‘We could send an envoy, perhaps?’ Gardiner’s smooth, obsequious tones made the suggestion. ‘Not to serve as a diplomat, just someone important and of high rank from court, to show we take the friendship seriously, and to engender positive feelings towards England. That might deter France and Spain from seeing us as weak, while the King wallows in his grief.’
Ned looked askance at Gardiner, knowing how jealous the churchman was of Ned’s position at court. ‘And who do you suggest, my Lord? Me?’
Gardiner smiled slyly and kept his eyes lowered, but Thomas Wriothesley snorted a laugh, ‘No, Ned. We can’t possibly run the country without you here, particularly while the King is so …. bereft.’ Gardiner’s face fell as Thomas continued, ‘We will think on it and meet again soon. There must be someone suitable, we just have to find him.’
***
Tom stood back up and re-laced his breeches, gazing down at his sister-in-law who was still lying over her husband’s desk, skirts round her waist and making no move to cover herself. She smiled up at Tom coldly.
‘Thank you, Tom. I enjoyed that.’ She took the hem of her shift, not caring that Tom was still looking down at her as she wiped herself. She folded the wet cloth against itself, then twitched her skirts down.
They had known they would not be disturbed. Ned was away at Richmond with the King and the rest of his staff, and Tom had come down river from bidding farewell to Kate at Hampton Court into the office at Westminster to borrow some money, but had found Ned gone. Anne, straight from supervising the closing of the apartments in the Tower, had followed Tom and had made sure the doors were locked before grabbing him and pulling him on top of her on the desk. Tom was not about to refuse an offer like that, but neither of them could undress. Anne unlaced Tom’s breeches and lifted her skirts as she lay back on the desk. Their coupling was savage and frantic.
She had squirmed and kept her eyes locked on his, smiling as he thrust into her and said, ‘I am going to ask Ned to send you to Germany, Tom.’
He stilled his motion and looked at her, ‘Have you finished with me, my Lady?’
She laughed and made him recommence his thrusts. ‘How could I get tired of this? But we are taking more and more risks, Tom.’ In his mind he knew she was right. He thrust harder, making her cry out.
‘Why. Germany. Anne?’ in time with his final thrusts for his climax.
She dug her long fingernails into his buttocks, drawing blood, he knew, as her own climax consumed her. She held him tight inside her as she answered.
‘It is far away. We need an envoy there for the Schmalkaldic league, and Ned thinks you will do well. And when I can no longer see you every day, I will not need this from you!’ She clenched her muscles onto him and his eyes widened.
‘And what has this been for you, Anne?’ He was curious what her answer would be.
‘Satisfaction. Amusement. Revenge, perhaps? Now every time I come in here and see Ned sat at this desk, I can imagine you taking me on it. Just as every time Ned and I see you at supper, or at a social occasion, I look at both of you and remember you and me, together like this. I enjoy knowing I have had you, and I enjoy knowing Ned is in ignorance.’
She allowed him to re-lace his breeches. He watched her as she continued, ‘But with Ned, I shall have power. When Henry dies,’ she stood and let her skirts drop, shaking out her petticoats and smoothing her hair, ‘Prince Edward will be King, and I shall be the wife of the Lord Protector. Nothing can be allowed to interfere with that.’ She looked at him and snorted a brief laugh, ‘certainly not your beautiful face, and this,’ she indicated the disarray they had left on the desk.
‘Then I shall go, Anne. Like the good brother I am, I shall go.’ He grabbed her shoulders and brought her to him, kissing her deeply.
‘Try not to miss me,’ and he let her go suddenly, walking to the door and unlocking it. She could hear his laughter echoing as he strode down the gallery.
Chapter 22 - 1542
uch to his surprise, Tom was enjoying his position as English envoy to the Schmalkaldic League. He knew he was no diplomat, so he left the diplomacy to others. He realised he was there as a figurehead for England, brother in law to the King, uncle to the next King. His was almost a ceremonial position, shaking hands, making pleasant conversation with the other diplomats, complimenting their wives.
