“Oh, yes!” she gasps. She stands before us, looking from one to another.

“I, Edward Seymour, take thee, Katherine Grey, to be my wife in futuro,” he pledges. “And in proof of this I give you this ring, and this purse of gold, and my sacred word.”

I have never attended a betrothal. I don’t know what I am to do. I look up at the handsome face of my husband-to-be.

“You say the same,” he says.

“I, Katherine Grey, take thee, Edward Seymour, to be my husband in futuro,” I repeat his vow. “And in proof of this, I accept this ring and this purse of gold, and your sacred word.”

“And so I witness,” Janey volunteers.

Edward drops a little purse of coins into my hand, which symbolizes that he is giving his fortune into my keeping, and then puts his hand under my chin, turns up my face, and kisses me on the lips. I think: I will never be alone or unhappy again.

“When shall we marry before a priest?” I whisper.

Again, it is Janey who has the plan. “When the queen next goes hunting, we could come to your house,” she suggests to Ned. “I’ll find a priest.”

“A preacher,” Ned specifies.

I think of how my sister Jane would never have let me be married by a priest of the old faith and I smile at him. “Of course,” I say. “But no one who knows us.”

“A stranger,” Janey agrees, “so that he tells no one and does not know who you are. I will be one witness. Who shall be the other? Your sister?”

I shake my head. “No, for when we tell the queen, she will be furious, and I don’t want Mary to take the blame for me. I’ll bring my maid.”

“Soon, then,” Ned says. “As soon as the queen goes hunting. But we are as married now as we will be later. We are husband and wife. This betrothal is as binding as wedlock.”

Janey smiles. “I’ll sit in the maids’ chamber,” she offers. “No one will come in.”

She goes out and the door closes behind her. Ned locks it and puts the key into my hand. “I am your prisoner,” he says. “You can do what you want with me.”

I hesitate. I can feel my own desire, I can hear it in the thudding in my ears.

“I am your promised husband,” he says with a smile. “You really can do what you want with me.”

I take the ties of his linen shirt that fasten it at his throat and I tug at them. “I want you to take this off,” I whisper.

“You want me naked?”