The Rose Without a Thorn Read Online Free Page A

deal of what they said seemed to have a hidden meaning which I could not understand but which to them seemed veryfunny: and I was so fascinated by all these people that I forgot to be homesick.
    By evening time I was very sleepy. Isabel had been my companion all through the day. She showed me the house and the grounds, and introduced me to people always with the words: “Mistress Katherine Howard, the Duchess’s granddaughter.” And she always added: “Pray, do not forget she is a Howard.” Then they would laugh. I could not understand why.
    Isabel noticed how tired I was.
    “Marry,” she said, “’Twas a long journey. You need to sleep.”
    “Thank you,” I replied. “Will you be so kind as to show me my bedchamber.”
    “I have learned,” replied Isabel, “that you are to sleep in the Long Room with the rest of us, as no separate apartment has been prepared for you. The Duchess must think you are so young that you need me to be near you in case you should need anything. Did you sleep alone in your home?”
    “No. With my sisters.”
    “So you have sisters. And brothers?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did they sleep in the same bedchamber?”
    I saw that look in Isabel’s eyes which I already knew meant she was enjoying some secret joke.
    “Oh no,” I said. “Just my sisters.”
    “Well, you will not be lonely in the Long Room, I promise you. I will take you now. Then you can fall asleep before the others come to bed.”
    “What others will there be?”
    “The other ladies. All those of us who attend upon Her Grace. We have one large room in which we sleep. The Long Room. I will show you.”
    She took me up some stairs. The Long Room was almost at the top of the house.
    I looked at it in amazement. It was indeed long, and there were two rows of beds in it. On some of them lay garments.
    My first thought was one of relief. I had imagined myself sleeping in some ghostly chamber alone. I should have plenty of company here.
    I turned and smiled at Isabel and she returned my smile.
    “Here you will have some amusement,” she said. “And, Mistress Katherine Howard, I believe you are of a kind to enjoy the fun. This will be your bed. Here … at the end. I shall draw the curtains about it so that you will not be disturbed when the others come to bed. Then you will quickly recover from your long journey.”
    “I am sure I shall, and, to tell the truth, I like not to sleep alone.”
    That amused her again. “No, you are not of that kind, Mistress Howard.” She hesitated. “Some of the girls can be very merry. Heed them not. Just sleep tonight, and tomorrow you will feel as fresh and well as you ever did, I’ll warrant.”
    Isabel had drawn the curtains. I was exhausted by the long journey and my new experiences. I soon fell into a deep slumber, completely unaware that the first step toward my ultimate doom had been taken.
    It is not the following days which live in my memory … but the nights; and it was on my second one that I first witnessed some of the strange scenes which occurred in the Long Room after the household had retired.
    I had gone early to bed and lay there with the curtains drawn, as Isabel had advised, because, she said, the ladies were apt to forget how late it was when they came to bed and when others, like Mistress Katherine Howard, might be wanting to sleep.
    I was not so tired as I had been on the previous night, yet it was my custom to fall asleep as soon as I lay down, and this I did, to be awakened some time later by the sound of low laughter.
    I opened my eyes. I could see the light of some candles through a gap in the bed curtains, and I lay there listening.
    People were talking in low voices; there was a good deal of giggling and what I imagined to be suppressed laughter. I lay in my bed, wondering what was happening beyond my curtains.
    I guessed that several of the girls were awake. Certain sounds made me wonder whether there was some sort of feast. I could contain my curiosity no