said she wanted to live and die a virgin? I think not!”
“Oh, you are hateful, my lord!” she flung at him, then ran back to the house, leaving the sound of his laughter behind her.
From an upper window, the Queen stared, her heart faltering. She had witnessed the whole scene from afar off, watching her husband and her stepdaughter, like tiny puppets, moving together then apart, then together again, their gestures implying desire on his part and conflict on hers. Then the girl had, quite clearly, fled.
Katherine sat down on the bed. She had had her suspicions, but had loyally suppressed them. Mrs. Astley had been suspicious too, but she herself had dismissed that as groundless, God forgive her. Now she knew.
The knowledge lay as heavy as a stone, crushing all that was precious in her life. She wanted to weep, to scream, but she found she was in the grip of a terrifying inertia, and unable even to raise her head. What to do? What could she do? What dare she do?
The habit, acquired over long years, of putting the needs of others first came to her rescue now. Her duty lay clear. She must protect the royal child who had been entrusted to her care.
She must confront her husband.
Tom strode in, throwing his cloak and bonnet across a bench. He noticed his wife, sitting unusually still on the bed. Something in her countenance alarmed him.
“Are you feeling all right, Kate?” he asked concernedly.
“I am well in body, I think,” she replied slowly, raising sad, reproachful eyes to him. “In heart, I fear I am not so sure. What was your business in the garden with my Lady Elizabeth?”
“My Lady Elizabeth?” Tom repeated, playing for time and striving to think up a credible explanation. Katherine was watching his face intently.
“Why, Sweetheart,” he said, sitting down beside her and taking her hand, “there is no need to vex yourself. When I met the Lady Elizabeth, she was in great distress and I got her to confide her worries to me. That was all. Would you not have had me offer a little fatherly comfort?”
Katherine’s shoulders were poised to sag with relief. Dare she believe him? She badly needed to. She might have gravely misjudged him, after all, thinking him faithless when he had probably been trying to be kind. He was a tactile person, after all.
“Why was she so distressed?” she asked. “She seemed in good heart last night.”
“It is a man, I fear,” the Admiral told her, thinking rapidly.
“A man? Who dares presume so far?” Katherine cried angrily.
“Alas, I know not, for she would not say,” Tom replied. “But I have seen him for myself. I have seen them together.”
“When?” Katherine demanded of him. She was deeply shocked.
“You know that little window that overlooks the long gallery? I espied them from there. They were embracing; I fear she had her arms about his neck.”
“Embracing? And you never told me?” She was aghast. “Tom, I am her guardian.”
“Ah, Kate, but I did not then know it was Elizabeth. At first I thought it might be, but I could not see the girl’s face, only her red hair, and she was wearing a dark cloak. Then I remembered that red-haired wench in your chamber, and I just assumed it was her. But just now, Elizabeth confessed to me that it had indeed been she.”
He could not be making this up, Katherine thought. He would not dare. The matter was too serious.
“This is appalling,” she said. “Has she told you who the man is?”
“She would not, I fear,” Tom said, breathing easier now. “I tried all manner of ways to get her to confess, but she steadfastly refused.”
“And just how far has this relationship progressed?” Katherine wanted to know.
“No further, she has assured me. In fact, the gentleman has withdrawn his affections from her. That was why she was so distressed.”
“I must send for Mrs. Astley,” the Queen said, rising.
The governess’s face registered shock.
“In faith, Your Grace, I knew nothing of this,” she declared unhappily.
“It seems we neither of us have been vigilant enough,” Katherine said. “But that it should come to this! I pray the girl has spoken truth, and that she has indeed emerged as unscathed as she claims.”
“I will talk to her, madam, at once.”
“Please do. And please say that I insist she divulges the name of this unspeakable knave.”
“Oh, I will, never fear, madam.” Kat was almost beside herself. “Yet who could it have been? There comes no