‘No, my lady. I think it rarely does.’

‘It brought my husband happiness … I think above everything he loved his crown. Men do, you know, Owen. So that is why those who have no hope of a crown or power are happier than those who have. You should be a happy man, Owen Tudor.’

‘I am, my lady. Particularly so to enjoy your favour.’

She laughed. ‘You have it, Owen. It shall always be yours.’ She looked at him a little archly. ‘Unless of course you do aught to lose it.’

‘Will all my heart I shall strive to keep it,’ he replied.

‘With all my heart I trust you will. But what will become of our lover, think you, Owen? I would to God it were in my power to send him back to his kingdom with the bride of his choice.’

‘It may well be that his people will raise the ransom and he will go.’

‘Oh Owen, how happy you must have been among your Welsh mountains when you were a child!’

‘There was always the fear, my lady. Remember my father was in exile.’

‘Your father … yes … the outlaw accused of murder. We are all the victims of our fathers it seems. How pleasant it is here. I hope I shall stay long at Windsor. It is my favourite place. They will be wanting my son to take on his duties soon, I doubt not. Oh, you smile Owen. He is but a baby. Think of the burden on that little head! A baby … to wear a crown. They try to force the orb and sceptre into those chubby hands. I tell you, Owen, he will confound them all by trying to eat them.’

She laughed and he joined with her and the sound of their laughter reminded her of the impropriety of sitting in the gardens chatting and laughing with one of her squires. If they were seen …

She wanted to snap her fingers. What cared she for their rules. She would do as she wished and if she wanted to be with Owen Tudor so would she be.

He was uneasy though, and she remembered suddenly that her conduct could perhaps place him in greater danger than she herself would be.

That sobered her a little.

She rose and gave him her hand. He kissed it and released it quickly.

‘Poor Owen,’ she murmured, and she realised that he was even more aware of the danger than she was.

Even so she would talk to whomsoever she wished, and at the moment she was sure her conduct had not been observed. It was one of the blessings of living quietly.

She said fervently: ‘I want to stay at Windsor for a very long time.’

Then she walked quickly into the castle.


* * *

James and Jane were seated in a window-seat. He was reading to her from his Kingis Quair.

Katherine walked in softly and sat watching them for a while. There was an aura of happiness about them. How magical to be in love! It had never been quite like that with her and Henry. He had liked her well and she had liked him. This was different. This was not loving because it would be expedient to do so. This was love which crept up unbidden and caught two people and held them. It was the most beautiful thing in the world. She wondered whether it would ever happen to her and something told her that it would.

There was a scratching at the door and Thomas of Myrton entered. It was easy to see that something important had happened.

‘Come in, Thomas, and tell us your news. I see you are eager to do so,’ said Katherine.

‘My ladies, my lord,’ said Thomas, ‘I am to leave forthwith for Pontefract.’

James had risen. ‘Tell us more, Thomas,’ he commanded.

‘I think this time there will be an agreement. Perhaps, who knows, you may very soon now be back in your own land.’

Jane put out a hand and James took it and held it firmly.

‘It would appear that your fellow countrymen are ready to agree to the terms at last.’

‘They will pay the ransom then?’

‘Oh there is more than the ransom … sixty thousand marks …’

‘A great deal of money,’ said Jane.

‘For a King?’ asked Katherine.

‘All Scottish troops are to be removed from French soil.’

‘And they are ready to agree to that?’

‘It would seem so, my lord. In any case I shall know more in Pontefract. This may well be an end to your captivity.’

‘They will no doubt want to make a marriage for me,’ said James. ‘Thomas, you must tell them that I have already chosen.’

Thomas nodded. ‘I will do that,’ he said. ‘And my lord, until my return I beg of you do not act rashly. Let us see if we can conclude this matter to the satisfaction of all concerned. I now ask your leave to retire. I have to depart without delay.’

The three of them talked excitedly together.

