The Redheaded Princess: A Novel by Ann Rinaldi Page B

friends are more important than lovers, aren't they?"
    He was begging me with those wonderful brown eyes to say yes. I nodded yes, to buy myself some time. Things were moving too fast for me. "You will be Queen someday," he said. "And I shall always serve you." Oh, Robin! But he was breaking my heart, all over again, not like Tom had done, slyly and without honesty. Robin's and my love had been nourished by many chaste years, by his respect and admiration for me and mine for him. It was a different kind of love, but love it was, there inside us both, smoldering with nothing to be done about it and nothing to be tried.
    Cat Ashley nearly went daft. "Court! Then you must have new clothes!”
    “And it is time to have them made by a tailor," I told her. "I have been thinking on it and hear nothing but good things about Mr. Warren."
    So I was allowed to hire him and order what I wanted myself. I got new velvet cloaks, silk-lined bodices, a pair of black velvet sleeves, two French hoods and lengths of damask and blue velvet, crimson satin and silks, and linen cloth to have dresses made. I was measured for them. I bought new kirtles and yards upon yards of lace for ruffs around my neck, and soon the dresses and linens and cloaks were mine. I was past my demure stage, my humble stage of wearing nothing but white or gray. I was ready to appear in court as the King's sister.
    ***CHAPTER TWELVE
    Right before Christmas I set out for Whitehall Palace with my own retinue of men and a hundred of the King's horses, as sent to me by Edward for escort. My arrival at the palace was elaborate, to say the least. All of the council came forward to greet me and usher me to Edward in the throne room seated under a canopy of cloth of gold-and-red velvet.
    "Make way for the Princess Elizabeth, sister to the King." I made my bows, not without noticing that my sister, Mary, sat next to the throne. I hoped she did not think I was also bowing to her. A feast had been prepared. The King's drummers, fifers, and other musicians played. Mary was seated to the left of Edward and I to the right. The new Lord Protector sat at the other end of the glittering table with his sons, Ambrose and John, Robin's older brothers, and Robin's younger, Henry and Guilford. Robin was there with his new wife, Amy, a buxom, blond-haired girl with a cow's placid eyes. She was not at all animated. She seldom spoke. I watched her, trying not to be envious when my Robin leaned toward her or touched her face or smoothed a bit of hair back from it. What did he see in all that blandness? All the while Mary was watching me with her shortsighted gaze. She had aged, I decided. There were some gray strands in her mousy brown hair, and when she smiled I saw that her teeth were crooked. Her complexion was splotched too, but none of this seemed to bother her. After supper she came toward me with velvet-wrapped packages in her hands.
    "I have some gifts for you, Elizabeth." As she leaned over to sit down I whispered my thanks for the letter of warning she had sent me about not getting involved in the council fight. She sniffed. "I think the new Protector is the most evil of men. Worse than Lord Somerset was. He wrote asking me to back a move he wanted to make to support the old Lord Protector's impeachment before Parliament. I wouldn't even reply. And, though he pretends otherwise, I am convinced that his religious policy is against all I believe in and portends disaster for me. Here, open your presents.”
    “Why are you giving me gifts now?" I asked innocently.
    "Simple. I forgot your birthday." I opened the velvet packages. One present was a locket with a diamond clasp. Inside were likenesses of our father and her mother, Catherine of Aragon. I blushed. What could I say? Our father had put aside that Catherine to wed my mother. Another gift was a brooch that I could wear pinned to my collar. It depicted Pyramus and Thisbe, lovers, sketched in amethyst. Then came the sable wrap, which she