“To be separated from bed and board does not give you license to behave as you please. I need hardly point out that you owe obedience to your father, as previously you did to your husband, until such time as your marital situation finds resolution. Your first obligation is not to your own desires but to the perpetuation and advancement of your family and to providing a worthy example to those beneath you. Your father and I enjoy the closest possible trust from His Majesty. This cannot be put at risk because of your discontent. However,” he said, pausing to ensure he had our full attention, “I know there would be no woman on this earth more obedient to her husband than you, if that husband had the means within him to perpetuate your noble family. Is that not the case?”

“Yes, my lord,” said Frankie, uncertainly.

“Self-interest is, of course, misplaced in a woman,” continued Northampton, “but this foolish action of yours with Mary Woods provides ample evidence of your determination to be free from the man you accuse of making you unhappy. Be warned, Frances, that no man can make a discontented woman happy. You do, however, have some cause for complaint. The Lord of Essex is a gelding, not suited to be a husband.”

“You are a perverse and unbiddable girl!” burst out Frankie’s mother. “I am ashamed to hear such things. You have been married in the eyes of God and should make the best of it as is within your power. You have turned Essex from you with your unkindness and unwillingness. He is not able to know you because you make it impossible for him. The Queen herself is displeased.” Her distress was sufficiently profound that she forgot her usual “hmm.”

“Wife,” said Suffolk, “let us hear what our uncle has to say.”

“There is nothing to say and indeed nothing to be done,” his wife insisted. “Frances must cease her complaining. There is such gossiping about her that the Court will not contain it and base persons at large will be free to tittle-tattle about us in every tavern in the land. The Howard name will be an object of derision.”

“The people are ignorant,” said Suffolk.

“Broadsheets and libels are as popular as daily bread and the King himself takes note of them, for he desires his courtiers to preserve the glory of the Crown, not tarnish it.” She turned to Lord Northampton. “Frankie was fifteen when she married and not a child. She should be grateful for the honor of bringing together two families that were previously asunder. You are a Howard, Frances.”

“My dear,” Suffolk began.