“Please introduce us,” she said. Neither George nor I really wanted her to meet them, I sensed it in us both. We had assiduously protected them all these years from every source of danger, humoral, accidental or divine, with tonics and medicines, watchful care, prayers and amulets of wolf’s tooth and coral. My children, though released from my belly, still fill me completely with love, for all the cares they bring with them. Nothing is more important to me than their safety, health and affection. Frankie’s arrival was like that of the Trojan horse; we did not yet know what she carried within her magnificent carapace.

“Your ladyship,” I said, as the last child crammed into the room, “may I present our eldest son, Thomas, fifteen summers old and with a head for business.” I did not add that I wished he were our second son and not our heir, for he is a surly, argumentative slugabed. Our latest battle with him was over a sword. Even a simple rapier costs the same as a good horse. He wanted it so that he might run with other roaring boys, get into brawls and be called “gentleman.” As Thomas is clumsy, slow in wit but fast in temper, we were resisting his furious begging, but it was wearing. “Our second son, John, is fourteen and hopes to enter Oxford,” which words did no justice to this serious soul who made up for his brother’s unbalanced humors with consideration beyond his years. He worried too much about our good opinion of him and sometimes I hoped he would do something naughty. “Barbara is sixteen and exceeding excellent at stitching and tinctures.” Frankie looked at her keenly. They were but two years apart, yet Frankie had been married for three already. “She is not yet betrothed,” I said, in some vague hope that a connection with a noblewoman would bring about a better match. “Mary here is just five, Katherine is four and Henry will soon be three.” The little ones, with reddish-brown hair where the elder were fair, had careful manners when not taken by surprise and all of them curtsied, even Henry. His sisters nudged him and he switched to a bow, his face steaming.

“You bow graciously, Henry, your parents must be very proud of you,” said Frankie. “I see you are also strong in limb. There is a sack outside the door, oblige me by fetching it.”