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you.”
    “I am told you are clever with your investments, my lord.” Queen Joan surprised him again. “ ’Tis an interesting pursuit for one with so old and respected a name as yours. Is there truth to the rumor?”
    He nodded. “My wife is extremely knowledgeable in such matters, having learned from her father in Firenze. I in turn have learned from her. I will advise you in any way that I can, madam. You have but to ask me.”
    The queen nodded. “I will send to you now and again, my lord, for your thoughts in certain matters of finance. Now have your child delivered to my favorite home, Havering-atte-Bower, at the beginning of July. You may send a servant with her. When she is older I shall
suggest a suitable match for her, with your permission, of course, my lord,” Queen Joan said graciously.
    “Thank you, madam,” the Earl of Leighton said. He bowed again as, with a nod and a languid wave of her hand, the king’s stepmother dismissed him. Robert Bowen made his way from the queen’s chambers and found his cousin.
    “What happened?” Sir William asked, and the earl told him all that had transpired. “What good fortune you have had, Rob!” his cousin exclaimed. “You will never have to worry about your Cicely again if she gets on with the other girls in Queen Joan’s household. You must instruct her to make certain that she pleases the queen in particular. If she has that lady’s favor her future will be secured.”
    “I still cannot believe all of this,” the earl said. “Of course I cannot tell Luciana exactly what has transpired. She will be jealous that I have obtained such a fine place for my daughter. I think she would have preferred I give Cicely to the Church with a meager dower portion and never see my child again. A cloistered order would have been her choice,” Robert Bowen said with a wry smile.
    “Does she not realize that if your daughter makes the right friends at court, and marries well, that all of that would be of advantage to your sons?” Sir William said.
    “Nay, she does not envision such things,” the earl answered. “When she considers Cicely she sees only a rival for my affections.”
    “I am sorry for you then, Rob,” his cousin replied. “Surely then little Lady Cicely is better off leaving Leighton Hall.”
    Robert Bowen nodded, but his eyes were sad.
    He returned home, stopping at the cottage where his daughter lived before seeing his wife. Cicely ran to greet him, welcoming him home. Orva stood in the door to the dwelling, and their eyes met, hers questioning him.
    “Let us sit down by the hearth,” the earl said. “The air is damp, and the fog not yet lifted from the fields.” He took his daughter onto his lap as he lowered himself into a chair by the small fire.

    Orva put a small goblet of wine that was kept for his visits by his hand, and then she sat down too. When Robert Bowen visited his child they did not stand on ceremony.
    “I have had an extraordinary piece of luck, poppet,” the earl began.
    “You have found a family to foster me, Papa?” she asked, and to his sorrow he heard the fear in her young voice.
    “Not a family, poppet, but Queen Joan herself!” he replied, forcing an enthusiasm into his voice that he did not feel. “And you will have another young lass for company who is coming to Queen Joan as well. Her little namesake, Lady Joan Beaufort. She is a year or two older than you, I am told, but it will be her first time away from her home too. Her father is dead, and her mother remarried. Her older brother is the Earl of Somerset. They are the king’s cousins, poppet. This is incredible good fortune for you to be taken into a royal household. And Orva is to come with you.”
    Cicely began to cry. “But I don’t want to leave Leighton Hall, Papa,” she told him. “Please don’t send me away! I will be good, I promise! I will never leave the cottage, and my stepmother will never see me again. I swear it!” She sobbed into his