“You are blinded by ambition,” was Mother’s refrain to my father. “You overreach yourself in this alliance with the Dudleys. Those who rise so high will surely fall and take us all down with them.”

Her protests, I knew, were prompted by fear. It was the fear of a woman who had sat by on more than one occasion and seen how the grandiose plans of men could lead to ruin. Our cousins Robert and William Kett had been hanged at the end of the last year for their uprising against the King. It was, she said, a woman’s place to sit at home and weep whilst their men threw away their lives.

I had happier hopes than that. I had no intention of weeping. I would marry Robert and join him at the King’s court and my life would be a whirl of excitement. I saw no further than that. I was young and in love; why would I?

“I sometimes think that Mother is a witch,” I said, standing up, shaking the straw from my skirts. “She fears the future. Do you think that is because she has seen it?”

I half expected Arthur to make the sign of the cross at my words, for he was a countryman at heart and as such was full of superstition. He did not smile but nor did he flinch from the question. “I think she has seen a semblance of the future,” he said slowly. “We all have. We have all seen great men stumble and lose all they have worked to achieve. She does not want that for our father and least of all does she want it for you.”

“I will do very well,” I said. “I will be a great lady and live in a castle and have ten children. The Dudleys always have lots of children.”

I liked that vision of my future. It would give me a place, a purpose. It pleased me very much to know that, for I was outgrowing my life at Stansfield. What was I to do if I stayed here, year after year, a spinster losing my bloom? I needed an establishment of my own and a place in the world.

“I do love Robert,” I repeated, as though that was the charm that would ensure my future happiness. “We love each other.”

Arthur did not reply and for a moment I thought I saw shadows gathering in his eyes. I wondered if he was thinking about the other sharp words that Mother had uttered in an unguarded moment; that Robert was infatuated with my beauty and wanted my body but that lust would never sustain a happy marriage. I had not really understood what she had meant. Robert made me feel desired and that pleased me as surely it would please any woman. Besides, I knew that the advantages were not all on my side. Father possessed influence in the county, which Lord Warwick intended to use to his benefit. Already there was talk of Robert serving as a member of the parliament for Norfolk and I knew that Father could make that happen. This was not such an unequal alliance.