The Other Countess (18 page)

Jane urged her horse nearer so she could speak confidentially. ‘But I would also like to see you alone – there’s so much I want to tell you.’

Ellie met her eyes, reading the sadness so few saw under the perfect beauty of Jane’s face. She wondered what had caused it. ‘I’d like that.’

‘Then when?’

A zany thought tumble-turned across Ellie’s mind like an acrobat at the fair. There was something that might cheer Jane
up if she dared. ‘Come tonight,’ Ellie whispered, keeping an eye out for Will and Sir Henry. They were too busy glaring at each other to listen in on the girls’ conversation.

‘Come where?’

‘I’m going a-Maying – with the girls from the village. We meet here at dusk.’

‘Maying?’ Jane licked her lips. ‘With common people?’

‘Don’t be such a killjoy’ grinned Ellie, ‘you’ll enjoy it. So much more fun than stuffy banquets at court.’

Jane’s gaze flitted lightly over the gathered villagers, then the green where they stood. ‘All right.’

Ellie was amazed she had agreed so readily. ‘Really?’

‘Yes.’

‘Wondrous. I’ll see you later.’ Dorothy let out a wail so Ellie turned to go. ‘Oh, and wear something …’ she frowned at Jane’s lush rose-pink damask petticoat with fine wool overskirt, ‘… less eye-catching.’

‘But I don’t have anything of poorer quality than this.’

Ellie rolled her eyes. ‘You can’t go Maying dressed like a duchess.’

‘I’ll think of something,’ Jane promised.

‘Until dusk then, my lady.’ Ellie bobbed a curtsy and walked briskly away, aware that all eyes were on her back. The gossip would be lively now the honour of buying her ribbons had been fought over by two gentlemen in full view of everyone. She just hoped they wouldn’t also get wind of the fact that she had persuaded one of the noble guests to join the girls that night; if they knew, there would be an outcry. But still, it would be rather fun.

13

‘Nell, I want to borrow one of your gowns this evening,’ Jane announced as she sat at her dressing table. ‘And tell the countess that I have retired early so will not join her in the parlour.’

‘A gown?’ Nell stood in the doorway, waiting for her mistress to announce that it was a jest.

‘An old one,’ continued Jane, taking down her complicated hairstyle and re-doing it in two plaits. She fixed mismatched ribbons to the ends.

A suspicion crossed Nell’s mind – her ladyship was planning something she shouldn’t. Another secret rendezvous perhaps? But with whom?

‘Of course, my lady. I will fetch one from my trunk.’

Jane stripped off her fine clothes and pulled on the simple brown woollen gown Nell had found her. The material was a little scratchy even through the fine linen of her shift, but it served the purpose. Looking in the mirror, no one would ever guess that the fair-haired maiden was a rich noblewoman.

‘My lady is going out?’ Nell enquired, folding up the discarded garments.

Jane adjusted the bodice up so that the edge of her shift covered her cleavage and arranged a plain coif over her hair. ‘I am going Maying, Nell, but I would prefer you did not share that fact with my brother.’ She sounded almost proud of herself.

‘Maying?’

‘Yes. With Lady Eleanor. And the girls from the village.’

For once, her mistress had managed to surprise her. Lady Jane had never shown any eagerness to participate in such low pursuits before.

‘I wish you a good evening then, my lady. Shall I wait up?’

‘No, no. I’ll see to myself when I return. But if you could arrange for the back door to the kitchen to be left unlatched, I would be grateful.’ Jane took a coin from her purse and handed it to Nell.

‘Of course, my lady,’ murmured Nell.

Jane had already bribed the blackamoor groom to have her horse waiting for her. A pleasant fellow with a smile that lit up the stable when he heard what she was about, Diego had insisted that he accompany her to the village and look after her mount while ‘the ladies were playing’, as he put it. Jane rather suspected he fancied the idea of spying on the girls’ secret rites. Leaving him with her palfrey some distance from the green, she made the last part of the journey on foot. Only now did doubts begin to ambush her resolve. What if someone recognized her? This had to be the stupidest thing she had ever done. No, that was not true. Meeting Ralegh was far worse – this was merely a little bit naughty.

‘Lady Jane!’ Ellie had been on the lookout for her.

‘Ssh!’ she hissed, hoping no one had overheard.

Ellie grabbed her arm and towed her along. ‘I thought you would lack the courage to come.’

‘I don’t lack courage, just common sense.’

