The Queen's Lady by Joanna Hickson

Author:Joanna Hickson [Hickson, Joanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2021-11-15T12:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

33

Frensham Manor and Halden Hall

May 1506

EDWARD INVITED MARTIN TO move up to Halden Hall and take over stewardship of the Guildford holdings, which left me free to appoint Sim as the new steward of Frensham Manor. It demonstrated my faith in the boy I had rescued from the forest sixteen years before, and the wages he would earn and the occupation of the steward’s accommodation meant that at last he and Mildy could marry and support a family. Their wedding at the church of St Mary the Virgin in Rolvenden, followed by a celebration meal at the manor house, was a high point for all of us as blossom frothed on the fruit trees and lambs began to gambol in the fields beside the sheep-pens. Spring heralded new life everywhere; there were chicks in the hencoops, ducklings on the pond, calves in the meadows and even young ravens in the nest at the top of the conifer at Halden, where Jack and June, the pair I had brought to Kent from the Tower of London, continued to hold sway over the home wood.

However, try as I might I seemed to be the only living being who did not feel the joy of life renewing itself. It did not surprise me that I had heard nothing from Richard but it soured the pleasure I genuinely wanted to feel at witnessing the love between Mildy and Sim as they made their marriage vows. When darkness fell after the feast, the wedding party lit the couple’s way with torches, singing bawdy bedding songs, as they crossed the back court to the lath and cob cottage that was their new home.

I knew that inside the cottage Mildy’s boisterous brothers would have hidden prickly teasels and spiky twigs of holly between the sheets of the marriage bed and hung mistletoe from the bedposts as a symbol of fertility, while her sisters would throw dried rose petals over the blushing couple as they were stripped to their shift and chemise before they climbed beneath the covers. Then the village priest would sprinkle them with holy water and her family would kiss them goodnight, while the rest of the guests chanted ribald rhymes and danced around the bed. I forced myself to join in the fun and watched them smile patiently at their tormentors, hoping they were holding hands under the blankets and waiting until the noisy party left so that they could remove the thorns and prickles and embrace each other eagerly, in the knowledge that their loving was wholesome and legitimate at last.

Next morning, Mildy surprised me by bringing a warm posset to my bedside. ‘I told you to take a few days off!’ Surprise may have lent my exclamation a slight hint of ingratitude.

She smiled, undeterred. ‘Force of habit, my lady, besides there is so much to do. Sim wants to call a meeting of the manor tenants but he can’t do that until the manor house is clean and polished after the wedding.

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