‘I’ll give you the skin lotion, my lady, and a little something to slip in the Duke’s wine … just to keep him merry and loving.’
Eleanor nodded, took the bottles, slipped them into the pocket of her gown and went to rejoin her attendant in the room above.
Chapter XVII
THE DEATH OF BEDFORD
QUEEN KATHERINE awoke every morning to a sense of excitement. She would stretch out her hand to make sure that Owen was still beside her. He laughed at the habit. His hand would curl about hers and they would both remember to be grateful for what life had given them.
‘Still here, little Queen?’ he would say.
‘I shall never be so accustomed to being happy that I forget it could pass.’
‘Why should it?’ asked Owen.
‘Because … Oh, but you do not need me to say. You know that we live here … in secret …’
‘Secret … when at any moment your servants will come in and see us here together?’
‘Our servants … Owen.’
‘No,’ he said, ‘you are the Queen. I am your squire.’
‘You are my husband.’
Owen was silent. Would they recognise him as such? Would they say that a marriage conducted in a garret was no true marriage for a Queen?
No. They would not care. They did not want to think of Katherine. Men like Bedford and Gloucester were so concerned with their own ambitions that they would not think the Queen a danger to them and therefore what would it matter to them that she had taken a Welsh squire for a husband. Let her beget children … they would call them bastards if they wished.
Bastards! Little Edmund, baby Jasper. Oh no, they were born in as holy a wedlock as the King himself.
He turned to Katherine and kissed her gently.
‘Let us be happy,’ he said. ‘We have had much to be thankful for and shall continue to enjoy it.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Let us do that. It is what I want.’
Then she talked of the cleverness of Edmund. He was already babbling away … nonsense mostly but there were words here and there. And baby Jasper was going to be as bright.
She loved her babies and all she wanted was to be allowed to live in obscurity with her family. Surely that was not asking too much?
So they talked of domestic matters and a servant came in to bring them wine with salted fish and bread which they would eat before rising.
Katherine was merry. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining. Owen was beside her. When they had eaten and dressed they would go to the nursery and see the children. It was a lovely way of starting the morning.
But the next day she would awaken with the uneasiness upon her.
It was due to her strange childhood, Owen told her. Then she had not known from one day to the next what would happen to her. Awakening at Hadham was quite different from awakening in the Hôtel de St Pol. There she was governed by the madness of her poor father and the harsh rule of her rapacious mother. Here in Hadham she was the Queen, though living in obscurity; and she had her children to care for and a devoted husband to protect her.
‘You are right, dear husband,’ she said. ‘Each day I thank God for you. Do you remember our first meeting …’
Then she was happy again, recalling how they had tentatively approached each other, knowing in their hearts what joy they had brought one to the other, until that day when dancing he fell into her lap …
‘Let us thank God for what He has given us,’ she said.
‘And show our trust in Him by accepting that it will last all our lives,’ added Owen.
‘Amen,’ she murmured.
It was only to be expected that Henry should visit his mother, even though he had been taken out of her care. Messages arrived at Hadham to announce the fact that the King was on his way.
This threw the household into a panic, not because of the King himself but all who would come with him. It was hardly to be expected that Henry would travel without a considerable entourage. After all he was not the boy Katherine had handed over to Warwick. He was growing up. He had been crowned King not only of England but of France.
As a mother Katherine longed to see her son, but as the wife of Owen Tudor she was afraid of what his visit might mean.
She talked long with Owen about it and they decided that Edmund and Jasper should stay in their nursery. After all, who would think to look for them and they were too young to understand that they were being put out of sight. Owen would return to his squire’s quarters and they could rely on the discretion of their servants.
Katherine was tormented by her doubts and longings.
She was at the topmost turret to watch Henry’s arrival. She saw him coming in the distance, pennants waving and his standard-bearers riding ahead of him. She was filled with emotions, remembering her pride when he was born and that faint twinge of apprehension which she felt then because she had disobeyed her husband’s wishes and had borne their son at Windsor.
And there he was riding at the head of the cavalcade – her son, her little King. Oh yes, he had changed. She saw that at once. He had assumed a new dignity. Poor little boy. Did he realise the weight of the responsibilities which would be laid on his shoulders?
She went down to greet him, and when Henry saw her he forgot everything but that here was his mother whom he had loved so dearly in those days before he understood the difficulties of being King.
‘Dear lady!’ he cried and ran into her arms.
The Queen smiled at stern Warwick who of course did not approve of such conduct.
‘Ah, you have not forgotten me then, my son.’
‘Oh Mother,’ he said, ‘I am so happy to see you. Is Joan here still? Is Alice?’
‘Oh yes …’ Katherine hesitated for a second or so and this was not lost on Warwick. She could not say that they had stayed with her to care for her other children. ‘They will be delighted to see you …’
‘So they stayed after I went,’ said the King.
‘They had grown accustomed to our household.’
They walked side by side into the house.
‘Do you like being shut away here, dear lady?’ asked Henry.
‘It serves me well,’ she said.
‘And how is Owen? Is he still here?’
‘Yes … he is still a member of the household.’
‘I want to see him.’
‘I doubt not you will.’
They were listening, all of them. She was aware of it. How much did they know? How much would they discover? Was this not so much a visit of the King to his mother as an investigation to discover the true state of affairs at Hadham?
She was delighted to see Henry again, although he did not seem her child now in the same way that Edmund and Jasper did. He had when he was their age, of course. I hope, she thought, that I shall be able to keep my Tudor babies with me forever.
She and Owen had been right when they had agreed they could rely on the loyalty of their servants. Joan and Alice were delighted to see their charge. They marvelled at his growth and his grasp of affairs. They questioned him and there was no doubt that Henry was happy to be treated as a child again.
He went to see Owen and they talked of horses and Henry kept recalling those days when Owen had helped him master a horse.
There was an occasion when Katherine had a chance to speak to her son alone. She wanted to know whether he enjoyed his life now as he did long ago.
‘It is so different,’ said Henry a little sadly. ‘I am so rarely alone. Do you know, dear Mother, when I lived with you everybody did all they could to make me forget I was King; now they do everything to remind me of it.’