Raven Queen (17 page)

There are no words I can find for my mother.

And for dear Ned? A lock of hair.

My last dawn. On frosty mornings like this I used to walk in the forest to find Ned. My only regret is that I shall not die in its cool and green.

A sickly stench fills the air. Bodies have been cut down and boiled, leaving space for those about to die. London is laden with bodies.

The chapel bell tolls at mid-morning and grey clouds line the sky as Guildford goes to the block. I do not see him die but soon a cart rattles under my window and I glimpse his body wrapped in blood-soaked blue, his head placed next to him. Ravens crowd the edge of the cart.

Oh Guildford, the bitterness of death! Will they wipe the axe before they kill me or will our blood mingle in death?

The raven never leaves my window. “Do not attack the axeman,” I tell him. “I want to die with dignity. Stay with me until they take me away for burial. Then you will be free to go.”

Black velvet dress, black cap, black gloves. We are two black beauties, the raven and I. One who will live and one who will die.

Ellie bustles around the chamber folding and tidying, although there are other servants who can do this – until she is forced to stop because there is nothing left to do, until she is forced to face me.

“I am ready to die, Ellie, for it is clear I shall never be free on earth. Soon my soul will be free of my troublesome body for ever. It will soar into the sky and enter God’s kingdom gladly through gates decorated with pearls. I shall be free, Ellie!”

She gives a harsh cry like the raven when he was caught in the net. It echoes around the chamber and dies away. She does not make another sound, but her body stiffens as if part of it has already died.

“Remember that I go to another paradise, Ellie. It has been a long and dangerous journey to reach it. And we shall meet there, Ellie, for we have done nothing wrong in this life.” I push her from me.

“Will we still recognize each other? We do not know what death will do to us.”

I take off my pearls and fasten them around Ellie’s neck. “I shall know you by the pearls you wear.” Then I take her into my arms and rock her and her body feels as frail as mine. “Goodbye, faithful friend. I shall weep no more for this wicked world, but I shall weep for you.”

The chapel bell tolls again.

It is time. Men have manipulated me all my life, all except Ned. Now they come to murder me.

Will I see him in paradise? According to our faith – no!

Before I write my name for the last time, I ask only one thing.

Remember me.

Jane turns towards my hooded head and I almost stop breathing. I have imagined this moment many times since I decided.

I turn my hand from the axe, palm outstretched, its silver scar catching the light, and she understands. She smiles and her little white teeth shine like pearls and I notice that her neck is bare.

The people around us fall silent as she unties her glorious hair, lighting the winter grey like the day I had first seen her; and they lean forward to catch her whispered words, which they take to be her last prayer: “There is no place on earth for me, dear Ned. I shall only be truly free after my death. But do not wait for death to free you. Strive for freedom as long as you live.”

A single blow. That is all I can do for her. Nobody else could have despatched her better to God. She was right. My freedom has come on earth, and I hope that hers will come in heaven.

Jane lies on the block until evening and I am amazed that so much blood can come from so small a body. But no raven pecks out her eyes or tears at the strips of flesh hanging at her neck.

As soon as they have taken away her body, I set out on the road north from London where I know the fine forests of England will shelter me – for now.

I have been interested in Lady Jane Grey ever since I was a girl – but she was always just a line in a history book: the unlucky Nine Day Queen. How did she feel when her parents beat her? What did she think when she was forced to become Queen through a loveless marriage? How would she have felt if she had met her soulmate and fallen in love? I wrote
Raven Queen
to try to get to know her better.

My research took me into a time of bewildering religious change: from a world dominated by Henry the Eighth, who steered England away from the Roman Catholic Church, to a Protestant England ruled by his son, Edward – and back once more to a Roman Catholic England when Edward’s sister, Mary, became Queen after his death.

The Dudleys, Doctor Aylmer, John Ulmis and Mistress Ellen were real people. Ned is not.

Jane was a spirited and inspirational young girl whose life was sacrificed when she was only sixteen to satisfy a lust for power. If you visit Bradgate Park, where the ruins of her home still stand, you will see that flowers are always left at the gate on the anniversary of her death.

Raven Queen
is for all those who seek personal freedom. Do not forget her.

Bindoff, S,
Tudor England

Brears, Peter,
Food and Cooking in 16th Century Britain,
English Heritage, 1985

Davey, R,
Lady Jane Grey and Her Times,
British Library, 1911

Davey, R,
The Sisters of Lady Jane Grey

Davies, CSL,
Peace, Print and Protestantism 1450–1558,
Paladin, 1977

Elton, GR,
England Under the Tudors

Forsyth, Marie,
The History of Bradgate,
The Bradgate Park Trust, 1974

Howard, G,
Life of Lady Jane Grey,
1822

More, Thomas,
Utopia,
Everyman, 1974

Picard, Liza,
Elizabeth’s London,
Phoenix, 2004

Plato,
Phaedo,
Oxford World’s Classics, 1993

Plato,
The Republic
, Penguin, 1955

Plowden, Alison,
Lady Jane Grey: Nine Days Queen,
Sutton, 2003

Ridley, Jasper,
The Tudor Age,
Robinson, 2002

Stevenson, Joan and Squires, Antony,
Bradgate Park: Childhood Home of Lady Jane Grey,
Kairos Press, 1999

Taylor, A,
Lady Jane Grey and Her Times,
1908

Weir, Alison,
Children of England: The Heirs of King Henry VIII,
Pimlico, 1997

has worked as a school librarian and a French teacher, and spent time in Africa translating books before becoming a writer herself. She has written educational stories, such as
Sam Stars At Shakespeare’s Globe,
focusing on her favourite subject, the sixteenth century, and retold classics such as
Oliver Twist.
She has also written for young people learning English as a foreign language. She returns to the sixteenth century in
Raven Queen,
her first novel.

Pauline is married with two grown-up children, and lives in Hertfordshire.

To find out more about Pauline Francis, visit her website:
www.paulinefrancis.co.uk

For links to websites where you can read private letters from Lady Jane Grey, learn more about her life and the rules of the Tudor court, find out about the Catholic and Protestant struggle for the throne, and download the Tudor family tree, go to the Usborne Quicklinks Website at
www.usborne-quicklinks.com
and enter the keywords “raven queen”.

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