The Queen's Mistake Read Online Free PDF Page A

formally, becoming fully the imposing figure he was to the rest of the world. “I shall let you know my decision.”
    “When? For pity’s sake, Thomas, instruction is not without its cost. And if I were being asked to go on tolerating it all and arranging it for—”
    “I shall send word to you from court by month’s end. See that her dancing skills are brightened and that she can play ‘My Own Heart’s Desire’ on the lute without mucking it up. His Majesty enjoys that tune above all others and despises when someone cannot
see it through. Just in case, do remind the girl frequently that His Majesty is how he currently prefers being addressed. Now, we shall have a hot meal and a rest before we set off again.”
    “You will not remain the night?” the dowager asked in apparent shock as Catherine critically watched their interplay.
    “In this old crypt? Goodness, no. I much prefer the comforts of civilization.”
    As he moved to leave the room with a sweep of his great black cloak, Catherine stood. “And the new headdress, Your Grace?” she called after him.
    He paused and glanced at her again, this time with far more appreciation than he’d shown in the beginning. “You shall have a new French hood by tomorrow. And do learn to wear it with style while I am away,” he said crisply. “They are all the fashion at court these days.”

    “So how do you find our young Catherine? Shall we send her to be a lady of honor to the queen?” the duke asked his son as they galloped over the golden bracken back toward the palace in London. “Shall we not send her to London and see how she fares in his company?”
    “Father, she is an innocent to the complexities of court.”
    “Ripe as a new spring plum, I say. Perfect for the old hound.”
    “But perfect for what?”
    “For anything the king desires. Whore or queen, either choice would help our standing. For however long it lasts, she seems quite malleable and virginal enough—and the Cleves mare is certainly not long for the position. I am told His Majesty seeks to divorce her already, and she has been his bride for but a few months.”
    “Would we consign our own Cat to a fate like the Spanish queen,
or my poor cousin Anne after her? Even his wife Jane Seymour enjoyed no greater fate than death in childbirth.”
    “If Catherine can be useful to the family, by all means. At the very least, we can present her as one, and hope for the other whilst we wait.”
    “Father, you are a ruthless man.”
    “No doubt one of the qualities you most admire in me,” quipped the Duke of Norfolk to his son.

Chapter Two

    April 13, 1540
Horsham House, Norfolk
     
     
    F or two young men who had grown up in the same village and struck an interest in the same girl, Henry Manox and Francis Dereham could not have been more different. Catherine was reminded strongly of that fact yet again the moment she stepped into the music room and saw Manox standing beside the virginals. His slim, slightly pasty face was, as always, alive with the same kind of worshipful devotion that had earned her disdain months ago when she had begun to notice Francis.
    Henry sat dressed in unadorned beige velvet with an ivory collar, his slightly trembling fingertips moving onto the instrument as a blind man would touch things. When their eyes met, she knew that he knew what was about to happen.
    “It is good to see you again, Catherine,” he said, his thin voice holding a slight quaver.
    There was a moment of strained silence between them. His fingers left the virginal and his hand dropped limply back to his side. At the age of fourteen, Catherine had been fond of him and she had waited for their lessons with girlish anticipation. She had even enjoyed the moments of their nearness as they had sat in intimate
proximity to each other, two stools side by side before the keys. Even now she could remember first becoming aware of the fragrance of him, not musky like her uncle, and not even largely male, but