it was many months since her husband had visited her.
Elizabeth now had some of her old servants with her besides Kat Ashley and Parry; she was still guarded although she was allowed to hunt the buck in Enfield Forest. Spies surrounded her; and she knew that all her actions were reported to the Queen’s ministers.
Gardiner was dead, and that was the greatest relief she had had for a long time. Her hopes had never been so high. Already ladies and gentlemen were coming to her and asking for a place in her household, for they knew now that the Queen would never bear the child she longed for. But after Philip’s second visit she had declared herself to be again pregnant.
Then Elizabeth shut herself up with Kat and demanded that the cards be read. Kat declared that the cards told her there was no child in the Queen’s body; there was nothing but the delusions in her head. Elizabeth had commanded that certain astrologers be brought to her; they came in the guise of servants, and much trouble that had caused, the gentlemen eventually being taken and tortured in the Tower, and the Princess herself put into great danger which might have cost her her head but for the calm answers she gave.
The weeks would have been tedious without Kat’s gossip. Elizabeth liked to talk of the Queen’s husband and how his eyes gleamed when they rested on her, and how she was sure that he had wished she were the Queen.
“Mayhap one day,” said the frivolous Kat, “we shall have the King of Spain asking for your hand in marriage.”
“What! Marry my sister’s widower! Never. Remember the trouble my father had through marrying his brother’s widow.”
“Well, the King of Spain is not so handsome as some gentlemen. There is one in particular…. I was thinking of that dark young gentleman who haunts our cards, my lady.”
Then Elizabeth would talk of the days she had spent in the Tower, embellishing her adventures as Kat loved to garnish her stories. It was like putting the flavor into a tansy pudding, Kat always said when caught in an exaggeration; and what would tansy pudding be without its flavor?
Marriages were proposed for the Princess. Philibert’s name came up again. Philip wished her to marry that man. Then there was Prince Eric of Sweden, whose father was eager for the match with his son.
Elizabeth resisted: “Never, never, never! To leave England? Never would I be guilty of such folly.”
“And why should King Philip, being so enamored of your fair person, so passionately wish for your marriage with Philibert?” demanded Kat slyly.
“Stupid Kat! Do you not understand his cunning? Philibert is his vassal. Philip does not know how sick Mary is. He cannot wait for me. He wants me near him—as I should be if I went to Savoy.”
“He seemed such a cold, passionless man.”
“You did not see him when he was with me.”
She always had an answer ready; and if she was often frivolous and coquettish, when danger approached she was as alert as a jungle animal.
But now the dangers were less acute. Even the Queen could no longer believe in her second false pregnancy. Philip, it was said, would never come back to her; and her days were numbered. Never had hopes at Hatfield been as high as they were that summer and autumn.
One day a young man came to Hatfield and asked for an audience of the Princess; and when her attendants asked his name he answered: “Lord Robert Dudley.”
When Elizabeth heard that he had come, her eyes sparkled and she demanded that a mirror at once be brought to her.
“Bid him wait awhile,” she told her women. “Tell him I have some business to attend to before I grant him an interview.”
And the business was to be alone with Kat, for only Kat must see the excitement which possessed her.
“Kat … my emeralds! How do I look?”
“Never more beautiful, Your Grace.”
“I cannot receive him in this gown.”
“Why not?” said Kat artfully. “He is only a lord recently free from the taint of treason.”
“Not treason to me, Kat. And I speak of dresses. Let us have the one with the green thread work. Hurry. He is a most impatient man.”
“As impatient to see you as you are to see him, my lady.”
“I am not so impatient that I cannot pause to change my dress.”
“Now have a care, my lady. Have a care. You are not yet Queen of England, and the man’s