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Chapter Text

"Let the anonymous and the guest reviewers of our lives revel in their cleverness of their spite. Their time will come. Meanwhile enjoy making fun of others, one ugly action makes you forget about the ugly actions done against you." ~Ironically Anonymous Scorned Duchess.

"My Queen we have received deployments from the forces overseas."

"How much?"

"Thirteen, maybe less."

"That is too little. The country will be overrun by more of these critics. Ever since they criticizes my daughter's first story, she has been going downhill since then."

"She did offer a very outrageous story if I may add."

"You may not."

"-and very colorful one. The King may be many things but a rapist he is not." The Admiral of Navy said, ignoring the Queen's last command.

"Are you questioning my authority Sir Conroy?"

"No Madame, on the contrary I question your daughter's."

"My daughter is going to be the future Queen of this country. You would do well to see her as such."

"I shall but as an Englishman and having lived through so many wars, I have acquired a certain pallet for lies, one that distinguishes good ones from bad ones. And your daughter I am sorry to say is not a very good liar though she does have imagination. I will give her that."

"Do you think she will ruin everything my husband and I have created?

"No but her husband shall."

"My daughter Juana may be mad but she is not a fool. She will never give Philip complete power over her kingdom, my kingdom still if God grants me more breath."

"Her Majesty is ailing, it will not be long before your daughter's husband steals the crown from her head. He has been coveting since he married your daughter."

"Who cares what he thinks of me, what matters is what Juana thinks. If public opinion can be swayed -"

"My lady Queen I am afraid public opinion is not the main concern. Your daughter can be a mad woman for all the people care, but if she gives complete control to her husband then it won't just be your kingdom who will be affected but your husband's as well."

"My husband has agreed with everything I said."

"He does but agreeing to leave your daughter as sole Queen is something he will find very difficult to accept. Even if she were not mad, supposing the rumors and from what we all saw when she was here, are true; it won't matter. He has coveted your kingdom ever since he married you." That is the sole reason why he married you-he was about to say.

"Fernando is loyal to me. He rules Aragon. I rule Castile. It has always been so since our marriage."

"An arrangement he was reluctant to agree."

"What are you implying you Englishman?!" Isabel asked. Her voice high with contempt. She didn't like the Englishmen. They kept her daughter a prisoner and deprived her of all her goods. She had to bribe the papacy so the new pope would issue a new bull that would make the king agree to a second marriage between her daughter and his remaining heir, that pudgy boy Harry Tudor.

Her daughter spoke of what a great king he would be. 'It's as if he is born to it lady mother.' But he wasn't. Isabel thought. His brother was and it was unfortunate he died.

There were times when Isabel thought that God played a cruel joke on them making Catalina the youngest and Juana the oldest.

She took down her golden crown and set it on the table and looked at the Englishman, her light blue eyes bearing deep into his chocolate brown.

"Majesty, my country has been on and off from kings and queens for the past century. Our King enjoys an uncontested rule but it won't be for long before another pretender arises and with your son in law housing one of the greatest threats to the Tudor dynasty ... I propose you offer an exchange. The Duke of Suffolk and his brothers, the last white roses for your daughter."

"Catalina is the Princess Dowager of Wales, the future Queen of England! I will not ruin her ambitions" my ambitions, she was about to say, "just so the king can sleep well at night."

"Majesty, it is imperative we make allies of the English King. You have seen what he is capable. He forced your dearest daughter to sell her plate, who knows what else he will force her to sell?"

"The King is not that kind of man. He loved his wife."

"Aye he did but he is a widower now and a year since her death. Men become desperate when they don't enjoy women's company, more if they have a beautiful daughter living with them that they cannot touch."

"You have a dirty mind Englishman."

"I speak the truth." Conroy said with a simple smile.

The king of England was a great man in comparison to other kings but the queen of Castile didn't know that.

"Your daughter has done a terrific job enchanting the new prince of Wales. He loves her, he is besotted with her. He would die for her if she were to tell him to jump off from the highest tower in London but he is just a boy and the king is a very greedy man. He will never part with your daughter's dowry and your husband knows that very well but his councilors will try to convince you that this is not true."

Then he added: "Castile is the center of the Iberian Peninsula and with Granada now part of your dominions, the world will look to you for alliances." Who cares if a girl gets her hopes crushed? He was saying. It's better to make allies of your eldest daughter and her ambitious husband.

"I ... shall have to think on it. Leave me." Isabel said.

Conroy left, a smile on his lips.

Catalina reclined on the cushioned chair. She slept better than most these days. Harry was listening attentively to her voice as she recited his last poem.

He seemed so insignificant compared to his father who still had the warrior's build with square shoulders and a tough expression. Her poor lady mother had been alarmed when he suggested a new match between herself and him. Of course her lady mother said no right away, but her father told her to keep quiet and wait and see how serious the king was in this offer.

Catalina or Katherine as she called herself now, would have said no too if she had any choice in the matter. But she didn't and as any dutiful daughter she had to do what her parents told her.

That was the main difference between herself and her sisters. Isabella did nothing but weep when her parents wanted to marry her (twice), and Maria when they told her she would marry her dead sister's husband. But even more foolish was her eldest surviving sister Juana.

She had the future of Spain in her hands. Her sons would be kings and Emperors while Katherine's would only be king and Dukes. She had the whole world at her feet, yet still she cried and threw temper tantrums like she was some tavern wench.

Life is so easy when you stop worrying about little things -Catalina always said. She turned the page and read another one of her betrothed's bad poems.

The Spanish Ambassador came into their rooms and requested a private audience with her. She gave permission to Henry and her Duena to leave.

"What is it ambassador? Did something happen?"

The ambassador nodded grimly.

"What is it?" She asked softly but there was a hint of frustration in her voice.

De Puebla knew the Princess was not fond of him. But she set her hatred for him aside for the sake of her future.

"Well?"

"Your Highness, the Queen your mother passed away last week at Medina del Campo ..."

Mother! No. I must be strong.

"How did she die?"

"She was very old Your Highness you must remember that." De Puebla said, quieting his conscience.

"But she is my mother. She can't be dead ... she was always so strong."

"Who will take control of Castile now?" She knew the answer but she had to hear it for herself. She could not fathom it if her worst fears came true, but they always did.

Her heart dropped when the ambassador answered "Juana, Your Majesty."

"And Philip?" She closed and opened her eyes in less than a second, blinking away her tears. "Is he King Consort now or has my sister finally gone mad and gave him matrimonial rights?!" It would not surprise her if she did.

They all say she is crazy. Maybe they were right. God did Castile wrong not making her the eldest now the Devil would wear her mother's crown.

She was the dutiful daughter, she was the one who should get rewarded not her sister! But she quieted these thoughts as soon as she thought back to her dead mother. Her poor mother who had done nothing more than serve the Lord and teach her daughters everything to prepare them for their future roles.

"Fortunately no. She has landed in Spain and will hold a session with the Cortes, she might be holding one now as we speak. I am terribly sorry Your Highness but maybe this is not the right moment" he did a wave with his hand as if to show how saddened he was by her recent loss but she was not fooled.

"This is the right moment. I want to know everything. The future is Spain is at stake, that is my business as well as yours." More so mine.

"Your sister's husband will be given the consortium but he is not to talk any part-" He was interrupted by the princess' low laughter.

"Your sister does mean to rule as your mother did. She will include her husband in the Cortes but he will not take part in any important decisions."

"And you believe that?" She asked with arched eyebrows. "My sister does not know independence, she has never known it. She will give everything to that fool and when that fool has finished wrecking my country then my father will forsake me for the sake of saving my mother's kingdom and me ... I will be nothing but an old maid by the time this is over."

"My Princess do not lose hope, you are your father's favorite daughter. He will provide for you and God will too."

"I have more faith in God then I do for my father." She said. "Perhaps you are right though. I don't trust that husband of hers. My lady mother has always been wise in choosing her daughters' husbands but Philip Habsburg is far too proud. He will un-build everything she and my father build."

"The Burgundian Prince is one of the finest men in Christendom, your own betrothed admires him."

"He won't once he sees what he really is like." She said and smiled thinly at the shocked expression in the ambassador's face. "Please ambassador, we know you are not here for just a formal visit. If you wanted to tell me my mother passed away, you could have sent your secretary."

It seemed as he had underestimated her. He would not make the same mistake twice. The Princess was an obstinate young woman but she was also smart. Too smart for his liking but she was in parents' -now her father's- service and his first duty was to her.

"When are they coming?"

"His Grace is coming next week."

"He can't way to rub it in the faces of these Englishmen and I suppose you are going to tell me that I am to behave myself around him."

"Yes but your father also implores you to convince him not to make war on Aragon and work with him to rule Castile. Together they can rule the country jointly."

"And my sister? What of my sister? She is the Queen of Castile, Ambassador. She deserves a say in my father's new order."

"Your sister is not your mother and you said it yourself in the past that. She doesn't have what it takes to rule Castile. Philip and your father are the future, her offspring will inherit the joint crowns of Aragon and Castile, keeping Spain unified and the Holy Roman Empire."

"What shall I do then?" Katherine asked, not happy to hear these outcome of events. "I am my father's to command."

The Spanish Ambassador smiled and handed her, her father's letters.

"Your Majesty was very kind to have you here."

"He is. His Majesty is very kind and loving and I am very grateful to him." She said knowing full well that Philip was a weasel and would tell His Majesty about her bad behavior if given the chance.

"Huh. I never heard anyone speak so kindly of Henry VII, then again he did infuriate my step-grandmother taking away her dearly beloved brother's kingdom. A nasty offence, don't you think?"

"The King won his crown on the battlefield. God granted him his victory. If He was displeased with results why would H made him king?"

"God works in mysterious ways. He has shown His displeasures through other ways."

He no doubt means his eldest son's death.

"My sister and I have not seen each other in years," Started Katherine, changing the subject. "I wish to write to her but the King and my lord father keep me very busy. Would you tell her on my behalf that her sister misses her? She is about to have another child am I correct?"

"She is on her first trimester. I will tell her next time I see her."

The music had changed and Katherine suggested they danced but Philip openly refused, choosing instead Katherine Gordon, her late Majesty's lady in waiting and best friend.

Katherine felt humiliated but she did not let it show. She drew a smile and continued to stare ahead as if nothing happened.

As Philip finished dancing, he climbed the stairs that led to the high table until he stopped, touched his stomach and started coughing violently.

"Your Grace?" Katherine Gordon asked concern, putting her hand on his shoulder. Philip pushed her away and dropped to the floor.

"Water! Someone bring him water!"

"No!" He said and clutched his throat.

The king tried to help him get up, but Philip refused. "Treason, treason, treason." Were his last words before he expired. His eyes staring lifelessly at his host.

Everyone looked at the king. They shouted Philip's name in the streets and revolts sprung around Yorkshire and the midlands, where he had never been popular, demanding he be brought to justice.

