Three Maids for a Crown: A Novel of the Grey Sisters by Ella March Chase

gaming table, resolved that no one would drag me from the room before I had an answer. “Is Jane going to die?”
    “Die?” Father echoed. “Of all the stupid questions.”
    “People outside—I could hear them whispering …”
    “Your sister is not going to die,” Father said, “though she makes me want to wring her neck of late. If she does anything to ruin the honor we have worked so hard to bring about, I will make her pay for it!”
    “But the duke is poisoning her,” I insisted. “I heard Jane’s skin is peeling off—”
    My mother grabbed my arms so tight, I thought the bones would snap. “Quiet, you idiot child! Your sister imagines things. Jane was always given to flights of sick fancy. Why would Northumberland poison the girl? He needs to keep her alive.”
    “Someone is dying. Lady Bess said so. If it is Jane, you must tell me.” I fought to keep tears at bay. Tears were a weakness my mother could never forgive.
    “They were speaking of the king.” Relief that I would not lose Jane filled me as my father waved his hand. “Be it in a day, a week, a month. Let His Majesty die now. All is in readiness.” His eyes glittered in a strange manner. But not even that could frighten me, as long as Jane was safe. Still, my curiosity stirred. “What is in readiness, my lord father?”
    “You fool, Henry!” my mother said. “You know how tenacious the child is when her curiosity is roused.” She shook me. Hard. “It is a sin to be eavesdropping around corners, and God will punish you for it. Say nothing of this to anyone, Mary. It is treason to foretell the death of a king. Do you want your father to have his head chopped off with an ax?”
    “No.” I put my hands up to cover my own stubby throat.
    “I would take you to Tower Hill and make you watch the headsman do his work if your father died because of you. What do you think of that?”
    “I would not like it.” The insides of my stomach bubbled up, bitter on my tongue.
    “Surely a girl who is responsible for such a terrible thing should have to watch the fruit of her wickedness.”
    Knocking sounded at the chamber door. The gentleman usher appeared strained as he shoved the panel open. “Your Graces, a thousand pardons—”
    “Again you interrupt us!” my father exclaimed. “Did we not tell you we should not be disturbed?”
    The usher appeared ready to duck should my mother fling a plate at his head. “But Your Grace, I was certain with such an exalted visitor, you would wish to be notified.”
    “Northumberland!” My father wheeled toward my mother.
    She looked like a wolf about to feast. “No. His Grace would have to stay in London to secure matters there. Perhaps it is Pembroke.”
    Pembroke? I thought. Why would Kat’s new father-in-law come to Bradgate?
    “It is neither of those goodly lords, Your Grace,” the gentleman usher said. “It is Lady Mary, the late king’s own daughter.”
    My father swore. My mother looked more thunderous than before. I could not guess why. In the past my royal cousin’s frequent visits had been greeted with excitement.
    In spite of my parents’ singular reaction, pleasure drove back the sick feeling in my stomach. Jane was not dying, and my kind cousin had arrived. Perhaps my mother would forget how wicked I was.
    Father waved at the usher. The man bowed and backed out the door. “This bodes ill!” Sweat beaded Father’s upper lip as the door shut behind the servant. “Do you think Lady Mary suspects something? If she discovers the truth, she might have time to rally supporters to her cause.”
    “She is not canny enough to unmask us. My cousin is as blindly trusting as a child, though considering the blows life has dealt her, I cannot tell you why.” My mother’s scorn for the relation I cared so much for pinched at me.
    Father looked to her like one of his hounds waiting for their master to give them direction. “What shall we do?”
    It was as if God jerked my lady mother’s