CHAPTER 17

THOMAS CULPEPERstood straight and tall before the Privy Council. He was dressed in black, his garments singularly plain, as befitted the occasion and a man in his position. His blue eyes stared straight ahead, never wavering.

”Are you in love with Catherine Howard, formerly Queen of England?” the Duke of Suffolk asked him.

”I am,” came the bold reply.

”For how long have you loved her, sir?”

”Since we were children, my lord.”

”You deliberately sought out this woman to seduce her despite the fact she was married to your king. A king who loved you, and helped to raise you. A king who trusted you. Is this so, Thomas Culpeper?”

” ”Twas naught but a game. I pursued her for my own amusement,” he answered. ”I certainly never thought that she would respond to my overtures. Indeed for some months she did not. It seemed the harder I pursued her, the more she rebuffed me, and the more determined I became to have her. Then the king grew ill last winter, and for many weeks refused to see his wife. She grew bored and lonely. I am not quite certain how it happened, but suddenly the queen was languishing with love for me. I could not believe my good fortune. The woman I had always loved finally loved me.”

”And what form did this love take, sirrah?” Suffolk demanded to know. He stared hard at the young man. Thank God the king was not here to listen to this shameless recitation of perfidy and betrayal.

”I was fearful that the king would discover our secret,” Culpeper continued. ”I labored hard to be discreet, but Catherine sought every opportunity to be alone with me. It was madness, but it was wonderful!”

”Did you kiss her?”

”Aye.”

”Fondle her parts?”

”Aye.”

”Did you have carnal knowledge of each other, sir?”

”My lord, if I did or did not, I should certainly never admit to it,” Thomas Culpeper said. ”It would not be honorable.”

Norfolk exploded with anger. ”You call yourself honorable, you hopped-up piece of turd? You admit to kissing and fondling my niece, a married woman, the wife of your king, and you dare to call yourself honorable? If you address this council thusly in the belief that you are protecting Catherine Howard, be advised that Jane Rochford has already testified that she was a witness to your foul and disgraceful fornications!”

”Lady Rochford, I regret to say,” Culpeper responded stiffly, ”has all the morality of a London Bridge bawd ingrained into her soul. It matters to me not a single whit what she said to you. I will admit to nothing that would harm a hair upon the queen”s head, my lords. You are, I fear, wasting your time questioning me further.” He stared defiantly at them.

Thomas Culpeper was immediately removed from the hearing, for it was obvious that for now they would not get what they wanted from him.

”A little torture would wring the truth from him,” said Lord Sadler sternly. ”We need his confession.”

”You can torture him to the point of death,” Lord Russell remarked, ”but you will not get him to say he committed adultery with the queen.”

”His very silence, this arrogant refusal to admit to it, is in itself an admission of his guilt,” Lord Audley noted.

”Aye,” the Earl of Southampton replied. ”He is in love with her, poor fellow, and men in love are more often the fools than not.”

”May God have mercy on both their souls,” Bishop Gardiner said piously.

”We might interrogate the queen again,” the archbishop said.

”What good will that do?” Norfolk growled. ”Catherine does not have two beans worth of sense in her pretty head. She refuses to accept the seriousness of any of this. She believes the king will forgive her.”

”We could try,” Suffolk said slowly. ”What harm would it do to try? If we fail, they are still condemned by the testimony of the others. Culpeper is attempting to protect her, but she need not know that. What if she thinks he turned king”s evidence to save his own miserable skin? She might tell us what we need to know in an attempt to revenge herself on him, and in an effort to save herself.”

”We need not all go,” Norfolk said, ”but I should like to be among the party that does. I have to accept responsibility for her as a family member.”

”Very well,” Suffolk replied. ”I will, of course, go. Gardiner, I will want you, and Southampton, and will you come also, Richard Sampson?”

Richard Sampson was Dean of the Chapel Royal. He had never been known to miss a single Privy Council meeting. He held the bishopric of Chichester, and was considered a fair man.

”Aye, I will come, my lord,” he now answered.

The five members of the Privy Council were rowed upriver to Syon House. There they found Catherine Howard among her women, strumming her lute and singing sweetly, a song the king had once written for her ill-fated cousin, Anne Boleyn.

”Alas, my love, ye do me wrong, to cast me off so ”discourteously; for I have love-ed you so long, ”delighting in your company. Green Sleeves was my ”delight, and Green Sleeves was all my joy. ”Green Sleeves was my heart of gold, and who ”but my Lady Green Sleeves?”

Catherine Howard looked up at them as they entered, smiled and continued on.

”Thou couldst desire no earthly thing, but that I gave ”it willingly. Thy music to play and sing, and yet, ”thou wouldst not love me. Green Sleeves was my delight, ”and Green Sleeves was all my joy. Green Sleeves was my ”heart of gold, and who but my Lady Green Sleeves?”

They listened to her, entranced, and when finally the last note of the plaintive ballad had died and the spell was broken, Suffolk bowed politely to the young woman and said, ”We have come to examine you further, Mistress Howard, based upon the testimony of the others that we have heard.”

”Who has spoken ill of me? Lady Rochford? She is not important,” Catherine Howard said imperiously. ”You could not believe her over me.”

”Master Thomas Culpeper has testified that he is in love with you, and has had intimate relations with you since last April,” Suffolk, Lord President of the Privy Council, told her. ”Lady Rochford confirms this.”

”I have nothing to say to you gentlemen,” she told them regally.

Bishop Sampson took the former queen”s plump little hand in his. It was very cold, he noted. How frightened she must be, although you would never know it from her attitude. ”My child, for your own soul”s sake, I beg you to confess to all of your faults so I may shrive you.”

”Thank you, my lord bishop, for your kindness,” Cat said, ”but I will not speak with the Privy Council again.” She took back her hand, and reaching for her lute, began to tune it.

”You are facing death, you little fool!” Norfolk growled at his wayward niece. ”Do you not realize it?”

Catherine Howard looked up from her lute. ”We face death from the moment of our birth, Uncle. We are all facing death, even you.”

”Do you deny then that you had carnal relations with Master Thomas Culpeper, Mistress Howard?” the Duke of Suffolk again demanded of her.

”I deny nothing. I confirm nothing,” Catherine said stubbornly.

They departed Syon House defeated.

”She is protecting him, or thinks she is,” Southampton said.