Harry, his son, who had been shocked by the whole ordeal confided in his tutor Sir Thomas More that he didn't trust his father anymore.

In these dark years the king's mother took over the government and did the best that she could to curry back favor to her son but it was to no avail. Three months after the Duke's death, the Infanta's father had also died while he had been entertaining two English ambassadors. Everyone blamed her son.

Vengeance! Vengeance! They cried in the streets of Spain.

Margaret Beaufort prayed to God that her son would last five more years until Harry was old enough to rule.

She had feared this since the day Bouchier had placed the crown on her son's head. Fisher said she cried tears of joy but they weren't of joy, they were of fear. Her son would be just one of many kings who would face rebellions and assassinations threats and would have to be just as cruel as his predecessors -and even then there was no guarantee that he would last.

Those were the tears that she cried when he emerged from Westminster Abbey, clothed in the royal colors of purple and the Tudor colors of green and white. Not many knew how dangerous it was to be king. They all desired the crow but they didn't know how dangerous it was. That throne wasn't a blessing. It was a curse. All of her family had died fighting for their king, the last Lancastrian monarch -Henry VI.

She did not want to be like that unfortunate Queen who had to see all her loved ones dead. Margaret of Anjou. The Red Queen as many called her because of the commoners who supported her cause, using red roses instead of Edward IV's chosen symbol, the white rose.

She had sacrificed her youth and her happiness for her son and husband and in the end she lost them too.

Margaret had sacrificed more than that when she was forced to marry Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond. Her cousin, his half-brother, needed heirs. Lancastrian heirs. And Margaret was one of the richest heiresses and her mother had recently married and with no other way to help her she gave her daughter away to a man she hardly knew. A man who was a man and not a boy her age like she expected him to be.

The wedding night still haunted her. She could never have children again because of it. When she had children the physicians and midwives told her that she had bled so severely that it was impossible for her to have another child. Even if she could become pregnant, it could cost her, her life.

Margaret dropped her head and looked down at her feet remembering when she went barefooted to a church nearby asking the virgin Mary for protection. Please Holy Mother, protect my baby, give me strength to these coming years and please do not burden me with another husband.

She wanted to dedicate herself to helping others and raising her child all by herself, but a girl of only thirteen, that was impossible. Her mother and brother in law, Jasper Tudor, arranged another marriage to her and she cried so hard going into her mother's arms begging her not to do this.

Her mother, Margaret Beauchamp, a powerful woman in her own right, told her she wished nothing more than to take Margaret and her son home but it was the fate of all women to marry.
Looking back, Margaret was wrong to curse her mother for giving her away. She was right, it was women's fate to marry. Otherwise what would become of them? The church taught them piety and virtue but the reality was much grimmer. Widows were frowned upon and coveted for their wealth. No woman had control of her own destiny, those who tried were shunned or killed.

Henry Stafford turned out to be a good husband. He was not like Edmund. He had no hurry to have children. When he realized that she could have no more, he accepted it and instead they build a new tradition where they celebrated their wedding anniversary each year and went to visit Henry where he was staying with the Herberts.

Stanley was different. He was an ambitious man and she was no different when she married him. She wanted his protection. He was close to the King and if she could curry favor with Edward then he would agree to bring Henry back, and she was rich so if Henry married the king's daughter, she and Thomas would be greatly rewarded. But the two didn't count on two things. Richard taking the throne and the princes' disappearance.

She had seen so many people turn on each other and die for the sake of that blasted crown. She was not going to see her family pushed through the mud because of these rumors.

Her Henry was many things, but a murderer was not one of them!

What a cowardly thing to say! Hiding behind their anonymity! That was how these things started. Some cowards with fake names like High Tower, Guest and Force for Truth.

Nothing but Cowards! How about facing her, showing their real faces and speaking their real names and not being so damn self righteous about it!

When she was a little girl she loved to read and translate every verse to Latin and French but one day when she was writing a story based on her favorite person in the bible, Queen Esther, she got a note. A classy review from one of these crows who called her story the worst thing that ever happened to the history of literature and a rape to human's eyes. I really wanted to give this story a shot. I really did but reading this story hurts me more than it hurts you. You should really get one of those saints to help you because you suck at this. I suggest that you quit. I am not trying to be rude
What a strange story so Esther is Esther come back to life and what is the deal with King Arthur? I don't understand this story who is who? You sly she-dog go kill yourself, you write badly. Even if someone were to write a story of your life you would have another guest reviewer reviewing it and marking it as poorly. Just stop pretending you're this great writer. You're laughable. Just because your daddy hanged himself does not mean you should be pitied.

Cassandra, her cat peed on that note and tore it to shreds but it didn't make her feel better. She could never write after that. Her whole life she dreamed about serving gods and others through her writings but now, every time she wrote she remembered those words, her step-family's words and what those anonymous reviews had said and it was so difficult getting them out of her head that she would stare blankly at the parchment and cry afterwards because she knew what she wanted to say but couldn't word it perfectly.

It was funny how everyone looked high on her because of her intelligence but if truth be told she never felt that intelligent.

She sighed and returned her eyes to the window. Harry's bride to be would arrive any minute. Princess Eleanor Habsburg of Spain and Austria. She was reputed to be a beauty and she became twelve last year. She was coming at a bad time of year when crops withered and there was snow everywhere.

And there was the issue of her aunt. Katherine of Aragon had been devastated when she found out about her father's death. She blamed her son. Margaret knew she did. Everyone did, and the Princess had more reason to suspect since the king had never been a friend of her parents'. But the girl ought to have common sense to know her son was no killer and much less a cowardly one. If he wanted someone dead, he would fight him, in the courts or the arena, it didn't matter where.

Killing someone with poison was something only men without honor did and her son was the most honorable person she knew.

She reacted even worse when she found out that her sister, her beloved sister whom she had always spoken so highly about, tore the original copy of the papal bull their parents stored in their palace of Los Viveros in Madrid and forced the pope to issue a new one where her daughter would marry the future king.

Margaret opposed it, everyone did but with the accusations against her son going on, there was no way to refuse her. If he did, then everyone would say he did it because of a guilty conscience or that the Spanish Queen had been right all along.

Margaret had more reason to suspect of the Spanish Queen.

From scorned and ridiculed she was transferred the status of victim and reluctant heroine. They all cried with her and swallowed her tears when she knelt to her father's grave and asked the Lord to forgive her for all the cruel words she said to him in their lifetime. Worse was the control she had over the common people who threatened to stage a revolt if the nobles locked her up. (Some tried and they were killed, dismembered and their limbs exhibited on every tower for their relatives to see. Those that followed were quickly subdued by Juana who exposed the nobility's dirtiest secrets.)

She was ruthless, she would give her that. But brutality did not guarantee safety. Margaret had learned that with the red queen, the Lancastrian Queen, Margaret of Anjou.

God, she prayed mentally. Let the Princess Dowager of Wales show her decorum -as she always has- to her niece and accept the inevitable. And let this new Princess of Wales be nothing like her mother.

Margaret was brought from her thoughts with the sound of horse hooves.

She comes ...

Chapter Text

Katherine of Aragon POV

I wanted to believe that I would be married with Henry. God had put me on this earth for this purpose. It was the only reason why my mother had me. She named after the holiest saint of the Catholic Church after the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene. Catherine of Alexandria. Some said that I was named after Catherine of Lancaster, a distant ancestress of mine. But I doubted that. I had to be named after the former. She was a great princess after all and Catholic martyr who died for her faith but not before Christianizing most of her subjects and teaching the commons to read and write and publishing many books convincing the heathens that the only logical faith could be monotheism.

Eleanor of Habsburg had used every fight of guile and feminine allure to maintain her hold on the English crown. Or the place next to it. Since she would never be anything else but a Princess. And a poor one at that.

My mother had seen many women like her. Girls who pranced around in beautiful dresses and jewels and laughed out loud as if the world was funny, just for them. A complete buffoon. But this was the buffoon that would be crowned one day, seated next to Henry as the two were jointly crowned King and Queen of England.

It should be me -I thought shedding tears. It should be me who sits next to him, who whispers in his ear and delights him with tales of Alhambra and other glorious palaces.

Harry still visited me but he was not the same. There was hatred in his eyes. Hatred and frustration for the girl he was forced to marry, the girl he was forced to bed but most of all because the girl he truly love he could not marry.

I smiled at him, indulged him, played the helpless maid and welcomed him as I always did into my private chambers, embracing him as a mother would her child, stroking his auburn hair and looking deep into grey eyes.

He was handsomer than Arthur. Much handsomer.

He got closer and placed a hand on my face.

"You are very beautiful Catalina."

"Katherine, you must call me Katherine little brother."

"But I am not your brother and you are not my sister." He withdrew his hand and got even closer.

Our faces were just inches apart. I could feel his breath on my neck as he rested his head there. "Algun dia tu y yo seremos esposos" [1] He said in flawless Spanish.

I had been teaching him since last month and he was fast learner, much to his little wife's frustration.

"Querido Henry, nada me haria mas feliz"[2] I replied. "But you and I know that will never happen."

"Bullocks. I will make it happen. When I am king I will make things right. I swear to you."

"Harry, as king you will have to think about your people. I will always be your sister, your betrothed, your first love but you must go to your wife and do what's right for England."

"For England, for England, that is all everyone tells me but I don't want to work for England, I want to work for you." Harry said.

I wanted to tell him I wanted him to too but I was a princess, a true princess of the blood. I would not act like a love-sick maiden. I would not have him throw away his future for me.

If my father was alive, he would force Henry to marry him to me. Juana with all of Castile behind her, wouldn't be able to stop him but my father was dead and the pope who issued the bull was dead too and a new one had been issued in its stead and the original one had been destroyed by my sister. My own sister.

I take Henry's hands (I must force myself to call him that now. He is a grown man now) into mine and whisper in his ear. "When you become king you and her" I force myself to say, swallowing my pride "will have many children and their children will be kings and queens and you will be remembered as the greatest king that ever lived."

He seemed satisfied. He returned my smile and gently withdrew his hands from mine and cupped my face. "Catalina you are too good for this world. What would I do without you?" He said and gave me a small kiss.

Eleanor saw our kiss. Because she was very cool after that. She would smile and pretend to laugh at what I said, even if it was not funny but there was no longer any warmth in her voice.

Good. Let the girl know what the real world is like. She was a princess. Her father had been a pig and her mother rumored to be a mad-woman. What kind of children would she give him?

She had never known pain like I had. She did not know what it was to see men die, vomit and plead for mercy and to see their companions at arms thrust them with a sword at their larynx just so they wouldn't suffer. More importantly, she did not know what it was to know want. To know hunger, to sell your jewels just so you could have a piece of bread on your plate.

