Part 7 (2/2)
Guildford was particularly excited about his coronation clothes, but simply could not set his mind on a single colour, much to the despair of the tailors, who tore at their hair as they had already started, then stopped, six coronation suits already. ”I shall be perfect in purple!” he would enthuse, then later that same afternoon declare, ”I shall be ravis.h.i.+ng in red!” or the next morning upon awaking decide, ”I shall be glorious in green!” Then, while taking a turn in the Tower gardens, he would turn to me, nibbling uncertainly at his lower lip, and inquire, ”Or should it be blue? I am always becoming in blue, and Mother says I am most piquant in pink. Just think how striking I would be in silver with my hair blazing like gold in the sun!”
But I just smiled and said, ”If ever an occasion called for gold, this is the one.” And Guildford nodded and smiled and finally made up his mind.
”What better occasion than one's coronation to deck oneself entirely in gold? I was made for gold!” he cried. Then he went on to fill the tailors' hearts with joy when he told them to go ahead and finish the other suits that languished in various states of completion-”for one can never have too many clothes, and I intend to be the best dressed king England has ever seen; if she is not careful I shall even outs.h.i.+ne my own queen.
”I shall dazzle them,” he went on. ”When they see me, my subjects shall think they've died and gone to heaven and an angel stands before them! And upon the steps of Westminster Abbey, when Jane and I emerge, hand in hand, crowned, with robes of ermine flowing from our shoulders, I shall sing!”
”No!” Suddenly Guildford's brothers-Ambrose, John, and Robert-who had spent the day sitting at a nearby table playing cards, bolted up, sending chairs cras.h.i.+ng and cards flying, as they shoved past the tailors. Their mother, who often observed the fittings, sitting on the window seat smiling over her embroidery and nodding approvingly at every word Guildford uttered, gently made her way to Guildford's side and laid her hand lovingly upon his shoulder.
”Darling,” the d.u.c.h.ess said gently, ”you don't really want to waste your voice on the common rabble-dirty, uncouth people who are incapable of appreciating the gift G.o.d has given you-do you?”
”It seems almost sacrilegious to me,” John ventured.
”Yes”-Ambrose nodded vigorously-”and in your ermine robes-think how hot and heavy they shall be-you are apt to overtax yourself!”
”Yes,” Robert added emphatically, ”and what if you were to faint from the heat, excitement, and strain of it all? The people might think that their new king is a weakling. And you know the Spaniards and the French are always watching; their amba.s.sadors shall be right there watching your every move and recording every word you speak so the story would soon spread abroad. And if they think you are weak, it could mean war!”
”You are right.” Guildford nodded sagely. ”How fortunate I am to have the benefit of my family's loving wisdom to guide me. Very well, I shall wait until the banquet, when I have been divested of my ermine robes, had my brow ma.s.saged with rosewater, and eased my throat with cooling wine, and then I shall sing for our n.o.ble and refined guests, who are certain to appreciate the precious gift I shall give them.” Then, before his loving family could object further, he clapped his hands and called for the tailors to resume his fitting.
”My son is the most beautiful boy in the world,” the d.u.c.h.ess of Northumberland said softly, admiringly, as she watched Guildford being draped in gold.
”Until he opens his mouth,” Ambrose, standing behind her, added glumly as his brothers nodded.
Later that afternoon, when Jane was seated morosely on her throne in the presence chamber, the Crown was brought to her, by the Royal Treasurer, the Marquis of Winchester, to ensure that it fitted and, as our lady-mother said when she preempted the honour of placing it on her daughter's head, ”to see if it suits.”
Jane shrank from it, as though she feared it, even as the Marquis spoke comfortingly, a.s.suring her that, ”Your Grace may take it without fear.”
”It is not my right!” Jane whimpered, but her protests fell on deaf ears as she slouched lower, cringing away from it, whining piteously as she suffered it to be set upon her head. She barely tolerated it a moment before she put it from her, letting it fall with a great clanking clatter onto the stone floor.
The Marquis of Winchester gave an appalled gasp, and our lady-mother gave Jane's arm a vicious pinch.
Guildford picked the crown up and held it at arm's length, eyeing it critically. ”And where is my crown?” he demanded. ”You haven't even come to measure my head yet!” He turned accusing, icy green eyes on Winchester.
”I-I-one shall have to be made, Your Grace,” he stammered.
