You Know Them All, I Know It All, Stay Put and Play Along, 'Cause I'm Looking for My Friend

I have been listening to the audio book of Alison Weir's Innocent Traitor this week. It's a novel about Lady Jane Grey, who was queen of England for nine days before being beheaded since she jumped ahead of Mary Tudor in the succession to claim the throne. Or, rather, she was pushed ahead by her parents and others who thought they would benefit more under Queen Jane's reign than Queen Mary's. Reading biographies of Tudor-period royalty when I know the stories and outcomes already is like watching a horror movie. I constantly want to yell, "Girl, don't go in the basement! They're going to chop off your head!" Lady Jane is so tedious and irritating though that I am rooting for the executioner.

Right now, I'm at the part in the book in which her parents marry her off to Lord Guilford Dudley, the youngest son of the Lord Protector, who was governing England while Edward VI (son of Henry VIII) was busy dying young. It's shocking to hear how young people married in those days; girls all seem to be between 14 and 16. Lady Jane and Lord Guilford don't want to marry each other, though obviously no one gives a hoot about that given the era and their high noble ranks. At their betrothal dinner, Lord Guilford tells Lady Jane that he doesn't care what she does with her free time so long as she is his wife in public and in bed, where he promises to show her a good time. Lady Jane herself admits he was a very tall and handsome man. I was listening to this in utter astonishment. This tall, hot guy just wants to hang out with her in public, sex her up on occasion, and then leave her to her hobbies? Where can I find such a man?

Not at work. Mango spent the first half of the week flirting outrageously with me and the last two days all but ignoring me. Logic tells me that his withdrawal is for the best. He still has a girlfriend, so the flirting is inappropriate and it does not go unnoticed in our office. I don't want to get a reputation in the office for flirting with guys who are taken, no matter how accurate that reputation might be (fish have to swim, birds have to fly, I apparently have to lure men away from their girlfriends). Still, it stings to have him pull away so abruptly. He hasn't been rude to me at all, but I feel a distance there.