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"Oh, I hope so!" Cat said.

"She is mad to be planning for a festive Christmas," Lady Baynton told Nyssa softly. "Does she not care that her reputation is gone? That her marriage will be dissolved? That she is ruined?"

"She cares, but she will never allow you to see her innermost thoughts and feelings. She is too proud," Nyssa answered. "Besides, it is all unpleasant, and Cat has never been one to bravely face that which displeases her. She will not change now. So she plans for Christmas. Who knows what will lie beyond Christmas?"

"They say," Lady Baynton said confidentially, "that the king will go back to the lady Anne. 'Twould be a good thing if he did. She is a most charming and gracious lady." Lady Baynton liked Nyssa. She too was a married woman with children, and certainly more than sensible. Besides, there was no one else to talk with, for the other two girls were so young.

"I would not count upon the king and lady Anne reuniting, madame. They are the dearest of friends, and have the greatest respect for one another; but they do not like being married to each other, I fear."

"What a pity," Lady Baynton replied. She accepted Nyssa's opinion on the matter, for she knew that Nyssa was friendly with the lady Anne, and that her brother was one of the princess's pages.

"Do you know when Lady Rochford will be examined?" Nyssa asked.

"The council told my husband they will do so tomorrow," Lady Baynton said. "I cannot understand why a woman of her years and her experience, particularly given her past background, did not guide the queen better. It would almost appear as if she encouraged her in her perfidy, if indeed the chamberers are to be believed, and I do not know why they wouldn't be. If I were in her position, I should be terrified."

Lady Rochford, however, was not terrified. Solitude had helped her to regain her senses, if only for a brief time. She came before the Privy Council in the Tower wearing her finest gown of black velvet. Her French hood was encrusted in pearls. She stood stiffly before them, her back straight, her eyes staring straight ahead.

"She is drawn as tightly as a lute string," Lord Audley whispered to Sir William Paulet, who had returned to England with the King of France's letter for Henry Tudor. Sir William glanced at Lady Rochford and nodded his agreement.

"To the best of your knowledge, madame," the Duke of Suffolk began, "when did this intrigue with the queen start?"

"In the spring," she answered him calmly.

"And was it the queen who approached Master Culpeper, or was it Master Culpeper who approached the queen?"

"At first 'twas he who pursued her," Lady Rochford said. "He had always been mad for her, since they were children. He thought to marry her, but then she wed with the king. Still, he was a bold young man, and he wanted her. The queen was very put out with him for his pursuit of her, but he persisted. Then the king put himself away from her, and she succumbed to Master Culpeper's charms."

"You are certain this was in the spring, madame? I would get our dates correct."

"Aye, in the spring. April, I believe. Aye, 'twas April."

"Where did they meet?" Suffolk inquired.

"In my rooms," Lady Rochford said with a smile. "They knew that they were safe there. I stood guard outside myself."

"She is totally mad," the Earl of Southampton said softly.

"But she is calm, and speaks the truth," Suffolk said. "It is as if she is eager to tell us her part in this matter. As if she is proud of it." He looked at Lady Rochford. "What else, madame?"

"I carried letters and messages between them, but then, of course, the chamberers have already told you that. Did you know that the queen called Master Culpeper her sweet little fool?" She laughed bitterly. "She was surely the bigger fool, but she was clever. Whenever she wanted her own way, and Culpeper would not give over to her, she would remind him that there were others waiting for her favors; behind the door, she would say. It drove him wild with jealousy."

"To your knowledge," Suffolk said, "did Catherine Howard have carnal intercourse with Thomas Culpeper?"

"Aye," Lady Rochford replied. "I was generally in the room when it took place on the progress last summer. She could not send me away when she was in my rooms without arousing suspicion. I was witness to their passion on many occasions."

The Duke of Norfolk felt as if he had been dealt his death blow. "Why did you not try to stop her?" he demanded of Lady Rochford. "To turn her from her dangerous folly? Why did you not come to me if you feared coming to anyone else?"

"Why should I have stopped her?" Jane Rochford said coldly. She fixed them with a fierce look. "Do you remember the last time I appeared before this council, my lords? You took my testimony, and twisted it. Then you executed my husband. You did so in order that the king might be rid of his wife so he could marry another." She laughed, and the sound had a hysterical edge to it. "Now, let Henry Tudor's heart be broken as my heart was broken! Nay, I did not stop that silly child, Catherine Howard, as she blithely tripped down the path to her own destruction. Why would I have done a thing like that? Even had I not been there to encourage her in her naughtiness, she would have betrayed the king. She is a trollop at heart."

For several long moments the Privy Council sat stunned by Lady Rochford's vitriolic words, and then, to their combined horror, she began to laugh. The laughter had the strong ring of madness to it, and sent a chill up the spine. It rang out, filling the chamber, growing in its intensity, seeming to have a life of its own, its evil sinking into the very walls of the room.

"Take her away," the Duke of Suffolk wearily told his guards, and when they had led the madwoman from the place, he turned back to the council and said, "Other than the testimony needed to convict the former queen of adultery, nothing else of what Jane Rochford said is to be repeated, my lords. I think we can all agree to that, can we not?" He glanced about at the others, and they nodded.

The Duke of Norfolk, not a man to show what he was thinking, looked gray with weariness and disillusionment. It was over. It did not matter what anyone else said. Lady Jane Rochford had hammered the last nail into Catherine Howard's coffin. Indeed she had hammered the last nail into the coffin of the House of Howard, and Thomas Howard was too beaten for the moment even to fight back.

"I think we have heard enough for today," the Duke of Suffolk said quietly. "We will meet here tomorrow at the same time to take the testimony of Thomas Culpeper. Are we agreed, my lords?"

They nodded, and leaving the chamber, hurried to gain their barges. Thomas Howard was quick to note that no one wanted to be near him, or to share his vessel. He smiled grimly to himself, and ordered his bargemen to pull hard for Whitehall. Arriving, he went quickly to his own apartments, and finding his grandson there, he said, "It's over. Rochford has finished it." Then he went on to tell Varian everything that had happened, even Rochford's claim of revenge on the king.