Her Highness, the Traitor - By Susan Higginbotham Page 0,53

didn’t walk into the kitchen and offer itself up as a sacrifice. Besides, you needn’t actually hunt. Just riding in the fresh air would benefit you. You have been cooped up with your books too much lately.”

“I am working on Father’s New Year’s present. It is a translation from Latin into Greek of Heinrich Bullinger’s treatise on marriage. I must get on with it.”

“Very well,” I said. I looked at Jane’s handiwork: a page covered with what I could only assume was flawless Greek. “What does Bullinger have to say on marriage?”

“I can hardly summarize it in a sentence, but in short, he believes it a state to be most desired. There is an English version,” Jane suggested. “Perhaps you might want to read it.”

“No, thank you,” I said. “Having been married for many years, I do not think I need instruction on the subject.”

***

I did not last long at the hunt. As the dogs spotted their prey and yapped ecstatically, I felt a familiar pain in my gut: the cramps that presaged my monthly course. Some months I scarcely had pain at all; others, the cramps were so bad that I could not speak through them. I decided to ride back to the house and rest. As I made my way back to my chamber with Bess Cavendish, who had been one of my waiting women before her marriage and often visited me as a friend, one of the servants approached. “My lady, Master Ascham arrived in your absence and is paying a call on the lady Jane.”

I sighed, wondering whether I should postpone my rest and greet Master Ascham. Such men were common guests at Bradgate, for over the past couple of years, Harry had gained a reputation as a friend and patron of scholars, who naturally flocked to our house. My Kate regarded them as a bore, while little Mary generally took their visits as a time to scuttle off onto the grounds of Bradgate if she could manage it. Jane, naturally, delighted in their company, especially as they shamelessly flattered her and Harry. I, of course, was a different matter. Though the scholars appreciated a well-kept chamber and a well-cooked meal as much as did lesser mortals, it never occurred to them I might bear some responsibility for the quality of this hospitality. They confined their exchanges with me to pleasantries, if that much.

Today’s arrival, Roger Ascham, had tutored the lady Elizabeth but had left her household after the uproar about Thomas Seymour. He was not a recipient of Harry’s generosity, but he had been impressed with Jane’s scholarship and had suggested some books for her to read, and he was friendly with her own tutor, John Aylmer. As a result, Jane and Ascham had corresponded now and then. He was on such terms with Jane that I could greet him and then take to my bed without causing offense, leaving Jane to be his hostess, I decided. I made my way to her outer chamber, the door of which had been left slightly ajar.

“So your ladyship decided not to join your family on their hunting trip?” Ascham was saying.

“Yes. Such idle pastimes are not to my liking. Mother urged me, but I was absorbed in my translation for Father, and in this Plato.”

“Your parents must be very proud of your dedication to learning, my lady.”

“Father is, but Mother has no appreciation for such things. She is a woman of limited intellect, you see.”

Bess gasped. I opened my mouth, then shut it as Jane’s voice continued relentlessly.

“She is entirely absorbed in such pastimes as gambling and hunting. She can barely speak French, which is astounding, considering that my grandmother was its queen. All she can do is sew shirts and make comfits and the like, and then she presumes to criticize me when I fall short at these things.” Jane’s voice dripped with scorn. “As if there are not servants to do those tasks, and do them better than she ever could.”

“With respect to your ladyship, I think you judge your mother too harshly,” Ascham said. “She was not educated in the fashion that you have been, and even if she had been, few have been blessed with your gifts, my lady.”

“True, but she is so insufferable! I am glad you have come here today. I have longed to speak to someone about this, and there is no one here who would understand. They are all so commonplace. If Father were here more often, it would