I, Jane: In The Court of Henry VIII by Diane Haeger Read Free Book Online Page B

in the first place.”
    “You know perfectly well I was angry, John, and besides, it was meant to teach the girl a lesson.”
    “The only lesson learned is to avoid impulsivity.”
    “Oh, do silence yourself!” she spat, rolling her eyes again. “And help me work this out.”
    A shift of weight on the floorboards caused a creaking sound, and both parents turned toward the stairwell. Reluctantly, Jane and Thomas both emerged, hands behind their backs, a sense of fear rising in both of them.
    “So then. The two of you were listening,” their father said, linking his hands behind his back and gazing down discerningly at them.
    Knowing that at times silence was the best response, neither child replied as he looked back and forth at each of them.
    “Since you have obviously heard the news, what do you think, Jane?” he suddenly asked his daughter as Margery moaned.
    “It seems I must go if you wish Edward to go,” she meekly replied.
    “Petulant girl!” her mother screeched. “This is an impossible situation! You are bound to ruin this for all of us once people realize whose sister you are!”
    The taste of this new cruel barb was bitter on Jane’s tongue as she tried not to react, watching her own mother serve it up to her,full of disappointment. Still, Jane looked back and forth to each of her parents and waited silently, stifling the urge to burst into tears before a pronouncement was given or a decision made.
    “I must sell it, then, mustn’t I?” Margery resolved. “’Tis the only thing of value I have in this world, the only tangible memory of the life I used to have. But I must surrender it now.”
    “Give an inch to take a mile,” John countered with his customary calm. “Think of what we might gain through Edward.”
    “Or what we might lose through Jane.”
    The next silence was long and awkward, stretching out for what felt like an eternity. Jane squeezed her linked hands, determined still to push back the hurt along with the press of tears at the corners of her eyes.
    “Oh, very well, John,” her mother finally groaned in concession. “Go up to London. Sell the thing if you can. But pray, make certain you do it quietly. ’Tis bad enough that the Seymours of Wiltshire must stoop so low. But for Edward I believe I would do anything—even sell the only thing of measure I have in this world,” Margery proclaimed as Thomas and Jane stood motionless before her.
    The two were quickly dismissed, and Thomas, Jane, and Elizabeth went to the apple orchard to watch the villagers who had been hired to pick the last of the ripe fruit from the trees. “I cannot believe you are going to France in the train of the king’s sister. ’Tis a miracle,” Thomas whispered to Jane.
    Elizabeth, who was too young to be interested at all in this latest turn of events, was noisily eating an apple as she watched, happily biting and chewing and swinging her short legs back and forth from a wooden bench placed at one end of the orchard.
    “I do not wish to go,” Jane replied with a glimmer of anguish in her overly wide blue eyes.
    “Why on earth not? There will be music and dancing and elegant food. You shall have new dresses and new shoes, and you shall make new friends!”
    “In case you’ve not noticed, Tom, I make enemies far more quickly than friends,” she countered. “I am not quite good at being with people.”
    “You are good with me,” Thomas countered loyally.
    “You’ve got to like me; you’re my brother.”
    “’Tis not true at all. I don’t like Elizabeth nearly so much as you.”
    Their younger sister looked at them with a small pout before she lost interest in their debate and went back to the remains of her apple.
    “I’m frightened, Tom. What if I make a mistake? What if they realize I am not like them, not a nobleman’s daughter? I’ll not dare to open my mouth or someone might discover the truth about me. Then Mother would be more angry with me than she is now!”
    “She is only