PART 1

Summer, 1526

The light drizzle that had caught the girls in the flower field soon turned into a heavy downpour, and their long, already heavy summer dresses were soaked through. The wet hems became heavy and clinging to their legs, preventing them from running towards the castle for shelter.

– My hood! – Alienor suddenly heard behind her. Tall and long-legged, she had already managed to jump over the wide puddle that had already formed on the field, but she did not hesitate to return to her friend.

Brigid was still at the other end of this very puddle and, bending as low as her father's servants do to take his orders, was running her hands over the wet ground.

– What is there? Brigid, hurry! – shouted Alienor, but not wishing to jump over the puddle again, she remained where she was.

– My hood! It fell off my head! – replied Brigid with concern in her voice.

– Well and God with it! – tried to cheer up her friend Alienor.

– But this is my favourite… A present from my mother for my fifteenth birthday! – Brigid never stopped her search, but it was fruitless.

– We'll look for him tomorrow, I promise! – Alienor was impatient: she was shivering from the cold, and her wet dress made her feel disgusted.

– But it would be ruined! The velvet! The pearls! Everything! – Almost crying, Brigid shouted with despair. She gave up her search, straightened her back and splashed her hands.

– It won't get any worse! I'm sure your hood has got so wet that there is no need to look for it now in this mud, in this downpour! – Alienor said cheerfully, out of place. – But I promise that tomorrow we'll come back and find him together! Now let's run to the castle! Please! I'm dying of cold!

– You promise? – Brigid asked, and a happy smile shone on her face: ah, Alienor! She always manages to find the right words!

– I promise! May God take my soul if I don't fulfil my promise!

Encouraged by her friend, Brigid flung her long wet hair back from her wet face, lifted the hem of her dress, took a step forward and, suddenly slipping on a clod of sticky mud, with a silent cry of surprise, fell face down. When she hastily rose to her feet, her friend laughed merrily.

– 'Ah, my dear! You look like a real peasant woman! – Alienor exclaimed and laughed again. She realised that her friend did not like her laughter, but she could not help it: it was tearing her lungs.

Poor Brigid! Her face was smeared in liquid earth, and her almost new dress looked as if several buckets of cow dung had been poured on it. The girl's hair was smeared with mud, and her palms and nails were black. She looked so pitiful that if her father had passed by, he would not have recognised his own daughter.

– I'm sorry… I'm sorry! – Alienor managed to hold back her laughter and, dashing like a young deer across a puddle, the girl rushed to her friend's aid. However, her efforts were unsuccessful: Brigid's face remained black and her dress was dirty.

– How embarrassing I am… Mother of God, what will Mother say when she sees me like this? – Brigid wailed, but immediately burst out laughing: 'She says William Tury is coming to the castle today! He will ask for my hand in marriage! Imagine his eyes when I enter the hall!

– He won't see you, silly girl! We'll take you through the kitchen! – Alienor declared firmly and took her friend's dirty palm in her own, not squeamish about it, but wanting to show her sisterly affection. – Run!

– Run! – Brigid responded, gripping Alienor's palm tightly.

The girls ran as fast as if they were not young misses, but a pair of roe deer. They skipped nimbly across the puddle, reached the small forest surrounding the Norton family castle, owned by Alienor's father, the king's counsellor Jacob Norton, and rushed laughingly to the back door leading to the great kitchen.

– Mother of God! Miss Brigid, is that you? – screamed one of the maids, slicing into thin slices the meat of a roast tender pig.

– I fell to the ground! – shouted the girl cheerfully to her. – Don't tell your mother!

– Your mother is looking for you everywhere! – The servant girl said grudgingly. Like all the servants of the castle, she treated the friend of her masters' daughter as her own sister, remembering of course that she was far above them in rank. – And you, Miss Alienor, your father is looking for you! – she added, and pointed the tip of her long, broad knife at the door leading out of the kitchen. – Get out of here before they see you here! And even looking like that!

– We're leaving! Don't be so angry! – Alienor laughed and, pulling Brigid with her, headed for the low wooden door leading to the servants' staircase, hidden from the eyes of hosts and guests.

– We need to be as quiet as mice! – Alienor whispered to her friend as they made their way up the stone staircase, which smelled damp and was covered in moss in some places. – You need to be bathed in warm water and herbs… And the dress, alas, will have to be thrown away! But don't be sad: if William Tury, that handsome man, asks for your hand, they'll make you a dozen… No, two dozen new dresses! And jewellery! They'll buy them for you, the most beautiful, the most…

– Alienor! – suddenly came a woman's voice from somewhere above. The voice, echoing off the sturdy stone walls of the rather narrow staircase, belonged to the girl's mother, Lady Francesca Norton.

– Mother! – Alienor gasped and, pressing Brigid against the wall, whispered in her ear: – 'I will go first! It is not good for my mother to see you like this! She values purity so much that she would faint at the sight of a beauty like you!

– Right, I'll wait here. Please find my mother and ask her to prepare a bucket of warm water for me. My father must not know that I have appeared in the castle black as an old homeless wanderer! – Brigid replied faintly.

– I will! Stay here for now! – Alienor let go of her friend's palm, lifted the wet hem of her dress, and hurried up to her waiting mother. – 'Mother, do not be angry! It is not my fault that it rained!

– My child, you need to change your clothes… We have been visited by titled guests! This only happens once in a lifetime, and I will not let you spoil this moment…" said the resentful Lady Norton, but soon her voice disappeared behind the door, and Brigid could not make out the last words.

"Guests! And I was so lucky to fall in the mud!" – With a mockery of herself the girl smiled. She glanced again at her dress and arms, took a deep breath, humbly accepting her awkward position, and, after waiting a little while, slowly made her way up. However, not even three steps up, Brigid heard the door at the top of the stairs open and bang loudly against the wall, the very door behind which Alienor and her mother had recently hidden, and the stairs were suddenly filled with a loud, displeased male voice.

– Now listen, Catherine: we shall stay here as long as I like! I do not wish to ride in the pouring rain! But you, if you are in such a hurry to London, you may go without me! – The voice was like a peal of thunder, and Brigid involuntarily pressed herself against the damp, cold wall.

Goosebumps of fear ran down her back: she was so frightened by this strong, authoritative voice.

– You are right, my dear husband. Walking in the rain is not the best of pleasures. – There was a soft female voice. – I will be glad to keep you company in this cosy and lovely place. Our daughter will understand our tardiness and certainly won't take any offence at us.

– I am glad you find this place lovely," the man's voice parried, and this time there was a coldness in it.

– When the sun comes out again, my dear husband, we can take a walk in the neighbourhood. If you wish, we shall take Miss Anne Boleyn and Miss Mary Carrie with us. – The woman's voice remained still as soft and warm, and this contrast so surprised Brigid that she involuntarily put her palm to her breast and aghhed in pain for the stranger.