It started when she'd found a color plate of Queen Elizabeth in a history book, the color of the queen's hair catching her attention. She'd gone on to read in the book that Elizabeth had King Henry's pale complexion, golden lashes, and curly copper-red hair, and Anne Boleyn's oblong face and pointed chin, wide-set almond-shaped eyes, and pronounced cheekbones. But unlike Anne Boleyn's clear, unmarred complexion, Elizabeth had freckles on her pallid skin. As Priscilla studied her reflection, the color plate came back in vivid detail. It had depicted Queen Elizabeth in her late thirties, the age Priscilla was now, and the likeness was even more striking than when Priscilla was a girl of fourteen with only a hint of the woman she would become. Everything about her face resembled the queen now, except her nose didn't have the hook Elizabeth inherited from Henry, nor did she have Elizabeth's teeth, rotting from decay. She leaned closer and peered into her eyes. Elizabeth's had been described as hazel by some, golden-brown by others, and even agate-grey in one account.
