The Sumerton Women (9 page)

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Authors: D. L. Bogdan

Tags: #Fiction, #Historical

BOOK: The Sumerton Women
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“But, Lady Grace, it could be dangerous—”
Lady Grace nodded. “Which is why I won’t say a word. Who do I talk to besides? And why would I betray him whom I hold so dear?” She reached for her decanter, taking a gulp. Her chin was slick with liquid. Cecily retrieved her handkerchief and wiped it away, ashamed to be doing so, not for her own sake but for Lady Grace, that she had been reduced to this, that Lord Hal let her, and that there was nothing anyone could or would do about it.
“Maybe all these changes in the kingdom are a sign for all of us,” Cecily ventured with a nervous laugh. “Maybe ... maybe we all need to change a bit. I know I have. Getting used to all these new undergarments—this corset!” She placed a slender hand to her belly and tried to laugh. “I swooned three times the first day I wore it!”
Lady Grace’s eyes closed.
At once Cecily was seized by an overpowering bravado she did not express save in the presence of Brey. She could not fight the words that came forth next. “Lady Grace, you must come out of your apartments now.” Her girlish voice was taut with urgency. She did not understand what emboldened her. Perhaps she was inspired by Anne Boleyn, a woman who got just what she wanted no matter if the world had to be set on its back for her to get it. Maybe it was being in the presence of the steely Mirabella. She did not know. All she knew was that if she did not intervene somehow, Lady Grace would die. She could not let her die.
Lady Grace’s eyes fluttered open. A lazy smile. “What on earth are you going on about, girl?”
Cecily took her hand. “You’ve punished yourself enough for your sins. You
must
come out now. You still do not have to leave your home, but at least come out of here. See Mirabella, what a beauty she has become. I know she does not visit you often—perhaps she is afraid.” Cecily drew in a breath, saddened that she must say it aloud. “It is frightening seeing you. Brey cries afterwards. Every single time.”
Lady Grace averted her eyes.
“Lord Hal is lost without you,” Cecily went on, hoping she was reaching her somewhere. “He probably does not know what to say or how to say it, but it shows in everything he does, in everything he does not say. It is not for me to know how it is between you and if you cannot come out for him alone I understand. Thus you must come out for us. I need you, too, Lady Grace. I am so overwhelmed with all of these changes. Soon I imagine we will want to begin planning my wedding to Brey. I know it will not happen for at least three or four years yet, but we should start planning my gown and I know you want to be a part of that—”
“Enough, Cecily,” Lady Grace interposed. “God knows you have good intentions. But I am tired and you must go.”
Cecily rose, looking down upon the wraithlike creature with a mingling pity and frustration as she turned away and fled.
 
