The Queen's Mistake Read Online Free PDF Page B

herself smile. To someone so young, the feeling of total power over another person, like the power Manox’s lust for her gave her over him, was utterly seductive. If there was a chance that she might go to court, that she might begin her life in truth, Catherine wanted more than anything to take it. Certainly more than she wanted either young man with whom she had so foolishly tarried for lack of anything better to do at the time.

    Mary Lassells was waiting for Catherine in the dormitory. It was late afternoon and everything in the long, vacant hall was gray with shadows and filtered light. The other girls were serving the duchess downstairs, so the two girls were alone when Catherine came into the room.
    “How do you manipulate men like that and sleep peacefully at night?”
    Catherine spun around. “So it was you listening. I am beginning to know the players at last, it seems, even though I am about to change theaters.”
    “It must be nice to know your future,” Mary said coolly.

    “None of us knows that. But I do know I am going to court, so you needn’t concern yourself any longer with how I sleep, or do not.”
    They faced each other like two cats. “Henry deserves better. For that matter, so does Master Dereham,” Mary said.
    Catherine arched a brow contemptuously as she sank onto her small bed, slipped off her shoes and began to put on her other, softer slippers meant for dancing.
    “Henry, is it? Does he call you Mary as well?”
    “His affection for me is far from the foul things you have with men. We pray together and study, which is well beyond what a Catholic hypocrite like you would do. One who is bent on whoring herself for the family name at court. Although if you ever accuse me of speaking this way to you I shall deny it.”
    “We pray to the same God as reformers, Mary, just perhaps less critically. And you may wish to watch your tongue. I might be in a position one day to help you instead of being the rival you see me as.”
    “Help me off a bridge, no doubt. You fought me for Henry’s heart, then Francis’s, and won them both with your body, without truly wanting either. I would not trust you with anything I valued.”
    Catherine lifted her chin. “As you like. But never say I did not offer a truce.”
    “Oh, I shall never forget any of the words you have spoken to me—and others. You can be quite certain of that. Your face, your voice, and your choices are all etched into my mind forever.”
    Catherine looked at the plain-faced servant appraisingly then. “Apparently you do not read your Bible so well as you claim or you would know the Lord’s commandment against envy.”
    “Trust me, Mistress Howard, you would be the last person I would envy.”

    She stood and brushed past Mary on her way to the door. “I wonder if Henry Manox would say the same thing once he knew you were in love with him and working against me while he was in love with me. Perhaps you should tell him the truth of your mortal affection for him the next time you are praying together, since that is all you have managed to get him to do with you?” Catherine said.
    She paused for only a moment, then went out into the corridor without looking back. Just as she was with Henry Manox and Francis Dereham, she was relieved to be leaving Mary Lassells, who knew all of the things Catherine had done with men in the darkness of the dormitory and the music room—stories that could quite easily ruin Catherine’s life.

    As promised, a beautiful and very fashionable French hood arrived two days after the Duke of Norfolk’s visit to Horsham. It was delivered along with a summons. Catherine was requested at court to attend the new queen in her household as one of the noble maids of honor. Immediately, everyone at Horsham began to look at the young girl who had slept with the servants with different eyes.
    With Katherine Tilney, Mary Lassells and Joan Acworth attending her, Catherine sat on the edge of her bed with nothing to