“Are you to carry a halberd?” I asked, picturing Will in the crimson livery of the yeomen of the guard.

He laughed. “No need to go that far!” He slanted a teasing look my way. “Have you realized yet that you will also have a new role at court?”

I frowned in puzzlement. “Of what nature?”

But before he could answer, understanding burst upon me and I laughed aloud in delight. With Lady Somerset gone, and if the king’s sisters and female cousins and the Lady Anna of Cleves continued to absent themselves from court—as they likely would, since they all seemed to prefer life in the country—I would be the highest-ranking noblewoman at King Edward’s court. I would act as his hostess when foreign dignitaries visited. I would be the next thing to royalty myself.

34

It had long troubled me that I remained estranged from my family. The commission’s decision that Will and I were legally married had not brought about the reconciliation I’d hoped for. Then again, both my father and my brother William spent much of their time in Calais, where Father was lord deputy. Mother was often with them, although for the most part she remained in Kent. I thought often of visiting her there, in spite of Father’s disapproval, but I had much to occupy me at court. I did see Aunt Elizabeth, who had duly married Sir Edward Warner, having met him when he came to Cowling Castle to discuss a possible betrothal to me.

When I heard that Father was to be installed as a knight of the Garter, one of the greatest honors an English king could bestow upon a subject, I was determined to make an opportunity to mend fences. My entire family came to court for the ceremony on the thirteenth of December. At my urging, Jane Warwick invited them to sup with her, then slipped quietly away, leaving Will and myself to host the meal.

“A neat trap.” My father’s grudging acknowledgment gave no hint of what he would do next. He could walk out, taking the others with him.

Mother placed one hand on his arm and smiled up at him. “Sit down, George. This foolishness has gone on long enough.”

Soft music drifted out from behind a screen. Well-trained servants carried in platters and flagons and vanished as soon as they’d placed them on the table. Despite a certain awkwardness, we began to eat.

I studied each of my brothers in turn. It had been years since I’d last seen any of them. I was a mature married lady of twenty-three, while William had grown into a tall, sturdy young man of twenty-two. He sported a fine spade beard. As if he felt my gaze upon him, he glanced my way, hazel eyes intense. “You look well, Bess. Being Marchioness of Northampton must agree with you.”

“Are you important?” nine-year-old Edmund piped up.

Father snorted. Mother shushed him.

“We like to think so,” Will said. He dealt daily with the young king and was more at ease with a boy of Edmund’s age than I was.

“Do you think, my lord, that there will be another invasion of France?” This question came from my brother George, named after our father. He was nearly seventeen and likely to see battle if hostilities did break out again. He had shot up in height and now stood a full head taller than our brother Thomas, who was ten months George’s junior.

“As far as I can see,” I answered, “we are always at war with France, and with Scotland, too. It matters little whether peace treaties are signed.”

“Can you tell us what the king is like?” John asked. At fourteen he bore a strong physical resemblance to Father, having inherited his square face and serious brown eyes.

“King Edward is a very studious, religious youth, weighed down by great responsibilities,” Will answered. “But he excels at many sports, too. In time, I think, he will be as great a monarch as his father was.”

At eleven, my brother Henry had a particular interest in the twelve-year-old king. “I should like to be one of his schoolmates,” he declared. “Can you arrange it?”

Will glanced at Father, who merely shrugged. “I can mention your interest to His Grace, Henry, but I cannot guarantee he will invite you to court. Most of his companions have been with him for many years. He would have to displace someone to make room for you.”

“He could dismiss the Duke of Somerset’s sons,” Henry suggested. “Send them to the Tower where they belong.”

Will looked so uncomfortable with the suggestion that I rushed to intervene. “The king is loyal to his friends. Besides, young Lord Hertford and his brother are innocent of their father’s crimes.”

At last Father spoke. “And what is to be done with the Duke of Somerset himself? Is he to be executed, as he executed his own brother?”

“I do much doubt it,” Will said. “Lady Somerset has already been set free.”

“And is already scheming,” I muttered. She’d lost no time ingratiating herself with Jane Warwick, who was far too softhearted when it came to old friends. The duchess had gone so far as to remind Jane that their children—Jack Dudley and Anne Seymour—had been all but betrothed before Somerset’s arrest.

“The Privy Council is not an instrument of vengeance,” Will said. “We seek only to do what is best for England.”

Father’s fulminating gaze would have disconcerted a lesser man, but Will met and returned it. Mother ended the standoff by poking Father in the ribs.

“This is a rare pleasure,” Mother said. “A family gathering. Have done with talk of war and court alike. My husband and older sons will soon return to Calais and who knows when I will see Bess again.”

For the remainder of the evening, she kept control of the conversation.

35

The Duke of Somerset was released from the Tower of London on the sixth of February. On the eighteenth he received a full pardon. At about the same time, Will was made great chamberlain of the king’s household. In May my father became a member of the Privy Council, although his duties at Calais kept him from attending most of the meetings. And, on the third of June, Jack Dudley married Somerset’s daughter Anne Seymour. King Edward himself attended the wedding.

Following the ceremony the duke provided a wedding feast of great magnificence. For entertainment there was a masque. It was the usual allegorical fare, with young ladies in absurd costumes representing various virtues. At nearly twenty-four, I was no longer asked to participate in such entertainments. I was a “matron,” only without the children that term usually implied.

