The Other Elizabeth *OLD VERSION*

IV. Summer 1446 *EDITED*

IV

Summer 1446 

Great Totham, Essex, England

"Pray, what person has your wardship and is enlightened daily by your wit?" – The Baroness Bourchier had asked me. The person whose household I have now been sent to and is 'enlightened daily by my wit' is none other than the newly ennobled, and with child, Viscountess Bourchier herself. After her son, Henry, entered the church, My Lady insisted she escort me home in her litter herself. I protested, but allowed her to dissuade me from walking in the biting cold rain, which I admit was not a very inviting prospect.

I allowed myself to be helped up into My Lady's litter, as my arm still reared in pain if I held any such object. My beastly, wicked Father! I was still angry at the way he had treated me, even though he was drunk. Already seated in the litter were three of My Lady's sons: William, John, and the youth Henry. I immediately engaged them in some pointless conversation, for I cannot endure a silence! All too soon we arrived at Rivenhall Place, the ground by then aloof with mud. I scolded myself for not putting on my pattens when I left home, for my flimsy-soled shoes would soon be sullied.

"I thank you graciously for carrying me here," I stuttered.

She smiled. "It was of no great trouble. Would you care for me to escort you inside?"

"Lady Mother, I must express my wishes to make more haste homewards; Lord Father may be waiting," her eldest son, William, interjected. I can now see why he was so impatient; if his father had been further ennobled, he wanted to learn of it, for when his father died, (God save him) he would inherit the title. My Lady has taught me, in the few months of my being in her household, how to read behind people's words, how to calculate, how to scheme, to advance yourself to the best position. To know your friends, enemies, and turncoat friends. How to associate yourself with peers you can benefit from, how to arrange a good marriage within them. And how to keep your thoughts hidden. So now I can still be a fantasist and romanticist, but also a young maiden with a devious, cunning mind who knows how to obtain what she so desires.

My Lady departed, rather unwillingly, after seeing the front doors of the manor heave open, and one of my maids step from forthwith.

"I hope we will meet again, Elizabeth?"

"I hope so too," I said earnestly, turning to go inside.

Soon after our meeting, My Lady visited my Lady Mother and offered me a place in her household. My Lady Mother must have so wanted to be begot of me, for so hastily was I transferred to the Viscountess' manor in Great Totham, a fair few miles from Rivenhall. My Lady Mother and I had no such tearful parting as many girls are reported to have when they enter the service of another noble family's household and leave their mammas. Indeed, she has always been my cold, stiff, unsmiling, emotionless, strict Lady Mother. The only time I have witnessed any emotion from her was when my brother died, God rest his soul. She must have loved him so very much to cry for him, which means she must not love me. She must not love me at all.

*****

I am recounting how I came to be placed in the Viscountess' household to her son Humphrey, who was not present in the litter that day.

"My Lord and Lady agreed that 'twould be befitting for me to enter into another's household now, since I am going to inherit all his lands and money and title, and become Baroness Scales one day," I say smoothly, for I can hardly confess that I fear my Mother does not love me. Before entering My Lady's household, I thought that I would just become a Baroness. She has taught me that it will bring me wealth, power, a good standing in the marriage market as an heiress, and so I have become a young maiden of calculation, and I have only just turned ten. I have now been alive for ten years!

"Perhaps you will not inherit," Humphrey says, in his lazy drawl. We are in the solar, and he is sprawled in one of the chairs, in an ill-fitting, plain cotton tabard. He has mean little eyes; I have not been able to befriend him so well as My Lady's other sons, for I feel uneasy around him.

"Whatever can you be suggesting?" I frown.

"Mayhap your father will marry again and beget himself his heir; his son." I blink many times, I cannot even utter words. I begin to tremble a little, and my nose twitches as my eyes become hot. If my middle name was not fira, I would have probably responded more carefully.

"How dare you suggest that! My Lady Mother is not going to die! You insolent youth- you, you, you malebouche!" I cry in a blaze. I may have my grievances with my Lady Mother, but I love her dearly, as a dutiful daughter should- I could not bear to think of her dying! Humphrey lets out what I presume is a snort at my petty remarks, and my fingers curl into my palms.

He looks at me slyly. "Your Lady Mother may be in perfect health, but your father may want his heir. Maybe a little poison will be slipped into your Mother's ale at dinner." I let out a sharp cry, jump from my seat, run out the room and into the one across the passageway, and slam the door.