by David Field
‘And does that dreadful fusspot Mistress Champernowne also act as your governess? If so, I will give orders that she treat you more kindly than she does Elizabeth.’
‘I have been allowed my own governess, thank you anyway, Edward. She has travelled with me from our estate of Bradgate and she has been my governess for as long as I can remember. I was also allowed to bring my childhood companion, Grace Ashton.’
‘This is all excellent,’ Edward beamed. ‘Now, how much did you hear of what the Archbishop was boring on about as you entered?’
‘I heard only something about allowing the Lady Mary to worship in her own preferred way.’
‘And what think you? Should all people be so permitted?’
‘Not if they thereby run the risk of falling into heretical sin, surely?’
‘And how may such sin be avoided, say you?’
‘By diligent reading of the Bible and communion with God in prayer.’
‘An excellent response!’ Edward enthused. ‘It seems that our perceptions of the role that God plays in our lives are well aligned. You will assist me in drawing up further documents on the future that our Church should take?’
‘I am no scholar, as you know,’ Jane reminded him.
Edward simply smiled and led her by the hand to the chair next to his. ‘Matters of scholarship we may leave to the Archbishop, but you and I may instruct him as true believers in the new religion and he may then convert our beliefs into procedure. Uncle Thomas, you may leave us, since we have much to discuss and you no doubt have many matters to attend to in the ordering of your household.’
For the next six months, life at the Chelsea house settled into a happy routine. Jane was accommodated in a suite of rooms on the second floor, with Mary Calthorpe in an adjacent room that was accessed by way of Jane’s. Grace had her own room a few doors down from Jane’s and between the two was a second suite of rooms, occupied by Lady Elizabeth, with her governess Kat Champernowne in the same sort of adjoining chamber to her mistress’s bedchamber that Mary had in respect of Jane’s.
All three girls — Elizabeth, now fourteen years old, Jane approaching eleven and Grace a few months behind Jane — were allocated places at the main table in the Hall of ‘Chelsea Manor’, as the house was known, and Grace was relieved that she was not being hidden away with the servants. Jane was in attendance on King Edward for several afternoons during the week, but the monotony, for Grace at least, was relieved by the fact that the two girls from Leicestershire were regularly attended upon by Guildford Dudley and his companion Allan Bestwick.
There was a long garden behind the house, planted with fruit trees and with a large flower bed in which a gardener maintained an impressive collection of roses, and on days when the weather permitted, the four young people would walk and talk.
For Jane and Guildford the conversation was mainly concerning matters that were occurring at Court; Jane was obviously able to supply Guildford with much detail regarding her regular conversations with King Edward, which Guildford would dutifully report back to his father the Earl of Warwick, as he had been instructed to do. From Jane, Guildford learned that the young King frequently expressed his frustration at being so closely confined within his suite of rooms and often declared his wish to be as free as other youngsters of his age. Jane had not the remotest idea that she was being used as a source of intimate information regarding the royal moods.
Grace and Allan, by contrast, could speak only of their own childhood memories and their hopes for the future. Since Grace was only just approaching her eleventh year, she had no realisation that the warm glow that she felt whenever she was in Allan’s company was the prelude to something more deeply emotional; all that she knew was that the days seemed sunnier when he visited her and that they never seemed to run out of things to talk about.
After several such visits, Grace felt that she already knew the small village by the river, with its parish church and a few cottages clustered along its single street, one of which was home to Allan’s family, who lived alongside the farrier’s shop that provided the many Bestwick children with their livelihood. Allan, for his part, was intrigued by the glimpse that Grace gave him of life as the daughter of the lord of a modest rural manor, growing up alongside a childhood companion related to royalty.
The major event during that settling in period was the announcement, by a somewhat startled but overjoyed Catherine Seymour, that she was with child and due to give birth in September. Despite her three previous marriages, the most recent one to the King of England, Catherine had never conceived, and now, in her mid-thirties, she was about to experience something she had only ever witnessed in other women.
