Just a Girl by Jane Caro Read Free Book Online Page A

to myself, it was I who heard the rumours, saw the queen’s closest ladies being led away for questioningand watched as the bishop’s men emerged triumphant from her quarters bearing aloft the dangerous texts. So it was I who warned the queen of the danger she was in and, in so doing, I learnt another vital lesson about being a woman in a man’s world.
    â€˜Madam! Madam!’ I burst into her presence, breathless both from fear and from the restrained and secretive haste I had been forced to make to get to the queen before her enemies could prevail upon my father to sign a warrant for yet another wife’s arrest.
    â€˜What is it, child?’ she asked, starting up from her stool by the fire and dropping the book she had been reading in her surprise.
    â€˜They have questioned the Lady Suffolk and arrested the Fair Gospeler and taken her to the Tower.’ I saw the blood drain from her face a little, but she rallied quickly.
    â€˜Who has done this, and why?’
    â€˜Bishop Winchester, Your Majesty. And Master Wriothesley, the Lord Chancellor, among others. They have accused Mistress Askew of heresy, and witchcraft.’ Queen Catherine sat back abruptly on her stool. Her ladies gasped. We all knew the dread punishment for such crimes.
    â€˜But what is this to me?’
    â€˜They have searched your book closet, madam, and found what they were looking for.’ At this, one of her ladies burst into tears and others fell to their knees,praying for God to help them in their terror. But Queen Catherine was made of sterner stuff. She got to her feet again and in two steps was by my side, her hand on my shoulder. It felt firm and warm.
    â€˜Send word to my husband, your father, that I am taken ill and that my life is feared for. Tell him that I am calling out for him in my extremity.’ I stood and gaped at her, not quite understanding the meaning of her words.
    She gave me a sharp push. ‘Go now, make haste. Send word exactly as I say. Speed is everything.’ I turned to run to the door, when she bade me pause. ‘Elizabeth?’
    â€˜Yes, madam?’
    â€˜Thank you, my child, thank you from the bottom of my heart.’ Then I ran with the memory of an earlier unsuccessful run hard upon my heels. I ran to find a messenger and to save her life.
    And saved it was. The king forgot his peevishness when he heard that the queen’s life hung by a thread and he hastened to her side, just as she had wanted him to. Once there, he saw a woman in deep distress and, as always, when confronted directly with the sufferings of others, he was moved to compassion.
    â€˜What ails you, my pigeon?’ he asked her.
    â€˜I am sick, my gracious lord, with grief and fear.’
    â€˜What grieves you, my darling? Who has frightened you?’
    â€˜It is I myself, my lord, who has committed both crimes.’
    â€˜Yourself? You speak in riddles. Are you feverish?’
    â€˜No, my lord, just hot with shame, for fear that I have offended you with my womanly foolishness and I would not displease my gracious lord and master for all the gold and jewels in Christendom.’
    â€˜How now, madam? I have not said so.’
    â€˜No, you are too kind to admonish me. It is God, my saviour, who has revealed to me the error in my ways and the risk that I have taken in appearing to dispute with you – who is my superior in all things.’
    â€˜It is true that of late I have felt you have taken it upon yourself to speak of things above your power of reasoning, and this has displeased me momentarily. But I have held my tongue, madam–’
    â€˜As I should have done, my lord. And would have, if only my feeble powers of reasoning had been better able to show me the profound error of my ways. But, good my lord, I did not mean to appear to put my own beliefs and reason above your own. It was only my lack of skill in disputation and my feminine clumsiness that led me so to do. I