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Vasquez.”
    They made elaborate bows, and Kate heard the queen’s ladies giggle.
    â€œSecretaries?” Elizabeth said. “Then I do hope they will be of much help to you, Bishop—and help liven up our court for the holidays, as young men do. Do you bring us the new Spanish dances, senors?”
    The solemn one, Senor Jeronimo Vasquez, looked as if “dance” was an unknown word to him, and certainly an unknown action, but the merry one laughed, and gave the queen an even more theatrical bow. “A
branle cope
, Your Grace? Or mayhap a
baja danza
? They are most lively.”
    â€œI do like a lively dance the best,” the queen said, giving him an appraising glance. “You must also teach them to my ladies. And perhaps some Spanish songs to my chief musician, Mistress Haywood.” She held out her bejeweled pale hand and gestured for Kate to step forward. “Now, my dear bishop, we wish to give King Philip a token from his English sister on his marriage.”
    Kate curtsied and handed the box to Bishop de Quadra. As he lifted the lid to reveal a gold-chased timepiece, Elizabeth leaned closer to Kate and whispered, “Did you see my cousin Lady Catherine talkingto the handsome Senor Gomez when we came in, Kate?”
    â€œI did, Your Grace,” Kate whispered back.
    â€œShe has been rather too friendly with the Spanish of late,” Elizabeth said, the merest whisper of a frown rippling over her smiling mask. “Would you keep watch on her?”
    Kate remembered Lady Catherine at Nonsuch Palace the summer past, how she crept into corners with Lord Hertford, rumored to be her lover. Lady Catherine seemed to have lost some of her lively, flirtatious ways in her mourning, but she had indeed seemed rather animated in her conversation with Senor Gomez. And de Quadra’s predecessor, Feria, had seemed most intent on keeping Lady Catherine’s friendship.
    Kate nodded. “Keeping watch” on Lady Catherine Grey with her flighty ways, while also organizing a masque and composing the music for dances and feasts, made her want to sigh. But Lady Catherine was the queen’s cousin, her nearest relation at the English court, and some whispered she was the best possible heir to Elizabeth’s throne. What she did was always of import to the queen.
    As Elizabeth took the bishop’s arm to stroll with him along the gallery, followed by his new secretaries, Kate slipped away to look for Lady Catherine.
    Lady Catherine was usually to be found at the center of her large groups of friends, almost always with Lord Hertford’s sister, Lady Jane Seymour, at her side, laughing and whispering.
    Until now. To Kate’s surprise, Lady Catherine wasnot with her young friends, playing cards or chasing their lapdogs, giggling at the fashions of everyone who was not part of their circle. She was sitting by herself next to the fireplace of one of the small withdrawing rooms beyond the great gallery, her hands folded in the lap of her black skirts. One of her many little dogs, who always seemed to follow her around, peeked out from under her fur-trimmed hem. She stared into the crackling flames, her pretty heart-shaped face very still and pale.
    Kate suddenly felt uncomfortable, and glanced back over her shoulder to see if any of Lady Catherine’s friends were near. Such solemn sorrow, especially from a lady who was usually so light, tugged at Kate’s own heart. She knew how that time of year, meant to be so merry and joyous, sometimes pulled forward too many sad memories, too many lonely hours.
    But Lady Catherine glanced up and saw Kate in the doorway, so it was too late to back away. “Mistress Haywood?” she called.
    Kate was rather surprised. She wasn’t sure Lady Catherine knew her name, though they were often in the same room at court. They had never spoken before.
    â€œI didn’t mean to disturb you, Lady Catherine,” she said. “I just