On the eighteenth day of November 1453, around a month after the birth of the baby prince, all noble ladies were summoned to Westminster Abbey to participate in a magnificent ceremony for the churching of the queen. But Cecylee was too distracted to get caught up in the excitement, for she realized that after a span of more than six years, she would finally be able to see Nan.Heart in mouth, Cecylee looked around the crowded room. Alice Chaucer, Duchess of Suffolk, was laying out the Queen’s robe, which had been trimmed with over five hundred sables. She was helped by Eleanor Beauchamp, Duchess of Somerset, and by Anne Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick. The rising temperature of the room mingled the odors of woodsmoke, wet leather, and the slightly rancid smell of fur pelts as more ladies crowded into the room.Cecylee made her way to the only casement that was open.And there she was.Nan.Only her blue-grey eyes were recognizable, but even these had changed. Gone was the wide-open innocence of the six-year-old child whom Cecylee had last seen.
