“Madam,” he said, as if reading from a letter. I sat but he did not. “As Prince Henry’s body servant, my position at his Court ceased the moment he died. I had hoped,” he looked increasingly uncomfortable, “to join the Court of Prince Charles, now installed at St. James’s Palace, but I have not.” He cleared his throat. “It seems that Prince Charles is aware of my…” Arthur struggled “… our long association.” My body reacted strangely to the news that the heir to the throne knew our sin. The muscles down my back convulsed. Arthur stared at me and I fought to appear calm.

“I do not know how he has heard,” Arthur continued, more his normal self. “Charles and his brother were not close and now that Henry is gone perhaps Charles wants things to be different. He is only thirteen. But neither he nor my father will own me while I am entangled with you. I must renounce you,” he finished in a rush.

Finally, I was sufficiently goaded to speak. “Your father? But you invited him.”

“I did not invite him. He heard rumors that I was to marry and rode down. It is the news of the Countess of Essex’s involvement with Mary Woods that has persuaded him you are of bad character,” said Arthur with unusual bluntness.

I almost laughed. My connection with Frankie, which had once appealed to Arthur, was now the reason to abandon me?

“And you?” I said. “Do you also think that I, the mother of your three children, am ‘of bad character’? You know full well that the Countess did not meet Mary Woods through me.” There was a long silence, filled by the muted sounds of the outside world. Arthur winced at every noise the children made upstairs.

“It does not matter what I think,” he said eventually, “but what others think.”

“Make me your legitimate wife, which I am in all but name, and then there will be no scandal attached to us. Your father will come to accept the situation. He will love his grandchildren.”

Arthur looked vexed.

“It is not seemly to marry a woman who can no longer bear children and those…”

“I can bear children! I still bleed.”

“… And those already born cannot be mine legitimately unless I own them, which I cannot do without great damage to my reputation and prospects. My father has made that clear.”

“It is acceptable to fornicate with a woman for ten years, to have three beautiful children by her, to allow her to buy you clothes and care for you. But to marry her invites scandal?” I moved closer to Arthur; he stepped back.

“I am sorry you hoped we would be married,” he said, increasingly calm in the face of my agitation.

“Hoped?! It was to be today!”

“The date was discussed some time ago. We have not spoken of it since.”