The king’s growl cut me off. My head bowed, I held my silence, hoping this storm would pass. After a moment, King Henry gave a gusty sigh. “The war with France continues, Jane. Persuade Longueville to talk to you of the battle in which he was captured. Mayhap that will loosen his tongue about other matters.”
“There may be another way,” I said hesitantly, “but I am loath to try without Your Grace’s permission.”
“Explain.” I could hear the eagerness in his voice as he leaned closer.
We were surrounded by his attendants. I could only hope no one was close enough to catch my whispered words. “If I were to express a desire to return with him to France when he is ransomed, he might believe it safe to confide in me.”
Scarcely daring to breathe, I waited for a reaction. I had lied to the king before, but never to this degree. What if he should guess my real reason for making such a bold suggestion? I had restrained myself for weeks…months, asking no more questions about my mother, but that did not mean I had given up my quest to learn all I could about her. I wanted to go to France with the duke and stay there long enough to discover the truth about Maman’s sudden decision to flee with me to England.
Pondering my suggestion, the king hesitated so long that I wondered if he was building up steam to boil over. I did not dare look at him. The volatile temper of the Tudors was legendary.
“It is a good plan, Jane.”
If I had not been holding myself so stiffly, I would have sagged with relief. “I have leave to deceive him, then? Your Grace will not believe the tale if there are rumors of my disloyalty?”
“Do and say whatever you must. Your sovereign can tell truth from lies.”
Dipping my head again, I prayed he could not, but I left the royal bedchamber with a lighter heart.
AT YULETIDE MORE than any other time of year, the households of the king, the queen, and the princess mingled at court. The twelve days of Christmas began at sundown on the twenty-fourth day of December and continued until the beginning of Epiphany on the sixth of January. The period from sundown on the fifth through the day of the sixth was Twelfth Night and celebrated with a banquet and mumming.
We were all in our finest apparel, even the liveried servants, who had been given new garments for the new year. The queen’s pages wore gold brocade and crimson satin in checkers while her adult male attendants were dressed in gray broadcloth and gray, white, and scarlet kersey. The king’s yeomen of the guard had new scarlet livery, replacing the green and white coats they had worn in the old king’s reign.
The gentlewomen and ladies of the court vied with each other to dress in their finest. That they were exempt from the sumptuary laws meant their excesses knew no bounds save the good sense not to outshine the king and queen. In honor of Twelfth Night, the duc de Longueville wore a short doublet of blue and crimson velvet slashed with cloth-of-gold.
I sighed as I looked around the great hall.
“What is it, my pet?” Longueville asked.
“Alongside all this splendor, I look very plain indeed.” I wore the best that I had—dark green velvet, the sleeves puffed and slashed to show yellow silk beneath. In any other company, I would have looked very grand.
His eyes sparkled as he flashed me a smile. “Perhaps this will help.”
I felt him slide something onto my finger and when I looked down, I was wearing a ruby ring. I wondered how he had obtained it, knowing as I did the state of his finances, but I did not ask. I held my hand out, admiring the way the stone reflected the light from the candles.
“It is beautiful, Louis. You are most generous.” I was not too proud to accept the expensive gift. Indeed, if I did not live up to the king’s expectations and was not allowed to return to France with my lover, the sale of such a bauble might be all I had to provide for myself.
He lifted my fingers to his lips and kissed them. “I would shower you with such jewels if I could.”
The ring was soon remarked upon…in whispers. Such an expensive gift proclaimed louder than words that the duke had staked his claim on me. Anyone who had not previously suspected that I was his mistress would know it now.
As the evening wore on, one after another the queen’s ladies snubbed me. Even the princess’s gentlewomen pointedly avoided my company. Only young Bessie Blount, naturally friendly as a puppy, braved the censure of the others to exchange greetings with me.
If I had not had the Lady Mary’s friendship and the king’s support, I might well have kept to my lodgings. As it was, I knew I must be brazen and pretend nothing had changed. I lifted my chin, pasted a smile on my face, and attempted to enjoy the festivities. I was saddened, but not surprised, when Harry Guildford also stayed well away from me.
Everyone rose as the lord steward carried a cup full of spiced ale into the torchlit presence chamber. He called out the traditional greeting: “Wassail, wassail, wassail!” and then presented the cup to the king. King Henry sipped and handed the cup to the queen, who looked fine indeed, wearing her long hair loose over her shoulders, as only queens and unmarried girls are permitted to do. The king’s blue-gray eyes sparkled as he watched her pass the wassail cup to his sister. After that, all the courtiers in attendance took their turns while the Children of the Chapel sang.
As soon as the wassail cup had made its rounds, confections and spices of all sorts were served, first to the king and queen and then to the rest of the court. In the past there had been as many as a hundred dishes at a Twelfth Night banquet. Last to be served was always the cake made of flour, honey, spices, and dried fruit. By that time, I no longer had any appetite. I toyed with the slice in front of me, mangling the pastry.
“Qu’est-ce que c’est?” Guy gestured toward the cake. Once again we had been seated together, as befit our station. To sit next to Longueville, given his rank, would have been a breach of protocol.
I looked down and there, lying in the ruins of the cake, was a bean. The bean. I stared at it in horror. Whoever found this prize became King or Queen of the Bean for the rest of the evening and the last thing I desired was more notoriety.
Nick Carew, seated on my other side, had not touched his cake. He was preoccupied with sending longing glances at Elizabeth, Meg Guildford’s beautiful, chestnut-haired sister. I plucked the bean from my crumbs and shoved it into the center of his portion of cake. Moments later, Nick discovered the prize. He made a most excellent King of the Bean. His first act was to call for the evening’s entertainment to begin.
There were no great set pieces required for this revel, although Master Gibson had made the costumes and sent them to Richmond from London by barge. He’d dressed six gentlemen in white jackets and black gowns and minstrels and a fool in yellow sarcenet painted with hearts and wings of silver. But the centerpiece of the spectacle consisted of two women clad in silver—Meg and her sister—who represented the goddesses Venus and Beauty.
There was less story than usual to this piece, but the servants and ordinary folk seated on benches around the outside of the chamber were enthralled when the gentlemen performed a Morris dance. There followed an interlude performed by the Children of the Chapel and then Venus and Beauty sang to the accompaniment of a lute. By the last verse, everyone was familiar enough with the chorus to join in, even Guy, who did not understand a word of it.
“‘Bow you down,’” we sang, “‘and do your duty, to Venus and the goddess Beauty. We triumph high over all. Kings attend when we do call.’”
Bowing down to kings, I thought, was a much wiser course for the rest of us.
A second interlude was performed by the King’s Players, but it was overlong. There were restless stirrings in the crowd and the king left before the end of it. The queen departed soon after.