“Your Majesty, The Earl of Lynn!” Lady Rochford curtsies to Kitty, who nods and waves her brother into the room.
“Charlie,” she says coolly, putting her hand out to him as Jane retreats from the room, knowing Kitty wants to be alone with her older brother for this.
“Sister,” Charlie bows, brushing Kitty’s skin with his lips. He goes to straighten from his obeisance almost at once, but a sharp tut from his sister freezes him in place.
“Sister?” he repeats, and this time, there is a note of question in his voice. Kitty isn’t usually one for protocol. At least, not with him.
Kitty says nothing for a few moments. When she does speak, her voice is ice rather than its usual liquid laughter.
“Where’s Mary?”
“Mary?!” Charlie’s jaw drops open. What on Earth does his sister want to know about Mary for? “Blickling, I assume. Why do you ask?”
“Why?! Why?! Because she’s my stepdaughter, you dolt! She ought to be here, helping us celebrate the Saviour’s birth! Do you want to explain to me why she’s not?!”
Charlie spreads his hands, “If I’m truly honest? I didn’t want her souring the festive season for me. I married her because I know you needed me to, to keep her out of Jane’s hair if this child of yours isn’t a boy, but believe me, we’ll all live much happier lives if the crow isn’t around to drain us of all joy.”
It is Kitty’s turn to look astounded. She gapes at her brother, almost too shocked to speak, before she heaves herself to her feet, her gently-swelling belly poking out before her as she straightens.
“Come with me,” she snaps, sweeping from the room without even bothering to check whether Charlie is following. He will be. If he knows what’s good for him, he will be.
The walk between Kitty’s apartments and Jane’s nursery usually takes ten minutes or so. Today, Kitty manages it in less than five.
Upon reaching the door, Kitty nods to the guards to throw it open, though she declines to be announced, instead simply standing in the doorway, watching. When Charlie would stride confidently past her into the nursery, she grabs his arm to keep him with her.
Two nursemaids sit on the floor with Jane, rolling a bright cloth ball between them. The ten-month-old watches eagerly, babbling happily and batting at the toy every time it comes within her reach. Whenever she hits the ball, which is often, the maids cheer and clap and tell her what a clever girl she is.
Jane laughs at the applause, her little mouth open to show pearly nubs of teeth that gleam in the weak winter sunshine.
Moments later, she tires of the game, and whines and squirms, straining towards one of her maids. The young woman obliges, swooping her up into her arms and falling lightly on to her back so that she can hold Jane up above her head.
Happiness instantly restored, Jane laughs again, the high notes spilling into the room like sunshine.
“Look how innocent she is. How happy.” Kitty’s voice is low and harsh as she hisses at her brother, “I asked you to marry Mary because I wanted you to help me keep her that way. I trusted you to help me keep her that way.”
“I will!” Charlie exclaims, unsure what Kitty is driving at, “Kitty, whatever I’ve done to upset you, whatever this is about, I give you my word that I’ll…”
“Really?!” Kitty scoffs, tossing her bright head, “I asked you to marry Mary because I thought you, of all my brothers, would be the one I could trust to shackle Mary to us forever, to keep her from being a threat to Jane. Yet now I find out that your marriage has already broken down to the point that the two of you can’t even spend Christmas together. That you’re not even sure where she is! Christ, Charlie, you’ve not even been married six months! You need to do better than that! What if she’s planning to flee the country and seek her cousin’s aid for her claim to the throne? What if she’s pregnant?! You know the North would rise for any son of hers in a heartbeat!”
Charlie laughs scornfully, “The crow’s not pregnant, I can assure you of that! We’ve only slept together once, and she bled two weeks later. Cold as she is, she laughed in my face when she told me. As if I’d want a child with her anyway. I only did the deed so she couldn’t claim non-consummation if she wanted an annulment.”
“Charlie! Be serious!” It takes all the self-control Kitty has to keep her temper under control, to not let her brother rile her. She has to stay calm, if only for Jane’s sake. For Jane and the child inside her. She clenches her fists so as not to shake him, “I need you to know where Mary is at all times. I need her at your side. I hoped you’d be able to charm her, but if you can’t manage that, then at least do me the favour of keeping her on a leash. Get to Blickling, get her packed and take her to Calais.”
“Calais?! Why Calais!”
“You’re going to help Papa against the French. And you’re going to take Mary with you,” Kitty holds up a hand against her brother’s bubbling protest, “Don’t worry, you don’t have to sleep with her. In fact, given what a threat any child of hers would be to Jane, I’d rather you didn’t. But I don’t want to see her back in England until this pregnancy has come to term and I’ve given Henry a son. Do you hear me?”
Charlie opens his mouth, and Kitty’s temper broils just that bit closer to the surface. Before her older brother can say anything, she grabs him by the collar and puts her face very close to his.
“Do – you – hear – me?” She growls, punctuating every word by stabbing her brother under the breastbone with her finger.
Then, as abruptly as she seized him, she shoves him away from her and stalks away from the nursery without so much as a backwards glance.
