When the Heavens Fall

by Gilbert, Morris

  “Would you like to come to court as one of my ladies?” Queen Mary asked.

  “It is a grand and gracious offer, Your Majesty. But I missed so many years with my parents that I feel I must spend all my time with them.”

  Mary nodded. “That is a good thing. Your father is an excellent man. I respect and trust him utterly. Are you a good Catholic?” she asked abruptly.

  “I grew up in the faith,” Eden said. She could have added that it had been nothing more than a formality for her, but she knew that would be a dangerous statement.

  “Well, that it is good. England must return to the old religion.”

  Later Eden’s father told her how pleased he and his wife were that she had chosen to stay with them instead of going to court.

  “It was no sacrifice, Father.” Eden shook her head. “The queen is sickly, isn’t she? She’s not what I thought.”

  “Yes. She’s sick physically and I fear in other ways.” Fairfax shook his head and said bitterly, “She has brought much misery to England. And only God knows how many more must suffer!”

  21

  Eden and her mother were walking along one of the spacious hallways inside Hampton Court. The very size and ornate furnishings of the structure were astonishing to Eden.

  “I never saw such a house, Mother. It’s enormous!”

  “Yes. Cardinal Wolsey built it. More than twenty-five hundred men were employed to build it.”

  “It has so many rooms!”

  “Yes. A thousand rooms, so they say. Of course, Wolsey didn’t keep it long. King Henry confiscated it in 1529. It is a little ostentatious, don’t you think?”

  “Quite. Who would want to live in a place like this?”

  “Not me, I’m sure. Big is not better, is it?” Lady Barbara paused for a moment, and when Eden turned to face her, she said with some urgency. “Your father and I have been wondering what you think about Sir Ralph’s offer of marriage.”

  “I don’t think of it at all.” Sir Ralph Spencer had everything that a man should have who would court a woman of Eden’s stature and social standing. He was fairly handsome, though rather short. He was wealthy, but had little wit about him. “He bores me to death, Mother. All he can talk about are his dogs.”

  “Well, he has a lot to recommend him, but he is rather boring. But Eden, you haven’t looked with favor on any suitors.” Lady Barbara hesitated and then said, “You’re not still grieved over the way Brandon Winslow treated you, are you?”

  Eden did not answer for a time, and then she shook her head. “I can’t forget one thing, Mother. As badly as he treated me for that brief period of time, I loved him, and I thought he loved me. It was like nothing I had ever known before. If I can’t have that kind of feeling for a man, I’m not interested in marriage.”

  They strolled on in silence until someone called out, “Lady Barbara!”

  They saw that the Princess Elizabeth was approaching them. Elizabeth came up to them with a smile and said, “I must have your opinion on some things, Miss Fairfax. Oh, and I believe your husband is looking for you, Lady Barbara. I trust you can find him in this huge pile of bricks.”

  Lady Barbara laughed, for she liked the Princess Elizabeth immensely. “I’ll find him. I have to keep him away from these beautiful young ladies of the court.”

  “I don’t think you have anything to worry about there when he’s married to one of the loveliest ladies in England.” Elizabeth gave Lady Barbara a flashing smile, then took Eden’s arm, saying, “Come along with me. As I said, I have need of your opinion.” Eden was flattered. She had met Elizabeth twice before and liked her. “All right, if truth be told,” Elizabeth said in a conspiratorial manner, “I just wanted to get you away from your mother and hear the story of your rescue from that pirate in Spain. I’ve heard rumors, but I’d like to hear all the romantic details from you.”

  Eden was embarrassed, but she said, “Well, it was quite a daring thing. I was more or less a prisoner, although the man who called himself my father wouldn’t say that. When Mr. Winslow came, I had no idea that he had come for me.”

  “And did you fall in love with Brandon? He is so very handsome, don’t you think?”

  Eden was taken aback, but she knew that Elizabeth was very outspoken, so she said reluctantly, “I’m afraid so, and—and I thought he was in love with me.” She went on to relate that Brandon Winslow had made her fall in love with him and then had used great ingenuity to get her to run away. Then she spoke of the time on the ship when she discovered the truth. “When I found out that he really didn’t love me, Princess Elizabeth, I felt like the biggest fool the world has ever known.”

  “Why, if this were a romance,” Elizabeth smiled, “the daring hero would have fallen in love with you, and you would have married him. Weren’t you tempted?”

  “Yes. I was tempted, but when I found out that he had lied, I hated him.”

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about Stuart Winslow and his wife Heather,” Princess Elizabeth said. “I’ve noticed that he often takes her hand simply for the pleasure of it. Not many men have the courage to show that kind of affection in public. I know nothing of a loving couple’s marriage.” She did not mention that her own father had been a cruel tyrant, but Eden of course knew her history.

