“My father’s death would be sad indeed but not against Nature,” he said. I sat on a stool and put my hands on his, suddenly afraid. Of what grief was I to learn?

“Arthur?”

“It is the Prince. Prince Henry has died.”

I could only stare as if he had told me that one of my siblings was killed. The heir to the throne was not my son, but every woman I knew wished that he were son, husband or brother to them, in such high esteem was he held. That God could take His great hope from us augured ill, though I did not know why I felt quite so profound a dread.

“Forgive me,” Arthur said quietly. “I have cared too much what others think.” We looked at each other a long time. The light from the flames changed his countenance continuously, from young man to old husk, as if I saw before me all the ages of man. He must have seen and thought the same, for he stared at me with care and longing and fear all whipped up together in his expression. He took my hands in his. I knew before he spoke what he would ask and so loud a buzzing filled my whole body, even out through my skin, that I could not hear his words. He waited for my response, his eyebrows raised a little.

“I could not hear you, there was such a…”

“Will you marry me?” he repeated, pulling me close. Our long pent-up desire was poured into the kiss he gave me. At first it was tentative; I was the one who pressed my lips harder to his, to bring heat into his love. Very quickly he was kissing me as if I were air, sun and rain in one and our tears mingled, each of us wiping them from the other’s cheeks. Of course, I said yes.

Arthur had to leave soon after to guard the Prince’s body. The following day he returned, deprived of sleep, and every day thereafter for the four weeks that the Prince lay in state. As Master of Arms, Arthur and the grooms of the bedchamber attended the corpse in shifts. He described how the body had been embalmed and lay on view in a coffin under a black velvet canopy. The chamber, and the three that led to it, were draped in black from floor to ceiling and lit only by candles. Every mirror in the palace was turned to the wall. Only churches and the gates of St. James’s Palace were crowded. Food markets were allowed brief and hushed trading hours, while all other business and entertainment was suspended. I remained at home with the children. The death of our Prince, the calamity to our nation of his passing, made petty the rupture between my lover and myself. Arthur and I wanted to marry quickly, but death was all that was being commemorated.