I had. And I had been a good and dutiful daughter, patiently waiting, going to Harry's rooms at night (at his request of course) and comforting him with stories of Spanish saints and chivalrous knights from my mother's campaign during the Reconquista. And how had I been rewarded?

He had taken my lord father and His Holiness and left me in this god-forsaken island with my hopes crushed. No one would marry me. I had my wealth at least -the King had been kind enough to restore my dower rights and thanks to my sister's kindlier intercession, I had been given mansions in central and Southern England.

My nerves grated on me when I felt my hands sweat. The cup nearly fell from my hand.

I must contain myself. I breathed in and out, closed and opened my eyes. The whole world disappeared before me and there was only Harry, glorious Harry staring at me.

If people were to tell me I would be queen in all but name. I would have laughed. I was a queen born and bred. But things had changed so much since my father died and my sister became the ruler of Castile and Regent of Aragon -until her eldest son came of age.

But I remembered what my lady mother told me about the first Trastamara king. He was a bastard, son of a woman who ruled the king in spite of her noble birth. She whispered lies in his ear, combining half truths and disguising her ambition with her piety. Thanks to her, my many times great-great-great grandmother, my family became the new ruling House of Castile and Aragon.

There would always be women who judged other women. But I was not others, I reserved judgment only for myself. I left the rest to God.

God allowed Abraham to have one mistress to give him a son. He allowed Esther to play the harlot to the unclean king of Babylon to save her people. He allowed others to play the same role for His sake.

I wasn't just any harlot. I carried royal blood in my veins and like Esther with the king, I would show myself obedient and docile to my lord's commands. I would become an example of charity and virtue, combining the two so they forget my transgressions.

It was a whole new world after all. The king was dying, Henry would be crowned King and with one healthy son by his wife and another on the way, his future looked golden.

But what really excited me was the future that awaited me, that awaited us.

My hand fell to my belly. It was still flat.

Henry came from behind me, wrapping his arms around my belly.

"I cannot wait. We will tell it to the whole world. Let it know that a son of Spain and England is born."

"And if it is a girl?" I asked, very careful not to anger him.

Unlike Arthur, he was not calm. He was very easy to anger. He did not show it often, he was very conscious of his duty and image was everything to him. But behind closed doors he would let his true personality loose.

"If it is a girl," he said, no trace of anger in his voice. He turned me around to face him. "I will accept it." What he meant to say was I already have a son Kat, he did not need another one. But given the chance I figured, he would have loved to have one by me, his true love because only I had his heart.

I have to admit that there was this dark desire within me to have my son inherit his crown above my niece's. It was what my mother prophesized when I left Spain.

That future was no longer bright as I had expected it to be. I was not queen and would never be one. But I could content myself to remain in the shadows with my beloved, helping him to achieve his dreams of creating a new Camelot.

Eleanor Habsburg POV

How I hated seeing the commons receive her gifts, crying out her name wherever we went. "You cannot have three people in a marriage!" My mother had cried when she caught my father screwing another one of his whores. Why couldn't me be reasonable?

His father was reasonable. He had no mistresses. Sure, there were rumors of him frolicking with that Breton woman (What was her name again? Fulvia, Livia, Marina? Whatever. It always changed and the king wished to put that part of his past behind him) but that was it. As far as anyone was concerned, he was the most decent man -and king- that ever lived.

A true rarity among kings. One she wished he had passed on to his son bu he was like his grandfather Edward IV. Preferring jousts, pageantry and fancy clothes and praise from everyone, especially his rivals.

Idiot. Didn't he know that they were all trying to take advantage of him? Probably he did, but he was too caught up in his dreams of grandeur to notice.

"When will the child be born?" Asked my lady in waiting, one of the Boleyn girls, Elizabeth Boleyn nee Howard. She was the Earl of Surrey's daughter and was married to our ambassador, Sir Thomas Boleyn who had been made Esquire of the Body during the reign of Henry VII. He was a good man but worked too hard and was hardly there for his wife and children. Lady Boleyn was pregnant again and I could not help but envy her.

He was hardly there for her but when he was, he never looked at other women or left her side.

They love each other. I grimaced. Was this what mother felt when father screwed woman after woman? No! I had to be better than her. My lady mother made me promise that I would never be like her. That I would never raise my voice at my lord husband because he was my lord and men did not like women who were outspoken. That was why men flocked to other women, because their wives were unable to satisfy them. 'That is why your father strayed from me' -She said.

At times I dreamed about the life me and my husband would have had if I had no knowledge of Katherine. If Katherine had never come to this forsaken island. We would have been happy, truly happy.

Be patient Leonor. Be patient my daughter. Your aunt is a good actress, she has our mother's spirit and father's gall but she is not as youth. You are younger and far more beautiful than she can ever hope to be and it is you who wears the crown. When you give your king another son, they will praise you, shout your name and forget that she ever existed.

My mother was right. My aunt's baby would be a bastard with no claim to the English throne. I would make sure once I had my son to banish my lady aunt from the court. She could retire to one of her palaces in the midlands, I don't care. As long as she was far from us.

I pursed my lips, searching for a response then drew my lips up into a pleasant smile. "I think November, the physicians are sure it will be mid December but they were wrong the last time."

"Did you hear that ladies? We will have a winter prince and on November. Maybe he will be born on your birthday."

That would really be something.

The ladies agreed and gossiped, laughing merrily, betting on the looks of my baby. I enjoyed their company. They were young and charming. They wore the best clothes and chose to copy me instead of her. Most of all, they were loyal.

Suddenly I rose from my bed and exited my privy chambers and went to the parlor.

"Your Majesty? Eleanor?" Elizabeth and a handful of other women were allowed this familiarity with me.

I took from the table in the middle pie, a fruit pie and put four slices. They were big and on top of them I poured some small bits of sliced apples and gave them to my ladies.

Confinement was so boring. I hated it. My lady mother had to bare it. The Princess Dowager of Wales -my greatest rival- had to bear it too but she always took it with great grace and dignity. Not before flaunting her pregnant belly to the commons of course, parading herself before them and kneeling to them when she washed their feet on the churches and gave them god knows what. Jewels, food, and I didn't know what else.

It was all a show, she was sure. No one could be that good. No one.

Elizabeth, her sisters and cousin in law squeal and split the slices in two then three and share it with the rest of her companions. The food is gone by the time the second course comes. It is against protocol but I don't care. I order the servants to summon every musician they can find and bring them here now as well as jesters, so we can be entertained.

I scowl when they tell me that there are no jesters.

"We can play the jesters." Mistress Anne, Elizabeth's sister in law says. "Bessie and I can play the fools and Your Majesty can play the princess in the play we stage for you."

"That is a marvelous idea Anne. If you weren't a knight's sister, I would give you a peerage in your own right."

"Oh no that would be too much and I could never imagine myself being a lord or count. It sounds too masculine." She said and they all nodded.

We set up a mock stage with worn out dresses and curtains and tables to serve as the platform where we pretended to be imprisoned by the evil witch and her dragon minion.

We had to improvise at the last minute, taking one of the servants hat and putting it on lady Anne Hastings to look the part of the valiant prince who came to rescue us. After he defeated the evil witch and the dragon we all got down and feasted on our next course.

I looked at all my ladies. This was how a court was supposed to be. Happy and beautiful with no talk of right or wrong, or worrying of the future, just living in the moment.

Margaret Beaufort breathed her last breath on January 27 1512. Some said it was divine punishment, others a curse. She had died on the day she had given birth to her son, exactly fifty five years ago.

Henry gazed down at his grandmother. She had seemed so indestructible. She helped me conquer my fears, she helped my father rule the country when everyone spat in his face and called him murderer.

He voiced protest when his father came to his chambers while he was discussing canon law with Sir Thomas More, that he would not marry the Spanish Infanta Catalina but instead the Austrian and Spanish Princess, her niece, Eleanor Habsburg.

'How can you do this to me? Catalina is fated to be my wife?'

'Do not be stupid Harry. Catalina was never fated to be anything. She was her father's pawn as she was mine. Now you will write to her telling her you apologize for your indecent conduct and that if you ever gave her the hint that you would marry her, you were just being nice to her.'

'But I wasn't playing nice. I meant it. I want her to be my wife. I pledged I would marry her. We said our vows and if we said our bows then you can't marry me to the Habsburg Princess because a betrothal is as good as a marriage.' He turns to Thomas. 'Right Sir Thomas?'

'Right?' His voice is louder, desperate. Thomas knows this. He was knighted on the Prince's behalf. He was made a knight of the garter, the highest prestige any English peer could receive. His father was so proud but also angry -as he usually was- and took that opportunity to remind him of his promise.

'Yes.' Thomas said avoiding the King's gaze. He would tell his father what Thomas did and he would go back not just to a home with a nagging wife but to a nagging, angry father.

'See? We are married before the eyes of the lord and the blessed Virgin and nothing you say can change that!'

Henry grew impatient and grabbed his son by the collar. Aching bones be damned. He pinned him against the wall .'You foolish boy. You have no idea what is at stake here? It's not just your future and the future of this dynasty but the security of the realm! Haven't we all suffered enough deaths, haven't I seen enough men hack to pieces to finally want some damn peace?' He let go of his son.

'You are selfish Henry. Selfish! England will become undone and it will all be because of you! I curse you and your foolish pride' Then he turned and bolted from his son's room.

The next day his father came again, this time with none other than the Burgundian Ambassador who brought 'happy' news. His new Holiness had issued a new dispensation that made the previous one null and void.

Henry told his father that couldn't be but the proof was there in front of him. Three copies had been issued. The first one rested in Juana's hand, the second with the pope next to the original and the third one remained with his father. After he became king he took it from his father's study at Westminster Palace, now his palace. He looked for every loophole but there was none. Everything was legal. He had it examined by More, Wolsey, hell even the French whom he assumed at the time would have more than enough reason to want his divorce but even they couldn't argue against it.

He promised Kat he would find a way but she calmed him on their first night after she'd given birth to their offspring, a beautiful daughter by the name of Isabella Elizabeth after both her grandmothers. 'Leave it. Let it be.' She told him and looked at the basinet where their child slept. 'If you leave your wife for your mistress you will plunge your country into a civil war.'

'It is your country too.'

'My love I have given you one daughter. One beautiful daughter but a daughter nonetheless. Women cannot rule England. Your wife has given you a son and there is another on the way. Just let it go Henry. For me.'

'I am content with being just your wife in spirit.'

But it didn't seem right.

It's fate -he told himself. Fate was a real bitch. The love of his life tolerated his affairs with other women in public while his wife showed hostility, and yet it was her who was his mistress and gave him a daughter while his lawful wife had given him two sons.

God sure has a way to work mysteriously. Or mocking him -his conscience told him.

Wolsey told him that he should never question God's will but Henry often did. Why was it the woman he loved gave him a daughter and the woman he didn't was blessed with two sons?

It didn't make sense. But then again, nothing in life ever did.

