Free Nine Days a Queen: The Short Life and Reign of Lady Jane Grey by Ann Rinaldi

anybody would be who has just inherited a title. Father is now Duke of Suffolk. A courier just arrived. They've got all kinds of money and new lands and castles."
    I ran back downstairs. They were in Father's library, poring over legal papers. "You can't. You can't betroth Mary," I cried. "Please don't, she is such a shy child. She--"
    "How dare you break in here and accost us like this?" Mother stood up. "Your father is now the Duke of Suffolk. Have a little more respect, please."
    I curtsied low. "I'm sorry, Father, but I worry about Mary."
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    "Do you think we don't know what is best for her? You presume too much, Jane. Since you have returned from Chelsea Manor, you just presume too much."
    I started to sob. They would sell Mary off like a horse, to align themselves with some other vein of royalty.
    "Stop that blubbering,'' Mother ordered. "What they did to you at Chelsea Manor, I don't know. I think you are due for a visit with Princess Mary. She always has a sobering effect on you."

    That's right. Ship me off again to someone else,
    I thought. And when I come back they'll have my little sister Mary betrothed to some Irish nobleman, and she'll have to go off to live on the wild bogs and swamps of Ireland. Oh, I hated them both so much. How I missed Katharine and Sir Thomas.

    As it turned out, I stayed at home for many long, dismal months. There was nothing dismal about Bradgate itself. Now that Father was Duke of Suffolk and Mother was Duchess, they put on all kinds of entertainments. There were always plenty of people around, houseguests who never
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    seemed to go home, huntsmen with their grand horses and green livery. There were nights when it was difficult to sleep for the noise that came from belowstairs, where my parents parried and gambled. And they hired the best for their parties. They hired drummers and pipers, Master John Heywood's troupe of child performers, Lord Russell's minstrels.
    Sometimes the house was so full of people, you didn't know who you were bumping into in the receiving room, grand hall, or galleries. The stables were overflowing too, and I came to prefer to saddle my own horse radier than wait my turn for a groom to do it for me.
    My father held many jousting tournaments. I did like to watch these from the pavilion in the tilting yard. It was exciting, seeing the knights charging at each other in all their armor, their horses snorting and garbed in all the trappings of the event.
    We played our parts, my sisters and I, handing our silk kerchiefs over to the knights just before the joust. They would stuff them inside their breastplates and go to take their positions.
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    There was one knight who always won in these tournaments, even against my father, who was an expert jouster. I didn't know who he was, but one day while I was holding out my silk kerchief, he rode up to where I sat in the pavilion, dipped his lance in salute, and said, "Ah, the Lady Jane. May I have the token of your affection, then, and ride into battle with it?"
    My sister Catherine, sitting next to me, nudged me and whispered, "Say yes; it's Northumberland."
    I handed over my silk kerchief. Expertly he lifted it with the end of his lance, stuffed it in his breastplate, and rode off on his magnificent charger.
    "Who is he?" I asked Catherine.
    "He comes here often. You'd better be nice to him. His father is our father's dear friend. Lord High Admiral, Master of the Horse, Viscount Lisle, and the father of thirteen children."
    "I don't like his eyes. Why did he come to me like that?"
    "I don't know, but I've heard him and Father discussing you."
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    Sweet Lord. What did they have planned for me now?
    In that year King Edward came down with the measles and everyone became very nervous. I wanted to go and visit him, but my parents refused, lest I catch the measles and bring them home. I worried for Edward. He wasn't strong to begin with.
    Those who had much to gain by who was on the throne began visiting Princess Mary