Her Highness, the Traitor - By Susan Higginbotham Page 0,97
of the old woman I had seen in the dying king’s chambers? Northumberland, the son of a traitor, was an ambitious man. He had successfully brought down Somerset. Might he have hastened the death of the king? Especially since the talk about Guildford becoming king had begun, it was a thought I could not repress, no matter how respectfully Northumberland treated my daughter and no matter how adoringly his duchess gazed upon him. “Now that you are queen, you should have someone taste your food for you. Everything. If Northumberland is doing you no harm, he will see no harm in it.”
Jane nodded.
“But if you don’t want your father to leave you—and I would feel better myself if he did not—you need to tell the council. You need not voice your suspicions about Northumberland or your worries about your father’s military experience. Simply demand that he stay here with you because of his health.”
“Then I will,” Jane said. “Tonight.” She hesitated. “Last night, I consummated my marriage. I had been putting it off.”
“So I heard.”
“Will I know soon whether I am with child?”
I smiled to think how little my brilliant daughter knew of such ordinary matters. Some things could not be found in books. “Probably not until you miss a monthly course, perhaps even two. Of course, you cannot pin your hopes on just one encounter. You must keep lying with him.”
“Well, I know that much,” Jane said huffily. “It wasn’t so horrid, really. At least he didn’t ask me afterward if he could be king.” She hesitated again. “It’s good to have you here with me, Mother. Will you stay with me at court?”
“Indeed I will, until you no longer think you need me here.”
For once in her life, my daughter looked entirely humble. “I don’t think that will ever happen.”
31
Jane Dudley
July 12, 1553, to July 19, 1553
I pass over the dreadful scene following my daughter-in-law’s refusal to give Guildford the crown matrimonial. It makes so little difference now—and besides, it was not one of my finer moments.
The arrogant child who had become our queen, however, was to score another victory the following evening when she summoned the council before her and told them her own father could by no means lead the troops against Mary. He was too ill, she said, and besides, she would be lost without him. When tears welled up in her soft brown eyes, the councilors lost all will. Someone else, they agreed, would have to lead the army—and what man would be better for it than the man who had broken Kett’s rebellion, my own dear husband?
As the man who had done more than anyone to fulfill King Edward’s dying wish, John could hardly refuse to lead the army. “Though I would like to,” he said when he brought the news. “I worry about the loyalty of some of the men here. Arundel in particular.” Imprisoned when Somerset fell, he had spent a year in the Tower. Recently, he had been released and had had his fines canceled and his place on the king’s council restored—generous treatment for someone who had been plotting at the very least to arrest my husband.
“Perhaps you should take him with you.”
“I considered it, but there will be enough commanders going with me, and it would look as if I didn’t trust him—which, of course, I don’t, but it can’t look as if I don’t. But perhaps my suspicions are for naught. He is, after all, a close relation of the queen.” John shrugged. “This shouldn’t take too long, in any case. We’re well prepared.”
“I will be glad when you return, so we can get the queen crowned and we can leave the Tower,” I confessed. “I am a little too close to the queen here for my comfort.”
“Yes, I heard about that set-to the other day.” I hung my head, and John grinned. “What a shrew I married. But really, you served Katherine Howard, the silliest queen in Christendom. Jane can’t be much worse.”
“Katherine Howard was irresponsible, but sweet natured and pleasant. And I was much more patient then, too,” I admitted. “Probably because I was younger.”
“Oh? I haven’t noticed such a change.” John drew me close to him and ran his hands along my form. “I shall miss you, my love.”
A knock sounded. “Your Grace? The queen is asking for you.”
“And that,” I said, “is just another reason why I will be glad to leave the Tower.”