My Lady Jane

Jane feels overwhelmed by the idea that she is now queen and by her opulent new chamber, which doesn’t have room for books. She mourns Edward. Lady Frances and Lord Dudley sweep her along to various royal activities. She asks to see Edward’s body to say farewell, but Dudley refuses. She realizes something is wrong.

Jane is relieved when G returns to human form, as she feels she can trust him. Dudley tries to rush her into planning Gifford’s coronation as king, saying he’s got the crown ready. Jane realizes he must have planned this all along and objects. G takes offence that she apparently doesn’t trust him to rule alongside her, but she worries that he has been using her all along. They argue and sleep in separate bedrooms, leaving Jane distressed and alone.

Tension remains between G and Jane. He hides his knowledge of Mary’s rebellion, thinking he shouldn’t worry her. He feels rejected by her competence and independence. He struggles to reconcile her power over him with their equal relationship and societal gender roles.

One day he gallops further than normal and is outside London when he turns human at dusk. He finds an encampment of soldiers and overhears them declaring Mary the true queen. He hurries back to London and warns Jane, telling her everything he knows. He says he kept it from her thinking not to bother her, and that Dudley and the Privy Council probably didn’t mention it for the same reason. He says that they probably have a plan in place. Jane summons the Privy Council, but none turn up. From the tower, they see Mary’s army arrive at the gates.

Edward and Gracie head north toward his Gran, avoiding Mary’s army and the Pack. He finds her very attractive even though she is a criminal. She alternately teases him or resents him for being the English king, given the English harassment of Scotland. In her Ethian form as a fox, she steals clothes for him and supplies. She is angry when he initially takes her for granted. He then realizes how helpless he is.

Edward explains that his Gran was an Ethian with a skunk form when it was still illegal. Rather than burn her at the stake, her husband Henry VII pretended she had died and sent her away. Edward becomes too sick to travel, so he turns into a kestrel and Gracie carries him the rest of the way.

When they arrive, Bess is with Edward’s Gran. They give him medicine. Gracie and Gran bond over their shared feistiness. Bess explains that she and Mary discovered the poison plot by chance, but Dudley convinced Mary to cooperate by promising her the throne. Actually, he planned Jane as heir, hoping to place her under Gifford’s control and assuming Gifford would be, in turn, under his own control. He tried to capture Mary and Bess but they both fled separately. Mary seized the throne with her army that morning.

Mary easily seizes the throne with her army. The nobles all change allegiance, including Dudley and Lady Frances. Jane and G are shackled, but he turns into a horse, revealing his secret publicly. Mary tells Jane to accept her as queen and denounces all Ethians, including Gifford, whom she plans to burn at the stake. Jane refuses and defiantly defends the humanity of the Ethians. Mary imprisons her, declaring she will be executed the next day.

Lady Frances visits Jane to try to persuade her to relent, as Jane’s stance may damage her too. Jane argues that it was once believed that everyone was Ethian and reveals she knows Frances’s secret. Frances leaves.

Despairing, Jane suddenly turns into a small furry animal. She feels full of joy in her new form. She remembers Gifford and escapes through a crack in the door. She overhears Dudley and Boubou talking. She learns that they were poisoning Edward, but he escaped. She resolves to rescue her horse and find him.

In his cell, Gifford tries not to think about his fate and composes a line of Hamlet. He carves Jane’s name in the wall. Someone slips a letter under the door: It is Jane’s letter to Edward written after the wedding. In the corner someone has added the word “skunk.”

A small weasel-like creature creeps under the door. It lies on a book and he realizes it’s Jane. She communicates that she has a plan. She goes out and comes back with keys stolen from a guard, allowing them to escape the room. Peter the stable master apprehends G and demands to know where Jane is. G shows him the animal, which he identifies as a ferret. He tells them the truth about Dudley poisoning Edward and reveals he slipped G the letter. He gives them a horse to escape before dawn, telling them to follow his daughter. G rides off carrying Jane in her ferret form, led by Pet in her dog form.