‘Hush now, you’ll love it. I last went when I was twelve – there’ll be dances and I’m sure there’ll be lots to eat and someone will have smuggled in something to drink – it’ll be great fun.’

Jane glanced around at the cottages, all of which had windows overlooking the green. ‘We can’t dance here, surely?’

‘No, in the meadows by the wood, of course. You can’t go Maying without spring flowers.’ With that, Ellie plonked a garland of daisies she had strung together on Jane’s head. ‘And now my lady’s necklace.’ She looped a second wreath around her neck.

‘Thank you, they’re priceless,’ laughed Jane, admiring the humble flowers, thinking them quite the prettiest thing she’d ever worn. ‘What about you?’’

Ellie pulled a few bluebells from the hedgerow and stuck them in her hair so they sprang out like the horns on a snail. She turned to let Jane assess the effect. ‘What do you think?’

‘You look like a mad beetle.’

‘Excellent.’

Jane found the other girls had decked themselves with similar inventiveness. As an all-girl occasion, they had strived to out-do each other in absurdity rather than worrying about what their male admirers would think. Everyone had flowers somewhere on her person. One girl had made a wig of lilac blooms; another, an apron of leaves. As Ellie had predicted,
someone had brought a cask of the brewer’s best ale and a few were already giggling from its effects.

Ellie marched up to a tall girl, who appeared to be the unofficial leader of the festivities. ‘Bess, I’ve brought a friend along. She’s visiting her aunt in Up-Hadley,’ she said, naming a village a few miles away.

Bess nodded to Jane. ‘Welcome. What’s your name?’

‘She’s Pru – short for Prudence,’ Ellie said swiftly, giving Jane a sly wink.

Jane decided she would get her back for that before the night was over.

‘I think we’re all here now.’ Bess gave a shrill whistle, putting two fingers in her mouth. ‘All right, ladies, the fun begins here. Time to move to the meadow.’

Jane noted that quite a few people appeared in the doorways to see the girls off, the older women smiling fondly as they remembered their own youth. The young men were gathered outside the inn, their looks rather more speculative.

‘Don’t wear yourselves out, girls!’ called the blacksmith’s apprentice. ‘We’ll be in the woods later.’

‘You’ll be so lucky,’ crowed Bess, giving him a jaunty swish of her skirts.

Having heard about Bess’s sister, Anne, from Ellie as they passed her door, Jane wondered if there might be quite a few more weddings in the village by the summer.

A maypole stood waiting in the meadow, crowned with a wreath of flowers, ribbons tied to the stem in a bow.

‘Gift from the boys,’ Ellie whispered, ‘they put it up each year. I think they hope it makes the girls feel charitable towards them.’

Or aroused by the dancing, Jane thought, intrigued by a glimpse of a way of life she had never realized existed among the lower classes.

A blind fiddler sat on the ground, jumping to his feet when he heard the girls approaching.

‘He’s the only man allowed.’ Ellie bent down to tighten her shoelaces.

‘Paid for by the boys?’ Jane guessed.

‘You’re catching on,’ laughed Ellie.

‘Now we get to choose our May Queen!’ announced Bess. ‘The prize goes to the most deserving maid among us.’

‘Me!’ called a stout, red-faced maid with a jolly smile.

‘Never, Maud, you were caught with Hamnet so you no longer qualify.’

The girls hooted with laughter as Maud stuck out her tongue at Bess.

‘This year, by a completely fair and open process known only to me,’ continued Bess archly, ‘the title goes to Ellie, for putting up with Dame Holton and generally charming the hose off everyone in the village. Agreed?’

‘Agreed!’ shouted the girls as Ellie blushed and flapped the compliment away.

‘The lucky winner gets to wear the crown.’ With no ceremony at all, Bess chased a resisting Ellie round the maypole and dumped a sagging coronet of mayflowers and weeds on her head as the onlookers cheered.

‘Speech!’ called Maud.

Ellie cleared her throat with great self-importance. ‘Ladies, I am touched by your terrible sense of judgement and will ever treasure the fragrant honour you have bestowed
on me this day.’ She gestured to her crown. ‘Thank you all.’

‘Long live the May Queen!’ called Bess, echoed by all, even the blind fiddler.

The first tune plunged Ellie back four years to her last May dance. It was an old favourite – a single plait that took little skill but allowed the girls a chance to get reacquainted with the maypole. Bess marshalled them into position so they could weave the ribbons in pairs.