”It is a great tragedy for all parties,” Bishop Gardiner replied.

On December first Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham were arraigned, and tried together. Dereham was tried for Presumptive Treason; for joining the queen”s service with ill intent; for traitorously concealing his precontract with Catherine Howard. He pleaded not guilty.

Thomas Culpeper was tried for having had Criminal Intercourse with the former queen, Catherine Howard. Realizing now that there was nothing he could do to save either one of them, and anxious to clear his conscience, Thomas Culpeper, who had originally intended pleading not guilty, changed his plea to guilty. With the strong testimony of the chamberers, and of Lady Rochford, there simply was no other honorable choice.

It was Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who pronounced them both guilty. ”You are hereby sentenced to be drawn on the hurdles to Tyburn, and there hanged. You will be cut down alive, disemboweled, your innards burnt before your eyes. Finally you will be beheaded, and quartered. May God have mercy on your souls,” he intoned, his long face grave, his eyes sad.

On the sixth day of December, Francis Dereham was tortured in an attempt to wring a confession of adultery with the queen from him. As an already condemned man he had nothing to lose by confessing. The fact that he did not seemed to satisfy the Privy Council as to his innocence in that matter.

The families of both men were desperate to get their sentences commuted to a more merciful death. Culpeper”s family succeeded. His full punishment was remitted because he was a gentleman. Although he would be dragged to Tyburn on a hurdle, once there, he would simply be beheaded. Francis Dereham would not be so fortunate. He was not considered a gentleman. His family had no influence, nor were there powerful relations to speak for him. He would suffer the full punishment.

The following day, December tenth, both men were taken to Tyburn. The day was cold and gray, yet the streets were full of people come for the execution. They pelted the condemned prisoners with garbage and offal as they were dragged along. At Tyburn it was discovered that there was no block. Thomas Culpeper knelt upon the hard ground, bowing his head, his lips moving in prayer. The headsman was swift and merciful.

Francis Dereham was not so lucky. He was hung upon the gallows until his face turned blue, and his tongue began to loll from his mouth. Cut down, he was stretched upon the ground, and held down as the executioner sliced his belly open, and dragged the long length of his innards from him. He shrieked in agony while the crowd that had come for his execution pressed around him cheering the gory spectacle. The smell of his burning bowels barely registered upon his dying brain. He was almost unconscious as they rolled him over, pulled him into a half-standing position, and lopped his head from his shoulders. Dead at last, it mattered not to him that his body was then cut into four pieces, each piece to be buried in unhallowed ground at each of the four different compass points. His head and that of Thomas Culpeper were then placed upon pikes, and carried in procession to the London Bridge where they were then set up, their eyes quickly plucked from their heads and devoured by the carrion crows.

At Syon House, Catherine Howard knew nothing of the executions that had taken place that icy December day, nor did she know of the arrests made in the following days of any Howard who could be found. Lord William Howard and his wife Margaret—her uncle and aunt—were taken, as were her brother, Henry Howard, his wife Anne, their children, and the aunt for whom Cat was named, the Countess of Bridgewater. All were incarcerated in the Tower of London, arrested for Misprision of Treason. The dowager duchess, remembering the Countess of Salisbury”s unfortunate end but several months before, attempted to forestall the arrest warrant issued for her by pretending to be sick. The Privy Council brought a respected physician unannounced to Lambeth, and when he pronounced the lady Agnes fit, she was taken off, protesting mightily. Varian de Winter, Earl of March, Duke Thomas”s grandson, was also imprisoned with his relations, although his wife did not know it.

Duke Thomas, however, had fled London after pronouncing sentence upon Culpeper and Dereham. Safe in his own stronghold, he sent the king an extraordinary letter in which he apologized for his relations, in particular his two nieces, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. He begged to be allowed to retain the king”s favor, telling Henry Tudor that he ”groveled at the king”s feet.” As angry as the sovereign was with the Howards, he valued Duke Thomas, and grudgingly forgave him, although he never allowed the duke to regain his former preeminence. Henry Tudor was not about to be stampeded into losing a valuable servant, and Thomas Howard was an excellent Lord Treasurer. The lesson of Cromwell was still burned in his memory.

The Christmas season was now upon England. At court it was a gloomy affair. No one”s heart was really in the celebration. The king was suddenly looking and behaving like an old man. There was no queen, and many of the court”s most prominent people had either been jailed or had discreetly requested permission of the king”s secretary to leave for their own homes. Each day was the same. The king would hunt in the morning in the New Forest, and spend the rest of the day into the evening sitting slumped in his throne on the high board, drinking, belching, and noisily passing wind.

At Syon House, however, it was a far merrier holiday. Lord Baynton, a kind-hearted man, could see no harm in allowing his prisoner and her ladies to go out into the wood near their abode to gather the traditional Christmas greens. The day of their excursion was gray. There was snow upon the ground, which was already hard with frost. Escorted by several men-at-arms, Catherine Howard, Nyssa, Kate, and Bessie made their way from the house into the wood.

”I hope the king does not learn of this,” Lady Baynton fretted.

”What harm is there in it, my dear?” her husband replied. ”She is not yet convicted of anything, though surely this is her last Christmas upon the earth. I have not the heart to deny her such a small thing as gathering greens.” He watched the young women, their dark cloaks fluttering about them as they moved among the leafless trees which were silhouetted black against the gray-white sky. There would be snow again quite soon, he thought, watching the lowering clouds piling up on the horizon.

”I do not understand Catherine Howard at all,” Lady Baynton said.” Lady de Winter says she is aware of everything that is happening to her, but simply does not wish to face it. Do you really think it is so? I find the queen, er, Mistress Howard, quite a frivolous woman.”

Her husband did not answer her question, but instead said, ”Tell Lady de Winter that her husband has been arrested in the sweep and search for Howards. He is in the Tower, but quite safe, as are the rest of them. The king is seeking scapegoats, and Duke Thomas has quite prudently fled to Leddinghall. The duke is as sly as an old fox, and has as many lives, I”ll vow, as a tomcat.” Then he smiled at his own pun, which brought a small chuckle from his wife.

”Poor Lady de Winter,” Lady Baynton said. ”She is a fine young woman, and wishes nothing more than to go home. She has not seen her infants in over four months, my dear. Why, her husband is not even a Howard! Why would they arrest him?” She sighed. ”It is really quite unfair.”