‘I shall not leave without Jane,’ declared James.

‘I shall not let you,’ answered Jane.

Katherine listened eagerly. She asked herself what she would do in the circumstances.

She would snap her fingers at them all. She would marry for love; for seeing these two together and thinking of the lives of her parents and her own brief marriage she had decided that crowns – and even the world itself – were well lost for the sake of love.


* * *

There was great excitement at Windsor when the messenger came back from Pontefract. The treaty between the Scots and English had been arranged.

The King of Scotland was to be free – after some twenty years – to return to his land. Sixty thousand marks would be paid for his release in instalments of ten thousand a year and hostages would have to be given to make sure there was no defaulting. All Scottish troops would quit France. That was promised and then the best clause of all: King James must marry an English lady of noble birth.

‘There are times,’ said Katherine when she heard the terms, ‘when it seems Heaven is on our side. There is your English lady, James. I do not think there will be the slightest reluctance on her part.’

It was a glorious ending to a happy romance.

Messengers arrived at Windsor. This time they had dispatches for the Queen.

The King must appear before his Parliament and his mother should bring him to London without delay.

‘Well,’ said Katherine, ‘I suppose it was too much to hope that we should be left long in peace.’

The summons could not be disobeyed and she and Henry with a great many attendants and much ceremony – which must always accompany the baby wherever he went – set out for London.

It was Saturday night when they reached the inn at Staines where they were to stay the night before they made their entry into London. On the Sunday morning they prepared to leave and crowds came out to watch them.

Henry was in a bad mood. The crowd no longer interested him. He screamed until his face was purple and all feared he would do himself some harm. He tried to throw himself from his mother’s arms and behaved in a manner so unlike his usual placid self that it was decided he should be returned to the inn. So the protesting child was taken back and there he lay all through that day in a fractious mood.

On the next day, being a Monday, they set out again. Henry was his old self, smiling, chuckling, showing an interest in all about him.

He will be very pious, prophesied the people. So young and already he shows his disapproval of travelling on a Sunday.

So at this early age Henry had already received his reputation for piety.

On Monday they arrived at Kingston and on Tuesday by degrees to Kennington and on the Wednesday he rode into London, sitting on his mother’s lap, and it seemed that all London had come out to see their adorable little King.

At Westminster he attended Parliament and was shown to the assembly there who were well pleased with his progress and it was decided that he should remain in his mother’s care for a little longer.

Katherine rested for a while at Eltham Palace and from there went on to her castle of Hertford. It was pleasant to be in her own castle for it had come to her as it had to the Queen of her father-in law and it would go in due course to baby Henry’s Queen when he had one, for it had been granted to John of Gaunt and thus had come to this side of the family.

She decided she would spend Christmas there and she sent word to James asking him if he would join her.

‘I have already asked Lady Jane Beaufort,’ she said. ‘I thought you and she might have a good deal to talk about.’

They accepted with grateful thanks.

She also asked that some of her personal guards come to Hertford and she made special mention that among them should be the squire Owen Tudor.


* * *

What a happy day that was in February of the following year when James the First of Scotland married Jane Beaufort, at the church of St Mary Overy in Southwark. Katherine insisted on being present for she felt she had played a prominent part in this romance and was overjoyed that it had worked out as it had. She could never have borne it if the lovers had been separated, but of course they would never have allowed that to happen.

It was a fairy-tale ending and when the decree had been announced that the King of Scotland must marry a noble English lady he had cried: ‘Right gladly and I have already chosen.’

There could of course be no objection to marriage with the noble Beauforts … royal themselves through John of Gaunt if they had made their entry into the world on the wrong side of the blanket. What mattered was that they had been legitimised afterwards and held high posts in the land. Moreover Jane was royal through her mother.

The Earl of Somerset was delighted with his daughter’s marriage and her uncle the Bishop of Winchester insisted that the banquet should take place in his palace close to the church.