One night, Jane was having difficulty sleeping, an ailment she put down to the heavy supper that was still lying just below her breastbone. As she listened to the hoarse breathing and occasional snore of Mary Calthorpe through the open door of the adjoining chamber, she became aware of other noises, this time through the thin plaster wall behind her bed head.
The chambers next to hers were the ones occupied by Lady Elizabeth, with whom she had resumed the easy friendship that had developed during their earlier meetings with King Edward. Their paths did not cross too often these days and Elizabeth seemed to find her own amusements with attendant musicians and scholars, but they would meet at mealtimes and Jane looked up to the young woman almost four years her senior, taking fashion guidance from her and listening to her reminiscences of life at Hatfield House with her horses and country gallops.
What lay immediately behind the thin plaster at the head of Jane’s bed was Elizabeth’s bed chamber and Jane was therefore puzzled to hear giggles and a male voice raised in playful jest. Then she heard a slap and a squeal of laughter, followed by a woman’s voice raised in admonition and a man’s reply. This was followed by raised voices and the angry slamming of a chamber door.
Jane was still trying to decide what it all meant when there came a light tap on her chamber door and around the door from her adjoining main chamber came the pale face of Grace Ashton.
‘May I come into your room?’ Grace asked timidly. ‘I’m a little frightened by all that disturbance.’
‘What was it?’ Jane asked.
Grace shook her head. ‘All I know is that as I peered out of my chamber door I saw Baron Seymour storming down the hallway with a red face. I think he was angry about something.’
‘More likely embarrassed,’ came the stony voice of Maryy Calthorpe as she appeared from her own bedchamber, her hair tied in the ribbons that she wore for sleep. She looked at Grace disapprovingly. ‘And you have no business walking the hallways in your nightgown, Mistress Ashton. Get back to your own room immediately.’
‘But —’ Grace began to argue, only to be silenced by Mary Calthorpe’s raised hand.
‘You have nothing to fear. The disgraceful proceedings are over for another evening. But if Mistress Champernowne does not report them, I will.’
XII
It was impossible not to notice the glum atmosphere in the Hall as Jane and Grace came in from a morning in the garden, walking and talking with Guildford and Allan. Lady Elizabeth rose hastily as they entered, leaving her dish of meat unfinished. Avoiding their gaze and ignoring Jane’s enquiry as to what might be the matter, she all but ran from the hall, with Kat Champernowne fluttering closely behind her.
Grace asked a red-faced Mary Calthorpe why Elizabeth and her governess were making such an unseemly exit from the communal dinner table.
‘They’re both mightily embarrassed, Mistress, and with good reason, the pair of them. The Lady Elizabeth for encouraging it and Mistress Champernowne for allowing it.’
‘What, Nanny?’ Grace asked, frustrated with the answer and agog for any whiff of scandal in an otherwise boring household.
‘The Lady Elizabeth has been asked to leave, and Mistress Champernowne is to accompany her to Sir Anthony Denny’s house in Hertfordshire. Cheshunt, I believe.’
‘But why
?’ Jane demanded, equally irritated by the reticence to give details.
Mary Calthorpe looked round briefly, satisfied herself that there were no servers currently in the Hall and lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘The Master’s been interrupted in Lady Elizabeth’s bedchamber, where the pair of them were seen in an embrace of sorts — at least, that’s what Lucy the laundress says. Mistress Kat’s too embarrassed to discuss it with me, since she’s clearly failed in her most important duty.’
‘I saw the Master leaving Lady Elizabeth’s bedchamber a few nights ago!’ Grace chimed in excitedly. ‘Was that the time when it happened?’
‘One of them, seemingly,’ Mary replied with a disapproving frown. ‘Lady Catherine is said to be most put out and intends to move to Sudeley Castle for her lying in, living apart from the Master.’
‘But she’s not due until the autumn!’ Grace pointed out. ‘And what will happen to us?’