”Duke Thomas is Varian de Winter”s grandfather. The duke is very fond of him, and I suspect this is the king”s way of getting at him. The duke”s son, the Earl of Surrey, has fled with his father, and is as a consequence also out of the king”s reach. Varian de Winter was at Whitehall awaiting his wife. It was inevitable that he would be caught up.” Turning, Lord Baynton gazed back out the window to watch the greens gatherers.

Cat was exuberant in the chilly air. She frolicked in the snow like a little girl, her auburn curls unbound and flying about. Her girlish behavior brought smiles to the faces of her guards. ”Look! Look!” she called to her companions. ”There is a holly bush over there, and see! It is filled with berries.” A guard held a basket while Cat cut several large branches of holly.

”There is everything that we need!” Nyssa cried excitedly. ”Bay! Laurel! Boxwood! And over here a whole stand of evergreen!”

The greens were cut, and soon the baskets were completely full to overflowing. The guards gallantly took the heavy baskets from the young women as they walked back to the house. Below the slight rise upon which they stood they could see the river Thames. The banks were iced over, but the yellow river grasses made the wintry scene seem somehow less harsh. Snow began to fall again as they reached the house and hurried inside, eager for the fire in their quarters. Nyssa”s toes were quite frozen.

”I wish to make candles,” Catherine told Lord Baynton. ”We cannot have a proper Christmas without candles aplenty. I will need the best beeswax, molds of all sizes, cotton wicks, rose oil, lavender oil, and bayberries, my lord. Tomorrow will be soon enough.”

Lady Baynton swallowed her amazement when her husband replied calmly, ”Of course, madame. I shall see to it myself.”

”Are you mad?” she demanded of her husband as they lay abed that night. ”Where will you obtain such items?”

”That, my dear,” he said with a small smile, ”you will leave to me. Catherine Howard will have what she needs to make her candles. Have you told Lady de Winter of her husband”s fate yet?”

”I must find the right moment,” she answered him.

The following day they made candles in all sizes and shapes, scenting them with rose and lavender oils, and with the bayberries they had been given. The candles cooled on a table set out in the kitchen gardens. Within a very few hours they were hardened and ready. In that time Cat Howard and her ladies decorated the three rooms assigned to the former queen with sweet-smelling pine branches and garlands of holly, boxwood, laurel, and bay that they had made up the evening before. The freshly made candles were then brought in and set about on every flat surface that could be found. When lit, the candles represented the Star of Bethlehem.

There were other customs that could not be observed. There could be no Lord of Misrule. Even Cat saw the inappropriateness of asking Lord Baynton to fulfill such a role. There would be no hunt for wild boar to be served at the Christmas feast. On Christmas Eve day, however, Lord Baynton suggested an excursion into the wood to find their Yule log. Lady Baynton feigned a minor complaint and requested that Nyssa remain with her.

When they were alone, she said to her companion, ”My husband has had word from London, Nyssa. It seems the king has been rounding up all the Howards that he can find and clapping them in the Tower.”

”Varian?” Nyssa asked, knowing instantly what the good woman was trying to tell her. Her heart beat a quick tattoo at the reply.

”Aye. I am sorry, my dear. Lord Baynton and I know that he does not deserve to be there. He is not even a Howard.”

”Who else was arrested?” Nyssa asked. Oh, God! Why had they not fled without the royal permission when they had the opportunity?

Lady Baynton told her.

”But not Duke Thomas?” Nyssa observed, and there was humor in her tone, to Lady Baynton”s surprise. ”How did he escape the royal wrath? And what of Surrey?”

”Both fled from London,” Lady Baynton replied.

”Of course,” Nyssa answered. ”I am not surprised. I warned Varian that his grandfather would bolt, given the chance. He is a master at his own survival.”

”Lord Baynton does not think the king will harm any of the Howards. He is simply very angry and heartsore right now. Eventually his sense of fair play will get the better of him.”

”I pray that you are correct, Lady Baynton,” Nyssa said. She did not know whether to believe the older woman or not. Perhaps she was just trying to be kind. If I think about it, Nyssa thought to herself, I will go mad. I must be strong for Varian, and for our children. Looking up at Lady Baynton, she said, ”Do you know how to make frumenty?”

”Gracious!” the good woman replied. ”You are a country woman, aren”t you? Well, so am I! Indeed I do know how to make it! Let us go to the kitchens and see if we have all the ingredients.”

Christmas frumenty was a very special treat. Made from finely hulled wheat, it was boiled in milk until it was soft, and then sweetened with a sugar loaf, a rarity which made it a delicious holiday dish. It was not served at any other time of the year. Finding what they needed, the two women made the dish, and then set it aside in a warm spot by the fire.

The small paneled room that served as their hall was prettily decorated, its candles burning brightly when the Yule log was dragged in by Cat, her ladies, and the servants. At Christmas most class distinctions were eased considerably. Cat sat impishly atop the log as it was pulled along, singing at the top of her lungs the traditional song used to ward off any evil spirits from the log, and from the fire it would give.

”Wash your hands or else the fire ”Will not tend to your desire: ”Unwash”d hands, ye maidens know, ”Dead the fire though ye blow.”

Everyone in the household wanted to touch the Yule log for luck. Finally it was pushed into its place within the fireplace, and Catherine Howard lit the great log, her face bright with childlike excitement. It was oak, and well-dried, and sprang to bright, flaming life almost immediately.

A special supper was served to them. There was fish caught that very day in the river, broiled, and laid upon silver platters dressed with watercress. There was a fine country ham, and a leg of lamb; a fat capon stuffed with fruit and nuts; and a duck in a sauce of dried plums and sweet wine flavored with cinnamon. There was turnip with butter and nutmeg, carrots, and braised lettuce. The bread had been newly baked that morning, the butter freshly churned, and the cheese brought from a nearby farmstead. Wine and ale were served. Everyone ate heartily, their appetites increased by the time spent in the open air. Nyssa, however, picked delicately, for her appetite had deserted her.

They had no musicians, but Cat had her lute. As the Yule log blazed merrily in the fireplace, she played and sang traditional Christmas songs for them. Those who did not know her well found it hard to imagine that such a sweet-voiced girl possessing Cat Howard”s pretty face could be so wicked and unchaste. Yet the servants knew, if the former queen did not, that two men had already died for their fornications with Catherine Howard.