Grace was stunned. Little Cecily could bite! But such a gentle little bite. The child did mean well. Grace struggled to sit up in bed, drawing her bony knees to her chest as she thought.
Hal came to see her. For a time they had been as a husband and wife, but as her health deteriorated their relations did, too. He attempted to coax her out of her self-imposed prison with promises and fair words. When that failed, gentleness evolved into threats and curses. Then he stopped seeing her altogether. She did not blame him. If she could avoid seeing herself she would.
But the children came. Cecily and Brey every day, and Mirabella now and again, though they had little to say to each other. Mirabella usually prayed with her. Father Alec did the same, though he tried to offer counsel as well. But she did not know what to say to him anymore. She had already said too much.
Yet Cecily said what none of them would.
I need you
.
She had forgotten what it felt like, what it meant to be needed. She had forgotten that she once valued it.
I need you
.
Grace sank back against her pillows. She ached all over. She had lost her beauty. She had lost her self. She would not emerge the woman she had been when she entered these apartments four years ago.
But she must come out. They needed her.
Why did it take a child’s simple words to make her understand? It mattered not. What mattered was that she would emerge, that she would live.
Because they needed her.
5
T
homas Cranmer, the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury, announced that the marriage between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon was invalid in May of 1533. By now, the king’s intended’s belly swelled with what was hoped to be the Prince of Wales.
Anne Boleyn was Queen Consort of England. Her coronation was set for the first of June. The Earl of Sumerton and his family were invited to attend.
“We will go, won’t we, Lord Hal?” Cecily asked, her cheeks flushed with excitement. She found all gossip surrounding the new queen cruel and irrelevant. She wanted to attend the coronation, to see the beautiful woman who had brought a king and his kingdom to their knees.
Lord Hal sat before the fire in the solar, idly shuffling and reshuffling a deck of cards. “I am uncertain... . London will be overflowing to stinking.”
“But you have a home on the Strand,” Cecily persisted. “And I’ve never even seen it, not in all the years I’ve lived here. Couldn’t you open it up?”
“Oh, Father, but it would be grand!” Brey cried. “To see the court!”
“And the gowns!” Cecily added. “And all the pretty jewels. Oh, Lord Hal, you must take us!”
“Please!” Brey smiled, falling to his knee. He was growing tall. Angles and lean muscle had replaced puppy fat from hours of training with the sword while wearing a heavy suit of armor. The promise of becoming an intuitive young man shone out of a boy’s eyes.
“We will go.”
All heads turned toward the low voice.
From the doorway stood Lady Grace, dressed in a rose velvet gown. Her limp blond hair was pinned back in a chignon beneath a fashionable French hood. She was thin, her neck had aged considerably for one so young, and her skin was tinged with a yellow hue.
But she was there.
Lord Hal arose slowly, his eyes wide as though he was beholding a ghost. She may as well be for all he had seen of her these past years. A momentary onset of guilt surged through him as he regarded her. How much of this was on his head? He held out his hand.
“Grace ... my God ...” Tears clutched his throat.
“Mother!” Brey cried, running toward her, throwing his arms about her tiny waist. She was caught off balance and the boy all but held her up in his strong embrace.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as her eyes met those of Cecily, who offered an encouraging smile. Father Alec, who had been playing chess with Cecily, rose and offered an elegant bow.
Mirabella stood by the fire, her face somber.
Lady Grace held out a hand to her.
Mirabella remained where she was. “Do you expect me to congratulate you on doing something you should have done years ago?” Her tone was laced with bitterness.
“Mirabella!” Brey cried.
Lady Grace’s arm fell to her side. “No, it is all right. Mirabella is ... correct.”
Mirabella bowed her head. “Still, it is good to see you about, my lady,” she told her in grudging tones.
“Thank you,” Lady Grace said.
Father Alec addressed the matter at hand. “Are you certain you would want to make such a long trip, Lady Grace? It might be quite taxing.”
“I want to go,” said Lady Grace. “And the children deserve to go. We have all been shut up here long enough. And,” she added in thoughtful tones, “if I do not leave here now I never will. Those who were in attendance that night will scoff. Let them scoff. They will whisper. Let them whisper. I will go.”
“Oh, Lady Grace!” Cecily cried as she joined Brey in embracing her again. “We will all take care of you!”
“I am happily outnumbered,” said Lord Hal as he cast fond eyes upon his wife. “I suppose we best get packing.”
With this the children and priest left the room to sort through their belongings and prepare for the most exciting event in the kingdom.
Grace was about to do likewise when Hal caught her hands.
“Grace ... you have no idea how proud of you I am,” he told her, his voice wavering with tears. “I admit that I had given up on you. I am sorry.”
“You were right to give up,” said Grace. “I did.”
“Is this our new start?” he asked her, his eyes lit with hope.
Grace nodded. “Yes, Hal. This is our new start.”
Hal drew her toward him, then pulled back. She was so fragile; he could feel every bone.
“Come now, you won’t break me,” Grace teased in sad tones.
He drew her near once more, holding her for a long time.
 
Cecily had never been to London before. The manor on the Strand overlooked the sparkling Thames and Cecily could watch the river traffic, a procession of barges making their way to the Tower of London, ships, and little rowboats containing delightful characters. The elegant manor stood as an understatement compared to the palaces that lined the famous street. Nonetheless, it was beautiful with its collection of Italian art of which Lord Hal was so fond. Sumerton Place had its own courtyard bearing lush gardens and a large fountain with porpoises on it that had been a gift from the Duke of Norfolk, a reward to Lord Hal’s father for fighting beside him at Flodden Field, where was slain James IV, King of Scots. Cecily marveled that they did not visit the manor more often; she could not imagine returning to the isolation of the countryside when they could be so close to the happenings of court.
There was not a more exciting place in the world, Cecily decided as they prepared to ride in the procession that would traverse Queen Anne from Cheapside to Westminster Hall. Merchants peddling souvenirs to commemorate the special event, ladies and gentleman of the nobility, urchins waiting to pick pockets, clerics and prelates, soldiers and shining knights, horses trimmed in the colors of their noble owners, cats and rats scampering about, eager to feast on any delicacy dropped in their midst.
The streets, indeed the whole place, teemed with activity, with
life
.
 
