Patience, Princess Catherine by Carolyn Meyer

Author:Carolyn Meyer [Meyer, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The days grew warm, though not so hot as a summer in Spain, and frequent rain showers kept Durham's gardens green and fragrant. In fair weather I strolled in those gardens, often sitting on a bench by the riverside and watching with my ladies as whole navies of majestic white swans drifted upstream or down, depending upon the tides. But, unless bidden by the queen, I seldom left the palace. I received no invitations from other English families, for I was officially in deep mourning, and I received few visitors.

Arthur's sisters, Princess Mary and Princess Margaret, were sometimes sent by their mother to call upon me. On several occasions the princesses were joined by their brother Henry, who never failed to amuse us with his wit and good humor and never left without teaching me another phrase or two of French. On one visit Henry and his sisters brought me the gift of a lively little black-and-white spaniel puppy.

"What shall you name him?" asked Henry, whose antics entertained me as much as the puppy's.

"Payaso," I answered, laughing. "The Spanish word for clown."

Henry clapped his hands delightedly. "Excellent!" he cried. "I shall tutor you in French, and you shall tutor me in Spanish!"

Soon after Henry's eleventh birthday on the twenty-eighth of June, his family invited me to join them on the royal barge as they traveled upstream for a picnic. I was very pleased to be included. But as I mused aloud about what a pleasant outing it would be, Doña Elvira interrupted me. "You are to decline, Catalina," she said.

"Decline?" I cried. "But why?"

"You are still in mourning," she pointed out. "For you to be seen enjoying yourself publicly only months after the death of your husband would be most unseemly. It will damage your reputation, which is my responsibility to protect, as I promised your excellent parents. I cannot permit it."

The crushing disappointment I felt gave way to resentment. I wanted to shout, Does that mean I am to live in a convent? But I swallowed both disappointment and resentment and instead employed reason. "The invitation has come from the queen herself," I said, keeping my voice calm, though I felt anything but. "To refuse her would be an insult to her and to the royal family."

At last my duenna relented, on the condition that she accompany me.

What a lovely day it turned out to be! The weather was sunny and bright and the royal party in a merry frame of mind as we boarded the beautiful barge. The queen seemed happy to see me, and the two princesses were in merry moods. Henry charmed us all—even the dour Doña Elvira—by singing and playing upon the lute as we drifted languorously among the great white swans. The oarsmen rowed us as far as Richmond, where a splendid feast had been laid out beneath the great oaks. When the tide turned, we boarded the barge once again for the return trip. I hated to see the day come to an end but comforted myself that more such lovely occasions would surely follow.

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