Mary frowned and knitted her brows in vexation as she explained, ‘Well, you clearly can’t remain here, if the Master engages in that sort of thing with young girls. So it’s either Sudeley Castle with Lady Catherine, or back home.’
‘But the King wants me in London!’ Jane wailed.
Mary shrugged her shoulders. ‘Be that as it may, I owe it to both of your fathers to preserve your good names, and clearly they would be lost were you to remain here, amidst all this ungodliness. There’s nowhere else you can go, is there?’
‘There might be, if you’d come with us,’ Jane replied eagerly. She turned to Grace with big, wide, pleading eyes. ‘Durham House? Do you think that Guildford could persuade his father to provide us all with accommodation?’
‘I’m sure he could!’ Grace replied encouragingly. ‘And then I’d get to see Allan every day!’
‘Who’s this “Allan”, and where have you been meeting him?’ Mary asked suspiciously.
‘Oh Nanny,’ Grace laughed, ‘don’t be so stuffy! It’s Master Bestwick, who calls several times a week. He was in the garden with us this morning. You should know — you were following us round the garden like one of the bloodhounds on the Bradgate estate.’
‘I’m not so sure that I like the comparison,’ Mary replied huffily, ‘and I had no idea that you and he had got so close as to exchange first names so freely. I’d be inclined to instruct you to see less of him, except I know that the best way to get you to do something is to tell you not to.’
‘It’s nothing like that, honestly, Nanny. It’s just that we’re such good friends and he’s so easy to get on with and —’
‘I think I can work out the rest for myself, young lady, since I well remember how my niece turned into your mother in just such a fashion. But you’re not yet even eleven years old and far too young to be taking a fancy to a young man.’
‘He’s sixteen,’ Grace pointed out, ‘and girls can get betrothed at twelve.’
‘Don’t you go getting ideas like that into your head, young lady.’
‘What about Durham House?’ Jane butted in, anxious for the conversation not to drift away from her need to continue attending Court.
‘I suppose there’s no harm in you asking,’ Mary conceded, ‘but you’re not going anywhere near the place until I’m assured that there’ll be room for me as well.’
It was not until three days later that Guildford and Allan once again presented themselves to the Steward of Chelsea Manor and were admitted to the house that Lady Elizabeth had left only the previous day in a coach loaded with her clothing and other bags.
Jane and Grace had carefully planned what each of them was to say and by agreement it was Grace who first broached the topic as she walked side by side with Allan Bestwick along the lawn.
‘I hope that you and Guildford will make a special effort to visit us more frequently this week, since we must depart for our estates ere the end of the week.’
Allan stopped dead and turned with an apprehensive look. ‘You can’t mean that? Have you in some way annoyed the Lady Catherine? I know Jane can sometimes be a little headstrong and even mischievous, but surely not sufficient to deserve banishment from London? And what will King Edward say, if Jane can no longer visit him?’
‘In truth, it’s nothing we’ve done,’ Grace told him with a crestfallen look. ‘But Lady Catherine will be taking herself off to Sudeley for her lying in, leaving Baron Seymour here alone, and clearly it would not be seemly for two young ladies to remain, even if they have a chaperone of sorts between them.’
‘Surely the Lady Elizabeth will also be remaining?’
‘She’s already left, and in some disgrace.’
‘What sort of disgrace?’
‘We’re not supposed to know, but we’ve contrived to discover that it had something to do with Sir Thomas being discovered in her bedchamber.’
Allan’s jaw dropped and he called loudly to Guildford. ‘Guildford, has your father said aught to you regarding the Lady Elizabeth leaving here in disgrace?’
‘Only that she has transferred to her house in Hertfordshire. I heard nothing regarding “disgrace”. Do please tell! My father will be fascinated to hear of it.’
Breathlessly, the two girls recounted what little they knew of the matter, and Grace’s contribution was clearly the more impressive, involving as it did the sight, by her, of Thomas Seymour being banished, dressed only in his nightshirt, from Lady Elizabeth’s chambers.
