Emilia is 13 and is in the library at court to practice music for a masque where she will play a butterfly. She discovers the newly minted Earl of Southampton, who is eight, crying there. They talk briefly and she shows him how to play a recorder before they are interrupted by one of the queen’s ladies who scolds Emilia for being there.

Emilia performs in the masque, which stars Queen Elizabeth, and afterward, the Baron introduces her to Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, who is to be her protector. She is shocked to realize he is the kindly older man she met at court before. They dance together and she is icy with him at first, but he is kind. He tells her that he hopes she will come to care for him and that he chose her because she will keep him young.

For her final lesson, Isabella has Emilia spy in a brothel on a prostitute having sex with a customer. Afterward, they go to visit an herb woman, and Isabella explains about using teas to prevent pregnancy.

The next day, Emilia is taken to Hunsdon’s house, Somerset House, and meets

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