Had Northumberland chosen Elizabeth as his pawn, things would have been much different.
Elizabeth, in the first place, would never have been coerced into marrying Guildford. She’d learned a hard lesson with Seymour about how gentlemen used women to put forward their own ambitions. She’d not have meekly gone to the altar.
I wondered if Elizabeth might have been tempted had the suitor in question been Robert Dudley, but with Robert safely married to Amy, that was not to be.
Now, Sweet Robin was in the Tower with his father, having raised men against Mary in Norfolk. He waited, with Jane, Northumberland, and Guildford to discover what Mary would do.
In the meantime, I hastily designed clothes for Elizabeth, who would ride in Mary’s coronation procession.
I had progressed in the world enough by now to have two seamstresses working under me. I drew designs for gowns and chose the fabric for each from the vast quantities provided for Elizabeth’s use, and they cut and stitched to my direction.
I sewed beside them when we were in a great hurry. I could put together a bodice quickly to near perfection, and other ladies of the court envied Elizabeth having me all to herself.
Elizabeth once speculated, in those days before Mary’s coronation, that Mary might steal me away to make her clothes fit for a queen.
“Never,” I vowed. “She’d never request it anyway. Everyone knows I am of the reformed religion. She would have much difficulty converting me to popery.”
“Guard your tongue,” Elizabeth admonished me in a low voice. “My sister will bring back the mass, and you will be required to say it.”
“You as well?” I challenged.
Elizabeth went quiet, her expression guarded. “That remains to be seen.”
I had learned that with Elizabeth it was often a battle of wills, even if she fought silently. She was a good fighter, and I wondered who would win in any wars between herself and her much older sister.
The wardrobe I assembled for Elizabeth remained in keeping with her role as the virtuous Protestant princess. However plain the garments were, though, I made them of lush satins, velvets, and tissues, including the velvet with the burst of flowers I’d been working on when we’d heard the news of Jane.
I designed the bodices to be unadorned and narrow, with overskirts that draped modestly over rather plain underskirts. I kept the sleeves close-fitting and uncomplicated without the voluminous oversleeves Mary’s ladies continued to wear. The colors I used for Elizabeth were pale, including much white and silver, thinking it could not hurt to draw attention to her virginal state.
At the end of July, we made ready for Elizabeth to ride to London, accompanied by two thousand riders and most of her household of ladies and gentlemen. Aunt Kat had stayed behind, claiming she needed to rest before the strenuous undertaking of the coronation, and she tasked me to look after Elizabeth in her place.
Our journey would be not only to greet Mary as queen, but to remind all we passed that Elizabeth was her sister and heir to the throne.
To that end, the company was splendid. We had outriders with swords, the gentlemen of Elizabeth’s household in armor, the ladies in their finest. I was on horseback among the gentlewomen, dressed like a lady myself in dark greens, the style of my garments of similar plainness to Elizabeth’s.
Elizabeth rode bareheaded, surrounded by men with banners to both protect and proclaim her.
Crowds turned out to watch as we left Hatfield and moved along the roads to London. Villagers cheered as we rode through their hamlets, and children ran forward to hand Elizabeth gifts of garlands and fruit. She took the adulation as her due and smiled beneficently at all she passed.
“They like a princess to look like a princess,” she told me when we stopped to rest along the way. “They shall always have that, I assure you.”
As we rode on, I lagged a little behind the other ladies, and an outrider came close to me. A fold of his streaming cloak flowed back to bare a sword and the raw-boned body of James Colby.
“Greetings, Mistress Rousell,” he said formally.
I did my best to nod at him equally as formally. Colby steered me apart from the others, so that we could speak in relative privacy.
“I do not remember you joining Her Grace’s household,” I remarked to him.
“But I have joined it, at the request of John Ashley.” Colby gave me a slight bow from his saddle. “Ashley is a friend of my father’s, and he obtained me the position.”
I had not heard this. I would have to question Uncle John about Colby when we I had a chance.
“Why are you not in the Tower with the Dudleys?” I asked him. “Keeping Jane and Guildford company?”
“I managed to be on Mary’s side when it mattered.” Colby shrugged as he gave the evasive answer. “I am pleased Northumberland did not prevail, no matter what I think of Mary’s religion. Most of the council and Parliament agree with me, as you’ve no doubt heard.”
“Did you betray Robert and his family?” I glowered at him. “Did you desert them to ride to Mary’s side?” While I was happy Mary had prevailed over Northumberland’s and the Duchess of Suffolk’s schemes, I disapproved of Colby so callously abandoning his friends.