He looked down at his son. He had not attended the funeral, keeping with the old customs that royals did not attend other royals' funerals.

His two year old looked at him with big dark green eyes. His mother's eyes but the rest was him entirely.

How happy his lady grandmother would be to see the two of them staring at each other so lovingly.

She had been all for the match, but he cautioned his father to wait until Eleanor was more mature. She still bore the scars of her first experience when she married Edmund Tudor, his father's father and did not want the same for any girl, much less a member of her family. Yet his father could not be dissuaded. The poor old miser was desperate. People suspected he had murdered the good archduke and the king of Aragon (the archduke died in his country after all, who else could've poisoned him?); his family wasn't safe. He had to prove he was innocent and the only way to do that was through his son's marriage to Juana's older daughter.

His lady grandmother had given Eleanor many advice on how to behave and what was the traditional wear for English women, and most of all told her of what to expect on her first wedding night. She also told Henry since he had no previous knowledge of it.

After they had their first child, he began to look on other women. Always under the watchful eye of his father, he would employ his friends, some of them Arthur's former friends, including Charles Brandon to cover for him while he went on his escapades.

It made Eleanor furious, it made his father furious too but he didn't care for what they thought of him. The only women whose opinions truly mattered were his lady grandmother and Kat.

He picked up his son and sat on the floor, putting him on his leg.

His lady grandmother would be so happy watching the two interact. After she had fallen ill, she made him promise to be faithful to Eleanor. He couldn't promise her that so he said instead that he would be discreet but he could not abandon Kat. He could never do that.

He held up his arms up and waved them. The little boy gurgled then giggled, wrenching his arms free from his and setting them down then moving his shoulders up as if to shrug, then clapped when he turned his head after he heard him chuckle.

It was as if Harry Jr. knew what his father was thinking. He was getting bigger. He was not big-big but just big. He would be a warrior like his glorious ancestors. He would see to that.

"You should have been her so-" He didn't finish that thought.

His grandmother made him promise to be faithful. He couldn't. It wasn't in his nature.

The new year celebrations were grimmer. The King's Grandmother had been buried in the last week of January in the vault next to her son and daughter in law, in the beautiful lady chapel he built for his family at Westminster Abbey.

Yet the king chose not to cancel the celebrations. They had to continue.

Katherine still wore black. The King wore a black cap with a pearl like his father had worn, except it had a ruby and a golden coin bearing the insignia of the Tudor rose over a porticullis which was his grandmother's insignia. The rest of his dress except for his black furs was gold and red with white slashes on his chest and arms.

"He looks like a king." Her niece, shifting uncomfortably on her seat, seated between her and Henry, said.

"He does. He was born to it."

Eleanor gave her a cross look.

"Is something the matter Your Majesty? I am sorry. I did not mean to upset you."

"Nothing is the matter my lady aunt and you can call me by my Christian name. We are family after all." She said avoiding her gaze. Her kind and sweet gaze as her smile and her tone of her gaze.

She couldn't stand them. Everyone fell for her charms because they said she was so nice and so penitent but so what? Wasn't Sarah's whore penitent to her heathen gods too when she lay with Abraham?

"My lady mother used to love throwing pageants such as these ones. You are so lucky, your lord husband is so virtuous to have allowed this."

"He is, isn't he? I find it rather odd that he mixes saints with pagan deities."

"I do not. The ancients left us all of their knowledge before His messengers exposed their false gods. Just because they worshipped false idols doesn't mean that they were wrong in everything."

"Spoken like a philosopher. But they were heathens and if we were in Spain we would not tolerate these things."

Katherine tilted her head and frowned.

Eleanor turned to her. "My mother keeps a strict court. No one is allowed to indulge in superficial pleasures unless it serves a purpose." She told her, lifting her cup when Henry came down to dance with his sister, the beautiful Princess Mary Tudor.

Katherine was very surprised to hear how much her sister Juana had changed Spanish customs. People accused her mother of being steel-hearted and cold but anyone who visited her court, they saw a court filled with merriness and pageants. Two for every day, sometimes more with people having their own mini-pageants on the streets where they also staged play in honor of the saints, their Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Mother.
Her mother always took the form of the pagan deity or the Holy Mother. When she was a child and playing war with her sister Maria -when she wasn't too sulky. Her mother would invite them to stage a little play and chose their favorite goddesses. Isabella and Maria always chose saints, their brother Juan chose the valiant knight but she and Juana chose pagan deities. Juana as Hera, the headstrong wife, beautiful but vicious and jealous, taking revenge against any of her husband's bastards, including his immortal ones.
Katherine chose a more merciful deity, Demeter, the mother of the harvest, and the victim of Hades' cruelty when he kidnapped her only daughter Persephone.

Her sisters would tease them for not being pious enough but they bit their tongues in the end when they showed how pious they were. More than them, frequenting churches at every turn and especially her, accompanying her mother to her private chapel and staying extra hours until her knees hurt, praying for great things for her and her family.

How could Juana change all of that? Was it true then? Had she really changed so much? Or was it that husband of hers, Philip, who was responsible for this change?

She hoped not. Her sister had an iron will, but she was not a fool. Take the glorious festivities and what were the people left with but gloominess, depressive imagery of punishment and death if they didn't obey her sister.

Whatever she has done it has worked. The people haven't rebelled against her -She whispered to herself as Henry came and took her niece to dance.

Some say they love her more than our mother.

But she doubted it. Isabel I was widely loved and mourned. Juana might hold the people's love -for now- but if she continued this way it wouldn't be for long.

"My lady sister, would you do me the honors?" She snapped from her thoughts at Henry's voice. She nodded. "Yes" And took Henry's hand.

"You look very pensive today. Did Nor say something?"

"No, it's just what she didn't say."

"Oh?" They exchanged partners and came back together at the last stroke of the lute. Welsh musicians. Katherine noted. Her favorite. They had been Henry's father's favorites too. It was the only thing the two had in common.

"My lady mother used to celebrate every saint, every day of the religious calendar but my sister ... it is like she wants to erase everything our lady mother did. I am worried."

"You mustn't worry. Spain is many miles away and England will never savor the same sour fate of your native country." He said chuckling but seeing her grim look, he rephrased and said softly. "I did not mean to upset you love, I just meant that-"

"I know." She said, not wanting to hear him apologizing. He was a king and if one thing she learned from spending years at her parents' court and his, was that kings never apologized. "It is just that Spain is my native land and I will always feel an affinity to that place. You must forgive a poor foolish woman for being so sentimental especially when she is with child."

Henry's jaw nearly dropped the floor. The change of stroke made him move again, and Katherine took his hand as they began to dance the new musical piece.

"W-When?"

"October 31st. But I am not good at calculations, I will have to consult your astrologers, with your permission." She said.

She was being humble. She knew how to do calculations. She was very good with numbers. She administrated successfully all of her properties, including the new Abbeys she helped co-fund.

"Of course, of course. Consult as many as you'd like. I will bring the one from France, the one they have been talking so much about. They say he never misses."

He wanted to grab her by the waist and twirl her and kiss her in front of his courtiers but he remembered his promise to his grandmother. He would be discreet with his affairs, including Katherine. But this was such a joyous occasion. Surely his grandmother's spirit would not be disturbed by this.

When the music ended they returned to the high table upon the dais.

Eleanor noticed his excited features then looked to her right at Katherine.

A knowing glance passed between them, mistress and king. Eleanor turned away, steeling herself. She hid her hands underneath the table, balling them into fists.

Katherine had given birth to a son at last. He was beautiful. Very beautiful and Henry insisted on calling him after himself but Kat wouldn't have it.

"It would be an insult to your wife."

"She is not my wife."

"Not this again Henry. She is your wife. She is your mistress, your wife, your queen and the mother of your two sons. Legitimate sons who will become King and prince. This will break her." She said.

"If you are really that hurt then why did you lay with me?" Henry demanded, angry that they were having this conversation.

She was his spiritual wife, the mistress of his heart. How could she be taking sides with her?

She is Spanish Henry -his mind shouted -She will always be a true Spaniard at heart.

Maybe his father was right. Maybe he was too young, too stupid when he fell in love with Katherine. He was nine years old after all. He had never seen another girl her age before. The girls in his sister Margaret's service didn't count. They all dresses so conservatively, so dour, you could hardly appreciate their beauty. But Katherine with her gold and red dresses, with her purple and silver gowns, and with her gold and white bridal gown and new hats and jewels. How could you not fall in love with that?

Katherine knew what was going through his mind because she quickly apologized and explained herself to Henry. "I don't want to be the source of your malcontent. You have done so much for me, for us, I would not change a thing but I see Eleanor and I cannot help but feel guilty, both for her and for you."

"What sort of guilt could you cause me Madame?" His voice was still cold but his eyes softened as he saw her tears.

"I know what they say of me. Whore, traitor, Catholic hypocrite. The Lollards burned an image of me, cursing me and our children to kingdom come. They say that I will be your undoing ..." She gave her son to one of the nurses and cried harder.

Henry's heart split in two. He could never tolerate seeing a woman cry. And much less when this was Kat. A woman who was stoic and regal. He sat next to her and swung his arm around her. "Kat ... Kat please. I am really sorry."

She could not tell if he was genuine or it was her tears, but she accepted his apology.

"I will not name him Henry. You can name him whatever you want. How about John after your grandfather and brother?"

She perked her head up and nodded. "Yes, that would make me very happy."

"John it is then." He said and the next forty days she waited for her churching to come, the Catholic celebration where she would be purified from the uncleanliness of birth.

"You visited the magistrates yesterday. What for?" Maria de Salinas, now Willoughby, asked. She had married Lord Willoughby not long ago. She was a happy married woman who had been very outspoken in her friend's defense.
Many women had taken the queen's side, but most of those were young and fortune seekers, those who knew the Princess Dowager, stuck by her. Maria was one of the. She had regrets of course. There were times where she doubted she'd done the right thing but seeing her friend so happy and still giving to others, put these thoughts to rest.

"I wanted to know if the Abbey was doing okay. There have been rumors of bands of robbers."

"Catalina you should be careful! You can't go out like this, especially when you just recovered from birth."

"Oh don't worry Maria. I only went out for an hour and I was protected."

"Do not do that again. These men are capable of anything, they won't care if you are the Princess Dowager or the king's mistress."

"Maria, calm down. I said I was well protected and I have good news. My sister has written to me."

"How is that good news?"

"I have not spoken to my sister in many, many years. I yearn to see her you know. She and Maria are the only connection left I have of our country. Maria, you know we have so much in common. We were best friends when we were sisters. She always lent me her toys, defended me when Isabella chastised me for not playing with my dolls as I should. I want us to be good friends again."

Maria didn't doubt Katherine's words. Her friend truly cared for her sister but Juana was for the lack of a better world ... very jealous and unstable woman.

