“So — a fine escort!” Ashley commented with bland satisfaction.
“Aye, indeed.” Parry spoke acidly, then pricked to sudden alertness. “Peace! here they come.”
He moved away from the door, which was thrown open with some flourish to admit Sir Robert and Lady Tyrwhitt. Behind them, Parry’s bulging eyes sighted two guards who took up their stand in the open doorway.
Parry bowed. Ashley, who had got heavily to her feet, began to do the honors in her usual expansive way, beaming upon the two sallow, unsmiling faces.
“Good sir—my lady—this is a seemly honor! ” she said with a certain pompous emphasis, indicating plainly that it was a
tardy one. “Fll tell my Lady Elizabeth you are here.”
She was going to the door, but Tyrwhitt stepped nimbly in her way.
“Not yet. Parry, they wait below to ride with you to London.”
“What did I tell you?” Ashley exclaimed in delight.
But Parry was looking at Sir Robert and there was no pleasure in his face, only a concern so deep that it grooved visible lines…
“Sir Robert, know you their need for me?”
“The Council will tell you that. You must be there tonight.”
“You too, Dame Ashley,” Lady Tyrwhitt put in.
Ashley gave her a tolerant smile, shaking her head.
“Oh, but tonight, my lady—the Lady Elizabeth cannot be ready on the instant in such wise.”
“The Lady Elizabeth stays here,” Lady Tyrwhitt said. She spoke very distinctly and, as always, there was a faint hiss in the words through her prominent teeth.
“Without me? ’Tis impossible!”
“I am here to take your place, Dame Ashley,” Lady Tyrwhitt told her with a cold smile. “And my husband will see to her house.”
Ashley’s lips fell open.
“Mean you—we are being replaced, Parry and I?”
“That is the matter of it,” Sir Robert said casually.
“Oh-God, no!” Ashley burst out angrily. “We’ll see whether we are being replaced or no! When my Lady Elizabeth hears of this—”
“Peace, Ashley,” Parry said. “Sir Robert, have you authority for what you do?”
“Here are the papers signed by my lord Duke and the King. Will that content you?” Tyrwhitt sneered. “For the arrest of the persons of one Thomas Parry and one Katherine Ashley, now of the household of the Lady Elizabeth’s Grace, at Hatfield, and the conveyance of these said persons to the Tower…”
Parry’s eyes were fixed incredulously on the papers. Ashley, knuckles pressed to her mouth, hurried to the door calling wildly, “Lady—Lady—Bess. Lady—help!”
“Ashley—” Parry remonstrated.
The two guards stepped forward, barring the way. Ashley stood still in blank horror.
“ ’Twill avail you nothing to run crying to your lady, Dame,” Lady Tyrwhitt’s neat, clipped tones reached her. “You’ll not see her more; if God be just.”
“What have I done?” Ashley breathed, stricken and aghast. “I have done nothing! ”
“Aye, nothing,” Lady Tyrwhitt snapped. “Nothing in execution of your duty.”
“What could they want of me?” Ashley murmured distractedly.
“Evidence,” the other said.
“Of what?”
“Concerning Thomas Seymour. For we have it in London he has harmed the Princess. What were you about, woman, that such things could be?”
“Harm his Elizabeth?” Ashley almost screamed. “Why, you are mad, he—”
She had almost said “he loves her,” when Parry broke in quickly: “He never harmed her, Sir Robert. Of that I am very sure.”
“That’s for the Council to decide, and for his brother. They will be his judges.”
“Judges? …” Ashley echoed. “Judges of — Lord Thomas?”
“Aye, when he comes to trial.”
Sir Robert spoke with the same casual indifference as before, and with a slight smile for their incredulous bewilderment. His manner and bearing said that he was dealing with two simpletons…
No one in the room had realized that the two guards had parted respectfully to let Elizabeth enter. No one saw her, standing in the door, listening. So … here was doom. Doom, as Cecil had warned her. And as she had striven with every force of her passionate devotion to warn Tom …
These ensuing few moments were among the most crucial of Elizabeth’s life. In them, and they were few enough, she had just time to rally her rapier wits, to still her heart and summon her invincible young brain to her aid.
“Trial?” Ashley gulped. “For what?”
Sir Robert’s smile lengthened. He intoned with a jeering emphasis, “For that he did by secret means, practice to marry with the Lady Elizabeth, to the danger of the King’s Majesty’s person, and the peril of the state of the same! ”
“Oh God!” Ashley uttered her usual, helpless cry.
“And for this judgment, he sits waiting now,” Tyrwhitt went on, malice in his voice and in his eyes. “Where had he been before it would have been better … in the Tower.” “Where you shall join him,” Lady Tyrwhitt chimed in. “That should please you well, Dame. For by the signs it would seem you do love Lord Thomas Seymour infinite well —even to helping him to his shameful practices by looking the other way at need.”
“It is not true. Oh God,” cried Ashley frantically, “it is not true. He never plotted against His Majesty. He loved him well. He never sought to harm my lady, he loves—”
Parry cut her off hurriedly, though he knew, in heavy despair, that it was too late now.
“Sir Robert, I know not what this plot may be nor how we are implicated in it, but there have been those gone innocent to the Tower before. If this is the will of the King, so be it!” “Well spoken, Thomas!”
Her voice pealed in the room, a strong, rallying clarion, as Elizabeth swept from the doorway and stood surveying them.
some single mechanical device, like figures on a musical box. Sir Robert Tyrvvhitt bowed low, Lady Tyrwhitt sank her plain dark skirts in a curtsy. Ashley went to Elizabeth at a clumsy run.
The four people in the room turned as though spun by
“Lady—lady—”
Elizabeth’s voice was a little higher-pitched than usual, piercingly clear.
“Why, how now, Ashley, would you weep for this? Parry has said it—the Tower of London has held many within its walls, both innocent and guilty! In trial, truth will come to light. Fear not, but get you gone…
“Sir Robert, ride you to London with them?”
“No, Your Grace. I am to stay here, as Controller to Your Grace’s household.”
“This is most kind,” Elizabeth said brightly, “to suffer my welfare to such able hands. And you, my lady?”
Lady Tyrwhitt curtsied again.
“I am here to serve you too, Your Grace.”
“Why, I am surrounded by well-wishers! ” Elizabeth purred. “This is kind indeed!”
“Lady,” Ashley gulped, “Lord Thomas—”
“Aye, I heard. I am sorry he has so displeased his brother, though I cannot think how that might be…” She turned a level look on Sir Robert. “You must inform me, at more leisure.”
“I will, Your Grace,” Tyrwhitt said with crisp assurance. “Meantime, the carriage is below to take these two to London.”
“Why, to be sure,” Elizabeth assented readily.
Ashley clutched at her sleeve, shaking, her face grooved with tears and terror.
“Lady-”
Elizabeth spoke as though she did not hear her.
“If you shall see my lord the Duke of Somerset, commend me to him. Tell him I am most grateful for his care over me.”
“Bess—” Ashley whimpered.
Elizabeth motioned toward the door.
“Go, get you gone. And carry to London with you my commendations.”
Ashley nodded like a puppet sagging on a loose wire, looked at her despairingly and went to the door. Parry, who had neither spoken nor moved, walked across the room and went down on one knee before the small, erect figure. Elizabeth nodded to him.