After a time the Christmas ale, the cakes, and the frumenty were brought in and served to the little assembly. Cat Howard clapped her hands in delight.

”I have not had frumenty since my days at Horsham,” she said. ”Who made it? Ohh, I always loved it as a child!” She greedily spooned the treat into her mouth. ”Ummmm, it”s good!”

”Lady Baynton and I made it,” Nyssa said. ”While you were out this afternoon seeking the Yule log. We thought you would enjoy it.”

Just before midnight Cat and her ladies went outside, accompanied by Lord Baynton. It was very cold, but the skies had cleared. Above them a quarter moon shone down, casting a silvery glow on the river below them. Then suddenly they began to hear the Christmas bells. All over England the church bells joyfully tolled in Christmas. The air was so clear that they could hear the great bells of Westminster several miles away as they pealed and rang, welcoming the Christ child, banishing the devil. Adjourning to the chapel of Syon House, they heard mass, as most people all over England were now doing.

Catherine Howard insisted upon celebrating each of the twelve days of the Christmas season. On the nights that followed, they danced with each other and played children”s games like Hide the Slipper and Blindman”s Buff. Some evenings were quieter. They simply played cards and diced with one another. There could be no mummers at Syon, nor village children come to sing and be given cakes and pennies. The poor who came with their wooden bowls for ale, however, were not turned away, at the request of the former queen. The king would have been very angry to learn that his disgraced consort was keeping a far better Christmas than he was. Indeed Lord Baynton worried a little about his master finding out, but he had not the will to deny Catherine Howard.

Nyssa finally told the others of Varian”s arrest. Kate and Bessie were sympathetic and cried. Catherine Howard, however, said, ” Tis so like Henry to behave in such a petty manner. None of those he has imprisoned is responsible for my bad behavior, nor were any of them involved. I suppose my uncle, the duke, is out of the royal reach.”

Nyssa nodded. ”Of course,” she said dryly.

”Do you hate me for all of this?” Cat said. ”You would not have ever had to leave Winterhaven and your children had I not begged the king for your company. Had I not done so, you would be safe with your husband at home.”

”I do not hate you, Cat,” Nyssa said quietly, ”nor can I wish away what has already happened. It cannot be changed. But I am no saint, Cat Howard. I am indeed angry that your foolish actions have endangered my husband and my children. You cannot blame me for that.”

”The king will release Varian,” Cat said. ”He is no Howard.”

”Everyone keeps saying that,” Nyssa told her, ”but everyone identifies him with the Howards because of Duke Thomas.”

There was nothing else to say about the matter. The twelve days of Christmas were over and gone. They waited at Syon for what was to come. On the twenty-first of January the government finally acted in the matter of Catherine Howard. Both houses of Parliament passed an Act of Attainder against her. When the king approved the attainder, Cat”s fate would be sealed.

The archbishop came to speak with the queen. He wanted her written confession as to her adultery with Thomas Culpeper. He did not like seeing to her demise without this concrete assurance, although in his heart he felt that she was guilty.

”Thomas Culpeper has paid the ultimate price for his treason, Mistress Howard, and Francis Dereham for his presumption,” he told her. ”Will you not confess to me now, and clear your conscience?”

”I do not hold that to love a man is a sin,” Cat replied to him, and refused to speak further on it. She was shocked to hear of the executions, but hid it well. She turned to Nyssa and said, ”Please escort the archbishop to his barge, Lady de Winter.”

Nyssa took up her cloak and walked from the house with the cleric. ”Can you tell me, my lord, how my husband is?” she asked him.

”He is safe and well, my dear,” Thomas Cranmer said, ”but he, and the others, have been found guilty of Misprision of Treason by the Privy Council. Their possessions are to be forfeited to the crown.”

”But that is not fair!” Nyssa cried. ”My husband was never involved in any of the queen”s misbehavior.”

”I do not disbelieve you, my child, but the king is an angry, heartsore man. He wants revenge upon the Howards for his hurt.”

”My husband is not a Howard,” Nyssa said angrily. Then an idea struck her. Catherine Howard would shortly be condemned to die. Everyone knew it. She couldn”t save Cat by remaining silent. But she might be able to save Varian. Nyssa could see the archbishop was troubled by Cat”s refusal to confess to her misdeeds. He would always wonder if she had gone to her death an innocent, unless . . . Nyssa said to the archbishop, ”My lord, I wish you to hear my confession. Please!”

Thomas Cranmer looked startled. ”Here, madame? Now?”

Nyssa nodded vigorously.

Suddenly the archbishop knew that she wished to tell him something, but she also wished to be protected by the seal of the confessional. It had to be something very important. She was obviously using it to bargain for her husband”s pardon and the reinstatement of their estates, now forfeit. ”I can promise you nothing but absolution, my child,” he told her honestly. ”Absolution is the only thing in my power.”

She nodded again, this time slowly. ”I understand, my lord, but nonetheless I wish to confess to you. I will not kneel for fear of attracting the attention of those in the house.” She put her hands in his. ”Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.”

”What sins have you committed, my child?” he asked her.

”I caught the queen in the act of adultery at York, and I did not report it to the proper authorities. I saw her coupling with Thomas Culpeper while the king hunted.”

The archbishop was staggered by her words. It was a moment before he could catch his breath again and ask, ”Why did you not expose this sin, my daughter? By not doing so, you became a party to treason yourself.”

”I feared I would not be believed,” Nyssa said. ”Remember that the king was once thought to be caught between the affections of Catherine Howard and Nyssa Wyndham. I honestly believed if I told what I knew, the king and others about him would say that I had said it out of jealousy. The king was so deeply in love with the queen, I knew he would not believe me. He would have punished me and my husband for lying. So I held my peace. I did not even speak of it to my husband at first. At Hull I finally told the queen that I knew of her illicit fornications with Master Culpeper. I begged her to cease and to be a true and loyal wife to her husband.”

”You are to be commended for that advice, my daughter,” the archbishop said approvingly. ”What happened then?”