I had begun to suspect that I might be barren. Will and I had been together now, barely apart for more than a night or two, for over two years, and that was without counting the months we’d had at Norfolk House before I’d been exiled to Chelsea. In all that time, I should have conceived. I should have had two plump babies by now, as my sister Kate did. And I’d heard that my old nemesis, Dorothy Bray, in six years of marriage had produced four healthy children.

The wedding, with its constant harping on fertility, put me in a pensive mood. It was time, I decided, to reopen the subject of adoption. I approached Lady Somerset to ask for news of our mutual niece.

At the blank look on her face, I prompted her. “The queen dowager’s daughter. Little Mary Seymour.”

“Oh, that one.” She gave a dismissive wave of one hand. “You will have to ask the Duchess of Suffolk if you wish to know how she fares. We sent the girl to her, and I have had naught to do with the child since.” She did not even know where young Mary was lodged, but supposed she lived on one of Lady Suffolk’s Lincolnshire estates.

I went in search of Will, but it was time for the tilting. No festivity the young king attended was complete unless it included coursing. I found my husband with King Edward in an antechamber made all of boughs. From this “bower” we were to watch two teams of six young gentlemen each run two courses in the field.

“Will,” I whispered, tugging at his arm to draw him to the back of the company. “I wish to visit the Duchess of Suffolk.”

He went very still. “You mean you want to see the child.” The clatter of lances from the field and the shouts of the crowd drowned out my reply, but he could see the answer in my eyes. “Perhaps in the autumn?” he suggested when it was quiet again. Before I could object to the delay, he added, “A French delegation is due to arrive soon. You know the king relies upon you to act as his hostess.”

His Grace shouted encouragement to both challengers and defenders. He was as bloodthirsty as every other boy his age, and many years away from having a wife to charm and flatter foreign envoys, one of the responsibilities of a consort. At present, for want of a queen and lacking a woman of higher rank in residence, the task of entertaining ambassadors and other important visitors continued to fall to me. Most of the time, this pleased me. Just now it seemed a great burden.

“It is to our advantage to keep the French sweet,” Will reminded me, seeing my reluctance, “and you, my own dearest Bess, have a unique ability to delight every man you meet.”

I did not need to be flattered into doing my duty, but I took pleasure in Will’s compliments. Indeed, I took pleasure from everything about my husband, even after so much time together. I knew just how to please him, too, and as the wedding festivities continued, my thoughts drifted often to the night ahead.

I was not so very old. I could still conceive. We would simply have to try harder. I hid my smile as Will and I joined the other couples forming up for a dance.

“Perhaps we should return home soon,” I suggested when we made our reverences to each other.

“Are you not feeling well?” His voice was anxious, but the steps of the pavane carried us apart before I could answer.

“I would be glad to go to bed early,” I told him when we touched hands and paused for a moment face-to-face. I recalled the first time we had danced together and relished the memory.

“Ah,” he said. “I see.”

But first there was another tradition to observe, that of escorting bride and groom to their bed. Will and I had skipped this step, and I was glad of it. Jack Dudley’s brothers stripped him naked before they shoved him toward his young bride. Her blushes turned her flesh bright pink, all the way down to midbosom, the point at which it disappeared beneath the sheets.

Will caught me staring at Jack’s body and made a low, growling sound. I fixed him with a bland look, although I knew my eyes must be full of mischief. “He has a well-formed backside,” I observed, trying to sound innocent.

“That is not the part of him you were admiring,” Will complained.

“And I suppose you never peek at another woman’s bosom?” I teased him.

“I prefer yours.”

“And I prefer your . . . parts . . . to Jack’s.”

The flare of desire in Will’s eyes was so powerful that it had me gulping to take in air.

We were at Durham House, another of the Earl of Warwick’s properties near court. It was located on the Strand, just where the Thames curved, so that Whitehall Palace was in sight. Norfolk House was only a short distance away by boat or barge, but Will and I could not wait that long. We left the nuptial bedchamber with the other guests, but instead of heading for the water gate, Will seized a lantern in one hand and my arm with the other and hustled me along a corridor and up a flight of stairs until we came to a small room in a tower.

I was out of breath and laughing when he locked the door behind us. It was, by the evidence of desk and papers, some kind of workroom for a clerk. Beyond that, I glimpsed little except the narrow bedstead onto which Will tumbled me.

“We should have had all this,” he whispered. “The pomp. The ceremony.”

I shook my head, helping him unfasten his points and squirming to get my skirts out of the way. “I would change nothing.”

“I need you, Bess. Now.”

“And I need you.” I was more than ready for him, and as he slipped into my body and began to move, I sent a fleeting prayer winging heavenward that, this time, I would conceive. Then I thought of nothing but Will and of my own pleasure, for it was not only in the hope of children that we loved. We were as attuned to each other’s needs and desires as we had been that first night at Guildford. Will completed me, and I, him.

Later, replete, we rose and dressed and crept out of Durham House to return home. There, in our own bed, we made love again, more slowly this time, and I confided in Will my fear that I might be barren.

“I want children, Will,” I whispered.

“Children come as God wills.”

“What if it is not my fate to bear a child?”