Love, Remember Me (3 page)

"I cannot believe it!" she said, astounded. "I thought Tony only good for lads, and here he has given me two little lasses."

"They are identical in face and form," her mother said with a chuckle. "I was wondering if any of my girls should one day bear twins, as I have four sets of my own. You are the first one to do so, Blaze."

"I shall ride out and tell Papa," Nyssa said. "He will be thrilled, I know." She peered down at the new babies. "They are sweet!"

"Now," said Lady Morgan, "you will have these two dear little girls to raise, and will not miss Nyssa so much when she goes to court."

"No, Mama," Blaze replied, "Nyssa shall always be dear to my heart wherever she may be. She is all I have left of Edmund Wyndham. I must see her happily married else I have not done my duty by him, and he was the best of men, as you must surely remember."

"He was that," Lady Morgan agreed, and Lady Dorothy Wyndham, who had been Edmund Wyndham's half sister, nodded. "Without him your sisters would not have been able to marry so well, nor would your father been able to repair our fallen fortunes. I bless the day when he first came to Ashby. I pray for his good soul each night."

The new mother was made comfortable, and her babies swaddled. Heartha, Blaze's tiring woman, bustled in with a nourishing posset for her mistress. When Blaze had drunk it down, she was left alone to rest.

The women gathered back in the Great Hall of
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, chatting companionably while they waited for Lord Wyndham and the other gentlemen to return home, as all of the men but Lord Morgan had joined the king's hunting party.

"I wonder what she will call them?" Blythe, Lady Kingsley, said.

"Ah, yes, Mama, I wonder if she will have your flair for feminine names?" Bliss, Countess of Marwood, chuckled.

"Nyssa is unique," their mother noted.

"But Edmund named her," Lady Dorothy told them. "Blaze chose Nyssa's Christian name in honor of Edmund's first wife, Catherine de Haven, but it was Edmund who said his daughter should be called Nyssa, which is Greek for 'a beginning.' Edmund bragged she was to be the first of many children. He could not know it would be my Anthony who would father the Wyndham line, and not he. I miss him even now, though he is dead these fifteen years past."

"Blaze has given her sons very sensible names," Blythe said.

"But these are girls, you silly creature!" sharp-tongued Bliss said to her identical twin. "Blaze will choose wonderful names for them, I am absolutely certain! How can she not, given the example set by our dear mama? Ohh, I cannot wait to learn what she has chosen!"

"Our daughters have sensible names," Blythe countered.

Bliss threw her twin a disgusted look.

Lord Wyndham returned, and to their immense surprise, the king was with him.

"I must go and congratulate my little country girl," he said, his eyes misting with sentiment. He turned to Anthony Wyndham. "May I offer you my congratulations, sir, on your fine family!" He shook Anthony Wyndham's hand heartily.

Blaze awoke to find the king at her bedside beaming down at her. She blushed, remembering a time past when his visits to her bed had been of a more intimate nature. Henry Tudor's eyes twinkled back conspiratorially, but his words were of a most proper nature.

"I am pleased to see you looking so well after your travail, madame," he told her, and he kissed her hand.

Blaze smiled up at him warmly. "There was little travail, Your Grace. I am like an old tabby cat. I've birthed my babies quickly in recent years. Still, it was good of you to return to see me."

"I have looked on your lasses, Blaze. They are as pretty as their mother. What will you call them?"

"With your permission, Hal," Blaze said, "I should like to call the firstborn Jane, after her late majesty. The second I will call Anne, in honor of the Princess of Cleves, who will soon be your new queen and helpmeet. It seems fitting, as you were here this day, the day my little girls were born into the world."

The king, a sentimental man who enjoyed his role as a benevolent monarch, grew teary. Whipping a large square of white silk from his doublet, he dabbed at his eyes. Then turning to Lord Wyndham, he asked, "Have you a priest in the house, Tony?"

The earl nodded. "Fetch him, then," the king commanded. "He is to baptize your daughters this day, and I will stand godfather to them both. This is my desire, my little country girl," he said to Blaze. "Now I shall always have you and your good family in my life."

"Oh, Hal, you honor us so greatly," Blaze said, near tears herself.

