“The queen has asked for you, Bess,” Lady Lisle informed me. “She has an opening in her household and wishes you to fill it. Dorothy Bray has married Edmund Brydges and can no longer serve as a maid of honor.”
“Ned married her?”
“So it seems.” Lady Lisle absently massaged her bulging belly, making me wonder if Dorothy had caught a child. “The queen is currently on progress in Surrey and Kent with the royal children. You are to join her at Eltham Palace at the end of the month. In the meantime, if you wish, you may spend a few days with your family. At present they are at Cobham Hall with my dear friend, the senior Lady Cobham.”
Although my parents and siblings lived for most of the year at Cowling Castle, they left it periodically to allow for a thorough cleaning. At those times, they often visited my father’s stepmother at Cobham Hall, which had been left to her for life by my grandfather. The house had originally been built as a hunting lodge and was located in the center of a park well stocked with deer.
“My father is still in Calais,” I said.
“And likely to remain there for some time,” Lady Lisle said. “The lord deputy usually resides there. If we were not at war, your mother would no doubt have joined him.”
It was difficult to imagine Mother living anywhere but Kent, but I did not contradict Lady Lisle. Nor did I refuse the opportunity to visit my family. The entire household gathered to welcome me to Cobham Hall. They already knew that I was to become a maid of honor and everyone was pleased for me, especially Kate. I could tell she was only waiting until we were alone to pepper me with questions.
I had brought gifts and greetings from Lady Lisle, including a fan made of black ostrich feathers set in gold for the senior Lady Cobham, as Lady Lisle had called her. I had never been able to think of her as my grandmother. She was much too young. But she was certainly family. She’d married my grandfather, one of her brothers had married my mother’s sister, and her mother had been married, as her second husband, to one of my father’s brothers.
There were less spectacular presents for Mother and my brothers and Kate, and then everyone had questions about life at court. It was late before Kate and I finally retired to the bedchamber we shared.
“Do you think Lady Lisle will have me in your place, Bess?” Kate asked the moment the door closed behind us. “I am more than old enough to leave home.”
“Mother can ask her, but are you sure you want to join her household now? Not only is she away from court, but she is awaiting the birth of a baby.”
Kate made a face. She no more liked the idea of being trapped in a dark room than I did.
Together we flung open the window.
“If there are evil vapors in the night breezes,” I said, “I am prepared to ignore them.”
Kate laughed.
All the moonlight revealed were acres of parkland and a massive oak tree that grew close to the house. It had the greatest girth I’d ever seen. I’d been told it was more than a century old.
“Did anyone tell you about the wedding?” Kate asked as we rested our elbows on the casement and breathed deeply of the cool September air. “Mother is still reeling from the shock.”
“Lady Lisle told me Dorothy married Ned Brydges.”
“Not Dorothy’s wedding. Grandmother Jane’s.”
“Grandmother Jane’s what?”
“Grandmother Jane’s wedding. She married right after Dorothy did. She said she’d only been waiting until the last of her children was provided for to choose a husband for herself.”
“But she’s old!” Grandmother Jane had lived for more than six decades. I did not know anyone older than she was.
“That’s what makes her choice all the more astonishing. She picked Sir Urian Brereton. He’s a younger son with no particular fortune or prospects. And, Bess—he’s at least twenty years younger than she is!”
Shock kept me silent, but inside my head were thoughts I’d never had before, half-formed ideas about love and companionship and the many long years that stretched out before a couple after they married. “I think I envy Grandmother Jane,” I murmured.
“Because she could choose?”
I nodded.
“She has to pay a fine,” Kate said, “for marrying without the king’s permission. And her son is furious with her.”
“He’s probably envious, too. He had to wed where he was told to.”
Two days later, news arrived from Halden Hall that Lady Lisle had been delivered of her twelfth child, a girl she had named Temperance. Both mother and daughter were in excellent health.
The remainder of my week at Cobham Hall sped by, enlivened by games with my youngest brothers and visits from neighbors and friends. We all traveled back to Cowling Castle together but I spent only one night there before setting out for Eltham Palace and my new post as a maid of honor.
The queen welcomed me warmly, as did the young women with whom I would now be sharing the maid’s dormitory. I already knew them all, Alys Guildford and Nan Bassett better than the rest. It was Nan, the oldest of the group, who took me aside for a word of warning.
“You owe your appointment to the queen’s brother,” she said. “He heard of Dorothy Bray’s plans to marry and asked this boon of Her Grace before he left for France. But that does not mean you should follow Dorothy’s example and creep out of your bed at night to meet a lover.”
“I am not Dorothy, and I do not believe that Her Grace would honor me with this post if she believed I was.”
Nan fixed me with a steady stare. “Remember that your first loyalty is to Queen Kathryn. You took an oath to serve her faithfully and to abide by her wishes, whatever they might be.”
I frowned after her as she walked away. Had Nan been telling me that it was the queen’s wish that I discourage her brother’s interest? Or was that just a friendly bit of advice, given to any new-made maid of honor? I supposed it did not matter. After all, Will was still in France.
16
King Henry returned from his French war in the first week in October to a grand and glorious reunion at one of his lesser houses, a place called Otford. Will was with him, but His Grace had left Lord Lisle and Harry behind in Boulogne, along with most of the army. They were to hold that captured city for England.
Davy Seymour also returned with the king. He brought with him a letter for me from Harry.
“His handwriting is as poor as mine is,” I observed.
Alys sat beside me on a window seat in the queen’s privy chamber. “What does he say?”
“That he was knighted by the king just before His Grace left for home.”
“That must have pleased his father.”
“It pleased Harry, as well.” I could tell by the bold pen strokes he’d used when writing the news.
“Was he wounded?” Belatedly, Alys looked concerned. “Knighthoods are often a reward for bravery in battle.”
I hurriedly skimmed the next lines then breathed a sigh of relief. “He says he came through the campaign without a scratch.”
“What else?”
I read on, summarizing as I went until I came to the last sentence. Then my breathing hitched and for a moment I lost the ability to speak. I must have had an addlepated look on my face because Alys seized me by the shoulders and gave me a hard shake.
“Bess! What is it?” I held out the letter, my hand atremble. Alys snatched it away from me and read the rest for herself. When she glanced up from the page, a wide grin split her face. “He says his father has agreed to a match between you and that he hopes the betrothal can be arranged as soon as he gets back to England. This is wonderful, Bess. He wants to marry you.”
“Wonderful,” I echoed.
Why, then, did I suddenly feel trapped?
I did not speak of my impending betrothal to anyone else during the next two weeks. The celebrations surrounding the king’s return continued, as did the royal progress. The court traveled to Leeds Castle, then back to Otford, and finally set off in the direction of London. Will Parr was not with us. He’d gone to visit his estates in Essex and Surrey.