Nine Days a Queen: The Short Life and Reign of Lady Jane Grey by Ann Rinaldi Read Free Book Online Page B

was so confused. Something was broken in the house after that. Sir Thomas was too much the nobleman, too much the knight, too much the protector to mention it to me again, but I know he never forgave me.
    Katharine had caught him in the garden with Elizabeth in his arms, she told me.
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    I did not want to think what that meant. I hated Elizabeth for it, though, for what she had done to us all. She was truly like her mother, Anne Boleyn.
    She was a child one moment, innocent and trusting, and in the next a witch going after another woman's husband.
    And dear Katharine. Who could hurt her?
    I caught her crying on several occasions after that, and I wondered how we could all continue to live together in the house. I avoided Elizabeth. It was not difficult to do. She was out and about more than I. Riding, playing at archery, or just walking.
    After a week Sir Thomas called me into his study.
    "You haven't been speaking to Elizabeth," he said.
    I did not deny it.
    "That is no way for you to behave. She will be Queen of England someday. You know Edward is not well. And that Mary is always sickly. I would that you speak to her, mend this thing between you. Don't let it fester."
    I promised him I would speak to her.
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    "She is soon to leave us," he said.
    I just stared at him.
    He was fussing with some papers on his desk. "It is Katharine's wish, and I must honor it. She will be going to Hatfield to stay with a very dependable couple who have stewardship of the place. And I am off at the end of the week for the Isle of Wight. I have ships and men to see to, as well as the country's defenses. I would that you keep Katharine good company while I am gone."
    "Yes, sir," I said.
    That was all. There was no more joking or teasing between us. He was stern and serious. Then in the next moment I was dismissed.
    Elizabeth had a new green velvet archery outfit that fitted her form perfectly. She had soft leather gloves, a perky hat.
    "Your outfit becomes you," I said, approaching her as she was taking aim at her target in the fields behind the house. "Green is your color."
    "My mother had an outfit like this made. I had to have one too."
    I watched as she let the arrow fly and saw it land near the center of the target. "You play well.
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    I could never even hold that thing."
    She tossed her head. "Innocent play keeps us all sane, Jane."
    What was I expected to say? I minded that someday she would be Queen and I would be obliged to kneel to her. No sense offending her now. Queens had long memories.
    "You don't play enough," she chided.
    "I would rather read."
    "But you chide others who do."
    "I chide no one," I said. "Shall we correspond when you are at Hatfield?"
    "Yes. I would like that. You must let me know the instant Katharine's baby is born. It is to be a boy, you know."
    "How so?"
    "Sir Thomas has been seeing astrologers and fortune-tellers. They say it will be a boy."
    "They told our fathers you and I would be boys too."
    She shrugged. "Thank you for coming to see me. Now I must practice more."
    So formal! Well, we had all changed in the last few weeks. I bade her luck with her archery and made my way back to the house.
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    By the end of the week they were both gone: Sir Thomas to London, and Elizabeth off with her household and yeomen of the guard for Hatfield.
    We parted friends, all of us. Yet a cold hand lay upon the house, and it made me shiver in fear.
    Katharine came down with a cold. It rained steadily. She took to her bed and I read to her for hours. Greek mythology. She loved it. Also some Latin. But inside me my heart ached. For I blamed myself, just as Sir Thomas had blamed me. If only I had kept my mouth shut. Now our family was broken up, and I had a bad feeling about things to come.
    I helped Katharine fit out the nursery. Oh, it was to be beautiful. The walls were hung with blue silk at Sir Thomas's request.
    But Katharine insisted on some pink pillows. "Just in case it's a girl," she said.
    The cradle was draped in