Culpepper faced round like a wild cat from a piece of meat, but seeing the great hulk, the intent and friendly eyes, the gold collar over the chest, the heavy hands, and the great feet that appeared to hold down the very stones of the terrace, he stood rigid in a pose of disturbance.
'Why do ye travel?' the King asked. 'This shall be Katharine Howard?'
Culpepper's hushed but harsh voice answered that they came out of Lincolnshire on the Norfolk border. This was the Lord Edmund's daughter.
'I have never seen her,' the King said.
'Sh'ath never been in this town.'
The King laughed: 'Why, poor wench!'
'Sh'ath been well schooled,' Culpepper answered proudly, 'hath had mastern, hath sung, hath danced, hath your Latin and your Greek.... Hath ten daughters, her father.'
The King laughed again: 'Why, poor man!'
'Poorer than ever now,' Culpepper muttered. Katharine Howard stirred uneasily and his face shot round to her. 'Rioters have brent his only house and wasted all his sheep.'
The King frowned heavily: 'Anan? Who rioted?'