The Sixth Wife_ The Story of Katherine P - By Jean Plaidy Page 0,118
other, Kate. If we have a child, that will be good. If we do not…we have each other.”
She took his hand and kissed it; and as they walked home, the church bells sounded a merry peal.
IT WAS SEPTEMBER, a few days after Elizabeth’s fourteenth birthday.
Lord and Lady Sudley had moved to Hanworth, and Elizabeth went with them. All through the summer days, after the newly married pair had returned from Sudley Castle, Elizabeth was becoming more and more aware of the Admiral’s watching eyes.
She was a young lady now, she believed. Fourteen seemed grownup, old enough for a girl to have a husband, if she were a Princess.
She fancied the Admiral thought so too. He had been very bold of late. It was a situation filled with danger; she was living in the household of a man and his wife, and was slightly in love with the man, and he…how much in love was he with her?
She did wish that the third person concerned was not her dear stepmother; and she wished too that the Queen was not so openly doting. Yet, thought Elizabeth, if it were not I who caught those stray glances of his, might it not be another? It would be disastrous if the wicked Admiral turned those bold glances of his on someone who did not know how to receive them in the right spirit!
She put on a gown of black velvet, and told Kat Ashley that she was going into the gardens to join the Admiral and her stepmother.
Kat Ashley protested at the dress. “My darling lady, it is too old for you. Black at your age!”
“I am grown up, Kat. Do you not realize that I am fourteen?”
“So you are, sweetheart, but you are but a girl in growth.”
“Do you not think the black suits my hair?”
“It does,” Kat admitted.
“Then it is time I began to look my age.”
Kat put her arms about her and kissed her. “Oh, my lady, I don’t want you to be grown up.”
“Why not?”
“Because I am afraid. I am afraid of when you grow up.”
“Dearest Kat, why should you be afraid?”
“Afraid for you, sweet. Now they say: ‘Oh, she is just a child …’ And they think of you as a child…of no importance.”
“But I am of importance, Mistress Ashley. I do not wish to be thought of no importance.”
“It is safer so…until…”
“Until, Kat?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Kneel and kiss my hand, then.”
She took the bracelet from her arm and put the circlet on her head.
“My lady! My lady!” cried Kat in dismay.
“There are just the two of us, so what matters it? And, Kat, you are not to gossip of it.”
“No, my lady.”
Elizabeth took Kat’s ear and pinched it hard. “You gossip too much with Master Parry.”
“Oh, my ear! It hurts. Stop, you wild cat. Stop…Your…Your Majesty!”
They began to laugh, and the bracelet fell to the floor.
“A bad sign!” said Elizabeth, growing pale.
“Nonsense!” cried Kat, sprawling on the floor to recover the bracelet. “Here, let me put it on your wrist… where it belongs. Bless you, my love. God preserve you.”
“Kat, you foolish woman! You’re crying.”
“I love you, darling, and that’s the truth. So much that I am sometimes afraid.”
“I know what you’re afraid of. You think of her of whom we never speak. Kat…I want to talk of her now … and then, afterward … never again. Am I like her?”
“No.”
“She was beautiful, was she not?”
“She had more than beauty.”
“That did not save her. All that charm and all that beauty…it did not save her from the sword.”
“She was wild and full of levity,” said Kat, “and many men loved her. The King was among them. They say he never loved any as he loved her. But that did not save her.”
“She was raised to be a Queen… raised quickly, and quickly put down. But I would be Queen in my own right. I am a King’s daughter. Remember that.”
“I remember it, my lady.”
“And if I will wear a black velvet dress, then I will wear a black velvet dress.”
“Yes, my lady, but that does not mean I shall say I like it.”
“Why do you not like it, Kat?” Her tone was wheedling.
“It makes you look too old.”
“Too old for what?”
Kat Ashley shook a finger at the Princess. “Take care, my lady. You know what I mean. When I see the glances he gives you, I tremble.”
“Oh, Kat…so do I! But have no fear. I am not so charming as she was… and although I have some