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yet I think you must have felt a passion, for I do hear it in your songs.”
    â€œNay, not as yet, my lady. But all music must speak of romance, as in poems.” Kate felt her cheeks turn warm, as she thought of Anthony Elias, her friend from Hatfield days who was studying to be an attorney, and his calm, serious green eyes, and Rob and his laughter, and once again felt caught between the two men in her life. “I only imagine it all.”
    â€œThen you must find yourself a
real
love! It is quite unlike anything else. It is what life must be for, I think. What we are all made for.” She suddenly turned away, as if she realized she had said too much. Her back stiffened, and the royal Tudor expression Lady Catherine so often shared with the queen returned.
    â€œThe queen has asked me to compose a masque to welcome a Scots delegation to court,” Kate said quickly. She could see why so many people flocked around Lady Catherine; her attention was dangerously charming. Plus Elizabeth had asked her to keep an eye on her cousin. “Perhaps you would be kind enough to assist me, Lady Catherine? It is a large task at the lastmoment, I fear, but perhaps it could be a small distraction for you.”
    The sunny smile returned. “Oh, yes! I would enjoy that very much. I have some poetry of my own written, only small fragments, but perhaps they would be of some use?”
    â€œCat?” someone called from the doorway. “There you are! We have been looking everywhere for you. You promised to play primero with us.”
    Kate glanced over to see that it was Lady Jane Seymour, Lady Catherine’s best friend and Lord Hertford’s sister. She looked rather like him, with her sharply carved features and pale brown hair, but Lady Jane had grown thinner in the last few winter months than her robust brother, her fine gowns too large. She studied them with her dark blue eyes, also like her brother’s.
    â€œI shall be there in only a moment, Juno, dear,” Lady Catherine called back. “Shall we practice the masque tomorrow, then, Mistress Haywood? Do you need help casting the parts?”
    â€œThat would be most welcome. Thank you, Lady Catherine.”
    Lady Catherine nodded, and hurried off to join her friend, her little dog leaping in her wake. Kate turned back to the fire, completely bemused. What game was Lady Catherine playing at court? Did she covet her cousin’s throne—or quite the opposite?
    And why was she so cozy with the Spanish? Kate couldn’t help but think that once the Scots arrived, the whole balance at court would be quite overturned yetagain, and all the pieces on the chessboard would move. But where would they all end up?

CHAPTER FOUR
    â€œM istress Haywood? This letter has just arrived for you.”
    The page boy knocked at Kate’s door just as she was preparing to return to the queen’s chamber after the night’s supper. Elizabeth liked to hear soothing music as she made ready to retire, but Kate’s own small room, tucked up at the highest level of the palace, was so far from the royal apartments that it was a journey to get there. She felt fortunate to even have her own room, when so many courtiers had to share or even find lodgings away from court, but more than once she had become rather lost.
    Even though she was late, she opened the door eagerly. A letter! Who could it be from? She thought of how she had remembered Rob and Anthony while talking to Lady Catherine, how that lady’s words of romance and passion had brought them both too vividly to mind, but she pushed them both away now. There was no time for such silly thoughts!
    But she was still very curious.
    The boy in the queen’s green-and-white livery handed her a thickly folded missive, and she saw at once it was no love poem—but no less welcome. Theshaky handwriting, the tiny lute-shaped seal pressed into the red wax, was her father’s.
    Kate broke the seal as