He gives a short laugh at our clasped hands and the prepared bed, and bows to us both. Ned has the prayer book at the ready and he puts my wedding ring—my beautiful wedding ring with its secret might—onto the open page. The preacher recites the order of service and we repeat it after him. I am dazed: this is nothing like my first wedding at Durham House to a stranger, with my sister Jane going before me, marrying Guildford Dudley under protest, and two days of opulent feasting. I hardly hear the gabbled words in the strange accent; I hardly hear my own assent. It is over in moments and Janey sweeps the minister from the room and I hear the clink of a coin as money changes hands.

She is back in a moment. “I’ll drink to your health,” she says. “My brother and his wife. God bless you!”

“God bless us all,” Ned says. He looks down at me, his eyes warm, watching me turn his ring round and round on my finger. “Is it a good fit?” he asks.

“It’s a perfect fit,” I say.

“And what children you will have!” Janey predicts. “And so close to the throne! Tudor on one side, Seymour on the other. Say that you have a boy, and he is King of England?”

“Say we do?” Ned says meaningfully. “How shall we do that?”

“Oh! No need to hint me out of the door, I’m away!” Janey says, laughing. “I’ll read a book or play the virginals or write a poem or something, don’t worry about me. But we have to leave before dinner, remember. They will notice if Katherine is not in her place this evening.”

She flicks from the room, closing the door behind her. We are alone, my new husband and I. Gently, he takes the glass of wine from my hand. “Shall we?” he asks courteously.

As if we are engaged in some strange and beautiful dance, I turn away from him and gently he unties the laces down the back on my stomacher, so I can slip the bodice off, and stand before him in my smock. He unties the laces on his jacket and we are matching in our white embroidered linen. I turn my back to him again and he unties the ribbons at the waist of my skirt and drops it to the floor. I step out of it, and the undergown, and leave them there.