Love, Remember Me (54 page)

"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.

"How long does Catherine have?" the Earl of March asked.

"Culpeper has to be heard from, and then he and Dereham must be arraigned and tried. They will be found guilty, of course, and will be sentenced. They'll be executed as quickly as possible, and then I think everything will be quiet for the holidays. After Twelfth Night, however, it will begin again. It will not end until Catherine is slain upon Tower Green. Rochford will die too."

"What of my wife, and the others with Cat?" he asked.

"They'll serve her until her death, Varian," Duke Thomas said.

"Do they know what's happening here?" he wondered.

"Catherine and the others will only know what they are told," the duke answered him.

"I want to see my wife," Varian told his grandfather. "I realize that the Howards do not stand high right now with the king, but is it possible for me to somehow see Nyssa?"

"Wait until this business with Culpeper and Dereham is settled, and then we will see. I think I can persuade Charles Brandon that there is no harm in allowing you to visit your wife for an afternoon," the duke replied.

"What will happen to the Howards?" the earl asked.

The duke laughed harshly. "We'll be out of favor again, perhaps forever in this king's reign. Two Howard queens, and neither of them a good one. It does not recommend us, Varian. I think you may finally be grateful that your name is de Winter and not Howard."

"I will always be proud of my Howard mother," the earl said.

Thomas Howard's eyes grew moist with unaccustomed tears. "I must go and rest while I can," he said gruffly.

His dreams are crumbling about him, Varian realized. Then he thought of his wife. Nyssa had once told him that Duke Thomas had taken her dreams from her. Would she think it just retribution that the head of the House of Howard had just had his dreams taken from him? He thought she would. He would tell her when he saw her, but he somehow knew she would not gloat over the downfall of the Howards.

CHAPTER 17

T
HOMAS CULPEPER
stood straight and tall before the Privy Council. He was dressed in black, his garments singularly plain, as befitted the occasion and a man in his position. His blue eyes stared straight ahead, never wavering.

"Are you in love with Catherine Howard, formerly Queen of England?" the Duke of Suffolk asked him.

"I am," came the bold reply.

"For how long have you loved her, sir?"

"Since we were children, my lord."

"You deliberately sought out this woman to seduce her despite the fact she was married to your king. A king who loved you, and helped to raise you. A king who trusted you. Is this so, Thomas Culpeper?"

" 'Twas naught but a game. I pursued her for my own amusement," he answered. "I certainly never thought that she would respond to my overtures. Indeed for some months she did not. It seemed the harder I pursued her, the more she rebuffed me, and the more determined I became to have her. Then the king grew ill last winter, and for many weeks refused to see his wife. She grew bored and lonely. I am not quite certain how it happened, but suddenly the queen was languishing with love for me. I could not believe my good fortune. The woman I had always loved finally loved me."

"And what form did this love take, sirrah?" Suffolk demanded to know. He stared hard at the young man. Thank God the king was not here to listen to this shameless recitation of perfidy and betrayal.

"I was fearful that the king would discover our secret," Culpeper continued. "I labored hard to be discreet, but Catherine sought every opportunity to be alone with me. It was madness, but it was wonderful!"

"Did you kiss her?"

"Aye."

"Fondle her parts?"

"Aye."

"Did you have carnal knowledge of each other, sir?"

"My lord, if I did or did not, I should certainly never admit to it," Thomas Culpeper said. "It would not be honorable."

Norfolk exploded with anger. "You call yourself honorable, you hopped-up piece of turd? You admit to kissing and fondling my niece, a married woman, the wife of your king, and you dare to call yourself honorable? If you address this council thusly in the belief that you are protecting Catherine Howard, be advised that Jane Rochford has already testified that she was a witness to your foul and disgraceful fornications!"

"Lady Rochford, I regret to say," Culpeper responded stiffly, "has all the morality of a London Bridge bawd ingrained into her soul. It matters to me not a single whit what she said to you. I will admit to nothing that would harm a hair upon the queen's head, my lords. You are, I fear, wasting your time questioning me further." He stared defiantly at them.

Thomas Culpeper was immediately removed from the hearing, for it was obvious that for now they would not get what they wanted from him.

"A little torture would wring the truth from him," said Lord Sadler sternly. "We need his confession."

"You can torture him to the point of death," Lord Russell remarked, "but you will not get him to say he committed adultery with the queen."

"His very silence, this arrogant refusal to admit to it, is in itself an admission of his guilt," Lord Audley noted.

"Aye," the Earl of Southampton replied. "He is in love with her, poor fellow, and men in love are more often the fools than not."

"May God have mercy on both their souls," Bishop Gardiner said piously.

"We might interrogate the queen again," the archbishop said.

"What good will that do?" Norfolk growled. "Catherine does not have two beans worth of sense in her pretty head. She refuses to accept the seriousness of any of this. She believes the king will forgive her."

"We could try," Suffolk said slowly. "What harm would it do to try? If we fail, they are still condemned by the testimony of the others. Culpeper is attempting to protect her, but she need not know that. What if she thinks he turned king's evidence to save his own miserable skin? She might tell us what we need to know in an attempt to revenge herself on him, and in an effort to save herself."

"We need not all go," Norfolk said, "but I should like to be among the party that does. I have to accept responsibility for her as a family member."

"Very well," Suffolk replied. "I will, of course, go. Gardiner, I will want you, and Southampton, and will you come also, Richard Sampson?"

Richard Sampson was Dean of the Chapel Royal. He had never been known to miss a single Privy Council meeting. He held the bishopric of Chichester, and was considered a fair man.

"Aye, I will come, my lord," he now answered.

The five members of the Privy Council were rowed upriver to Syon House. There they found Catherine Howard among her women, strumming her lute and singing sweetly, a song the king had once written for her ill-fated cousin, Anne Boleyn.

"
Alas, my love, ye do me wrong, to cast me off so
"discourteously; for I have love-ed you so long,
"delighting in your company. Green Sleeves was my
"delight, and Green Sleeves was all my joy.
"Green Sleeves was my heart of gold, and who
"but my Lady Green Sleeves
?"

Catherine Howard looked up at them as they entered, smiled and continued on.

"
Thou couldst desire no earthly thing, but that I gave
"it willingly. Thy music to play and sing, and yet,
"thou wouldst not love me. Green Sleeves was my delight,
"and Green Sleeves was all my joy. Green Sleeves was my
"heart of gold, and who but my Lady Green Sleeves
?"

They listened to her, entranced, and when finally the last note of the plaintive ballad had died and the spell was broken, Suffolk bowed politely to the young woman and said, "We have come to examine you further, Mistress Howard, based upon the testimony of the others that we have heard."