A servant was sent to fetch Father Martin. The priest had been with the family since the time of Edmund Wyndham, and had grown old in the service of the Earls of Langford. When he was told that the countess had delivered twin daughters that very afternoon, and that the king himself would stand godfather to them, and that the baptisms were to be performed immediately, he hurried to find his best vestments, telling the servant, "Find Master Richard, and tell him to light the altar candles. I will expect him to serve."

"Aye, Father Martin," came the respectful reply.

Blaze was carried to the family's private chapel on a litter, that she might see her daughters christened. Bliss rolled her eyes in disgust, and Blythe was hard put not to giggle when they were asked by the priest to name the infants now being held by their third godmother, their elder sister, Nyssa.

"Jane Marie," Blythe said sweetly.

"Anne Marie," Bliss almost snapped.

The king beamed effusively, and taking each baby in turn from Nyssa, handed it to Father Martin for baptism.

When the sacrament had been completed, the Countess of Langford was returned to her bedchamber, where a health was drunk to the newest of the Wyndham offspring. The king then took his leave.

"A messenger will be sent to tell you when Mistress Nyssa is expected at court, my dear little country girl," the king told Blaze. "I will want her to come early that she may be familiar with her duties before my bride arrives. She must know where to go, and what to do, and who is who, if she is to be of true service to Princess, ah, Queen Anne. I expect the lady late this autumn. You will not have a great deal of time to prepare your daughter, but I promise you, I will see no harm comes to her in my care, or my queen's. She will be safe, Blaze Wyndham."

She took his hand up and kissed it respectfully. "I thank you, Hal, for your kindness to us all," she told him, and then, exhausted, fell back against her pillows asleep.

Smiling, the king arose from her bedside and, returning to the Great Hall, took his farewell of the Wyndhams and their kin. "I shall look forward to seeing you at court, Mistress Nyssa. Your brothers too. Serve the queen well, and you will always have my friendship." He then departed
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.

"What a day it has been!" Lady Morgan exclaimed with a gusty sigh. "Who would have expected such a day when it began so simply? Three of my grandchildren off to court, and two more granddaughters than I had when the sun arose." She settled herself into a large chair by the fire, and turning to Bliss, said, "
And just when was it decided that you go back to court
?"

"Indeed, madame?" Owen FitzHugh said mildly. "I was most amazed, nay, surprised, myself, to hear you say it, though I should not have contradicted you before the king. We had not discussed it, Bliss. It has been years since we went to court. I am not certain we belong there now."

"Oh, Owen, do not be such an old fuddy-duddy," his spouse returned airily. "It is the most fantastic opportunity for Nyssa. She will be seventeen December thirty-first, Owen, and she is not even betrothed yet! She is going to be an old maid if something is not quickly done. Court is a perfect place for a young woman of Nyssa's background, and wealth, to find a good husband. Besides, with Philip and Giles having been appointed pages to the new queen, Blaze will need a surrogate for her children. We will take our young Owen and Blythe's Edmund with us! It will be such fun!"

"
What
?" her husband said, startled.

"
Take Edmund
?" Blythe cried.

"Of course," Bliss replied. "Philip Wyndham, young Owen FitzHugh, and Edmund Kingsley have been friends their whole lives. They were all born the same year, within months of each other. They've never been separated, and even though Philip will have his duties, there will still be time for him to be with his cousins. They'll have an absolutely wonderful time," Bliss finished, smiling broadly at her relations.

"I think it an excellent idea," Lord Kingsley agreed, his eyes twinkling merrily. " 'Twill be good seasoning for the lads."

"What you mean," his brother-in-law said pointedly, "is that you shall get rid of that young hell-raiser of yours for a few months!"

"They are not going to embarrass me, Aunt, are they?" Nyssa fretted. "Philip and Giles going to court is one thing, but if you are to bring Edmund and Owen as well, Uncle Owen is correct. Together those three scamps are really quite wicked. I cannot have them teasing me like they do here at home. Ohh, why did Mother ask for places for the boys too!"

"Do not be selfish, Nyssa," Lady Morgan chided her granddaughter.

"Ohh, Grandmother, you are always taking the boys' part! You know how hard it is for me to put a bridle on my temper. A queen's maid of honor must show dignity, and decorum. If I am constantly being hounded by my brothers, and my cousins, how can I maintain such traits?"