He was enjoying their wives. Flemish and German women were, he found, quite business- like about sleeping with other men, and once he had got used to their proportions, he thought he did quite well out of the arrangement. They were so much bigger than English women, taller, wider, stronger! That last thought made him laugh.
He didn’t have to be the careful, tender, unselfish lover that he was with his Kate, which sometimes became a chore. She was too innocent and delicate to be his match in bed quite yet, and the cold, vengeful couplings he had with Anne, whilst enjoyable in an animal sense, still didn’t satisfy him properly. But some of these German wives were just what he needed, and he was in no hurry to return.
Ned wrote every week, letting him know the diplomatic situation, both in England and abroad, governmental details from the court. To his surprise, there was often a note enclosed from Anne, terse, cold, letting him know the gossip of the court. He knew, for example that Lady Katherine Tylney had borne a son. He didn’t think it could be his, resulting from the frantic encounter against the balustrades of Leeds Castle, but her husband had claimed the child as his own, so Lady Katherine would have no need to accuse him. Anne wrote that Lord Latimer had died, and his widow was away from court mourning his death.
The letter from Kate, telling him the same news, had taken over three weeks longer to reach him, as she didn’t have the advantage of the diplomatic channels his brother used. He was quite content to remain in Germany until she wrote to tell him she was returning to court. Then he could return to London and make her his wife. Until then, he would make do with other wives that weren’t his own, but who were so grateful for his courtly manners and prowess between their fine linen sheets.
***
‘Oh, Cat! You have a son, my lovely.’
Cat lay back on the bed, exhausted but so pleased she had a son.
‘Francis wants to call him Thomas, Mother,’ Cat wrinkled her nose. ‘How boring! But I shall get used to it, I suppose.’
Mary laughed. ‘We shall have to make sure he doesn’t grow up with Norfolk’s temper, my lovely.’
Meg was busy cleaning and swaddling the squirming, squalling new-born before handing him to his mother.
‘He’s beautiful, Cat.’ Meg looked at the baby enviously. She and Ralph would love a family, but it hadn’t happened yet.
‘And I suppose Francis is thinking of his father and your grandfather with the name, my lovely, not just Monseigneur.’ Mary bustled about the room, getting clean sheets and a clean nightgown for Cat before they let Francis in to see his wife and son.
‘I told him,’ Cat wiggled her eyebrows at Meg and laughed, ‘if he chooses the name for our first, then I choose the name for our next.’
Meg smiled back at her friend. ‘Your next, Cat? Already, after all that, you are thinking of another?’
Cat shrugged as her mother sat her forward to change her nightgown. ‘It wasn’t so bad, Meg. Painful yes, but not as agonising as I expected from stories I’d heard.’
Mary smoothed down the clean sheet and moved the bowl of water she’d washed Cat with, giving it to one of the maids hovering round the door.
‘Fetch Sir Francis,’ she told the girl, who took the bowl from her, bobbed a curtsey and scurried off.
‘And what have you decided to do now, my lovely? Are you leaving little Thomas here with us when you go back to serve
the Princess, or is he going with you?’
‘The Princess is happy for you to bring him, Cat.’ Meg gathered up the soiled linens from the floor to take to the laundress.
‘I shall wait and see how we are when I am well enough to return to her service, I think,’ said Cat, arranging her freshly-braided hair over her shoulder before her husband entered the room. ‘If he is thriving and bonny, then he shall come with us, together with his nurse. If we think he needs good country air, I shall let Mother look after him for a while.’
The door opened and the face of Cat’s husband peered round, as if he expected something to be thrown at him to send him away. ‘My dearest?’
‘Come in, Francis. See your son and your clever wife.’ Mary opened the door wider, and as Francis entered, gazing with adoration at Cat and their boy, she and Meg took the debris of the room away to be washed, and let the new family get acquainted.
***
As the King walked painfully along the gallery, leaning heavily on the shoulder of one of his gentlemen, the members of the court on either side bowed and curtseyed as he reached them, like a wave on the shore. He stopped and looked down.
‘How now, Lady Latimer. It pleases us to see you returned to court.’
‘Thank you, Your Majesty.’
