As we continued along the path, I glanced over my shoulder. Everywhere I looked there were tangled green branches. Only overhead was there open space and, to my dismay, I realized that the day was fast fading into twilight.
“Harry, what if we are still in here when darkness falls? Won’t it be impossible to find our way out?”
“Never fear,” he whispered, his mouth close to my ear. “If we are obliged to stay in the maze overnight, I will keep you safe and warm.”
I pulled free of his grasp, my heart racing. “I want to leave now.” I started to run back the way we’d come.
“Bess, wait! Stop! You will be lost if you keep going.”
A solid mass of evergreen loomed in front of me. I did not understand how it could be there, blocking the path. Had it been there earlier? Wherever it had come from, its presence forced me to choose. Left or right? I had no notion which way led to the entrance.
Harry came up behind me and circled my waist with his hands. “Lost?” he asked, turning me in his arms. His eyes were alight with mischief.
My voice went high and breathy. “How do I get out?” He had only been teasing me about spending the night in the maze . . . hadn’t he?
“I’ll tell you,” Harry said, “for a kiss.” His hands slid up from my waist to cup my breasts.
“I’d rather kiss a frog!” Furious with him, I brought one heel down on his foot. It did little damage. I wore soft leather slippers. He had on sturdy boots. But at the same time, I rammed my fist into his stomach.
“Oof!” he cried, and released me.
I backed up as far as I could and stood with both hands fisted. I was so angry with Harry that I momentarily forgot my fear of being trapped in the maze. I began to think more clearly. Our absence would soon be noticed, if it had not been already. Questions would be asked. Jasper Bassano must know we planned to explore the maze. Surely he’d tell Lady Lisle. Even if Harry did not show me the way out, I would soon be rescued.
I glared at Harry. He could not meet my eyes. He shifted his weight from foot to foot and looked embarrassed, as well he should!
“You and Jack told me you knew the way out,” I said. “I want to leave now.”
“As you wish.” He placed his right palm flat against the nearest section of evergreen. “The trick to navigating a maze is to walk so that the face of the hedge is always on the same side. Left or right, it does not matter, so long as you choose one. That will lead you to the center.”
“I do not want to go to the heart of the maze. I want to leave it entirely.”
“You have to go to the middle first, then use the same method to take you to the exit.”
“Why should I believe you?”
He looked offended. “I am not so desperate for a kiss that I’d imprison you here.” Keeping his right hand on the wall, he started walking again.
I had to scurry to match his rapid pace. I caught hold of his arm to make him slow down, afraid of losing my guide. “I believe you, Harry. It was just that, for a moment, you reminded me of my brothers when they play tricks on me. George or Thomas would strand me in this maze without a second thought.”
“I’d never do such a thing.”
“I know that,” I said in my most soothing voice, although secretly I had my doubts.
Harmony restored, we made half a dozen more turns before, without warning, we encountered the others in our party coming back. The stricken expression on Jack Dudley’s face alarmed me, as did the fact that Mary Woodhull had tears in her eyes. Alys just looked mad enough to spit.
“The maze is separated into islands,” she said. “It is impossible to find the center by the usual means.”
Taken aback, Harry blurted out, “That cannot be!”
“What does she mean?” I asked. “What are islands?”
It was Jack who answered. “Parts of the hedge have been removed to create sections that go nowhere. When the walls of a maze are all of a piece, no matter how many branches it has, it is always possible to find the center by keeping a hand on the wall. But with this kind of hedge, that will not work.”
I glared at him. “I thought you said you knew this maze.”
“I’ve been in mazes before,” he mumbled.
“But not this one.” I did not trouble to hide my exasperation.
“It may be difficult, but surely it will not be impossible to find our way back.” Davy Seymour slung a comforting arm around Mary’s shoulders and looked gratified when she buried her face in the front of his doublet.
“We could cut our way out,” I suggested. “You gentlemen have daggers. We all have our eating knives. Why not just hack a hole in the hedge?”
Everyone stared at me.
“It is a simple and straightforward solution,” I said.
But Alys shook her head. “This is a royal maze.”
“I am certain His Grace will understand.”
“His Grace is just as likely to chop off our heads,” Harry muttered.
There had to be a means of escape. I thought for a moment. “What if two of you lift a third onto your shoulders? Harry, you are the tallest. If Jack and Davy hoist you high enough, you should be able to see the way we must go to get out.”
With Mary acting as spotter, the three gentlemen did a fair imitation of the king’s tumblers preparing to fling one of their number into the air. Alys and I stood back to give them room. It was only then that I realized two of our number were missing.
“Where are Ned and Dorothy?”
“Perhaps they found their way to Rosamund’s Bower.” Alys’s smirk told me she was certain they had, and that she had a good idea of what they were doing there to pass the time.
So much, I thought, for my young aunt’s devotion to Will Parr.
A cheer went up as Harry, from the top of the pyramid, reported that he had a clear view of the pattern of the maze and could see the shortest way to the exit. A few minutes later, the six of us burst out into the open air, laughing in relief. Jubilant, Harry swung me around and kissed me soundly on the lips.
It was a very nice kiss, and I did not scold him for stealing it. Neither did I permit him to take his celebration any further.
7
At court there was always something to do and always someone to do it with. I flirted with Harry Dudley, and with his brother, and with Davy Seymour, too. Alys and Mary and I spent long hours together in the garden and the gallery and in the queen’s presence chamber. From them I learned what persons had influence at court and why some of them were best avoided.
“Be wary of Lady Hertford,” Mary warned, pointing out a slender woman in earnest conversation with the queen. “She’s the wife of Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, elder brother of the late Queen Jane. She likes to get her own way and will trample anyone in her path.”
Queen Kathryn was a slightly built woman in crimson velvet worked with gold. Lady Hertford was also small in stature, but she had an arrogant manner that the queen, who might have been expected to put on airs, did not. I studied Lady Hertford’s face, what I could see of it from that distance, taking note of a broad forehead, a sharp nose, and a negligible chin. Her form was fine boned and dainty looking.
“She looks too frail to have such a dangerous reputation.”
“Do not be deceived by appearances.”
“Seymour,” I mused, turning away from Lady Hertford so she would not think we were talking about her. “Is Davy kin to the earl?”
“Only a very distant connection. A poor relation, as I am to Her Grace.” Mary hid her smile behind plump fingers. “Davy does his best to avoid the countess. He says the earl’s first wife was far more pleasant, but she was put aside and her children declared illegitimate.”
“A divorce?”
Mary nodded. “And then she died, so he was allowed to remarry.”