”The queen said she loved him, and could not cease. I reminded her that she endangered not just herself, but her family as well. I asked what would happen if she became with child? She would not heed my warnings. Then at Kettleby, Tom Culpeper and his friend, Sir Cynric Vaughn, accosted me one night as I walked from the Royal Pavilion to my own pavilion. They threatened me with violence, and Sir Cynric tore my bodice open and fondled my breasts. When he lifted my skirts, I kicked him, knocking him unconscious. Culpeper, who had been restraining me, released me to attend to his friend. As I made to flee, Culpeper warned me if I exposed him, my children would suffer. I dared not tell my husband, for he would have sought immediate satisfaction of the two men, and the scandal would have been out.

”What could I do, Your Grace? I am but a simple woman. I was afraid for my babies. Besides, Culpeper and the queen were being so indiscreet that I knew eventually they would be found out. That is why I was so desperate to go home, so we might be away from the trouble when it began. You need have no doubts, my lord, as to your own actions. Catherine Howard is guilty of adultery, and for my sin of omission in this matter, I beg God”s forgiveness,” Nyssa concluded.

”You have it, my daughter,” the archbishop told her, making the sign of the cross over her. ”You have done well to make your confession to me. I can promise you nothing but the absolution I have given you, but perhaps I shall be able to help you in that matter dearest to your heart, Nyssa de Winter. Thank you for the ease you have given my own conscience. I would not condemn the queen unfairly, but sometimes in matters like these, it is difficult to get at all the truth.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury entered his barge and was rowed downriver to London. As she watched him go, Nyssa felt as if a great weight had suddenly been lifted from her shoulders. She realized now how terrible a burden her secret knowledge had been. Cat Howard”s fate had been sealed long before her own confession to Thomas Cranmer. At least she knew now that Varian would be safe.

For the next few weeks they heard no news, and then without warning, on the morning of Thursday, the ninth of February, the Duke of Norfolk arrived with the other members of the Privy Council. They came unannounced. Only the warning of a serving maid who saw the barges on the river heading toward Syon gave them a brief time to prepare.

Catherine Howard curtsied to the lords crowding into her dayroom. ”I had heard you were at Leddinghall,” she said to her uncle.

”I was,” he answered her sourly, ”but since I am first the king”s good servant, and he asked me to return, I did.”

”And how are my aunt of Bridgewater, and my uncle William and his wife; my brother Henry, his wife, their children, and my cousin Varian? And, oh yes! How is the dowager?” she asked him pointedly.

”You are too pert, girl, and particularly under the circumstances,” he answered her harshly.

”I am no girl, my lord, but a woman,” she told him.

”Too many times over, it would seem,” he snapped angrily. ”Now be quiet, Catherine, for I have been sent to deliver to you most serious news. The Act of Attainder, passed originally against you on the twenty-first day of January, has now been read twice more, on the sixth and seventh days of this month. You have been condemned to death, as has Lady Rochford.”

”Has Henry signed my death warrant?” she asked him.

”Not yet,” Norfolk said quietly.

”Then there is hope!” she cried softly.

”There is no hope,” he said coldly. ”Dissuade yourself of that fantasy, madame. You are condemned to die.”

”When?” Her face was pale, as were the faces of her women.

”The date has not been set yet,” Norfolk answered.

”If I must be slain,” Catherine Howard said, ”can it please be in secret? I do not wish to be an entertainment for the people.”

”You will die on Tower Green, as did your cousin Anne. There will be just a few witnesses for posterity, and to satisfy the law,” he told her gently. ”Despite your cruelty to the king, he does not wish to be cruel to you, Catherine. Now prepare yourself to leave Syon one day in the near future. You should not be in residence in the Tower for more than a day or two.” He bowed to the assembled household, and then, with the rest of the council, he departed, escorted out by Lord Baynton.

”Henry will not kill me,” Catherine Howard said desperately, refusing to believe her fate. ”I know him. He is just angry. He has the right to be, but he will not kill me.”

Kate Carey wept softly in Lady Baynton”s arms afterward. ”There is little mercy in my uncle,” she sobbed. ”Why does Cat believe that the king will spare her? Does she really know him so little? She is guilty, and my aunt, Queen Anne, was not; yet Queen Anne died on Tower Green. I am so afraid for Cat. What will happen when she can no longer hide from the truth?”

”She will have no choice but to face it,” Lady Baynton said.

”She hides from it now,” Nyssa comforted Kate, ”because it is the only way she can keep from going to pieces. We must be brave for her, Kate, because we are all she has to help her through this ordeal.”

Lady Baynton prepared the small wardrobe Cat would need in her last few days of life, while the others kept the former queen entertained so that her mind would not dwell upon the inevitable. None of them were prepared, however, when the Privy Council arrived the following morning to remove Catherine Howard from Syon House.

Cat had not slept well the night before, and was just arising from her bed. Informed that her uncle and the rest of the council were there to escort her to the Tower of London, Cat shrank back amid her pillows. ”No! It is too soon! I cannot go today! I cannot!”

Struggling to keep from weeping, the serving woman prepared her tub, all hot and fragrant with damask roses, Cat”s favorite scent. They bathed her, washed her hair, then dried her and dressed her in clean undergarments.

”How long is this all going to take?” grumbled the Duke of Suffolk.

”My lord, you sent no warning of your coming,” Nyssa said gently. ”She had a bad night, and slept ill, so arose late this morning. It is her custom to bathe first. Surely you would not deny her such a small thing? We know her time is so very short.”

Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, knew himself to be rebuked, but it had been done with such sweetness, he could find no anger in himself to respond to her.

”Will she then eat?” demanded Norfolk.

”Aye,” Nyssa said, looking directly at him.

He turned away from her. Her look had been accusatory, and he knew exactly what she meant by it. She was holding him responsible that her husband was locked in the Tower among that unfortunate lot of his relations. The truth was, he did feel guilty, but would never admit to it. Why should he?

A small meal was brought into the former queen”s bedchamber, but Cat could not eat this morning. She was simply too afraid. She sent the food away. Now they were dressing her all in black velvet, and putting her fur-lined cape with the gold frog closures about her, the French cape with the gold trim over her head. She was handed a pair of leather gloves lined in rabbit fur.

When she was led out into her dayroom and saw the grim faces of the men who had once deferred to her, Catherine Howard was overwhelmed with a terrible fear. ”I will not go,” she said in a tight little voice.

”You do not have a choice in the matter, madame,” the Duke of Suffolk said. ”Come along now.” He offered her his arm.

Catherine shrank back. ”Go away!” she said, her voice high.

”Try to remember you are a Howard, madame,” Norfolk growled angrily at her. ”Try to behave with some dignity.”