‘There’s a forfeit for getting it wrong: a kiss for Blind Martyn!’ announced Bess.

The fiddler cheered. ‘Right, my dears, watch yourselves. I’m going to go so fast, you’re bound to stumble.’

They didn’t, of course, not on this dance. But the challenge was as old as the tradition of dancing in the spring and the fiddler knew his part.

The single plait was succeeded by the double, then the fiendishly tricky spider’s web. Jane made them go awry when she tugged Ellie the wrong way and they both had to kiss the fiddler’s cheek, much to the amusement of the others. When they’d danced themselves out, they collapsed on the sweet meadow grass, sharing a batch of buns donated by Anne, and passed the time catching up on the latest gossip.

‘So Pru, where are you from?’ asked Bess, rolling over on to her stomach and kicking her feet in the air.

‘London,’ Jane replied.

‘You talk fine – almost as fine as Ellie.’

Ellie snorted at this. Jane pelted her with twigs.

‘I … er … serve a lady there,’ Jane explained.

‘At court?’

‘We go sometimes.’

‘You lucky thing.’ Bess turned on her back, watching the glow-worms flickering on the bank. ‘Life here is so boring. I’d love to see all the court ladies – the Queen herself. I mean the real one and not our May Queen.’

Ellie smiled and pulled the crown off her head, letting it flop into her lap.

Jane yawned. ‘Court can be boring, too, if you spend too much time there. Very formal and stuffy.’

Ellie thought Jane was giving too much away, sounding too much the spoilt noble. ‘But the gentlemen are always worth seeing, aren’t they,
Prudence
? Did I tell you, Bess, that I went to a joust? The earl looked very well in his armour.’

‘Ooh, I wager he did. He is just … just so handsome – and an earl – it’s not fair. I wish I was the lady he’s courting.’

‘He’s courting?’ Ellie met Jane’s eyes as the reason for her visit suddenly became clear. She should’ve guessed.

‘Yes, the lady you met this morning. I thought you must know as you seemed to be friendly with her.’ Bess’s tone was too innocent to be completely believable. She was watching the by-play between Ellie and Jane closely.

Ellie studied the shredded flowers in her lap. ‘No, I hadn’t realized, but you’re right, I should’ve known.’

Bess’s revelation had spoiled Ellie’s mood as quickly as a frost in spring. Her relationship with Will had existed in a perfect bubble, floating unattached to duties or reality, but now that had burst. Letting the conversation move on, she got up and brushed off her skirts. ‘I’d better get back.’

‘Not coming to the woods?’ asked Bess with a gleam in her eye as she nodded to the shimmer of torches weaving between the trees.

‘Not this year.’

‘I didn’t think so.’

Ellie said her farewells and started walking off across the meadow towards the village, not even waiting for Jane.

Bess turned to Jane. ‘What about you, Pru? Are you as strait-laced as your friend or can we tempt you into the woods?’

No, she wasn’t, Jane thought ruefully. But she wasn’t going to share that fact – and she had a few things to explain to Ellie. ‘I’d better not. Thank you for letting me join you.’

Bess smirked. ‘Any time. You’re not really a servant, are you?’

Jane wasn’t sure what to say.

Bess gestured to the girls lounging on the meadow around them. ‘We all got an eyeful of you earlier. Ellie may think you can fool us, but you’re not easily forgotten, my lady, even with the change of gown.’

Jane laughed. ‘I’m sorry for the deception then. But I did enjoy myself.’

‘We’re all glad you came. If you become the next countess, we’ll know who to come to if the vicar tries to stop us going Maying.’

‘You can count on me.’ Jane waved a general farewell, then hurried after Ellie. It had been shocking to be on equal terms with girls she’d always considered beneath her. For the first time, she’d begun to think that maybe their life held attractions hers did not. Friendship for one. Fun for another.

‘Ellie, Ellie, wait!’ Jane caught her up in the lane to the village. From the shrieks behind her, she guessed the girls had just gone into the trees. At least no one would be interested in what the two of them were doing with so much happening in the woods.

Ellie stopped but did not turn, her head hung low.

‘That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I know that there’s some … some affection between you and the earl. It was obvious this afternoon and I’d suspected it before.’

‘No, there’s nothing like that,’ Ellie said in a dull tone of voice. ‘We’re just friends.’

‘I don’t want this, but my family has commanded me to see if we will suit.’ Jane felt her annoyance rising – she’d found her first true friend and this was coming between them. The earl wasn’t worth it in her estimation.