‘We were sorry to hear about your husband, Lady Latimer. We liked him greatly, and we will miss him.’
‘Thank you, Sire. I miss him too.’ Kate looked up and smiled at Henry as she answered.
Henry looked benevolently at Kate, then hissed in pain as he put some weight on his bad leg.
‘Your Majesty still suffers?’ Kate was still in her curtsey, and Henry gestured for her to stand.
‘Every minute, Lady Latimer. We pray for relief, but God must be too busy with other matters to hear Us.’ Henry tried to smile.
‘I have a recipe of my mother’s, Sire. For a most efficacious salve which might help. I could bring some, if you would like to try it?’
‘We well remember your mother, Lady Latimer. We are sure that any salve of hers wouldn’t dare not to work!’ Henry laughed, as did Kate. Lady Maude Parr’s reputation as a strong-minded woman who brooked no defiance was legendary.
‘Then I shall bring some, in the hope that it eases the pain Your Majesty endures.’ Kate curtseyed again as Henry passed further along the gallery.
***
Kate brought a covered dish into the King’s presence chamber and curtseyed to Henry, who was sat with his leg propped up with cushions on a footstool.
‘Lady Latimer!’ a smile in his voice.
‘Your Majesty. This is the salve I promised. I have prepared some, as you see, but I have also written down the recipe so your gentlemen might make some more if it helps.’ Kate stood and passed the dish across, then took a piece of paper from her pocket.
‘We thank you, Lady Latimer. And if it helps, you will have our unending gratitude,’ another smile from Henry, and a nod of dismissal.
Kate curtseyed again, then went to speak to some of the older ladies at the edge of the room, to reminisce with them about her husband, whom she missed more than she had imagined she would.
Chapter 23 - 1543
uttering in his sleep,Tom Seymour woke suddenly; disoriented, he couldn’t think where he was. Then he gazed round the chamber and remembered. He had received a letter from his brother letting him know that he could return home at his leisure, as the necessity for an envoy had diminished. Inside Ned’s letter had been Anne’s usual terse court information, who’d died, who’d left in disgrace and amongst all this information were the six words he’s been waiting months to read;
“Kate Latimer has returned to court.”
Tom looked round the room for his breeches and shirt, and the warm body beside him in the bed stirred and gazed at him with intense blue eyes, framed in blonde lashes.
‘Guten morgen, Tomas.’
‘How now, sweeting,’ Tom replied, frantically trying to remember the name of the German Assistant Consul’s wife. Greta? Gerda? He couldn’t think! He just needed to get dressed and back to his chambers, and instruct his man-servant to pack his clothes chests. He was going home! And on his way to Calais, he may stop over in Paris, he thought, to give Kate a chance to establish herself at court. It wouldn’t do to make it look as if he had rushed back to see her.
The Assistant Consul’s nameless wife sat up in bed, exposing meaty arms and heavy breasts, and smiled at Tom.
’Schweeting,’ she attempted to say.
He looked at her, thinking how glad he’d be to get back to his Kate, her delicate features, her high breasted, lean bellied body, smooth skin and wondrous light brown hair. He realised now how distasteful Henry would have found Anne of Cleves, used as he was to English women. This German frau, although pleasant looking and very inventive in bed, Tom thought, was large breasted and broad hipped and coarser featured than his lovely Kate.
‘I must go, er …. sweeting,’ Tom said, pulling on his breeches and boots, and looking round for his shirt and doublet. Had they really been so enthusiastic last night that his clothes were strewn over the whole chamber?
‘Johanna,’ said his companion mildly, pushing the sheets away and standing to find her shift, ignoring her nakedness in front of a man not her husband.
‘I must go, Johanna.’ He wouldn’t have remembered “Johanna”, he thought. He could have sworn she’d said Greta. His shirt was underneath her gown, which he handed to her with a smile. She had been worth it! A memorable end to his visit to Germany, but once he’d organised his luggage to go to Calais to be shipped, and he’d visited the English ambassador in France, he would be on his way to his Kate. He kissed Johanna, grabbed his doublet and closed the door quietly behind him. He was going home and he couldn’t wait.
