The Tudor Triangle

Chapter 29: St Michael's Church

Sunningwell

Wednesday the 18th of September, 1560

Mary and Tom stood before Katherine, silent and open-mouthed. Suddenly, Mary began to shake gently and she burst into rounds of laughter.  Tom started to smile and he broke into the same raucous glee.  

"Stop it," moaned Tom, clutching at his bruised ribs. Yet he continued to laugh, bending at his hips and holding onto Mary's arm.  

"I...can't...breathe."  Mary's face ran with tears and turned red. "Oh, Katherine..." The two held on to each other.

The annoyed girl frowned at them."What is so funny?"

Mary tried to compose herself and look serious. "Oh, it's just that...you...your hair..." But she dissolved again into a fit of giggles.

"I don't think that it warrants this response." Katherine grimaced.  Mary and Tom began to straighten up and their laughs gradually subsided.

Mary shook her head. "Oh, Katherine, I'm sorry. It's just when we came through the door the last thing we expected to see was...well, you looking like that."

Katherine turned to the window to peer at her reflection.  She thought she had made a convincing job of dressing as a man. Now she saw tendrils of her long hair had escaped out from the flat cloth cap, and were hanging down on one side of her head.  The cushion she had used to change her shape, and give her a belly, had slipped and was bulging out one side of her calico shirt.   She began to laugh too. "Oh, but I do need to go out in disguise. Just in case     Verney's men are on the lookout for me. What shall I do?" She looked around and spotted a sheafed knife that she was going to carry down her stocking. Striding over she picked it up and, before Tom or Mary could stop her, unleashed the blade and hacked away at her beautiful thick locks.

"No! No!" Mary rushed forward and tried to take the knife off her, reaching up towards the tall girl. "Not your lovely hair, Katherine. There is no need for this."

Katherine continued cutting away. "There is, Mary.  I have to do this right. I don't want to be captured and have to go tonight to see John Appleyard. He could be my last hope."

Mary stood in silence as the blonde-red hair drifted softly to the ground. It glimmered in the candlelight like discarded jewellery. She gathered some of it up in her hands and felt it's softness through her fingers and thumb.  

Katherine pushed the remaining hair up easily in the cap, exposing her neck. "It will grow again. It's only hair.  Now, what to do about the rest of me?"

Tom and Mary then helped Katherine become a more convincing young man. The cushion was tightened with a belt around her middle. Her slender hands were covered with rough leather gloves.  There was no denying her womanly figure, so with Tom banished, the women wound silk around her chest to flatten her curves.  Finally, she stood before them. "Will I pass?"

"It is dark, which will help," remarked Tom doubtfully. He was still nursing the deep wounds inflicted by Verney in the stables. Stoic as he was, the small gasps he gave as he moved left the young girl in no doubt of his pain.

Mary sighed. "The pity of it, my dear, is that you are so very pretty. There are not many men with golden arcs for eyebrows or rosy lips, as you have. But Tom is right. If you stay under the cover of night, and go to Cumnor across the fields, you should be safe."

"Good, then I will be on my way." 

As they descended down the stairs, an urgent knocking came on the door. Tom was already back recovering in his bedroom, so could not help.  Katherine's heart beat faster. Mary gestured to her to go back up, and she hid in a chest. Was this Verney? Was he about to uncover her and spoil her chances of talking to John Appleyard? She strained to hear the voices from below but there was no sign of agitation in Mary's faint replies.