”Get away from me, Uncle!” she shrieked, and flung her gloves at him. ”I will not go! I will not go! You cannot make me go! If I am to be killed, then do it here and do it now, but I will not go with you! Do you understand me? I will not go!”

The archbishop, Bishop Tunstall, Bishop Sampson, and Bishop Gardiner tried to reason gently with the terrified woman, but to no avail. They could neither bully nor cajole her into leaving Syon willingly. Suffolk finally did the only thing he could. Signaling to two of the soldiers who accompanied him, he ordered them to take the queen to the waiting barge; and so, screaming and shrieking, Catherine Howard was bundled into the black, sealed barge brought for her transportation.

”If either of you goes to pieces now,” Nyssa warned Kate and Bessie, ”I will smack you both. One hysterical woman is enough. If we cannot manage to control ourselves, they will not let us remain with her. Do you want her all alone in the Tower?”

They shook their heads, then followed Lady Baynton and Nyssa out of Syon House and down to the sealed barge, where they could hear Cat”s pitiful screams. Norfolk, Thomas Cranmer, and Stephen Gardiner were inside the vessel with the queen. The four women joined them and managed to calm their mistress. The Duke of Suffolk, Lord Baynton, and the rest of the Privy Council were in a larger barge, which also contained a number of soldiers. A third barge held the household”s female servants, the queen”s confessor, and more soldiers.

The barges made their way downriver, passing beneath the London Bridge, where the heads of Francis Dereham and Thomas Culpeper were still on display. Fortunately the curtained windows of the queen”s barge obscured the unpleasant view of the rotting heads of her former lovers. On the steps of the Tower, its constable, Sir John Gage, waited to greet Catherine Howard. His demeanor was most respectful. It was as if nothing had changed, and the queen was simply coming for a social visit.

Catherine Howard was helped, weeping and shaking, from the barge. She was brought to the queen”s apartments in the lieutenant”s house. The knowledge that her cousin Anne had once been in these very rooms was of no comfort to her. That evening the Bishop of Lincoln came to hear the former queen”s confession, but though Catherine made a confession, it did not bring her any comfort.

In the meantime the Privy Council, seeking to ease the king”s heartache and make certain that Catherine Howard met her just fate as quickly as possible before the king relented, attached the Great Seal to the top of the Act of Attainder, and wrote the words, Le Roi le veut, which in English meant: ”The king wills it.” This way the king did not have to put his signature to the document, which was then read in both houses of Parliament, and the royal assent formally announced. The executions of Catherine Howard and Jane Rochford would now take place. Everything was official.

No execution could take place on a Sunday, of course, and so Catherine Howard was granted one more day of life. On Sunday evening Sir John Gage requested permission to see her, and it was granted.

He bowed politely to her and said in as gentle a voice as he could, ”You will be executed tomorrow morning, madame. We will come for you at seven o”clock. If you wish to unburden your soul at this time, I would advise you to do so with your good confessor. If there is anything that I can do for you, madame, and it is in my power, you have but to ask me.” He bowed again.

Her women waited nervously, expecting another outburst of hysterics. Instead Catherine Howard said softly, ”I should like it, sir, if you would bring me the block upon which my most unhappy life is to end. I wish to practice laying my head upon it, for I would not make a bad impression at last. There is nothing else I require. Thank you for asking, however.”

He was stunned by her request, but he said, ”It shall be brought to you immediately, madame.” Then he bowed again and left.

”How can you?” Bessie FitzGerald whispered. Her blue eyes were wide with fear. She found it hard to believe that by this time tomorrow her friend would be dead. They were young, and the young were not supposed to die!

”Anne died with elegance and dignity,” Cat said. ”She was a Howard, and I am a Howard. I cannot do any less.”

”What will happen to us when it is over?” Kate Carey asked Lady Baynton. ”What is to become of us?”

”Why, you will go home, my dears,” Lady Baynton said. ”The court will no longer be a fit place for young girls. The court always becomes a rough and dull, masculine place without a queen.”

”Henry will not be long without a wife,” Cat said knowingly. ”He is not a man to live long without a woman. I hear he has already been celebrating his soon-to-be freedom. They say he has enjoyed himself with Elizabeth Brooke, and favors our old friend Anne Bassett greatly.”

”Where on earth did you hear such things?” Lady Baynton demanded.

”The servants at Syon knew everything,” Cat said, ”and they would tell our serving women, who would gossip to me if I asked.”

”Elizabeth Brooke is notorious for allowing any man who so desires to sheath himself within her,” Lady Baynton said indignantly. ”As for Mistress Bassett, I think little of her, accepting gifts from a married man! She will find herself in trouble one of these days, mark my words.” Lady Baynton had become very fond of Cat Howard, despite it all.

”She was always so proud of the horse and saddle the king had given her,” Nyssa remarked. ”She thought it set her above the rest of us. She really is a dreadful snob, although her sister is pleasant.”

Catherine Howard smiled at the woman she called her best friend. ”Soon you will be home in the country again,” she said. ”I know how much you will like that. How old are your babies now? They will have grown some since you saw them last. Who is looking after them now? I could never see myself having children.” She sighed ruefully. ”Perhaps it is better that I did not. Look at poor little Bess, Anne”s child. She is all alone. Never sure whether she is in favor or out of favor. I wonder what will happen to her when she is grown.”

Nyssa laughed. ”So many questions, Cat. Edmund and Sabrina will be a year old on March first. They certainly will have grown, since they were just five months old when we left them. Mama is still taking care of them. I would trust no one else. I often wonder what they look like now. I shall be glad to be home in the Wye valley again. We shall be there just in time for spring, if I can first convince the king to release Varian, and then return Winterhaven to him.”

”I have caused you much difficulty,” Catherine said regretfully. She looked suddenly sad.

”Aye, you have,” Nyssa agreed with her, and the others looked horrified, but then Nyssa continued, ”yet, Cat, I love you dearly, and I am proud that you would call me your friend.”

The queen”s cerulean-blue eyes teared and she said, ”You will not forget me? You will pray for me?”

Nyssa embraced her friend, saying, ”Aye. I will pray for you, and how could I forget you, Catherine Howard, after all the adventures you have involved me in?” She laughed shakily. ”I regret none of it.”

