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

your parents,
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    they won't dress you properly. And you are so pretty, Jane, and deserve to look like a princess in your own right."
    We kissed. She was good to me and we chatted longer, sharing secrets, and I felt a warmth inside me I hadn't felt since Katharine was alive.
    "No reason we can't be like sisters," she said. "We must help each other against the common enemy."
    Beaulieu, her country seat, was a beautiful place, a stone mansion with three turrets, a wonderful cherry orchard, streams, and well-ordered gardens and stables. Not only that, but Mary had her own household here, maids and grooms, her own chaplain who said mass daily in the beautiful chapel.
    Inside the house were a grand staircase, handsome furniture, carpets from Turkey, paintings, draperies from Florence. But still, I felt sorry for Mary. She was still an outlander here, far from court, although it did seem that she had her spies to keep her informed.
    She would be Queen someday. I was sure of it. But when I left, I envied her not.
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    The reception for Mary, Queen of Guise, was held in the enormous hall of Westminster Palace. There were enough tables to serve five hundred, tables set with white linen and gold plate. The season's plenty was served, everything from huge platters of spiced pork and roast swans to special iced cakes made in the shapes of all the King's palaces.
    The Master of the Revels had designed a special entertainment. King Edward loved entertainments almost as much as his father had. And though pale, he was recovered from the measles, for which I was most relieved and thankful. How good to see him up and about again. After the entertainment there was dancing.
    Had I not trusted Mary, I would have said she gave me the dress to put me in a better light with Guildford Dudley, son of Northumberland. For that is exactly what happened at the reception. Everyone complimented me on the dress, on how lovely I looked, until I wanted to hide in a far corner of the room, behind the music players.
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    "You look so beautiful, Jane. I'm so proud to be betrothed to you," Edward said as he led me out to dance.
    Mayhap it was because my Edward was shy, besides being good looking, that I liked him. I did not love him, no. I did not expect to love him right off in the beginning. Love would come later, I was told. Since our betrothal he had sent around gifts for me, mostly books, which he knew I liked. He was tender and sweet, and I felt safe and even saucy dancing with him.
    But then Guildford Dudley came over and took my hand. "May I have the honor?" he asked.
    Guildford was fair, unlike his dark-haired brothers, John, Henry, Ambrose, and Robert. I had heard they were a close family, that they never fought or even disagreed, that there was perfect harmony in the Northumberland house.
    It made me suspicious. Nobody had perfect harmony in his house. And if he did, it was because one member held sway over the others, and of course I knew the "one" was Northumberland, their father.
    "I'm dancing with Edward, my betrothed," I
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    told Guildford. "You know Edward. His father is Lord Protector."
    "You know what my father says*" Guildford said. "Out of twelve who kneel, seven would willingly cut the throats of both the King and the Duke of Somerset."
    "You speak treason, surely."
    He smiled, as he insinuated himself between us and smoothly guided me into the dance, leaving Edward openmouthed on the sidelines.
    "What mean you by that?" I asked him when the dance brought us close together.
    "That you might think on it and decide you'd like to be betrothed to the son of he who will soon be the real Lord Protector."
    "I don't decide to whom I wish to be betrothed," I snapped.
    "Pity. I do." And he glided with me through the steps of the dance as if he'd been born to it.
    "You know, my grandmother, Elizabeth de Lisle, is a descendant of Warwick the King-Maker," he told me as we danced.
    "And your mother?"
    "A delightful lady, I am sure."
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    "I hear she