In the Shadow of the Crown - By Jean Plaidy Page 0,153

his protectorate and of lands to the value of £2,000. Then he was given a free pardon. How lucky he must have felt himself to be, to have escaped with his head. Perhaps this had come about through his meekness, but I believe that his enemies might have feared the effect his death would have on the people. In any case, he was freed, admitted to the Privy Council and made a gentleman of the King's bedchamber.

Warwick clearly did not want open warfare between them at that stage and, to prove that there was no enmity between them, shortly afterward Somerset's eldest daughter married Warwick's eldest son, Viscount Lisle.

This seemed very amicable. I wondered if it occurred to Somerset that things are sometimes not what they seem.

I did not feel very easy in my mind at the thought.

ELIZABETH WAS NOW at Court. I heard that she was made much of there. I had not been invited. I should have been a little worried if I had been, but it was not difficult to understand what this new favor to Elizabeth was all about.

I was not sure what her religious views were, but I guessed they would be trimmed to the order of the day. She had said, “What does it matter how one worships God, as long as He is worshipped? Do you think He minds?”

That seemed utter blasphemy to me; and it was said with an innocence of which I did not think my sister capable.

The King was a Protestant and, the laws of the country being in favor of that religion, Elizabeth would be a Protestant. That was what the Council liked. Edward's health was deteriorating. Who next? they were asking. Mary, to plunge us back to Rome? Or Elizabeth, who will be quite accommodating?

Clearly it must be Elizabeth.

The King, I heard, was devoted to her. She would know how to sweeten him. She was brazen. Most young girls would have hidden themselves away after what had happened with Seymour. But now Seymour was dead and it might be that soon his brother would be, too. I would not trust Warwick. Elizabeth would behave as though she had never been involved in that unsavory scandal and would doubtless have everyone believing that she was an innocent and simple girl. Not so innocent. Never simple. I could imagine her, smug and content, attracting attention with her bright reddish hair and witty manner. The King would be entranced and she was in her element.

But I could not be forgotten. What did they plan for me?

I had not disliked Somerset. He was at heart a good man, I believed. He had been overcome by ambition and had seen his fortunes change when Jane pleased the King; but now they were changing again, for he had reckoned without the wily Warwick. One could never know what Warwick was planning.

I was now certain that, if my brother Edward was near to death, they would seek to remove me. Should I suddenly awake one night to find myself ill after eating something… drinking some wine?

I was an encumbrance. They knew my mind, I had made that clear. I was not of their faith. They knew I would seek to bring back the old religion and return England to Rome; and if I succeeded, what would become of these men who had followed my father and gone on to what he had never intended?

I became very much afraid. I was constantly reminding myself of the task which had been given to me. I had to save my country, and these men would do everything in their power to thwart me; and the only way to be sure of doing this would be to remove me.

I became obsessed with the notion that they were planning my death. I would wake in the night trembling, imagining hired assassins creeping into my bedchamber. I remembered the little princes in the Tower. They had been sleeping in their beds, it was said, when men crept in and placed pillows over their faces. I would start at every footfall; when messengers came, I would think they brought a warrant for my arrest. I remembered so well those terrible days when Catharine Howard had feared her death was imminent. I understood how she had suffered.

I had my mission. I must save myself if possible, and each day I was believing myself to be in more and more acute danger.

To whom could I look for help? There was only one who could