”The Howards did find you a wonderful husband, and in doing so, saved you from Henry Tudor,” Cat replied. ”You found love, Nyssa. I know you realize how fortunate you are. Sadly, love did not remember me. Even the king, for all his professed passion for me, only desired me, and liked having a pretty young wife to show off. Manox and Dereham sought the triumph of seduction. Perhaps Tom Culpeper loved me a little, but I think his quest was also a dangerous game he but hoped to win. I wonder if I ever knew what love truly is, Nyssa.”

Before Nyssa might answer, the block was brought into the queen”s chambers and set down in the center of the floor. Catherine Howard stared at it. Upon that piece of wood she would end her life. Bending, she ran her hand over it. It was smooth, and cold. She shivered, then turned about. ”Lady Baynton and Lady de Winter will personally attend me tomorrow morning. Kate, Bessie, though you must come, I will not burden you with this task, though I know if I asked, you would gladly serve me in my final moments.” She then looked to her two chosen ladies. ”Help me to practice now,” she said.

They helped her to kneel before the block. Catherine Howard lay her neck upon it for the first time. It was really not so terrible, and it would be over in a moment”s time. She raised herself up and then leaned forward again. She did this several times, and then, seemingly satisfied, she arose to her feet. ”I want beef for my supper,” she said. ”And a pear tartlet with Devon cream, and the best wine the king”s cellars have to offer me. Send to Sir John and tell him so!”

The meal brought to the former queen that night was simple: prawns poached in white wine, a capon in a lemon-ginger sauce, the beef she had requested, artichokes braised with butter and lemon, bread, butter, and cheese. The tartlet was large, and the clotted cream sweet. Despite all the cups of wine they drank, they could not seem to get drunk. Instead they sat about telling tales of when they were maids of honor to Anne of Cleves, making Lady Baynton laugh until she was weak.

The night passed too quickly, and suddenly it was six o”clock of the morning. The serving woman brought the queen her tub, and Cat bathed. She was then helped into her undergarments and the black velvet gown with its black and gold satin brocade underskirt. The standing collar on her gown was carefully removed. Catherine Howard”s lovely auburn curls were carefully pinned atop her little head. She slipped her feet into a pair of round-toed shoes. She wore no jewelry.

Her women were as somberly dressed, each in a black velvet gown with a slightly decorative underskirt. Lady Baynton wore a French cap, encrusted with pearls and gold, but Bessie and Kate elected to wear small flat velvet caps edged in pearls with small egret tips. Nyssa, however, put her hair in a golden caul because Cat had always liked it that way.

The queen”s confessor came and heard Catherine Howard”s final confession. They closeted themselves in the queen”s bedchamber, but they were not there for very long. Finally there was a ceremonious knocking upon the door. Nyssa opened it slowly to find the king”s Privy Council, minus the Duke of Suffolk, who had been taken ill in the night, and the Duke of Norfolk, who later admitted he could not bear to be present at the execution of Catherine Howard.

”It is time, madame,” the Earl of Southampton said.

Nyssa felt her heartbeat accelerate, but Cat simply nodded, saying, ”I am ready.” Escorted by the Privy Council, her four women, and her confessor, the queen then went out onto Tower Green.

Lady Rochford was already there, and they were shocked by her appearance. She was disheveled and unkempt. Her dark eyes were wild, and she was babbling nonsense. The king had ordered a special act passed by the Parliament, allowing him to execute an insane person.

Catherine Howard was asked if she had a final statement to make, and she said in a clear, young voice, ”I ask all Christian people to take regard unto my worthy and just punishment with death, for my offenses against God heinously from my youth upward in breaking all of His commandments, and also against the King”s Royal Majesty very dangerously.

”I have been justy condemned,” Catherine continued. ”I merit a hundred deaths. I require that you look to me as an example, and amend your ungodly lives, obeying the king in all things. I pray for his grace, our sovereign lord, Henry Tudor, and beg that you all do so as well. Having done so, I commend my soul to God, and His infinite mercy,” she concluded.

Catherine”s two chosen women helped her to mount the gallows where the block, so lately in her chamber, now waited, set amid a pile of straw. There the hooded headsman awaited the queen, leaning upon his great ax. Nyssa wondered what the face beneath the hood looked like, and whether he felt any remorse in doing his duty.

Catherine Howard smiled quietly at the man and said, ”I forgive you, sir.” Then, as custom also demanded, she pressed a gold piece into his hand, in effect paying her own death tax. Turning to the two women who had escorted her up to the gallows, she thanked them for their faithful service, taking time to bid Kate and Bessie, already weeping below her, a tender farewell. Holding out her arms to Nyssa, she embraced her. ”Do not forget that love remembered you in spite of it all, Nyssa Wyndham. Be good to Varian, and do not think too harshly of Duke Thomas.” She kissed her friend”s cheek, and then turning, said to the headsman, ”I am ready, sir.”

Lady Baynton and the Countess of March helped the queen to kneel down before the block. Catherine Howard looked heavenward, her lips murmuring a soft prayer, then crossing herself, she leaned forward, her arms gracefully outstretched. The headsman struck swiftly and mercifully, the thunk of his ax severing the queen”s head neatly and burying itself for a moment in the block below.

Nyssa had not been able to tear her eyes away from the horror. It had taken no time at all, and yet the ax had seemed to hover above its victim for an eternity before descending downward. In one moment Catherine Howard”s life had been snuffed out. The sound of her voice still echoed in the icy morning air. Disoriented for a moment, Nyssa looked about her. The day was gray and somber. Lady Baynton, her hand shaking, slipped her arm through Nyssa”s, and together the two women descended the gallows while the queen”s remains were wrapped in a black blanket and laid in a coffin.

At the bottom of the gallows Lady Baynton tenderly gathered the sobbing Kate Carey and Bessie FitzGerald to her motherly bosom. Nyssa looked about her again, this time her eyes focusing upon the scene. There was the Privy Council, Sir John Gage, and a detachment of Yeomen of the Guard. A small huddled group of people she did not recognize, legal witnesses, obviously, stood upon Tower Green. The ground beneath her feet was hard and, she saw, covered in frost. Jane Rochford was now led past them up to the gallows to be executed. Nyssa was past caring. The sound of the ax told her the deed was done.