"Mother would not want us to see ourselves as enemies." Katherine added looking wistfully at the window. She loved Dover but she loved London even more.

"Your mother is gone Catalina" Maria said putting her hand above hers. "I am sorry but I don't think you and Juana can be what you were."

"Perhaps we can." She said with a hopeful voice as she began to recite what her sister had written.

Things between France, Scotland and England were getting worse. A war would erupt soon and it was up to Juana to guide her daughter so she would guide her husband to make the right choice.

To her chagrin, her daughter did very little. She was beaten by her lady aunt. Her darling little sister whispered in Henry's ear that James was no longer their friend and he had violated the treaty he swore he would uphold when he married his eldest sister Margaret.

Oh she was good. Very good. But Juana was better. She was their father's daughter and she had the temperament of many Spanish warrior kings, including their mother.

If it was a war over the heart of the English king that her sister wanted with Juana's daughter, it was a war she would get.

She's won this round but she -her daughter- would win the next one.

[1] Someday we will be man and wife

[2] Dear Henry, nothing would make me happier.

Thanks to everyone who's followed/favorite this story. I decided to alter some of the ages and events in this story. Eleanor of Austria's birth is in 1498, it's 1497 for this story and Margaret Beaufort died much older as I imagined she would have a stronger will to live after everything that has happened, to make sure things turn out well and exacts a promise from Henry which he is not really fulfilling.

Chapter Text

Katherine's mind was buzzing. Her sister -Juana- wrote to her again. She told her she was recalling her ambassador and sending someone else instead. It was a real shame. She really liked Caroz. He was kind to her, and not because he had to be but because he genuinely cared for her.

Very few of the foreign ambassadors felt sympathy for her. Many voiced objections to the king's liaison when it became publicly known she was carrying his illegitimate child. The Venetian ambassadors, one after another mocked her.

The French called her harlot, minx, whore. And many other foul names.

But Caroz was the only one who did not. He defended her when the French laughed behind her back and called him foul names in return, and exhorted him to show his obeisance. Harlot as she is -he told him- she was the Princess Dowager through her first marriage to the king's elder brother and a royal Princess of the House Trastamara of Spain by birth..

The scowl then forced smiles on the French faces when they forced their lips into smiles was priceless.

Katherine felt joyful.

Contrary to popular opinion at the time, she was not vengeful. She had no desire to be another Jezebel of Delilah. In the bedroom Henry was hers, she whispered in his ear and counseled him the best that she could, but, in public he was her master and she never defied his authority. Neither did she presume she knew better than him or his ministers.

People these days -she would tell her ladies -They didn't know what else to say. If it wasn't the king's attitude towards his wife (which she was entirely innocent of) or one of his subjects, the blame always fell on her.

She whispers in the king's ear.

They frolic each day like a pair of animals.

She is evil, just like her mother. She will use religion just for her gain. Wait and see. She will make a little Spain out of our king's court.

Imbeciles. She had no intention to make a little Spain out of her beloved's court. England was England and Spain was Spain. She had accepted her fate a long time ago and she was now content with it because she had two beautiful children and another one on the way.

There were times where she wished she could go back home, just for a brief visit, and pay her respects to her parents' tombs in Granada.

Oh Granada. The city her mother had taken from the Infidels. The place where she witnessed them scream and plead for mercy as her forces surrounded the city and cut down their food supplies.

It was such a beautiful country and with the acquisition of Granada, her country had become even more beautiful.

One day I will return.

She returned her attention to the battle plans Henry had drawn on her table. He had told her he would appoint Eleanor as his Regent. In theory she would have complete control of his realm. In theory.

Katherine had been in the battlefield. She had seen her mother's ladies tend to the wounded soldiers, and seen many of them torn to bits and their limbs hacked off.

If there was anyone qualified to rule over his kingdom while he was gone, looking for glory in France, it was her.

She worried he would die. She was confident in his abilities, more so than Eleanor who had chided him along with her mother (in a letter), telling him that he was a fool for thinking he could conquer France with a rag tag army of poorly trained soldiers.

My father bragged about how valiant he was but he died from poison. Is that how you want to go 'my lord'" She laughed cruelly. "By poison while you are whoring and drinking because knowing you, that is all you will ever do."

It took every inch of self-control in Henry, not to slap her.

When he trembled, balled his fist, Katherine fell to the floor and feigned labor pains.

Henry looked concernedly at her and summoned the doctor. He told her she was fine but too stressed and that she needed rest. No more court parties for her.

Henry agreed but he still allowed her to be present at court. It was important that she be there so she could see him, in all his glory, spouting insults at the French, declaring war on them and promising his people a victory -the likes of which the English people had never seen.

Henry was a dreamer. France was not the same country his ancestors had fought. It had ben divided, at war with each other. Cousin vs cousin, brother against brother. The France of today was unified and even with its members still fighting one another, they were firmly united against one common enemy: England. Or Spain -depending who they were allied against.

The Scottish helped of course. They had a common enemy in the English and any trouble they could stir here on behalf of their French allies, was greatly rewarded.

James IV had insulted the king's wife at the beginning of the year calling her the unhappiest lady in Christendom, and accusing her of cowardice for failing to point her husband towards the right direction -to abandon his mistress and the Spanish alliance.

It wasn't James' insults that angered her. it was her sister's reaction.

I should have known you had something to do with this. You were always lady mother's favorite. She said how obedient you were, how you always cried when the peasants dropped to their knees to pray for better crops and to save them from the plague. You were always the smart one. When we were little, you are the only one who preferred to play war with dolls than the silly games our sisters loved. Who knew that you would become my worst enemy? Deep down I should have known though ... You know what is the funny part of all of this? It's that I finally realized how much lady mother was right about you. You are like her. Both of you are born liars, hypocrites and serpents ... But do not worry dearest sister. I shall not curse you as I cursed my husband. But thread carefully; if the king of Scotland allied himself with the French it is because of you. Or did you think that you were the only one who employed secret pillow talk to your lover? The Queen of Scotland -remember her? That arrogant Tudor Princess you got so badly with, or whatever it was, the phrase you used when you complained to father that you couldn't stand her- hates you. She abhors you Catalina but she abhors my daughter, your niece and your mistress -since it is her children who will inherit the crown and yours will be nothing but bastards, royal ones but bastards nonetheless- even more. She called my daughter a permissive queen. Can you believe that? Permissive! Eleanor! You were right about the Tudor Princess. She is too arrogant but sadly not a fool. She knows your lover very well and knows how to instigate him ... If you wish to be of help to our campaigns against the dreaded French, do yourself a favor too and leave. Come to Spain. You can take refuge in one of the convents our mother was very attached to, there you will take vows and do not worry. I am sure your children will be well tended.

What about my children? She asked her sister in her letters. Should I just abandon them to a court that is hostile towards them? To your daughter, who would sooner see them dead than take care of them?

Juana had showed little sympathy. She wrote back: You win this round dearest sister. I would not wish to see you grieved by your children's parting but mark my words, the good Lord sees all and He will not be too happy and as for your children. Like I said. I will see to it that they are well looked at in England. My daughter after all, is a reasonable woman but if you want to stay. Stay sister. Just remember my words.

Katherine threw the letter into the fire. The child within her stirred. Henry advised her to enter confinement. She had never been one to disregard the rules, but this was an important campaign. She feared that if something went wrong, they would blame her.

England had to be protected at all costs.

She made small annotations to Henry's battle plans.

The next day she and Eleanor were dressed for the occasion. They watched Henry address his generals. "We will make history!" He declared and everyone applauded.

Eleanor and her watched the love of their life depart.

The realm was theirs now.

They turned to each other. Uneasy glances passed between them as they sensed the heavy eyes of the English courtiers behind them, judging them. Wondering if they would tear themselves apart or work together for the benefit of England as the king wanted?

"We do not have to be enemies." Katherine said, breaking the ice in the room.

"I know." Eleanor said.

"We do not have to be friends either."

"I know."

Katherine sighed putting down her mantel. She had been knitting soldiers' badges and mantles so they could wear on the day of the battle. The Scottish king had mocked Henry for refusing to go to battle with him, but she and Eleanor had been smarter, returning the king's hostility by taunting him through their ambassador, the Duke of Norfolk, that the coward was the King of Scotland for refusing to be at the head of his armies.

The King of Scotland naturally reacted the way they expected him to react. He declared that on the day of the battle, the English would see their enemy king victorious and crown himself King of England and through his wife, rule that troublesome country.

How sad -thought Katherine. -Here is a king who promised Henry VII everlasting loyalty. Together, they had forged a strong alliance. James had formed one of the most illustrious courts in Christendom, reformed the Scottish navy and worked alongside the English to stop border raids on both sides of their southern and northern borders.

But all of that had been squandered by two kings' pride. One of them because he had dreams of grandeur. Henry looked to the past, to the ancient kings and emperors for guidance. He believed he could be another Henry V or Julius Caesar, while James IV was acting purely on his country's interest.

In some ways they were both alike. James IV was a lover of chivalry and of all things pretty -as Henry- and he also loved to enrich his palaces by introducing foreign artists and musicians and composing beautiful verses -and performing these- to his beautiful queen. But that is where the similarities ended.

"Are you thinking of the king of Scotland and comparing him to the king of England? If you are," she chuckled "do not bother because I already did the thinking for both of us."

"I did not know you could read minds, my dear niece."

"I can't but we are both women and the king loves us. We have his best interests in mind but I sense he doesn't take too much pride in leaving us to rule in his place while he is off fighting along my mother's forces in France."

"You really think that?"

"I know it." She turned to her lady aunt. "He loves you, he always has. I was a fool to think I could dissuade him."

"You know the King of Scotland will not wait us to settle our squabbles. We should-"

"Do not interrupt me. I am the Queen of England."

Katherine said nothing. She closed her lips and managed a smile.

"I am sorry. I did not mean it. I want us to be friends my dear aunt but I fear we can't. It is not in our nature. When have mistresses and queens ever been friends?"

"Jane Shore and Elizabeth Woodville allied themselves against the usurper."

Eleanor laughed. She thought it was a lie but seeing her aunt's serious look she became serious as well.

"My first husband told me so when we talked endlessly one night. He said that his mother reproached him for taking Margaret's favorite toy and forced him to apologize. When he said boys and girls were bound to enemies she told him about Jane and Elizabeth."

"If they can be friends then you can too." Katherine said after a small pause, and held her niece's hand. "I believe we can too Eleanor."

"I don't know. I don't want to be hurt. I love my husband. He is everything every woman would want in a husband, he is charming, handsome and a king but I can't make him love me, I should be happy but I am not and then I look at you and I can't help but feel envy." And rage, and a surge for revenge, she left out.

"I understand. If I was in your position-"

"But you are not. That is the main difference between us."

Katherine sighed. Very well then. It seemed like they would not reach an agreement between them. After a while she spoke again.

