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Finally Nyssa made her curtsey to the Princess of Cleves. "I welcome you to England, Your Highness," she said slowly and carefully in the High Dutch that Hans had taught her.

A broad smile split the princess's face, and she burst forth into a stream of words of which Nyssa could only identify a few.

Hans von Grafsteen grinned, delighted with his creation, and said to the lady Anne, "She cannot understand you, Highness. She is just learning our tongue. I am teaching her. She thought that perhaps it would be difficult for you in a new country, with no one to understand you. If you speak slowly, and distinctly, the lady Nyssa vill comprehend."

The Princess of Cleves nodded at the boy, and then turning back to Nyssa, said carefully, "You are kind, my lady, to have thought of how I might feel. Do you understand me now?"

"Yes, madame," Nyssa said, curtseying again.

The princess turned to the page. "Who is she, Hans? Her family, I mean."

"Lady Wyndham is the daughter of the Earl of Langford. They are not an important family by any means, but many years ago her mother was the king's mistress. She was, I am told, a gentle lady of kind disposition and modest demeanor. She was known as the 'Quiet Mistress.' "

" Ahhhh," the Princess of Cleves exhaled. "Is it possible that this girl ishisdaughter, Hans?"

"Nay, madame, she is not. Nyssa was born before her mother ever came to court. She is not the king's bastard, but trueborn."

"Tell me, Hans," the princess said, "why do these ladies look at me so strangely? This Lady Browne's jaw dropped when she first entered my presence. What is it? My clothing, I know, is not English, and must seem strange to her, but it is more than that, I can tell."

"It was the painter, Holbein, Your Highness. He flattered you when he painted your portrait," Hans said frankly. "He made you seem smaller, and perhaps a bit softer than your features actually are. The king is most enamored of that portrait, I must warn you, my gracious lady."

"Is he," Anne of Cleves replied. "Well, he will have to take me like I am, I fear; and after all, he is no longer in the glory of his youth, Hans, is he?" She chuckled. "He is lucky to get a royal bride at all. He has not the best reputation as a husband." She chuckled. "I shall, however, be as meek and modest as I can, for I have never in my life been more relieved to be away from a place as I am to be away from Cleves. My brother, the duke, has been insufferable since our father died."

Nyssa listened wide-eyed. She could not understand most of the conversation, for the princess and the page chattered too quickly for her to follow, but here and there a snatch of sentence or a word penetrated her brain. The princess, she realized, was a woman of humor, and she was not at all stupid. "I will help you to learn English, my gracious lady," she said boldly.

"Good!" the princess said with a smile. "Hans, tell Lady Browne I am most pleased by all the maids, but Lady Wyndham's kindness in attempting our tongue bodes well for my happiness."

The boy repeated his mistress's words, and almost laughed aloud to see the look of relief that passed over the older woman's face.

"Her highness is most gracious," she said. Gracious, yes, but a pretty young woman who would delight the king, no. Heaven help us all, Lady Browne thought. What will he do when he finds out? With another low curtsey to the Princess of Cleves, she shepherded her charges from the room. They followed after her like chicks after a hen.

"God's blood, she is appalling," Anne Bassett declared when they were safely back in their assigned chamber. "Gross and unfashionable!"

"The king will take one look and send her back," Katherine Bassett agreed in superior tones. "She is a great tall stork of a creature, and nothing at all like our gentle Queen Jane."

"Queen Jane is dead, and buried these two years past," Cat Howard said in practical tones. "Her greatest accomplishment in life was producing our darling Prince Edward. The king would have become bored with her eventually, and her Seymour relations are intolerable, my uncle, Duke Thomas, says. The king needs a new wife, and more sons."

" 'Tis true," Katherine Carey agreed, "but this princess, I think, will not suit him at all. Poor lady to have come so far."

"The king is hardly in the flower of his youth, and cannot expect a perfect young beauty," Elizabeth FitzGerald spoke up in her soft, lilting voice. "It is true that the lady Anne is not quite like her portrait, but she seems a good lady. I think her eyes are kind."

"It will take more than kind eyes to win over Henry Tudor," Lady Browne told them. "What do you think, Lady Wyndham? You spoke with her. What did she say?"

"I merely welcomed her to England, and she thanked me," Nyssa told them. "I offered to help her with her English. She appears willing and eager to learn, madame. I like her. I hope the king will too."

They were shortly to find out, for the king, eager to meet his bride, had galloped all the way from Hampton Court in order to, as he had told Cromwell, "nourish love" between himself and the lady he would shortly marry. He burst boldly into the presence chamber of the Bishop's Palace unannounced, clad in a great cloak, a hood obscuring his identity, clutching in his hand a dozen sable skins he intended gifting the lady with. But she, seeing the enormous, bulky figure in the long, swirling cloak, screamed with fright, and grabbing up a pillow, began to beat the intruder about the head. The king fended her off, backing away; it was not an auspicious beginning.

Hans von Grafsteen bowed to the king and apologized. "She does not know it to be you, Your Grace. Allow me to explain."

Henry nodded impatiently. "Be about it, lad! I have patiently awaited this lady's arrival, and am now anxious to make her acquaintance." He strove to make out the features of her visage.

The young page moved to the princess's side. "Your Highness, do not be frightened. It is the king himself come to surprise you."

"This great wild boar of a man is the king?" the princess said, the pillow dropping from her hands. She stared at Henry Tudor, then looked away, saying, "Gott in Himmel, what have I pledged myself in marriage to, Hans?"

"You must greet him, my lady," the boy told her nervously.

"If I must then I must," she answered him, and made him a deep curtsey, her head lowered.