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"There is something strange happening with Cat," Nyssa told her husband, "and whatever it is, Lady Ferretface is part of it."

"What do you mean?" he responded.

"If it were anyone else but the queen," Nyssa said slowly, "I would say there was a man involved, but that cannot possibly be."

Varian de Winter felt a shudder ripple down his spine. Could his cousin be foolish enough to have taken a lover? Holy Mother! He prayed it was not so. The Howards had lost one queen to the headsman's ax. If Catherine were stupid enough to involve herself with a man not the king, she would eventually be found out. There was always someone watching when you least expected it. And a queen's adultery was considered high treason.

"Can you find out?" he said. "I do not want to speak to my grandfather unless you are certain of what you suspect."

"I will have to spend more time with her," Nyssa said, "and I have been avoiding it so we might be together." She leaned over and kissed him softly. "I prefer to spend as much time abed with you, my lord, as I can. Bed has ever been your strong point," she teased him, running a single finger down his thigh.

"If Catherine is silly enough to have taken a lover," he told her seriously, "we are all in danger of the king's wrath."

"We are not Howards," Nyssa said. "Why should the king hold us responsible if his wife's behavior is light? What have we to do with Catherine Howard, Varian?"

"You do not know how the king thinks, sweeting," he told her. "I was raised at court. He will accept no blame for anything. He seeks scapegoats whenever he finds himself liable for a fault. If Cat betrays him, he will not consider that part of the fault lies with him—that a man of his age should not have wed a chit so young and ripe to bursting, that Cat is not a rose without a thorn, but a flighty little girl, who thinks only of herself and of her own pleasures. The king will feel abused and ill-used by everyone about him if he runs true to form, and he will. He will blame everyone else for what happens. He will blame my grandfather in particular, and the Howards in general. My mother was a Howard, and I am Duke Thomas's only grandson. We will not escape his anger if Cat behaves badly."

"I will see what I can find out," Nyssa said, now genuinely concerned. "If there is another man, Varian, I am certain that it is just a harmless flirtation. Cat would never violate her marriage vows."

"I pray you are right, sweeting," he told her, and pulling her into his arms, he kissed her deeply.

To the queen's delight, Nyssa began to spend more time with her. She had also, to everyone's relief, ceased talking constantly about her twins. Other people's children were always so boring.

The progress moved on to the port of Boston so the king might indulge his naval fantasies. The queen and her court, however, boated on the waters of the river Witham past the elegant tower that soared above the church of St. Botolph. The boaters pelted each other with flowers, until the waters about them looked more like a field than a river. Then laughing and singing, they picnicked along the riverbanks.

The progress moved into Yorkshire and Northumberland, heading for Newcastle, the farthest north Henry Tudor had ever been in his kingdom. Varian de Winter left his wife to her own devices, attaching himself to the king's group of gentlemen in order to learn any gossip that might filter in from their wives or ladyloves. It was better that he and Nyssa not seem too close if they were to learn the truth.

Tom Culpeper, although a gentleman of the king's privy, was spending more time with the queen these days. One of his closest friends, Sir Cynric Vaughn, had singled out Nyssa and was pursuing her shamelessly.

"Now that you have stopped being an old goodwife," Cat said, "the gentlemen can see what a charmer you really are."

The two women were together in the queen's privy chamber of her pavilion. Kate Carey and Bessie FitzGerald had joined the progress, at the queen's invitation. But for their change in status, it was like old times, Nyssa thought.

"I do not think the gentleman should be so obvious in his attentions toward me," Nyssa said, almost primly. "After all, I am a married woman, Your Grace. Besides, I suspect he has earned his nickname, and not in a way any respectable woman would approve of," she noted. "A gentleman named 'Sin'? It sounds quite wicked."

Cat giggled. "He is wicked," she said, and she lowered her voice. "I hear he makes it a habit to seduce married women, and get them to fall in love with him. You had best beware, Nyssa, for Tom says Sin is madly in love with you, and means to have you!"

"How do you do it?" Kate Carey asked. "It seems every time you come to court, some gentleman desires you. I have not been so fortunate. I shall be married off to some dull fellow in due time without ever having known passion and mad abandon."

"Maybe when you are wed, the gentlemen of the court will feel free to indulge their passions for you," Bessie said mischievously. "They said it is dangerous for them to tamper with virgins unless they plan to wed them."

"True," the queen agreed wryly. "After all, if the road to paradise is already an open road, who is to know who has traveled it before? Still, the truth of the matter is that men are usually in such a hurry to couch their lances that they quite often do not even know if a maid is pure or not." She laughed. "Men can be managed, my dears."

Nyssa was shocked. This was a side of Cat Howard she had not seen before. It was cynical, and perhaps even a trifle dishonest. She had never before considered her friend in these terms. Wisely, she held her tongue, for they would just tease her about being a backward country lass even if she was a married woman.

"But if a girl is not a virgin, can a man not tell?" Kate Carey asked curiously. "When Nyssa married Lord de Winter, my uncle, the king, insisted that proof of the consummation be brought to him the following morning. That proof was a bedsheet with the stains of Nyssa's virginity upon it. If there is no blood, what can a man think but that his bride was not pure? I would be very afraid of such a thing."

"Do not be such a goose, Kate," the queen said. "Many a girl has gone to her marriage bed with a chicken's bladder of blood secreted beneath the sheets to give evidence of her purity."

"But a girl could become enceinte playing the wanton," Bessie FitzGerald replied nervously.

The queen motioned them closer and said, "A girl can meddle with a man and not become enceinte if she knows what to do." She smiled knowingly, showing her small white teeth.

Her words disturbed Nyssa further. Why was the queen suddenly so knowledgeable? Was it because she was a married woman, or did her enlightenment stem from another time, a time prior to her marriage? It was a frightening thought.

"I want to dance!" the queen said, jumping up. "Kate, go and call the musicians. See if there are any gentlemen in the outer chamber, and tell them that we shall join them immediately."

The queen's musicians were summoned and began to play. The young men and women danced the spritely country dances. Wine was being served with small sugar wafers.