‘Would you be prepared to repeat all this to my father?’ Guildford asked.
It was Jane who answered, after reaching out her hand to rest it on Grace’s arm in a silent warning to let her pick up the conversation. ‘We shall both require something from him in return,’ she said quietly with lowered eyelids.
‘How much?’ Guildford enquired, reaching for the purse at his belt.
Jane shook her head. ‘Not money, but something of greater importance to us both. We require somewhere new in London in which to reside with our governess Mistress Calthorpe. The King would no doubt be greatly indebted were your father to allow us to take up residence in Durham House, since by such means I would be able to maintain my visits to him.’
‘It wants only the asking and it shall be done!’ Guildford exclaimed, relieved that he would, by these simple means, achieve the double advantage of having Jane closer to him on a daily basis and being able to convey to his father something to the detriment of Thomas Seymour, against whom Sir John seemed recently to have taken a considerable dislike.
In the excited chatter that followed, it was agreed that the two young men would take their leave immediately and return with the family coach that would convey the two girls, their governess and all their baggage, the short distance to the Dudley family house in the The Strand that would become their new accommodation.
As they began to walk briskly back towards the house, Allan Bestwick hung back and Grace turned, then stopped and walked back towards him.
‘Why are you delaying, Allan?’ she asked as she looked more closely at the puzzled and yet somehow hopeful look on his face.
‘I can readily understand,’ he replied, ‘why Lady Jane would be anxious to remain here in London, since by this means she may continue in her regular concourse with King Edward. But what reason might you have for wishing to remain?’
This stopped Grace in her tracks temporarily, since she had not stopped to analyse her motives. Anxious to prevent her face turning any pinker, she replied hastily, ‘Jane is my friend — my only friend. Back in Leicestershire I would have no-one else to share my days with. Also, our governess is not as young as she once was and she would no doubt welcome my extra presence to preserve Jane’s good name. Why, what other reason did you think there might be?’
‘I thought perhaps...’ Allan began hesitantly, then saw the encouraging grin on Grace’s face. ‘Perhaps — me?’
‘Of course, you, Allan,’ Grace said, as she looked behind her, then leaned forward and pecked his cheek.
XIII
The next few months passed blissfu
lly, with both girls richly accommodated within the spacious confines of Durham House. Jane was increasingly in attendance on the young King Edward, while during her absence Grace was learning, from Allan, the finer points of horse maintenance and shoeing in the stables that adjoined the main building. He made no secret of the fact that once he became ‘Sir’ Allan Bestwick he intended either to return to his home village and assume the management of his father’s farrier’s business or start another one of his own in an adjoining village.
King Edward asked Jane, during one of their afternoon audiences, why she and Grace had left the Seymour house and when Jane proved evasive, Edward clapped his hands in frustration and glared at her. ‘You do not lie to your King, Jane! Is it true that Thomas Seymour was playing unwanted court to my sister Elizabeth?’
‘I can only tell you what I heard, Edward, since I saw nothing. And it may all be the work of evil tongues.’
‘Somehow I doubt it,’ Edward replied with a frown. ‘He is said to have pursued her to the house in Cheshunt to which she fled to avoid his attentions. She is now further removed, to her house at Hatfield, which the Lady Mary has ordered to be securely guarded, with instructions that Sir Thomas is not to be allowed beyond the gate. Now, tell me what transpired in Chelsea.’
Jane recounted what little she had heard, omitting Grace’s sighting of him in his nightshirt, being expelled from Elizabeth’s chambers. She emphasised once again that it was only second-hand knowledge and might be the product of malicious tittle-tattle.
‘But is it true that as a result of these goings-on, Lady Catherine has retreated to Sudeley Castle alone?’
‘She is hardly alone, Edward, since she took most of her attendant ladies with her and hired a midwife to accompany her.’
‘But she is apart from her husband Seymour?’
