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CHAPTER 9

ISIMPLYwill not let you go, Nyssa!" Catherine Howard told the Countess of March. "You cannot leave me! You are the only true friend that I have. All the rest of them! Pah! Hangers-on, and greedy for what I can give them, but you are not like that at all. I can trust you!You must stay!"

"Nay, Cat, I must go home," Nyssa told her friend. "My parents know absolutely nothing of my marriage to your cousin. It is hardly something I wished to elaborate upon in a letter. In all my whole life I have never been away fromRiversEdgeuntil I came to court last autumn. I miss my family, and they must meet and get to know Varian. If we do not go now, then when?"

Although she was ostensibly staying with her grandmother at Lambeth House, Cat Howard had rooms at Greenwich. Both she and her companion would have been fascinated to know that they were the very same rooms once inhabited by Nyssa's mother, Blaze Wyndham, during her brief tenure as Henry Tudor's mistress.

Cat pouted prettily at her friend's words. Her auburn hair caught the sunlight streaming in through the windows that overlooked the river. Nyssa thought how pretty she suddenly was. The dress Cat wore was obviously new, and of a very expensive material such as Cat had rarely seen. It was a deep rose silk with a low neckline that exposed a good deal of her pretty breasts. The gold pomander ball that the king had given her in April hung from her waist. About her neck was a rich gold chain studded with rubies, and every one of her plump little fingers had a beautiful ring upon it; and each of those rings had a fine gemstone set in it.

"If I ask Henry," Cat said slyly, "he will make you stay. He will do anything for me, Nyssa!Anything!I have never had a man so wild for me. It is quite astounding, considering his age."

"You have had other suitors? I did not know that." Nyssa was surprised. Cat had always presented herself as a complete innocent, although looking back upon some of their conversations, Nyssa realized now that that was not quite the case. And why wouldn't she have had suitors? She was a pretty young woman. Thomas Culpeper had certainly noticed her, although Cat said she had never bothered with him. If Cat was lacking in dowry, she was rich in powerful relations, which was almost as good in some cases.

Cat giggled. "You must not tell on me," she said. "Duke Thomas does not even know. The first man to pay me court was my music master, Henry Manox. He gave me my first kiss. Then when I was at Lambeth before I came to court, there was Francis Dereham, a gentleman pensioner in Duke Thomas's service." She giggled again. "My step-grandmother, Duchess Agnes, never knew what went on amongst her charges as long as we were mannerly in her sight."

Nyssa was shocked. "Tell me no more, Cat," she said. "But you had best tell the king of your harmless little romps. If you do not, someone else, jealous of you, surely will."

"If I tell Henry, and he grows angry with me, Duke Thomas will never forgive me. Nay, it is better I say nothing. No one will tell, for all were equally guilty of collective naughtiness. None will want to accept blame, and so all are safe from scandal," Cat said to Nyssa. Her little hands nervously smoothed her gown. "You will stay, won't you, Nyssa? I should be lost without you," she wheedled her friend.

Nyssa shook her head. "I must go home, Cat. Besides," she explained reasonably, "you will soon marry the king, and be off on your honeymoon. You will not want me along then. The king will want you all to himself. He is very much in love with you. Everyone can see it. It is quite the talk of the court."

"It is, isn't it?" Cat replied with a rather smug smile. "They say he has never behaved with any of the others as he does with me."

"You are very fortunate to have a man who loves you, Cat," Nyssa said. "Do be good to him. My mother says if a woman is good to her husband, he will always treat her well."

"Does she? How curious. I do not remember my mother for she died when I was very young, and I was sent off to the Howards at Horsham to be raised with my sisters and half a dozen others. I came to Lambeth when I was fifteen, and was put in Duchess Agnes's care. Do you think I will have children, Nyssa? I think I am afraid of it."

"The king wants other children, Cat. 'Tis one of the reasons he takes a young wife. We have only Prince Edward. There should be at least a Duke of York, and perhaps another Duke of Richmond."

"The king has two daughters," Cat answered sullenly.

"But a woman cannot rule England," Nyssa said. "Nay, you must give his grace at least two fine boys."

"And what of you? Will you not give my cousin Varian sons? You have been married for almost three months already. Is there no sign of a child? Varian likes children, you know. He would come to Horsham when I was a child to play with the little ones," Cat told her.

"Did he?" Nyssa was fascinated with this bit of information regarding her husband. He had certainly never said anything to her about children.

The two young women chattered for some minutes more, and then Nyssa arose, saying, "I really must go, Cat. Varian will be furious with me. I told him I was coming just to bid you farewell. I have been here for almost an hour. We have several days' travel ahead of us."

Catherine Howard stood up and hugged her friend. "Promise me you will come back to court when I am queen," she said, her cerulean-blue eyes boring into Nyssa's soft violet-blue ones. "Promise!"

"Some day," Nyssa said offhandedly. "I promise."

"For Christmas at Hampton Court," Cat persisted.

"Oh, not Christmas," Nyssa said, shaking her head. "Christmas is always atRiversEdge. I missed both it and my birthday last year because I was in service to the queen.Not Christmas, Cat. "

"Twelfth Night, then," the young queen-to-be commanded.

"I shall speak to Varian," Nyssa promised.

And I shall speak to Henry, Catherine Howard thought silently.

Nyssa went to take her leave of the king. She curtsied low to the monarch.

"It has been some weeks since I have seen you, my wild rose," Henry Tudor said. His love for Cat had made him benevolent again toward Nyssa. "You bloom," he noted. "I must assume that your marriage to the Earl of March is not an unhappy one, then. What thinks your lady mother?"

"She does not know, Your Grace," Nyssa said. "We prefer to tell her together face-to-face. I think it better that way."