“Overflowing to stinking,” Lord Hal muttered as he surveyed the throng for the grand procession, but he was smiling.
They had brought an entourage of their own for the ride, bedecked in the Pierce colors of yellow and white. Cecily’s horse and attendants wore her colors as Baroness Burkhart of brown and orange. In her russet gown with its brown kirtle threaded with cloth of gold and matching hood, Cecily felt every inch the grand lady. Mirabella, though disapproving of the whole enterprise, was dressed in her yellow and white gown and earned many an appreciative glance. She turned her nose up at each and every one while Cecily waved, thrilled to be favored with such open admiration.
At Cheapside Cecily took the opportunity to scrutinize her new queen. She had never seen the old one, who was rumored to be quite beautiful in her time but after years of strife and suffering became overweight and dowdy. This queen was the antithesis of such descriptions. Bedecked in cloth of gold and wrapped in yards of soft ermine, the queen allowed her raven black hair to trail down her back in sleek waves brushed to a glossy sheen. On her dainty head was a bejeweled circlet and on her alabaster face a triumphant grin. Something about her features reminded Cecily of a mischievous and very satisfied cat. From the comfort of her litter, also swathed in cloth of gold, Queen Anne waved and blessed her new subjects, who seemed none too receptive.
Cecily’s heart sank. It seemed a shame to think that after years of waiting to become queen she should not be received with more enthusiasm. She was what the king wanted, after all, and it was the duty of his people to accept her. Though a few doffed their caps, most stood silent, their faces a mingling of bewilderment and disgust.
At one point Cecily heard the queen’s fool shout, “You all must have scurvy heads, since you so fear removing your caps!”
Cecily cried, “God save the queen!” with extra enthusiasm, encouraging Brey to do likewise.
Mirabella rode her horse, silent, head bowed.
Cecily ignored her show of disrespect, turning to take in all around her. Tapestries were hung everywhere and the queen’s badge bearing her falcon symbol was in every corner the eye could fall upon. Hans Holbein, the renowned court painter, had designed a beautiful arch where a tableau was being performed. Apollo and the four Muses played instruments and sang, each a remarkable display of talent. Cecily clapped her hands, enthralled by the sight.
All throughout the procession they were treated to similar displays of choirs and pageants. Cecily’s heart raced and her head tingled as she marveled that they were included in such an event.
“Look!” cried Brey as he pointed to one of the conduits. “Wine!”
Cecily’s eyes widened in awe. “Is there nothing King Henry cannot do?” she cried in delight.
“Nothing,” Father Alec murmured, taking in the sights about him with the same interest. But his eyes were not wide with awe. There was something else in them, something Cecily could not quite decipher.
It was very akin to fear.
The next day they witnessed Queen Anne’s coronation at Westminster Abbey. Cecily was able to get a closer look at the woman King Henry so desired. She was small, save for the curving belly she displayed with pride, with tapering limbs and delicate hands.
“Where’s the sixth finger?” Brey whispered.
Cecily searched for the rumored deformity, but to her dismay, the queen’s hands were hidden beneath her resplendent sleeves. She shrugged and placed a finger to her lips, urging Brey to hold his peace.
Under a cloth of gold canopy the queen walked with measured steps. Her train was carried by her cousin the delicate Mary Howard. It was said the queen’s aunt, the Duchess of Norfolk, so disapproved of the new queen that she refused to attend. Cecily’s heart churned in sympathy. It must be difficult being Anne Boleyn.
Queen Anne took her place in St. Edward’s Chair and allowed the Archbishop of Canterbury to crown her. The choir burst out in a Te Deum and Cecily’s heart thrilled with delight at the sound.
She turned toward Father Alec, whose wide hazel eyes were lit with tears as he regarded the scene.
But he was not regarding the queen.
His eyes had fallen upon another, one whose face bespoke eternal gentleness.
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.
 
After the coronation they attended a celebratory feast at Westminster Hall. It was a strange affair, uncomfortable for Lord Hal and Lady Grace, the latter of whom was avoided by all and who with trembling hands tried to sip sparingly from the cup of wine before her, though her eyes lit with undisguised desire for it.
Mirabella, claiming fatigue, had been allowed to be escorted to the manor by her guard. It was just as well.
“Now she can’t spoil it for us,” Brey told Cecily, who could not help but giggle, though she chastised herself for being uncharitable.
Course after course was served and Cecily ate her fill, taking in the splendor of the court that ushered in the new reign of Anna Regina. The Duke of Suffolk, the king’s brother-in-law and steward for the evening, still was handsome at forty-eight as he made sure everything was to the queen’s pleasure. The queen’s cousin Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, also attended. Three years Cecily’s senior, Surrey, though married, stole several admiring glances her way throughout the evening. He was a handsome lad with his aquiline nose and penetrating dark eyes. Cecily offered him a bright smile. She did not know how to flirt but, as she watched the lords and ladies about her, thought this just the place to learn.
The next day jousts were held at York Place. Cecily and Brey clapped and hooted in the stands as they watched the champions tilt each other. The gleam of the armor, the sweet smell of upturned grass, the clank of the lances against shields thrilled them, and their voices rose in a chorus of gleeful anticipation as they speculated on who would prove victorious.
Brey reached out to still her clapping hand at one point, leaning over to whisper, “And someday when I am here, besting all the champions with my lance, will I be carrying your token?”
Cecily scrunched up her shoulders and giggled. She squeezed his hand. “No one else, Brey,” she told him, and on impulse leaned in to kiss his cheek. Brey had turned his head, however, and their lips brushed against each other’s for the briefest of moments.

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