“What a beautiful creature,” she said, watching Carr beside the King. Blood seeped from the bear, staining the sand as red as the feather that shifted in the breeze beside it.

The Earl of Northampton, moving rapidly for an old man, seized Frankie’s upper arm and propelled her from the platform. Frankie protested but her great-uncle ignored her. Her plan was working. I was about to slink to the back of the queue when I saw Arthur. He was ahead, laughing with other gentlemen of the Prince’s household, and I willed him to see me. He turned and looked appreciatively at the beautiful woman alone on the platform; then realized it was me. Would he acknowledge me and bring an end to our subterfuge? He stared so long that I was embarrassed.

When he walked toward me, his pace was slow, and I suspected he wished his friends to leave the platform before having to introduce us. He was not ashamed of me, only unsure of what to call me. If he had walked a little faster, or I had gone toward him and forced his hand, perhaps everything that happened after this moment would have taken a different course.

He gave me a formal bow but his words belied it. “How beautiful you look.” He offered me his arm and led me out. I was the happiest I had been since George’s death. In a few months’ time I would be Lady Waring, wife to a coming man, safe with our children in his wealth and good prospects.

Frankie was standing beside a low wall above the stinking moat at the base of Lion Tower, looking out for me, while her great-uncle Northampton stood over her, talking. She waved us over, appraising the fact that Arthur had my arm.

“… speaks to you in public, he may only do so following a formal introduction by your father or brothers,” admonished Lord Northampton, unaware, of course, that Frankie’s brother had introduced her to Carr in Queane Donna’s brothel. Despite our presence, Northampton continued to berate his great-niece until he saw Sir Robert Carr and Sir Thomas Overbury returning from accompanying the King to his barge. They walked over to a red-eyed man and Lord Northampton again took Frankie’s arm and steered her toward the little group, with Arthur and me following.

“My wife could not forbear to set eyes on that beast again,” the man was saying. Carr handed him a heavy purse, which the man cradled, as if it held the remains of his child. I found it a pitiful sight but could not but think him and his wife fools to have left their child alone in the menagerie. The man bowed and walked away with his bag of coins.

“Lord Rochester,” said Lord Northampton to Robert Carr, in his dry, high voice, “may I acquaint you with my great-niece?”