"I appreciate what you did for me the other day in the council chambers." Eleanor said.

"I did my duty." Katherine said. As the king's mistress and princess dowager, it fell on her to pay obeisance to the true queen of England. The councilors constantly asked for her opinion. Katherine chided them, especially Cardinal Wolsey who was as opportunist as the next cleric, but unlike the ones her mother had been close to, he was corrupt and lecherous. A Mistress and Two Children. That was how the English clergy was.
Eleanor took no interest in church matters but she wished she did. As Queen it was her duty to set an example, starting with the church. Katherine had told her many times how many people were turning to heresy. If they did not have lecherous and corrupt priests as their bishops and Cardinals they would not flock to the Lollards. That heretical sect that swayed people with promises of eternal salvation and revenge on the evil ones.

"You are the Queen of England. As you said, it is your word that carries more weight. The Privy Council needed to address you before they could address me."

"Thank you." Eleanor said pursing her lips as she gazed down at her needlework. It wasn't nearly as good as her lady aunt's. "When will the Scots' King be here?" She suddenly asked, thinking of the latest reports. "The Earl of Surrey said less than a month but we are not yet prepared. And his armies are better equipped than ours. What if he wins?"

"Do not trouble yourself with that. He will not. He does not know English terrains as the earls and our King's generals do. If there is one man that can smite the flower of chivalry of Scotland it is he. Surrey is a seasoned general and he will bring his younger brother and son, Lord Thomas Howard with him. You mustn't worry."

"But I do. If he wins, who is to say he will stop there? He is angry, very angry Catalina. He wants England to suffer for what you did. You should have never told Henry to send that letter to the pope. You know how pious the Scots' king is. You hit him below the belt."

"My dear niece do not be so crass. I simply told Henry to tell the pope the truth about the impious king of Scots. He has more than ten brats and his hens flock around him because he is handsome and the crown he wears. He won't be handsome for long. When he is slain the battlefield, Scotland will be plunged into chaos. The wolves will be at our dear sister in law's door, eager to get ahold of her cubs and rule Scotland in their name while We will sit here, enjoying His Majesty's latest victory in France and toasting in his honor."

Eleanor mouth was opened, agape. She was stunned to hear her aunt. She knew the woman was cunning and how fast her mind worked. Her mother had warned her about her. This was a woman, who like her mother, had seen battle, she had been witnessed to the horrors of war and had lived at the heart of intrigue. She was no stranger to men's evil. But Nor never believed her, thinking her mother exaggerated as she always did. How wrong she was.

"Dearest aunt I hope I am never your enemy."

"Worry not dearest niece, you never will be. You are the Queen after all and I am just the king's sister." She said with a simple smile. The two broke in laughter at the irony in their voices and continued sewing.

There was a writ issued in every town under the authority of Queen Eleanor and the King's sister, Lady Katherine, Princess Dowager of Wales. Every town was to supply all able bodied men for a one week training, those that were chosen would be greatly rewarded afterwards. If they distinguished themselves in battle, they would be knighted. Those that were members of a guild, would be given more privileges than their peers, regardless of their country of origin.

It wasn't long before Lord Howard, the earl of Surrey's son, had an army. The King had left a good number of his forces in England, anticipating an attack from the Scots. But the Queen and his mistress insisted they needed more in case the Scots brought their heavy artillery.

"No matter." John Howard told his son when he voiced their concerns. "We will show the Scots how they might presume they have a better country now with a better king, but we still have the upper hand. Nobody knows these lands better than us and if it is a war he wants, it is a war he will get!"

They met on the field of Flodden in mid September. The army cheered his father's words as he read the queen's battle-cry -which Thomas suspected was really written by His Majesty's mistress own hand- and they launched on to their enemy.

Canon fire broke his hearing and the smoke blinded his vision. He could barely make out what was happening but they were coming from every corner. Thomas reacted quickly. He unsheathed his sword and sliced as many Scots as he could.

He searched for his father, screaming his name. His father was a seasoned veteran of Bosworth field and many other battles before that, but he was old and Thomas feared for his safety.

"Father!" He screamed one more time before he was knocked to the ground by an axe. Luckily he was hit on the back of his head by the wooden handle so he recovered quickly and was back on his feet in two seconds, fighting his attacker.

John heard his son's cries. Then there was silence. Drowned by the cries of the other men. Thomas! John thought. Eyes ahead. The battle raged on, he had no time for sentimentality. Sentimentality kills, he learned, one second and you were dead.
Many men who cried and ran away to help their fallen companions would be rewarded by the axe.

The King of Scotland expected canon fire and his archers to make all the difference. He had the higher ground and yet his forces were being decimated.

It was the plains, the way the terrain stood, the weather -he realized. They all worked against him. He chortled. Blasted country. It didn't want him. But he was here and if it was his destiny to die, then so be it but he would not run away.

Thrusting himself into the midst of the fighting, giving his soldiers renewed courage, he made his final charge. In the press of men and weapons he realized he had only moments to live. All around him were familiar faces, his lords and dukes' first and second sons. All of whom their fathers had been so proud of when they joined his campaign. Brave, noble, his nobles claimed. Aye, they were.

He dropped his battle axe. His wife often told him stories of how her maternal grandfather became renown for fighting with an axe. They called him the god of thunder, the scourge of Lancastrians. He was brave, noble, the epitome of chivalry and handsome as the devil himself.

Margaret. He would miss her stories, he would miss making love to her. But this is how it was going to go down.

Tightening his grip on the hilt of his sword and gave his final cry.

"Is this the king, are you sure boy?"

"Yes my lord. The archers were sure. The troops soon retreated when they saw their king fall."

"How did he die?" Katherine asked, before the earl of Surrey or her niece, the queen, could.

"An arrow to the jaw Your Highness."

"And what of these other wounds? They look very fresh." Katherine said, pointing to each one of them, looking accusingly at the young soldier.

The soldier gulped. He explained the confusion during the battle and how some of his men were carried away.

"That is no excuse! The King's body is sacred. He is or was an anointed monarch. He should be treated with respect." Eleanor said firmly, sharing her aunt's disgust for this type of behavior.

"Forgive the men Your Majesty, Your Highness. In the heat of moment men become very violent. Rest assured, it will not happen again."

"It better not. What kind of country we would be if we desecrated kings and queens?" Katherine asked, her voice was softer than Eleanor's but she still held the same accusatory glance.

"I agree Your Highness. I shall have a private talk with the men responsible for this."

"No, leave it. I am sure they learned what they did was wrong." Katherine said; Eleanor looked at her with uncertainty. She whispered in her niece's ear: "The soldiers are men, men will always get their blood up whenever there is a battle. Punish them and you will become their enemy."

"But they desecrated a king's body."

"They did not desecrate anyone. The King is dead and there is a new king to be crowned at Stirling. We must not reward their good-earned victory with bloodshed, they are your subjects besides and they expect kind words from you."

Nor pursed her lips. Catalina was right. She thanks lord Surrey and dismissed him.

A week later they sent the king's bloodstained coat to Henry.

Dear husband I wish that you are happy for our victory. We have done it with you in mind. Your courage in France gave us courage. -Eleanor Habsburg wrote. Her words resounded with pride. Henry shook his head. He opened the princess dowager's letter.

To Your Most Gracious Majesty ... She started and Henry smiled. She always knew how to please him. ...Thank your wife for obeying all of your commands. She behaved with grace and humility and it is thanks to her that Your Majesty's forces vanquished the king of Scots.

Catalina -Henry thought. Always so humble. You should be the one taking all the credit. But that would be so contrary to her nature.

... To my thinking, this battle hath been to your grace and all your realm the greatest honor that could be, and more that you should win the crown of France -for which your lady wife and I pray every day that you do. Yours always, the princess dowager ...

Below her signature was her seal, the Tudor rose and the pomegranate. He had been so jealous when she began using it. It reminded him of her wedding to Arthur but she assured him she used it with him in mind.

Henry paid the messenger with two golden sovereigns. He kept Katherine's letter close to his heart. The next day he went to fight, he tucked it inside his breastplate. It saved him from a sea of arrows.

It was not likely he would win France the way things were going. Henry was never one to give into negative thoughts but the Imperial and Spanish troops his mother in law and her allies had promised never came.

Blasted Spaniards! They betrayed him! He swore an oath under his breath. He would never trust them again.

Not all was lost. The battle of the spurs gave him the glory he craved. He captured Tournai and stayed there for three months overseeing the final sieges before he returned to England where he was received as a conquering hero.

Eleanor ran to her husband's arms. She was happy to see him safe and sound. Henry kissed her lips gently then went down on his knees, spreading his arms for their eldest son to come running to him.

"Daddy!"

"My son, how much you've grown! You must weigh a ton now."

"Do not be silly daddy. I am not fat."

Henry laughed. "Of course you are not but you have the fattest and reddest cheeks." He jested and pinched them playfully.

Harry Jr. pushed his hand away. Henry put him back on the floor. He was only three and a half years old but he was already so big and smart.

"Do not do that again daddy or I will not talk to you."

Eleanor chuckled at her son's antics. "Do not mind him little one. Daddy is just being silly. Go with your governess lady Pole."

"Lady Pole? I thought we agreed to name her lady Salisbury after her husband died."

"We did but lady Pole wished to wait until you came and she fears that if you give her a bigger title it will take her away from Harry. She has fallen for our darling boy."

"I imagine she has. Our son has his father's charm." Henry said. His father had executed Margaret's brother because he feared what his Plantagenet blood would bring. Henry wanted to show the people that he was not his father and he agreed with both his wife and Kat, to give her a title on his return. When he was close to dying and the only thing that saved him was Kat's letter tucked underneath his breastplate (with her seal), he decided that he would make her a countess much sooner.
The title had belonged to her grandfather's who had been slain at the battle of Wakefield along with their common ancestor, his great-grandfather, Richard Plantagenet, the Duke of York. It was only natural she received the title.
And he had another reason for it, throughout the years, lady Pole had proven herself to be loyal. She was one of Katherine's many English ladies who stayed with her shortly after Arthur's death and the two had never lost contact and while she preferred Katherine's company, she had warmed up to his wife, Eleanor gladly looking over their children.

Harry loved her. He would cry with his nurses when he was little. He would cry when they tore them from his parents' arms. Henry resolved to have the royal nursery at court where he would never have to part from his parents until he was older and more mature. Eleanor was glad for it and so was Katherine (surprisingly).

The only other person besides his aunt, Harry Jr. warmed up to, was lady Pole. She would bring her children to be his play-mates -despite the children being older- and they would spend endless hours pacifying him and playing all kinds of games with him. His favorite was hide and seek. He was the best -he claimed- and he always found everyone.

Henry wished he could be a kid again. Life seemed so simple back then. No worries, no responsibilities.

"How is his little brother, Edward Philip?"

