Henry and I are lodged in the royal rooms in the White Tower, overlooking the lower building that housed the two boys: my brother Edward awaiting his coronation but expecting death, and the page boy that my mother and I sent in place of Richard. Henry sees my pallor as we enter the royal rooms that are bright with wood fires, and hung with rich tapestries, and presses my hand, saying nothing. The baby comes in behind me, in the arms of his nursemaid, and I say flatly: “Prince Arthur is to sleep next door, in my privy chamber.”

“My Lady Mother put your crucifix and prie-dieu in there,” he says. “She has made a pretty privy chamber for you, and prepared his nursery on the next floor.”

I don’t waste time arguing. “I’m not staying in this place unless our baby sleeps next door to me.”

“Elizabeth . . .” he says gently. “You know we are safe here, safer here than anywhere else.”

“My son sleeps beside me.”

He nods. He doesn’t argue or even ask me what I fear. We have been married little more than a year and already there is a terrible silence around some subjects. We never speak of the disappearance of my brothers—a stranger listening to us would think it was a secret between us, a guilty secret. We never speak of my year at Richard’s court. We never speak of the conception of Arthur and that he was not, as My Lady so loudly celebrates, a honeymoon child conceived in sanctified love on the very night of a happy wedding. Together we hold so many secrets in silence, after only a year. What lies will we tell each other in ten years?

“It looks odd,” is all he says. “People will talk.”

“Why are we even here and not in the country?”

He shifts his feet, looking away from me. “We’re going in procession to Mass next Sunday,” he says. “All of us.”

“What d’you mean, all of us?”

His discomfort increases. “The royal family . . .”

I wait.

“Your cousin Edward is going to walk with us.”

“What has Teddy to do with this?”

He takes my arm and leads me away from my ladies-in-waiting, who are entering the rooms and remarking on the tapestries, unpacking their sewing and packs of cards. Someone is tuning a lute, the twanging chords echoing loudly. I am the only one who hates this bleak castle; to everyone else it is a familiar home. Henry and I go out into the long gallery, where the scent of the fresh strewing herbs is heady in the narrow room.

“People are saying that Edward has escaped from the Tower and is raising an army in Warwickshire.”

“Edward?” I repeat stupidly.

“Edward of Warwick, your cousin Teddy. So he’s going to process in state with us to St. Paul’s so that everyone can see him and know that he lives with us as a valued member of the family.”