  “I know of what you speak. Brandon told me that they’re still deeply in love after all the years of marriage, but there aren’t many marriages like that, are there?”

  “I’m afraid not.” Elizabeth grew serious and lowered her voice. “I’m concerned about his uncle, Reverend Quentin Winslow.”

  “Is he really in danger, Princess?”

  “He’s a fine man, but I think he has survived this long only because of your father’s efforts. But every day of his life he’s in danger.”

  “I hate these burnings of people! I expected it to be different in this country.”

  Elizabeth turned to face her. The sunlight caught the gold tints in her reddish hair. She had the fairest skin of any woman in England. She liked to laugh, but just now she was deadly serious. Her eyes slid back and forth before she spoke in a hushed voice. “If I were queen, Eden, it would be different. I would never have people put to death because they differed with me because of their religious beliefs.” Suddenly she remembered herself and laughed with some embarrassment. “Please don’t mention what I said. They might put me in the Tower.”

  “Oh, that could never happen.”

  “It did happen, Eden. I was taken to the Tower when I was a very young woman, and for a while it seemed that I would lose my head, as my mother did.”

  “Were you very frightened?”

  “Facing death every day? Of course I was! But God brought me through it. I was afraid for my life, and that’s not a pleasant thing. You must talk to your father and get him to do all he can for Quentin Winslow, although I’m sure he already has. Despite how my sister sees it, the Winslows have always been very loyal to the Crown. Well, I will let you go now. Can you find your way?”

  “I doubt it. This is too big for me.”

  “It’s too big for anyone. It’s a big pile of vanity!”

  After her conversation with Princess Elizabeth, Eden thought more and more about Brandon Winslow, and her thoughts went from him to Quentin. She had heard that he was preaching at Eastbourne, and decided rather abruptly that she would go to hear him preach. As a Catholic she had not heard many sermons, although she had gone to Mass many times. A stay in Eastbourne was not difficult to arrange, for a distant relative of her mother and close friend of the family lived there. Eden made up her mind. I’ll visit Mrs. Benson, and I’ll hear Quentin Winslow preach. I need to know what kind of a man he is.

  It was easy enough to persuade her mother to let her go for a visit to Eastbourne. She took simple clothing rather than the ornate gowns that were her usual attire. All the way to Eastbourne she was thinking about Brandon and his family. The bitter feelings she’d had for Brandon had been mitigated, and now she was anxious
to meet the uncle for whom Brandon had risked his life.

  Most of the churches that Eden had grown up in were large and imposing. She had attended services at a large cathedral in Spain, and after coming to England, her parents had taken her to a very large church in Dover. She had been aware of the small churches, of course, but she had never attended one, so when she entered the church in Eastbourne where Reverend Winslow preached, she was slightly shocked by the stark simplicity of the interior. Accustomed as she was to ornate statues and fine windows and all the trappings that went with the high church style, she was stunned by the simplicity of the church. The people matched the church; they ranged from the very poor to the middle class. She saw few signs of wealth among them. Most of them were working people, and although she had selected a simple, inexpensive gown, still her attire and her appearance drew the eyes of many and made her slightly embarrassed. She took a seat in the middle of the church, where she could more or less hide herself from the eyes of the preacher.

  She had sat there for only a brief time when a man came to stand in the pulpit; she knew instantly that this was Brandon’s uncle. He had the Winslow look about him: auburn hair, a wedge-shaped face, wide mouth, and light-blue eyes that were very piercing. Just a glimpse of him brought back her memories of Brandon, the bittersweet memory of the love that she had felt for him, and then, of course, the painful memory of how she had been deceived.

  The service continued. It was unlike Catholic services. Everything in this church was in English, not Latin

  When the singing was over, Quentin Winslow stood before the congregation. He had a pleasant look on his face. His voice was clear and carried well in the small building. He welcomed the congregation and then said, “My sermon this morning, if I had a title for it, would be something along the lines of ‘Three Women Who Met Jesus.’ Nowhere in the world are women honored as in Christian countries. If you were to go to most foreign countries where paganism rules, you would find women treated worse than animals. So it is in Africa and in most parts of the world. When Jesus came, he did more than any other man to lift women from a lowly status to a place of honor. And this morning I want you to think about three women who had their lives changed by Jesus Christ. First we will read the story of the woman described in Luke 8:43.” He began to read, and Eden, who had never read the Bible and knew only the remarks on scripture made by the priest, to which she often paid little attention, suddenly began to unfold like a drama as Winslow began to read.

  “And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, ‘Who touched me?’ When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, ‘Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee and sayest thou, Who touched me?’ And Jesus said, ‘Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.’ And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, ‘Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.’”