"He is doing well, his is not as big but he is healthy too and he is already saying his first words." Eleanor said happily, linking her arm around her husband's.

She was glad to have a pleasant evening without gossiping courtiers and most of all, her aunt Katherine.

Things between them had been better but she wanted, just for once, to have her husband all to herself.

"I am so happy you are here." She said as they sat on the dais, enjoying the few courtiers that danced below them. "I heard reports from Brandon on his return that you were injured. Oh Henry please do not go fighting again. If my lady mother asks of you, refuse. You know she is old and senile." Nor said. She begged God to forgive her for speaking of her mother that way. But he would understand and so would her. Her mother after all had done the same when she had to plead with her father not to leave her side.

Henry cupped her face and rubbed his thumb on her cheek. She was like a delicate flower, and young. So young ...Henry wished he could take her in his arms and scream her name when they made love, but he always remembered the face Katherine had made when she was forced to attend their wedding.

She said it didn't matter anymore but Henry was no fool. He knew how complex a woman's heart was and it still mattered to her. Katherine had been told she would be queen someday and that was why she never consummated her marriage to Arthur because deep down she knew that Arthur was not the man that had been meant for her.
Henry brushed these thoughts aside. That was the past. In his heart he would always be fateful to Catalina. He was the first and only woman he had fallen in love with. The rest were there to keep him company, but only Katherine mattered. However Eleanor was his wife, and he had to make her his first priority.

With this in mind he nodded and promised her he would never go to war again.

Chapter Text

The Cardinal spoke in sober tones. "The King continues with his whore and his whore continues to dislike me." He told his mistress, Joan Larke.

"You work too hard my lord. Why not take a rest? You have a villa near the river Thames and you are building a new palace. Why not go there and see how it is coming together?"

"Joan." Thomas laughed. He always loved his mistress' sweet wit. It was nothing like that king's whore who commandeered everyone and everything like it was her right.

She had been born a princess and forced to accept a fate that was not hers. But she had adapted. As we all.

He remembered the King when he was a boy of eighteen, deeply passionate to the idea of marrying his sister in law whom he maintained was his true wife, niece. "No, I will not marry her Thomas. Katherine is my true wife. We swore we would marry under an oak tree like my grandparents when they met."

" Sire, your grandparents married months after they met and they did in secret. You don't want to repeat their mistake."

" She gave him many children, did she not? Catalina as my wife will be my queen of hearts and I shall be her Sir Loyal Heart. I shall wear her flag, her pomegranate will be at the center of the Tudor rose. I will name our first child Henry and our first daughter Isabella after her mother, only it will be French because the English will not like a Spanish name or Castilian. I don't care and neither will she. She will accept it and she will love me just like my grandmother loved my grandfather and we will be happy and our youngest daughter will be named Mary and she will marry great men just like her big sister and spawn a line of kings …"

The King's voice faded as it was replaced by his wife (in spirit) face. He agreed with Henry (on this point). Wives were loyal and adherent to the tenants of the Catholic faith because that is what they were taught; but mistresses on the other hand were free to do as they pleased and loved who they pleased.

Joan chose to be loyal to him however. He married her to a nobody who had means and small wealth but who was a nobody nonetheless. He cared for her and their children. Thomas was happy to be the father of a new baby girl, Dorothea. (His mistress' choice, not his. If it was up to him he would have named her something spiritual, something that washed away the stain of her illegitimacy).
And Katherine chose Henry. She was a beautiful woman. Not the beautiful vivid visions of his mind when he first met her, but attractive nonetheless and her conditions, which had improved when the king agreed with her sister, took the poor widow, that little girl who inspired so much confidence but who could be so scheming and formed diplomatic contacts which she played on one another like you would expect out of Ferdinand II's daughter (his youngest but the most astute); from her poverty and given her much deserved dower rights. She protested with that charming smile of her. She almost won the king. She was too beguiling, those smiles, those eyes, who could doubt such a face could be other than innocent?
Of course the older Henry was an experienced man who had his fair share of women before he married his lady wife, the good Elizabeth of York. He knew a liar when he saw one.

He was greedy for what his older brother had owned. Harry now Henry, always was and he could not wait to have his wife in his bed. When his father told him that would never happen he turned to another strategy. If she couldn't be his wife in law, she would be his in spirit.

"Mother said you would be back for supper." Thomas Winters, his only son, said coming into his room.

He was Joan's second son. Their first had been a stillborn. They still mourned him.

"Will you come to see my new pony?" He asked coming to sit on his father's lap.

He was getting heavy, thankfully not heavy like the king's second son who was chubbier than most boys. His brother bullied him, calling him 'fatty boy' whenever he saw him. It was always up to the new Countess of Salisbury to set them apart.

"I will, I gave it to you. You should be careful to sit on your father's lap. You could destroy me."

"I will never hurt you father. I can stop sitting on your lap if you wish me to."

"No, I don't just don't jump on me. Remember I am not a young man anymore." He said. Of course his son did not know him as a young man. He was athletic, vigorous and always attentive to his master's best interests and also foolish.

Like any young man, he believed he could do whatever he pleased. He bedded who he wanted when he wanted. He was careless and his only saving grace was that he wasn't virile. None of his mistresses had gotten pregnant, save one. That's when he decided to stop his vices.

He passed one of his dry hands through his son's dark brown hair.

The fire died between his mother and he, but they were still good friends and they enjoyed a night or two together.

"You will always be young to me, father." Thomas Winters told his father.

Thomas put him down and walked with him to the stables where his pony was. He decided, watching his son ride, he would take a respite from courtly affairs. He would leave it in the capable hands of his secretaries.

"How was your villa Your Eminence?" His secretary, Mr. Pez, asked.

"Do not call my states that, Mr. Pez only one person is allowed to that and you are not her. What is the latest development on the court since my absence? Is the king still parading her?"

Mr. Pez did not have to guess who he was talking of. It was common knowledge by now the king had two loves, his children and the two women who now worked together for the future of the realm (something no one would've thought possible when the two met), the Princess Dowager and the Queen, Katherine and Eleanor Habsburg.

"The King is more discreet. There have been others Your Eminence."

"Who? Darren, Williams?"

"No, they are of no importance, but some of them demand some of their titles. Lands, really. Nothing more."

"You have taken care of it?"

"I have but the king insists on giving them more."

"As he always does. The King is a fool, let no one hear you say that but mark my words, women are going to be his undoing just like with his grandfather." Thomas Wolsey said.

"What else?" There had to be something else or else his ugly secretary wouldn't have that face, uglier than usual.

"The Princess Dowager …"

"What? Speak up man!"

"She lost the child."

"She was with child? Why was I not informed?"

"You were busy with your eh … friend's wife and I did not want to trouble you but it is of no importance."

"Well, I suppose it isn't but there is something else." The Cardinal said, his lips curved into a sadistic smile. Most men –such as the king and his brute friend, Charles Brandon- desired women and glory in the battlefield but for realistic men such as he preferred to fight his battles in the most dangerous battlefield of all, the English court.

"Yes there is." Mr. Pez admitted. "The Princess Dowager lost her baby girl. The girl Beatrice she had given birth two years ago after the battle of Flodden."

"Oh?" Wolsey said, feeling very small sadness. "What was the cause?"

"The sweating sickness, though some say poison but the Princess Dowager does not believe it and has put these rumors to rest by consulting Bishop Fisher and all those who knew my lady the late king's mother to seek new methods to stop the contagion. The King supports her."

"The King has always been concerned for the welfare of the English people, it's wise he is investing so much interest in new medicines." The Cardinal said, careful with his words as always. Who knew who was spying who these days?
And even there were spies, he had spoken the truth. The King was one of the cleaner people in the court, if not all of Christendom. He abhorred sickness and therefore washed twice a day and demanded his rooms and private rooms be washed twice every three days.

Thomas Wolsey thought it a bit much but he was the King. If he said move, they would move. And he as the second most powerful man, was the only one allowed to dissuade him.

There was a knock on the door, Thomas dismissed Mr. Pez and welcomed More.

He was a nuisance but he was a necessary nuisance. They made an odd couple. He was everything he detested in clerics and Thomas More was (ironically) everything Wolsey detested in mature men.
An idealist, a man of clean morals and with a high sense of righteousness, Sir Thomas was always there to whisper in the king ear what was right, what was wrong. He was his traveling conscience, if the King ever had one.
Yet, More was the only person he could trust.

"What is it now?" He asked, knowing full well he was not here for a formal visit.

"The Princess Dowager is with child."

"Again?" He smirked. She and the King had certainly been busy. "The King couldn't wait another week until her churching period was over."

"There is nothing in canon law that prevents couples from coupling and the child was still-born. They needed to comfort each other."

"Married couples are allowed to comfort each other, not lords and their mistresses."

"Harry believes he is married to Katherine in spirit. Both were betrothed before the cross."

"A wooden cross he made with his mother before she went into confinement to deliver his short-lived sister." The Cardinal pointed out. "Since when did you become a fan of passion, Thomas? You are always one to remind the court of the sanctity of marriage, including the king's lecherous brother when he began to stray as soon as his new wife, the king's disobedient sister, the Queen Dowager of France, got pregnant."

"I mean it but I must admit that with Harry I make an exception. He was my pupil and my friend, I love him as a brother and I am more honest with him than I am with other men. Besides, the princess dowager is not like other women. She is an example among women and many women imitate her and hold her as a role model to their daughters." Thomas said.

"A model of adultery, how wonderful. We will have more holy harlots by the minute." Thomas Wolsey said, rolling his eyes at the lack of people's good common sense. Sometimes he wondered if humans were really created in God's image or if God was drunk when he created them.

"The princess dowager is a true Christian. She cannot help her misconduct, she loves the king and he loves her. They've known each other since they were children."

"Spare me the history lecture Thomas."

"She visits the churches more than any woman or priest." He said looking directly at Wolsey.

"Don't go there."

Thomas More sat down. "There is no other woman who has done so much for universities, abbeys and hospitals, and given so much to the common people as well as improved women's education by making it fashionable for women to spend their time reading the bible and the classics, instead of seeking affairs and wasting their time in sinful pleasures. She is a good woman."

"You win Thomas, she is a remarkable creature. But that doesn't change what she is."

Thomas More said nothing to this.

"When will the child be due?"

"February the 18th or the 20th of 1516, next year."

"Well then, we must pray that the good Lord grants Her Highness a safe delivery." Wolsey said, tired of hearing about the princess dowager. He swore that if he heard one more word about that woman he would have an apoplexy. Just then, people in the streets began chanting.

"What the hell?" Wolsey rose and opened the window to get a better view.

Sir Thomas smiled. "Looks like the people are anxious to receive more charity from their good princess. They are calling her good Katherine now."