”No!” Jane cut him off savagely, s.n.a.t.c.hing the crown roughly from Guildford's hands and thrusting it blindly at the Treasurer. ”A crown you shall not have! You shall not be king! Your father thought to play kingmaker when they forced me to marry you, but he shall not succeed! I shall create you a duke, but nothing more!”
”I will be made king by you and by Act of Parliament!” Guildford insisted. ”I shall settle for nothing less. It is an insult, and most demeaning, for you to be queen and I, your husband and consort, only a duke!”
”You will never be king! Never!” Jane shouted.
”Oh yes, I will!” Guildford countered. ”If you don't make me king, I'll ...”
Those lords and ladies standing nearest watched avidly with bated breaths and crowded as close as they dared, eager to see who would win this battle of wills.
”You'll what?” Jane demanded, folding her arms across her chest and glaring hard at Guildford.
”If you don't make me king, I'll”-Guildford gave a tantalizing pause before he rushed on, throwing the words down like a challenge to a duel-”I'll leave you forever and go home to my mother!”
Jane turned slowly, stretched out her arm, and pointed. ”There is the door, you lily-livered, mollycoddled milksop, go on back to your mother; I'm surprised that you've even been weaned!” With these words she turned her back on Guildford and flounced sulkily back to slouch sullen-faced upon her unwanted throne. When Mrs. Ellen, so long accustomed to the role of governess, leaned over and whispered a gentle reminder about ladylike posture, Jane glared daggers at her.
”Yes, my love,” Guildford said icily, ”but you know it would be much simpler if you just called me Guildford, but I daresay a girl who reads Plato in Greek can't help showing off and striving to impress everyone with her vocabulary in any language even when there's no need!” Then he was striding out the door, the very picture of elegant indignation.
A few moments later, hearing a commotion outside, Jane bolted from her throne and hurled herself at the open window, leaning so far out I feared she would fall and ran to be ready to wrap my arms around her legs and act as her anchor if need be. Adopting the most imperious tone I had ever heard come from her, Jane called down to the guards, ordering them to stop Guildford from leaving the Tower. ”Although I have no need of my husband in my bed at night,” she said scathingly, in a loud, clear voice that would have made the most potent man wither, ”by day his place is by my side!”
When Guildford reappeared, Jane ran up to him, and, for a moment I thought she was going to launch herself at him with arms swinging. But instead, she stopped, panting angrily before him, and, with her chin thrust high, announced, ”Your father forced me to a.s.sume this throne that is not mine by right and shall be my downfall, but you shall not desert me like a rat fleeing a sinking s.h.i.+p; when we sink-and we will!-we shall go down together! If my life is forfeit because of your father, yours shall not be spared!”
”Oh!” Guildford sighed. ”I am touched beyond words that you want us to be together until the day we die; is that not what you are saying, my lady-wife? Really, we must teach you to say these things in a sweeter and more romantic and affectionate way, a more feminine manner that does not instantly call to mind salty-tongued sailors. Even though I can see through these angry and insulting words to the truth that is in your heart, some might be deceived and take you seriously. We don't want the foreign amba.s.sadors reporting back to their masters that the King and Queen of England hate each other and quarrel like a sailor and a fishwife!”
The a.s.sembled lords and ladies chuckled softly at Guildford's jest.
”Oooh!” Jane seethed, balling her fists and stamping her feet in frustration, before she stormed into her bedchamber and slammed the door. A moment later she opened the door again, stuck her head out, and screeched, ”I hate you!” before slamming it again.
”Careful, Jane!” Guildford called after her. ”People will think we're in love!”
But the argument didn't end there. That night after Guildford had slipped naked between the perfumed silk sheets and s.n.a.t.c.hed away Jane's beloved volume of Plato's Phaedo and flung it across the room, his mother barged in, dark braids bouncing indignantly down her back, in her lavender damask dressing gown and lace-frilled cap. She was carrying a sumptuous gold-ta.s.selled and embroidered emerald velvet dressing gown and a pair of gold-slashed green velvet slippers that she had kept for hours warming before the fire.
”Come, Guildford!” she said, holding the dressing gown out for him to slip his arms into, then kneeling to slide his feet into the slippers as though he were a little child. ”I, your loving mother, cannot permit you to share the bed of such an ungrateful, undutiful wife who denies you the kings.h.i.+p that you deserve, and, as her husband, is your right!”
