. Solitude had helped her to regain her senses, if only for a brief time. She came before the Privy Council in the Tower wearing her finest gown of black velvet. Her French hood was encrusted in pearls. She stood stiffly before them, her back straight, her eyes staring straight ahead.

”She is drawn as tightly as a lute string,” Lord Audley whispered to Sir William Paulet, who had returned to England with the King of France”s letter for Henry Tudor. Sir William glanced at Lady Rochford and nodded his agreement.

”To the best of your knowledge, madame,” the Duke of Suffolk began, ”when did this intrigue with the queen start?”

”In the spring,” she answered him calmly.

”And was it the queen who approached Master Culpeper, or was it Master Culpeper who approached the queen?”

”At first ”twas he who pursued her,” Lady Rochford said. ”He had always been mad for her, since they were children. He thought to marry her, but then she wed with the king. Still, he was a bold young man, and he wanted her. The queen was very put out with him for his pursuit of her, but he persisted. Then the king put himself away from her, and she succumbed to Master Culpeper”s charms.”

”You are certain this was in the spring, madame? I would get our dates correct.”

”Aye, in the spring. April, I believe. Aye, ”twas April.”

”Where did they meet?” Suffolk inquired.

”In my rooms,” Lady Rochford said with a smile. ”They knew that they were safe there. I stood guard outside myself.”

”She is totally mad,” the Earl of Southampton said softly.

”But she is calm, and speaks the truth,” Suffolk said. ”It is as if she is eager to tell us her part in this matter. As if she is proud of it.” He looked at Lady Rochford. ”What else, madame?”

”I carried letters and messages between them, but then, of course, the chamberers have already told you that. Did you know that the queen called Master Culpeper her sweet little fool?” She laughed bitterly. ”She was surely the bigger fool, but she was clever. Whenever she wanted her own way, and Culpeper would not give over to her, she would remind him that there were others waiting for her favors; behind the door, she would say. It drove him wild with jealousy.”

”To your knowledge,” Suffolk said, ”did Catherine Howard have carnal intercourse with Thomas Culpeper?”

”Aye,” Lady Rochford replied. ”I was generally in the room when it took place on the progress last summer. She could not send me away when she was in my rooms without arousing suspicion. I was witness to their passion on many occasions.”

The Duke of Norfolk felt as if he had been dealt his death blow. ”Why did you not try to stop her?” he demanded of Lady Rochford. ”To turn her from her dangerous folly? Why did you not come to me if you feared coming to anyone else?”

”Why should I have stopped her?” Jane Rochford said coldly. She fixed them with a fierce look. ”Do you remember the last time I appeared before this council, my lords? You took my testimony, and twisted it. Then you executed my husband. You did so in order that the king might be rid of his wife so he could marry another.” She laughed, and the sound had a hysterical edge to it. ”Now, let Henry Tudor”s heart be broken as my heart was broken! Nay, I did not stop that silly child, Catherine Howard, as she blithely tripped down the path to her own destruction. Why would I have done a thing like that? Even had I not been there to encourage her in her naughtiness, she would have betrayed the king. She is a trollop at heart.”

For several long moments the Privy Council sat stunned by Lady Rochford”s vitriolic words, and then, to their combined horror, she began to laugh. The laughter had the strong ring of madness to it, and sent a chill up the spine. It rang out, filling the chamber, growing in its intensity, seeming to have a life of its own, its evil sinking into the very walls of the room.

”Take her away,” the Duke of Suffolk wearily told his guards, and when they had led the madwoman from the place, he turned back to the council and said, ”Other than the testimony needed to convict the former queen of adultery, nothing else of what Jane Rochford said is to be repeated, my lords. I think we can all agree to that, can we not?” He glanced about at the others, and they nodded.

The Duke of Norfolk, not a man to show what he was thinking, looked gray with weariness and disillusionment. It was over. It did not matter what anyone else said. Lady Jane Rochford had hammered the last nail into Catherine Howard”s coffin. Indeed she had hammered the last nail into the coffin of the House of Howard, and Thomas Howard was too beaten for the moment even to fight back.

”I think we have heard enough for today,” the Duke of Suffolk said quietly. ”We will meet here tomorrow at the same time to take the testimony of Thomas Culpeper. Are we agreed, my lords?”

They nodded, and leaving the chamber, hurried to gain their barges. Thomas Howard was quick to note that no one wanted to be near him, or to share his vessel. He smiled grimly to himself, and ordered his bargemen to pull hard for Whitehall. Arriving, he went quickly to his own apartments, and finding his grandson there, he said, ”It”s over. Rochford has finished it.” Then he went on to tell Varian everything that had happened, even Rochford”s claim of revenge on the king.

”How long does Catherine have?” the Earl of March asked.

”Culpeper has to be heard from, and then he and Dereham must be arraigned and tried. They will be found guilty, of course, and will be sentenced. They”ll be executed as quickly as possible, and then I think everything will be quiet for the holidays. After Twelfth Night, however, it will begin again. It will not end until Catherine is slain upon Tower Green. Rochford will die too.”

”What of my wife, and the others with Cat?” he asked.

”They”ll serve her until her death, Varian,” Duke Thomas said.

”Do they know what”s happening here?” he wondered.

”Catherine and the others will only know what they are told,” the duke answered him.

”I want to see my wife,” Varian told his grandfather. ”I realize that the Howards do not stand high right now with the king, but is it possible for me to somehow see Nyssa?”

”Wait until this business with Culpeper and Dereham is settled, and then we will see. I think I can persuade Charles Brandon that there is no harm in allowing you to visit your wife for an afternoon,” the duke replied.

”What will happen to the Howards?” the earl asked.

The duke laughed harshly. ”We”ll be out of favor again, perhaps forever in this king”s reign. Two Howard queens, and neither of them a good one. It does not recommend us, Varian. I think you may finally be grateful that your name is de Winter and not Howard.”

”I will always be proud of my Howard mother,” the earl said.

Thomas Howard”s eyes grew moist with unaccustomed tears. ”I must go and rest while I can,” he said gruffly.

His dreams are crumbling about him, Varian realized. Then he thought of his wife. Nyssa had once told him that Duke Thomas had taken her dreams from her. Would she think it just retribution that the head of the House of Howard had just had his dreams taken from him? He thought she would. He would tell her when he saw her, but he somehow knew she would not gloat over the downfall of the Howards.