“You knew what was happening well enough!” Janey’s ribald laugh breaks out.

I flush. “I knew that we were lovers, of course, but not that it would give me a child at once. My mother only had us three and she lay with my father every night for years.”

“Praise God that you are fertile then, and not stony ground like all the other Tudors.”

I am glad of this, but I would rather think of a Tudor heir as something very distant in the future. “We’ll have to tell everyone that we are married,” I say, feeling anxious now. “Everyone will have to know. We’ll have to tell them at once. Before I get fat. When does that happen?”

“They’ll forgive the secret if you have a boy,” she predicts. “If you can give Elizabeth a Tudor boy, heir to the throne, then you will be forgiven everything. My God, Cecil will be his godfather! What a relief for everyone! A son and heir for Elizabeth. You will be the savior of England.”

“I must tell Ned,” I say.

“Tonight,” she says. “Come to my room after dinner, before dancing. I’ll tell him to visit me then. I’ll say that I’m ill and miss dinner.”

* * *

Janey has made up her own bed for us, and the fire is lit in the grate and a little supper is laid out on the table before the fire for two people. Once again, she is our good angel. Ned comes in quietly, closing the door behind him, and looks from his sister to me, his wife.

“What’s happening?” he asks. “What’s going on?”

There is silence. “Katherine has something to tell you,” Janey prompts me.

I try to smile, but I am trembling. “I think I may be with child,” I say. “Ned, I hope you are happy? I think I may be with child.”

I cannot mistake the panic in his face. “Are you sure?”

“Not at all! I’m not sure,” I say, as frightened as he is. “Janey thought it so. I might be wrong.”

“Of course she’s sure,” Janey says. “She missed her course in January.”

“But sometimes I do miss one,” I say. “And I forget to count. So I might miss one or two.”

“So you’re not sure?” he repeats.

“Are you not pleased?” I can feel that my mouth is trembling. I so want him to be delighted, as Janey was delighted. For I am afraid of what this is going to mean for us, and I don’t know what we are going to do.