Chapter 54 Summary

Lady de Winter continues her campaign to seduce Felton. When Lord de Winter visits, and she knows Felton is listening behind the door, she is careful never to say anything he could interpret as evil. Instead, she stirs up de Winter's anger using disdainful expressions so he will become exasperated and it will seem to Felton that de Winter becomes angry at her without a cause. When he does so, she prays loudly for God to forgive him, just as she herself does. These tactics eventually succeed in rousing Felton to the point that he begins to have private conversations with her when Lord de Winter is not around. She takes advantage of these to imply that de Winter and Buckingham are conspiring to destroy her, knowing that puritans have a great dislike of Buckingham and this will ensure Felton's sympathy toward her...