My cousin Katherine

So round and round we went till we got to The Queen’s Rooms. There were dozens of terrifying older ladies-in-waiting, all dressed in extraordinary, fashionable clothes. We sat in a dark, fusty, panelled room, which showed off their rainbow-coloured silken dresses. Then the Queen came in with her Ladies. And they weren’t at all fashionable and nor was the Queen.  And they seemed to all be dressed in brown or claret.

Court is really confusing. It really is all about these hidden codes and what you look like and how you do your hair and whether you’re fashionable and popular and pretty and not actually about how ‘in’ you are with the Queen.  Or not this Queen anyway.  Which is why my uncle wants me to secretly help my cousin Katherine become the new queen. Or something.

Anyway, just as I was getting really nervous about what I was supposed to do, I saw this amazing girl. She was dressed in pale green silk, with shiny dark gold hair and, almost at once, she rescued me when I dropped my sewing and blushed and didn’t even know how to curtsey properly.

She covered up my stammering apology and whisked me out of the room. And this was her.….my cousin Katherine. This was Katherine Howard, who I’d thought about for SO long.  She is so funny and sharp and completely knows her way round court. She saved me –from wetting myself for one thing, and fainting from hunger for another. I think she may just save my life here.

So I’m feeling a lot better, my friends xxxMatilda