He reached his apartment quickly and wrote a note to be delivered to Kate when his larger clothes chest was delivered to his apartment at Hampton Court. That would take about three weeks, first on a cart and then on a ship to England. He would travel more quickly to Paris, then home, on horseback. But he would see his Kate within a month, he was sure of it.
***
‘I have brought my son to meet you, Your Highness,’ Cat held out the sleeping bundle to Elizabeth, who took him in her arms and smiled at her cousin.
‘He is so tiny, Cat. Aren’t you afraid he will break?’ Elizabeth laughed as the baby yawned widely without opening his eyes.
‘He has grown since he was born, Princess. His wet-nurse says he takes his feeds well.’
Elizabeth smiled at Cat, and then carried the baby gently over to the window and sat down. She touched his soft downy cheek, and felt the pearly fingernails on his clenched fists with the tip of her finger, marvelling at how perfect they were. She looked back up at Cat.
‘Are you coming back to Hatfield soon, Cousin? You know you can bring young master Thomas with you, and his nurse. We would be happy to have you all.’
‘Thank you, Princess. It is so kind of you. Meg has returned with me, and she will stay here while I take Thomas back to Hever. I rather think my Lady Mother wouldn’t like to give him up quite yet, now my brother Henry is at court. I will be back as soon as he’s settled, and I’m sure there will be many, many visits.’
Elizabeth smiled at Cat, nodded at Meg and went back to stroking the baby’s cheek. She had never held a baby before, and she was going to make the most of it while he was here. Elizabeth began to sing softly to the baby in Italian.
***
‘How now, Lady Latimer.’ Henry walked towards Kate, leaning on a slender cane.
‘Your Majesty.’ Kate swept to the floor, then looked up at Henry. ‘Your g
ait seems much improved, Sire.’
‘Your salve, Lady Latimer, and God’s good grace. But the salve has helped immensely,’ He gestured for her to stand. ‘I have been able to ride, my Lady, for the first time in many months. For that I thank you, and your mother, of course. I knew any salve of hers wouldn’t dare to be anything other than efficacious.’
Kate smiled at him, at a loss what to say next. ‘Your Majesty’s own determination and strength of will must have helped, Sire. But I am glad to have been of some small service.’ She swept him another curtsey as he beamed at her and turned to walk away down the gallery. Suddenly, he looked back.
‘We would be glad to see you at the entertainment tonight, Lady Latimer.’
‘I wouldn’t miss it, Sire,’ and Kate smiled at him as he walked away. She felt Tom’s letter in her pocket, telling her he was on his way home, via Paris. She had counted up, and with luck and a following wind, he should be home in around two weeks, three at the absolute most. She couldn’t wait.
***
Tom was enjoying himself in Paris. The ambassador kept a wonderful table, and also a very varied wine cellar. After a surfeit of sausage and boiled vegetables in Germany, an English table, even if cooked in a French way, was a relief. He had missed slices of bloody beef and haunches of venison.
And some of the wives of the ambassador’s friends were also very pretty and one or two were most accommodating, married as they were to very old gentlemen. He was very much in demand; so much so that he might be quite grateful for the respite of the sea voyage, he thought, as he carefully stripped the stockings from ……? He really should learn their names before he took them to bed, but they were usually so desperate to open his breeches, he often forgot to ask. And ‘sweeting’ seemed to please them, when there was time to talk at all. He worked his way up the thighs of his latest conquest and thought of Kate.
When his man-servant entered his room the following morning, to his relief he found himself alone. His companion of the night …Marguerite! That was it, Marguerite, had left to slip back into the bed of her husband before he awoke from the wine that had lulled him to sleep the previous evening, so Tom woke up alone. His servant brought him some bread and fruit and small ale to break his fast, and a letter from Ned sent care of the French ambassador. The letter would only be two or three days old, so the news would be quite current for a change. Anne’s ‘court report’ dropped on the linen sheet as he broke Ned’s seal, so he glanced at that first.
In The Midst of Madness: Tudor Chronicles Book Two Page 14