Four of the guards brought the queen”s coffin down from the gallows, and following the weeping women, they brought it into the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, where a place for Catherine Howard had been made near to her cousin, Anne Boleyn. They stood quietly in the dim chapel as Cat”s confessor said the prayers for the dead. Then together the four women left the chapel, passing the coffin of Jane Rochford, which was being brought in to be interred in a far, dark corner. Outside, the four stood confused for a moment in the gray and sunless morning, not quite knowing what to do now. Then Lord Baynton was by their side.

He put an arm about his wife and said to them, ”Come, my dears. It is time for us all to go home now. I have a barge waiting.” Then he smiled at Nyssa. ”Not you, however, Lady de Winter. There is a gentleman over there who wishes to speak with you.” He pointed.

Nyssa turned to look, and her heart leapt in her chest. For a long moment her voice would not cooperate, and then she managed to say, ”Varian!” forcing her legs forward until she was running into his outstretched arms. He was pale. He looked haggard. But he was alive, and he was running toward her also!

He wrapped his strong arms about her, their lips met in a kiss, and she was weeping. To her amazement, he was too. ”I thought never to see you again, sweeting,” Varian de Winter told his wife honestly. ”Yet I am free! Free to go home with you to Winterhaven again, Nyssa. Home to our son and our daughter!”

”How can this be?” she sobbed into his doublet.

”I do not know,” he said. ”For two months I have been kept in a filthy cell, told I was guilty of concealing treason, and that my estates were forfeit for my crime. Then this morning Sir John Gage came to me and told me that the king had decided an error had been made in my case. That I was a de Winter and not a Howard. I was to be released, and my estates restored immediately. The only requirement to my release was that I must be a witness to the queen”s execution. After that I was free to go. There is a barge waiting for us at the Water Stairs.”

The archbishop. Somehow Nyssa knew that Thomas Cranmer was responsible for her husband”s release. He was a just man, and she realized that he had somehow convinced the king of the inequity in allowing the arrest of the Earl of March.

Putting her arm through her husband”s, she hurried with him from the Tower to where their barge was waiting. Tillie was already in it with Toby, smiling broadly. They were rowed to Whitehall. Within the hour their carriages were packed and ready to depart.

As they made ready to leave the apartments of Duke Thomas, he appeared before them and asked Nyssa politely, ”Did she make a good end, madame?”

”You would have been proud of her, my lord,” Nyssa said. ”I could not have been half as brave as Catherine Howard was.”

”You will not be back to court,” he said. It was a statement.

”Never again,” his grandson answered him, ”but should you need me, Grandfather, I will come to you. Do not be so overweening proud, Thomas Howard, that you do not ask.”

The duke nodded in the affirmative. Like the king, his age was showing now. He looked at Nyssa. ”And will you come if I call you, madame?” he asked her.

She waited a long moment before answering him, but then she said, ”Aye, Grandfather, I will come.”

”You have forgiven me then,” he said gruffly.

”Once,” Nyssa told him, ”I thought that you had taken all my dreams from me, Tom Howard, but I am older and wiser now than I was then. You did not take my dreams from me, you gave them to me. I just did not know it at the time. Aye, I forgive you for me, but I will never forgive you for Cat. I know that you can understand that.”

”I do,” he said.

Nyssa stood upon her tiptoes and placed a kiss upon the grizzled cheek of the Duke of Norfolk. ”Good-bye, Grandfather,” she said to him.

The two men embraced, and then the duke hurried from his apartments, but Nyssa had seen the tears in his eyes and heard the catch in the old man”s voice.

Together she and Varian left Whitehall. There was no need to take their leave of the king. He was aware of their going. It was Monday, the thirteenth day of February in the year of our Lord, fifteen hundred and forty-two. With luck they would be at RiversEdge in time for the twins” first birthday, and then they would go on to Winterhaven. The weather held, and within just a few days” time the Wye, silver-green in the winter sunshine, stretched below them as they viewed it from the London road. Almost home. Almost home. The horses” hooves seemed to drum that cadence as they cantered along the hard, snowpacked road.

”We will be at RiversEdge in just a little bit,” Varian de Winter told his wife. ”We will have to think of some wonderful gift for the twins. They will not even know who we are.”

”They are young, and will never remember that we were away from them for so long, except that we will tell them the tale one day when they are old enough to understand it,” Nyssa replied. ”As for a gift, I already have it.”

”You have a gift for the twins?” He was surprised. ”How could you have a gift for the twins?”

”Because, my lord,” she said, snuggling against his shoulder and nibbling upon his ear, ”you and I made them their gift last autumn before I joined poor Cat at Syon. I was so wrapped up in serving her in those last awful months that I only just realized it a few days ago myself. I am going to have a baby, my darling! We shall give Edmund and Sabrina a brother come Lammastide!” And she laughed happily.

”And this son is to be Henry, is he not?” the Earl of March said to her.

”Nay,” she answered him. ”I am not pleased with the king”s behavior as of late. Besides, there are too many Henrys in England.”

”It could be another daughter,” he teased her. ”What shall we call a daughter, madame?”

”It is a son,” she said firmly. ”A woman knows these things. This child is a son, Varian, and I shall give him my estate at Riverside for his own. He shall be a propertied gentleman.”

”But what is his name to be, madame?” her husband demanded.

”Why Thomas, of course,” she told him, surprised he had not known it. Then leaning forward, Nyssa de Winter spied RiversEdge. ”Look! Look!” she cried excitedly. ”It”s Mama and Papa before the front door, and ohhh, Varian! They have the twins in their arms! Dear God! I do not even recognize them. Oh, my darling, I shall never leave our children or our home again!”

Varian de Winter looked at his wife, and then pulling her into his arms, he kissed her. He had never loved her as much as he did now. ”Love,” he said, ”has remembered me, Nyssa, and I am so thankful for it!”

”Why did you say that?” she asked him, startled as their coach came to a stop.

”Say what, sweeting?”

”Love, remember me,” she answered him.

”I do not know. It was just a thought I had, my love.”

The doors to their vehicle were pulled open, and stepping out, Nyssa felt a shiver run up her spine. Love, remember me. The words echoed in her head. Godspeed, Cat, she thought to herself. May you find that love with God that you could not find on earth. Then, smiling at her family, she hugged them and gathered both of her children into her loving arms, looking up at her husband happily even as she did so. They were so fortunate in each other. This was what was really important in life. Love had indeed remembered them all. She would be grateful for it as long as she lived.