FILLOS Elizabeth Tudor: Ancestry of Sorcery

Part 17

September 1542

Hatfield House, Hertfordshire

After going over and over the questions that filled my mind concerning this light that surrounded me, I finally found myself asleep, yet I had a strange awareness even in my newly vivid dreams. I kept on seeing myself arrive at Hever Castle to find my mother living there and carrying a baby version of me around on her hip. In the dream, she kept singing a song, over and over. One day you shall catch a ray of moonlight, in the middle of a bright and starry night. Look to the women now beyond your sight, for they have bequeathed a brilliant birthright.

The tune was beautifully haunting, and it stayed with me until the sun rose. Before full coherence found me, the faces of women I had never met, but nevertheless knew, came to me as in a vision that clouded my concentration. My mind could not stop reliving the previous night and all that I had dreamt.

As I sat at my dressing table, I gazed at my glowing body with a bit of disorientation. I did not feel like myself at all, yet I somehow felt more like myself than ever before. Kat was running a brush through my shining strands of hair as I considered how these two opposing thoughts resided within me.

Part of my mind heard her as she spoke.

"What is that tune you are humming? I have never heard it before and it is lovely, like a lullaby."

"Hum?" I said. "What?"

"That tune you were just humming. What is it?"

I had not realized I was humming at all. "I do not know. I dreamt it up in my sleep last night."

"Well, it is beautiful. You may just have a musical talent that we have not fully explored. Sometimes I wonder if I have neglected you in that area because I have no talent there myself."

That made me think of Robert. "You know, Robert mentioned that he thought I had a pleasing voice. I think I should like to have some instruction. It seems you have taught me all you can on the lute. Perhaps I have not been as good a pupil as I should, but I am now determined to repent and do better."

"What an influence that boy has over you, my Lady," she said, and gave a very pointed look at my reflection in the mirror. Then she sighed. "I believe that you have reached the hithermost parts of my capacity in many areas, which is why I have written to Master Cromwell and asked that you be given a new tutor. A real tutor." I turned to her, half excited, half concerned. "He will talk to your father about it, and within a fair amount of time, I am sure that you will be learning more than even you can digest."

Suddenly I could not stop the bile from rising in my throat. "You will not be leaving me, Kat. You promised that you would not leave me. You will stay and continue to be my governess. Promise me that you will."

She caressed my cheek. "Of course, child. I will not leave you. I gave you my word, and like Ruth, where you go, I will go."

I turned to hug her, and she hugged me back. Then I asked, "Whom do you think Father will send to tutor me?"

"I put in a word about John Cheke. He went to Cambridge with my brother-in-law, Anthony Denny. But we will see what happens. Cheke is exceptional—that is, according to Denny he is exceptional. Have you met the fellow?"

"I do not think so, but perhaps. It has been so long since I have been to Hampton, I am sure I will not know one face the next time I go, excepting Father's, of course." I thought how my stepmother, Catherine, would not be there and it made me sad again. The very small association we did have had made an impression on me. She was the only woman I could call a real stepmother. Anna, who lived at Hever Castle now, was my father's fourth wife. She was sweet and good, but Father had only been married to her for four months and he was so miserable that, according to him, it should not even count as one of his marriages.

Kat looked down to my face with eyebrow raised. "Perhaps, while we are waiting to hear word of your tutor, we can think of some excuse to go on a long sightseeing excursion to, say, Kent. I hear there are many wonderful things to see there. Hever Castle, for example." She winked conspiratorially at me.

I looked at my glowing form in the mirror and instantly knew that God was leading me. "I have decided to go, excuse or not. We will be leaving at the end of this week, or once my guests have said their goodbyes."

Kat stopped brushing my hair and looked at me with surprise. "My Lady, why would you decide this so abruptly without discussing it with your household first?"

"I am telling you now, Kat, and this is the earliest chance I have had since I only now decided to go. I have never seen my mother's home, and I have recently discovered a desire to know her a bit better. Do you think we could be ready to go in a week's time?"

"Yes, my Lady, but I think we will need to look over the books and discuss this extensively with Master Parry before saying we are absolutely going. You have traveled a lot this year, and with your birthday celebration, I am afraid that funds are running tighter than normal. Let us make sure it is doable before we get our hopes too high."

I had not thought of that, "Well Kat, this is important to me. If I must make some sacrifices in order to go, then that is what I will do."

Kat looked very perplexed by my sudden pronouncement, and she should have been. I did not make rash, careless, unthinking decisions. Nor had I before acted like I was the one in charge of my life. The adults could, of course, veto any pronouncement I made. I wasn't Queen, though they did let me play at it a bit. However, before I knew what I was doing, my mind had put the recent events together, and I suddenly knew in my heart that everything was connected to my mother somehow. Perhaps the only way to solve the mysteries that now surrounded me was to open that box, and to do that, I needed to go to Hever Castle.

END of FILLOS (PART I) Elizabeth Tudor: Ancestry of Sorcery