January 23, 1554
Just after midnight

I am waiting now until the ancient guard who stands at the end of the corridor leading from my apartments to the grand salon is asleep. If it were young Robin MacClean, one of my Scots guards, I would not have a chance. But as soon as this old goat nods off, I can cross through the grand salon to the petit salon. There is a small passageway from that room that leads to the observatory. I never knew about this passageway, but Minette told me. She says that it is right behind the statue of King Charlemagne. There is a panel that appears ordinary like all the others in the salon but if I push, it will open. She cautions me that the stairs are steep. What an adventure!

Already just getting into Minette’s clothes has been an adventure. How different they are and not just in appearance. She wears no undergarments, as least hardly any worth mentioning. There is no corseting and no hoops. No underpinnings or true partlets to fill in the neckline of the bodice or to wear over the kirtle. Well, actually there is no kirtle. She wears a loose shift and then she ties two skirts over that and laces up a vest that is scooped into a squarish neck. Instead of a partlet to hide the skin exposed by the bodice, she tucks in a scarf. Then over the two skirts there is an apron.

Not one of these garments has a stitch of decoration or embroidery. Minette’s hair is entirely covered with a soft cap, the kind they call a muffin cap, for it looks as if a muffin or biscuit has plopped down on one’s head. But I must wear it or my red hair would reveal me immediately. Meanwhile Minette has slipped into my nightgown and my bed and is giggling madly. She says she has never felt anything as lovely as my fine cambric nightgown, and I say I have never felt anything as coarse as her carzie wool. I think the sheep this wool came from spent their entire lives in brambles. But now the deepest part of the night comes and Minette says it is safe for me to go. I will take one taper with me. I will go to visit the seer and ask about this blood he sees swirling around my head.