"Why do you assume that they will tease you?" her grandmother asked.

"Because they are little savages," Nyssa declared heatedly. "They have spent their lives torturing me."

"If you were not such fun to torture, sister dear," young Philip Wyndham said, grinning at her, "we should have stopped long ago."

Lady Morgan laughed indulgently. "You are such a naughty boy, Philip," she murmured. "You really must show some respect for your elder sister. Hers is the most important position a woman in our family has ever held. To be a queen's maid is a great honor."

"I would have thought to be a king's mistress was a greater one," the heir to Langford said blandly.

Lady Morgan paled. "
Where
did you ever learn such a thing?" she demanded, scandalized. "Who has been telling tales?"

"Oh, Grandmother," Nyssa said, "we have known forever about Mother's little adventure at court. She always said if she did not tell us, that someday someone else would; and depending upon what they wanted from us, they would put an unhealthy slant upon it. Papa agreed. Because we know the truth, we can never be hurt by the fact that mother was King Henry's mistress for a few months. There were no bastards, after all, and no harm has ever come of it. Indeed, had the king not felt he owed our mother a debt, we should not be going to court. After all, the Wyndhams of
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are hardly an important family."

"Well!" Lady Morgan said. "
Well!
"

"Oh, Mother, do not fuss so," the Countess of Marwood said. "Nyssa is absolutely correct, and very practical in her thinking, it seems to me. As soon as it is known who her mother is, the gossip will begin, and Blaze's tenure in the king's bed be relived in minute, and probably incorrect, detail. It will be a great deal easier for Nyssa, Philip, and Giles to know the truth than to fall prey to cruel gossip. There is very little to do at court for those not involved with the powerful. They gossip more to pass the time than to be deliberately unkind. It is a way of life for them."

"And you would return to such a life, and leave your children behind to servants?" Lady Morgan said dramatically. She had never been far from her home, and had not even seen London.

Bliss laughed. "I've given Owen three sons and a daughter, Mother. He promised me that we would go back to court when the children were able to manage without me, and they certainly can."

"And I will always be there for them," the countess's identical twin sister said. Blythe was ever the peacemaker.

"Am I to have new clothing?" Nyssa asked. She was somewhat irritated by her grandmother and her aunts. She was to go to court! Yet here they sat by the fire arguing back and forth over nothing, as far as she could see. Aunt Bliss's children would be fine without her.

Blythe immediately understood her niece's anxiety, and turned the conversation to Nyssa's advantage. "I should think an entire new wardrobe would be in order for Nyssa. Her gowns are those of a country girl, and not a young woman of the court. What think you, Bliss?"

Bliss, the sisters' fashion expert, nodded emphatically. "She'll need everything from the skin out," the countess declared, "and we do not have much time either. The new queen will be here within the next two months, and the king did say he wanted Nyssa at court beforehand. We must start tomorrow if we are to have Nyssa properly rigged out for court."

"I'm not very good with my needle," Nyssa admitted, shamefaced.

"Neither was your mother." Her aunt Blythe giggled. "When she married your father, most of what was in her hope chest had been made by us. Do not worry, Nyssa. You will have a fine wardrobe in time. We will help, and your mother has always kept a seamstress in her household. There will be plenty of fabric in the storeroom for our use."

The following day, while her mother recovered from the birth of her new sisters, Nyssa, with the help of her aunt Bliss, chose the fabrics from which her court clothing would be made. In her sixteen years she had never traveled beyond the bounds of her extended family's estates.

"Surely not these, Aunt," she protested as Bliss put aside several bolts of rich, heavy fabrics. "They are far too elegant for me."

"They are exactly right," the Countess of Marwood told her niece. "Everyone at court is dressed to the teeth, my dear." She peered closely at the girl. "You have excellent skin, Nyssa. It is fair and clear. You've inherited your mother's violet-blue eyes and her heart-shaped face, which is to the good. It is surprisingly attractive with your dark brown hair. That you have from your father."

"Mama says my hair is a bit lighter than my father's was," Nyssa noted. She could not remember Edmund Wyndham at all, for he had died when she was not even two years of age. His nephew, Anthony, who had later married her mother, was the only father she had ever known.