“Frankie,” I said, barely stung by the confessor’s words. Compared to the insults of Lord Coke, his manner was mild.

“What?”

“If I called her Frances, or my lady, or Countess of Somerset, she would wonder what was wrong between us. Have you news of her?” The man blinked at my directness and lack of humility. I wanted to rage, to scratch at my face; that would tell the story well enough. For Frankie, my blood. But I have a horror of violent reactions. It was always Frankie who cried out her pain and her love, and for a long time I thought she must feel more than I and that was why she commanded every person and event into her own story, including me. But the loss of my children kills me more surely than will the rope, so now I think I feel as much as she.

“Your friend has been arrested, as has her husband. The Lady Frances attempted to take her own life and that of her unborn child, by laying wet cloths on her belly. By chance a maid discovered her before fatal illness took hold. Do not let pity for your friend tie up your tongue, for she is not thinking of you but only of her own selfish desires.”

That news left me numb and I could feel nothing but the cold … cold like the earth into which my body would soon be lowered for all Eternity. I pressed my trembling fingers against my lips, picturing the moment my last and only connection to this life would be a cord, as was my first. I do not know how long I stared at him, thinking only of my abandoned children, of Frankie and Robin clept up, of what misery drove her to attempt to take her own life and that of the child for which she had longed for so many years. We are all caught, from the highest to the lowest, in webs of custom and propriety; those that cut themselves free do not swim away but are destroyed.

“You will see your children if you confess,” said Dr. Whiting.

“Your false promise is barbaric,” I said, and saw in his eyes that, indeed, he was lying. “If I fail to repent because you insist I sacrifice my friend in order to do so, then your soul will be stained by the desire for advancement as much as is mine. Lord Chief Justices come and go, but God does not. Be careful whom you choose to serve if serving both becomes impossible.”