The Tudor Triangle

Chapter 10: Will I be wed?

Stanfield Hall, Norfolk

November 1549  

Silver shafts of moonlight stream into my chamber, bathing me in unnatural light. I cannot sleep and twist and turn like a sheep being sheared, my mind filled with thoughts of the unexpected visitor.  He appears to have thrown the household into turmoil, there is alot of whispering and rushing about. The man galloped furiously into the courtyard this very morn, and demanded to be taken to see my father immediately.  I was reading the Bible to my sister Frances when our servant Stephen came running through the hall in such speed I thought London had burned down. Frances and I looked at each other in astonishment for we had never seen Stephen run before, old as he was.  Then, my father came storming through the hall without so much as glancing at us and has not been seen since. He has been locked up with him for hours and it was only as I went to bed I could hear the pounding of hooves and saw him leaving from my chamber.  I asked mother at dinner who he was and what he wanted with father but she could barely look at me and did not say two words herself. It is all very curious indeed.

Frances grabbed my arm as we went up to sleep.

"Amy, Amy, what if...it is something to do with Robert Dudley?"  I paused on the stairs.  I had only had one furtive letter from Robert since that August day and presumed him lost to me. The letter was brief and rushed I thought. But in it, he declared his interest in me and gave me some details on what he had been doing since the summer. At the end he had signed it 'Yours, Robert Dudley.' I had shown no-one the letter and it was hidden in my special jewelled box. I have kissed it everyday since.

The days of the August rebellion now seemed like they had happened years ago.  The Warwick party had been victorious in crushing Kett and I was sure Robert had also been a hero in Norwich. It had been a terrible summer for Norfolk which cast a dark shadow over Stanfield. Kett had been hung from the battlements of Norwich castle until he rotted away and hundreds had died. There is barely a family around us that has been left untouched by tragedy. Robert Kett's brother William, was hanged from Wymondham Abbey near us and many of our household went to see him, dead for his sins.  Alice Kett, my brother's and sister's aunt and Robert's widow was bereft but could say nothing. She had barely been seen since and mother said it was hard to know what to do. If we visit her then will be seen as showing favour on the rebel cause? It is hard when loyalties between the families run so deep. My mother married Alice's brother Roger so we are tied together as a family.

Father said he didn't know what we would now do and it was a sorry thing as Robert Kett had been the finest tanner for miles. Anyway, I was proud that both Robert and my Father had fought to ensure loyalty to our Sovereign Lord, Edward VI. We knew Kett but he should not have led the men to such disobedience. He was a traitor. Father had come back from that battle and swore he would never speak a word of it to us again. Nor had he. He now seems very worndown with concerns and worries. He has aged overnight and it worries me greatly. He has always seemed so robust till now.

Ever since that day in August that I had met Robert Dudley, I have been reliving our precious seconds together. I see the petals falling and his eyes holding my gaze. I remember how it felt to have him near. But sometimes it is as if it never happened, like a dream. Now with winter on the cusp, it is only the leaves that are falling. The roses, so beautiful that August day are now bare and ugly. With nothing but a brief word coming from him I knew he had forgotten me as a silly, country girl he once met. For how could I compare with the daughters of dukes that he would be meeting every day at court?  How could I hope, that I, an unworldly girl from Norfolk could stay in his memory? I mope around Stanfield and can barely raise a smile, tears come too easily. Even new dresses bore me.  I miss him horribly and long to set eyes upon him again.