”Yes, Mother.” Guildford nodded dutifully.
”You selfish girl,” she continued to berate Jane as Kate, Mrs. Ellen, and I rushed out, in our night robes and caps with our hair hanging down in braids, from the adjoining room where Jane had asked us to stay the night. She had felt unwell after dinner and feared her fever was returning and wanted us near in the hope that our presence would deter a scene such as this one. ”Don't you know that you owe your crown to us?” the d.u.c.h.ess demanded. ”If it had not been for my husband, you would not be queen at all! We have given you the most precious jewel of our family-Guildford! How can you be so ungrateful? To deny him the Crown! Look at him! If any man deserves a crown, it's Guildford!”
”A bright, s.h.i.+ny gold one with emeralds to accentuate my eyes,” Guildford interjected. ”I want everyone to say King Guildford is the brightest coin in the realm! And I want my profile minted on all the coins too! Well, all the gold ones,” he amended. ”You can have the silver ones, Jane, since after all, you are queen.”
”Is there no end to your vanity?” Jane glared hard at him, then turned back to the d.u.c.h.ess and said frostily, ”The Crown is not a plaything for boys and girls. When I look at Guildford, I see a man behaving like a petulant child who has been denied a toy he covets.”
The d.u.c.h.ess looked angry enough to strike Jane, but somehow she held back, and instead spun on her heel and marched out, calling, ”Come, Guildford!”
”Yes, Mother!” Guildford called, then turned back to Jane. ”I will not be a duke, I will be king! If you are queen, it only stands to reason that I am king!” Then he impulsively flung wide his dressing gown, exposing his body in full, naked glory one last time before Jane's wide-open, astonished eyes, to remind her what she would be missing. ”Don't look to have me again,” he said cattily, closing his robe and knotting the sash tight, ”unless I am crowned king. Only then will this jewel again be yours!” With a toss of his golden curls, and his perfect nose haughty high in the air, he followed his mother out the door and down the torch-lit corridor to the bedchamber she had ordered prepared for him.
Fluttering her hand over her heart, Kate sank down onto the foot of Jane's bed. ”Oh my!” She shook her head again as if to clear it of the vision of Guildford's nakedness. ”Jane, if I weren't already married ... if I didn't love Berry so much ... Oh, Jane! I would swap husbands with you in a heartbeat! Guildford is so very ...”
”Vain, arrogant, childish, petulant, absurd, vapid, conceited, insufferable, ignorant, and empty-headed!” Jane unleashed a furious rush of words. ”He's the worst kind of fool-the kind who thinks he isn't one! I hate him! If it were up to me, I would say, 'Take him!' but you're my sister, Kate, and I love you, and I wouldn't wish Guildford Dudley on my worst enemy! A knife in the eye is almost preferable to spending even one hour with him!”
”Well ... yes”-Kate nodded slowly-”but he's so good-looking! Everyone has faults, Jane; can't you find it in your heart to be a little more tolerant and forgiving and try to regard his flaws as charming little foibles? After all, he's so good-looking!”
”No!” Jane said adamantly, lying back down and pounding her pillow hard. ”I wanted my sisters here to comfort me, not to lecture me! Everyone is against me! No one cares about me and what I want and how I feel,” she cried, and promptly burst into tears, and both Kate and I had to rush to comfort her while Mrs. Ellen went to prepare a soothing draught that would ease her into a quiet sleep.
For the rest of their marriage, Jane and Guildford would sleep apart no matter how hard Kate and I tried to bring them back together. Their hot pride consigned them each to a cold and lonely bed.
The days rolled slowly past, and I watched my sister's eyes grow dark shadowed and purple brown, mottled bruises blossom on her bare arms where she kept pinching herself in a vain attempt to wake herself up from the nightmare her life had become.
In her bedchamber, clad only in her s.h.i.+ft-now the plainest garment she was allowed to wear-Jane would stand and stare at the many ornate clocks that the courtiers had, most curiously, given her as gifts. There were clocks of gold, clocks of silver, many beautifully enamelled, and yet more clocks made of ebony, ivory, exquisitely painted porcelain, jade, carved stone, honey-hued oak, and gleaming, dark, varnished cherry. They sat on every suitable surface, covering every table and lined up in neat rows upon the mantels of the great stone fireplaces that warmed Jane's rooms. Her fingers would reach out and move the gilded hands around the ivory faces.
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