  “Isn’t that a wonderful story!” Quentin Winslow exclaimed. “This poor woman who was unclean, for according to Jewish law, any woman with an issue of blood was as unclean as a dead person. No one could touch her without becoming himself unclean. And for years she had sought to be healed and spent all her money on physicians but was no better.”

  He went on to describe the woman so well that Eden seemed to see with her eyes, and she was so caught up in the drama that her heart beat faster.

  “This poor woman, who had been failed by man on every hand, thought, If I could just touch the hem of the garment of Jesus of Nazareth, I will be healed. Ah now, there is faith, my friends, there is faith! And you have heard how she did touch just the hem of the garment of the Lord Jesus, and instantly she was healed. Bless the Lord, oh my soul! That’s what happens when people come to Jesus. They are healed.

  “Now let’s move on to the second woman that I would speak of. In John’s Gospel, chapter four, there is a marvelous story. I will not read it all. It is rather lengthy. The Bible says that on one of his journeys Jesus grew weary, and he came to a city of Samaria and he sat down on the side of a well. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, ‘Give me to drink,’ for his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria to him, ‘How is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.’ Jesus answered and said unto her, ‘If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.’”

  Looking up from his Bible, Winslow said, “Let me pause here and inform you that there was great bitterness between the Jews and the Samaritans. There were two different races completely, it seems, and they despised one another, much as we have had altercations with other nations such as the French and the Spanish and have hated them and have fought wars with them. So this woman was shocked that a Jew would even speak to her, first of all because she was a woman, second because she was a hated Samaritan. So Jesus said he would give her something to drink called living water.

  “The woman saith unto him, ‘Sir, thou has nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?’ And then Jesus had a conversation with her. And he said this: ‘Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.’

  “And then, bless the Lord, the woman’s heart was touched! ‘Give me this water,’ she said, ‘that I thirst not.’ Jesus said, ‘Go, call thy husband.’ She said, ‘I have no husband,’ and Jesus answered, ‘Thou hast well said for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband.’”

  Quentin continued the story. “And finally Jesus said, ‘The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.’ And the woman said, ‘I know Messiah is coming.’

  “And Jesus said in verse twenty-six, ‘I that speak unto thee am he.’

  “That’s the story. The woman ran back to her village and told everyone, ‘Come, see a man who told me all the things that ever I did,’ and she brought others to him.

  “So this second woman that we are looking at had nothing to recommend her to God but she found the love of God in Jesus. Isn’t that a wonderful story? Now, let’s move on quickly to number three. You’ll find this also in John’s Gospel, the eighth chapter.”

  Quentin looked out over his audience, and his eyes met those of Eden. She squirmed, for he seemed to be looking deep down into her soul, and for that one moment she knew that this was a man of honor and truth.

  “In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John we find this third woman. The scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and they had said to him, ‘Master, this woman was taken into adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou?’

  “The law, indeed, was clear that adulterers should be stoned. But Jesus did a very strange thing. He ‘stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not.’ And finally he looked up, and he said words that I have treasured and have very carefully kept. Jesus said, ‘He that is without sin among you let him cast a stone at her.’ The Bible says that they were convicted by their own conscience and went out one by one, beginning at the eldest even unto the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

  “The Bible doesn’t say this, but I like to think this dear w
oman who was a sinner but yet a loved sinner came to Jesus and bowed down and held to his feet. We do know what Jesus said. He said, ‘Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?’ And she said, ‘No man, Lord.’ And Jesus said unto her, ‘Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.’

  “Three women. This morning I would like us to think of ourselves in relation to what happened. All three women needed God desperately, and all three found him by making a desperate attempt to reach out to Jesus Christ.”

  The sermon went on for some time, and Eden listened intently. She found that her heart was beating hard, and then suddenly for no reason that she could understand she found herself weeping. She had never heard the Gospel in English, and Jesus to her was a distant statue on an altar, but this was a living Christ that Quentin Winslow spoke of! She sat there, unable to control her tears. She knew that the service was over, but she found herself too weak to rise. Finally the place grew quiet as the crowd left, and then a voice said, “Are you troubled, my lady?”

  Eden looked up swiftly and saw Quentin Winslow standing beside her. She did not know what to say, but finally she whispered, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, sir, but I never heard of anyone speak of Jesus as you did in your sermon.”

  “Come and take a walk with me. It’s a fine day.”

  It was not something that Eden would usually have done, but she found herself unable to refuse. She rose, and the two left the church.

  Quentin led her along a paved walk behind the church to a cemetery with ancient, moss-covered stones, and then paused under the shade of a spreading oak tree. “If you could tell me your problem, I would be glad to pray with you.”