Thomas Wolsey groaned. There was the woman, dressed in black and gold with the traditional gable hood encrusted with pearls and rubies. She got on her carriage and took two orphan girls with her. They followed her carriage to the chapel where her ladies were waiting with fresh loaves of bread, butter, and other foods and of course the queen's less expensive jewelry.

Mary arrived at the palace of Greenwich on 18 February, 1516. She was a beautiful girl, small tints of blond hair on her near-bald head that would turn red –just like all her other sisters that took after their father.

There was very little of Katherine in her, except for her rosebud lips and her pink cheeks which definitely reminded her of her own mother, Isabel of Castile. But the rest, she took after Henry.

Henry did not care for the gender of his child. He had three beautiful sons and the loss of their two offspring last spring, left the couple scarred. Katherine got her crisis of faith back and she began questioning the lord and their relationship. Was God displeased with them? Was that why He took both of their offspring.

Henry, well versed in canon law, reassured her they had done nothing to displease the lord and as proof, he pointed to his two surviving children, perfectly well, perfectly healthy.

Katherine was not convinced. She confessed her sins to her chaplain then took communion. Afterwards she prayed and fasted until one day, with her guilt completely expunged, she lay with Henry again.

That was the day they conceived this child.

"My little Mary." Katherine whispered in her ear when her godmothers came to her privy chambers and placed her in her arms.

She was christened two days after her birth in the church of the Observant Friars, the same place where her brother and half-siblings were christened.

She was so little and frail, she feared she would break but surprisingly she did not. The girl was healthy with a pink-cream coloring, pinker on her lips and cheeks.

Every mother said that her daughter was a great beauty but she was not 'all women'. When her firstborn was born, she saw some defects in her hair coloring and her hair, all messy and tangled and her eye coloring which were blue then changed to dark gray when she was a year old. The astrologer said it was a sign of God's blessing but more superstitious men said it was proof of God's disfavor.
When John was born, she hoped things would be better but they got worse.
The court (at the time so hateful of her) spoke higher than they ever did of the people's displeasure. But as it turned out they were false claims.
The people loved her and they would die for her. No other woman had given so much to the English people and her piety and her courtly decorum set an example, and soon the court was admiring her too. But there were others that still spoke behind her back and one of them was Wolsey.

Such was her joy then, to see him named one of her daughter's godparents, and present when Lady Salisbury returned her daughter to her.

You may have eyes and ears in every palace wall Cardinal but I have the king's heart and my niece his children, two male boys which have secured the Tudor dynasty and something which has earned her his love –or a part of it. With Henry one could never be sure. But one thing was clear to her. The Cardinal did not have all the power in England.

Chapter Text

Katherine was hollow-faced. She read the histories of England but she never imagined that Henry would go ahead and take them to heart. "They are just stories" She told Henry. "You can't take them seriously." But he had.

"Our dynasty will be the greatest dynasty that has ever been seen or heard of."

*Our* dynasty, our children. It didn't cross his mind that nobody would ever accept them as part of *his* dynasty. They were bastards after all, she was the only one of the two who saw them as such and was not afraid to call them as such.

"Henry is it not possible to ask someone else? The Emperor might not like our daughter."

"Nonsense, you know there is no one else and Isabella is a charming girl, you have said so yourself many times."

She had. But she had expected the king to arrange a marriage to a relative nobody, a Duke, a Marquis or even an Earl. Not her nephew, the most powerful man in Christendom.

"Katherine, I will not hear it. Our daughter will marry His Imperial Majesty and you will be content by it and show your respects to him when I present you as my honorary sister and my lady's mother."

"Juana was very strict with him Henry." She said. "She cleaned her court of naysayers and hypocrites. When she found out he had a mistress, it is said she tore the locks from that girl's face and forced her family to put her into a convent. No one knows what happened to the child."

"You worry too much Kat. Those are just rumors that the commons invented."

"They are not." Katherine said gravely. "I know my sister Henry and I know what she is capable of. She lived under her ungrateful husband's thumb and then my father's, she does not tolerate impiety."

"She will have to when her son takes the throne. As the eldest it is his right." Henry said, passing his hand through her face. She had put on some weight after her lasts pregnancy, but it was not too much to ruin her figure. Thank God -they both thought.

"Promise me you will reconsider."

Henry groaned. "Kat..."

"At least for me." She said. "Think about how other women would smile at the prospect of being Empresses, if you give the pope a good incentive he could annul your sister's marriage."

"No that is out of the question." He said firmly, sitting up. "My sister is already married to Brandon and they have two daughters, as for my eldest, she has already humiliated us with getting one annulment, I will not have her humiliate us by asking for another. Bella will have to do."

He is bargaining our daughter's future like she is some chess piece; Katherine was determined not to let him but seeing his hardened gaze she knew, she would lose.

She said nothing more and went back to sleep.

The following night when Henry was too busy, spending time with his councilors discussing the last arrangements of her nephew's visit, she recalled that night and sighed.

Henry could be very sweet at time but also very stubborn.

She rocked her daughter's giant cradle. It had been a new one Henry had commissioned for his youngest daughter. He called her his 'pearl', his 'worldly jewel'. She paraded the court as if she was a princess born and was given her own household at Bridewell palace along with her mother.

She told him she is too big for a cradle but he did not care. It's not any cradle -he said. It was designed so a four year old could play and dance and do whatever else her mind conjured.

Mary looked at the doll with her greeN and white dress, Tudor Colors, one of the Queen's ladies had given her. She threw it out the window.

"What the hell did you do that for?" John asked her coming into the room to kiss his mother good night.

"John, language!"

"She started it. You spoil her too much, soon she will start killing His Majesty's animals too."

"Do not exaggerate. She is just a child, I am sure she has a very good reason for doing what she did. Mary?"

"Hmm?"

"Apologize to lady Norfolk, she gave you that doll as a present."

"I know but I won't apologize."

"Why on earth not?"

Mary shrugged.

"I told you mother, the little monster is too proud to apologize." John said. His mother kissed him on his forehead then gave her his blessing. He said farewell to her and his sister then went back to bed.

Bella came in just in time, she had bumped into her brother on her way over. He told her everything that Mary had done. Bella chortled. Typical Mary, just like her namesake, she always did what she pleased.

She greeted her mother and her ladies then her sister. "You look beautiful my lady." They said, complimenting her nightgown and the new ring she wore.

"Is that from Queen Jane?"

"Queen Juana to you and yes it is from her. Soon I will be an Empress."

"And that makes all the difference? Mama says a good queen doesn't care for her titles, she cares for her people."

"Mama isn't a queen, sister. Our lady aunt is and don't get any closer or you will ruin this ring just like you ruined Her Grace Norfolk's present."

"That wasn't my fault, she called mama a whore. I heard her! Mama I am very sorry I repudiated her present but I don't want anything that comes from a woman that doesn't treat you right."

"Oh my sweet girl, that is how people always are. You mustn't care what others think of me, I don't." Katherine said. "It doesn't matter."

"But it does to me! You are a princess and they should treat you as such."

That was what she loved so much about Mary. That she was a dreamer and she still possessed childhood innocence.

"Listen to our lady mother for once sister. She is a princess but she is also our father's mistress, she will never be queen and to everyone's mind we are not really her children."

"That's not true. I refuse to believe that!"

Bella rolled her eyes. "I am out. Good luck finding a husband with that attitude. Lady mother, your blessing."

Katherine gave it to her and whispered in her ear not to be so hard on her sister. She was just a toddler and couldn't understand many things yet.

"You spoil her too much mama." She said echoing her brother's thoughts. "She will have to grow up sooner or later and accept the truth."

She left her sister's chambers and returned to hers, thankful that her lady mother had kept her monstrous sister away before she threw her expensive ring out the window. What did father see in her? She had asked all of her lady aunt and lady mother's younger companions. She was not pretty. She would not grow up into a great beauty like her and she wasn't lady-like.
It must be because she is the baby -She thought. Babies always had special privileges. Her lady mother said so. She had been the baby herself and was always spoiled.
Well she will have to grow up. She is not going to be a baby forever. Bella thought. One day she will be twelve and let's see how our father treats her then when she misbehaves at first sight of her husband.

Katherine told her Mary she should not behave unseemly. "You are a lady, my sweet, not a princess."

"But mama is a princess so I am a princess too." Her four year old daughter said.

"No, I am a princess by birth, you well …" her daughter's face dropped.

"What?"

"Nothing dear, just concern yourself with playing with your dolls and remember you are a great lady like your elder sister, daughter of a king, granddaughter of kings."

"And daughter of a princess!" Mary insisted and Katherine rolled her eyes.

She kissed her forehead and put her to bed.

"How is she? Still insisting she is a princess?" Maria asked her. Katherine nodded.

"There is no use dissuading her. She is stubborn as hell."

"Tiene un genio de los mil demonios" [1] Maria said in Spanish, laughing at her sister's expression. She slapped her shoulder playfully. "Come now Catalina, who does she remind you of?"

"You are wrong my dear Maria. She reminds me more of my dearest sister Juana." She said 'dearest' with sarcasm. "And I don't know if that is a good idea."

"You mustn't trouble yourself with your sister's words. Look, her son will come in three months time. I hear he is quite the charmer as her father. You met him. I was sadly indisposed."

"Indisposed or charming flattering your future husband?"

Maria blushed. She had fallen for Lord Willoughby since she first saw him. He was her age and he was so handsome. So few women could marry for love and have it all. A handsome, rich and loyal husband and beautiful children. It was more than any woman could dream of, in a weird sense both she and Catalina had everything they desired except her friend never got the husband she was promised.

"Stop it. You are outrageous." She sighed. "William sent me a letter that our daughter threw a fit to her servants. She doesn't like to be told –William says. I told him –that is what you get for marrying a Spanish lady in waiting. Our hearts are soft, our minds bright and our passions and tempers hot."

"You are right in that." Catalina said. "Have you told him about the king's plans to marry her to my son?"

"By God, Catalina she is only a year old. You can't ask me that."

"She will be Lady Willoughby one day and the Queen approves of it. My son is the son of a king, a Duke and a Marques. It is a good match."

"I don't know. We wish to keep her at home, away from court intrigue."

"My dear Maria, she is the daughter of a Spanish noblewoman and an English nobleman, intrigue will be her life. I can assure you though, married to my son she will be safe." She took both of Maria's hands and gave her a kind expression which convinced her lady in waiting.

Anne was happy to be back in England. Next to her was none other than Jane Seymour. They had been at the field of Cloth and Gold and reveled in the ceremonies that betrothed the king's eldest son Prince Harry of Wales, Lord of Snowdonia, Duke of Cornwall and Earl of Chester to the king of France's eldest and frail daughter, the four year old Princess Charlotte.

Her father told her not to get too excited, she would be back in France to serve Queen Claude again. Anne was glad but she would miss England. It was not the same as the luxurious and libertine court of King Francis, but it was beautiful and lively nonetheless.

"Mother says that the queen fought the king very hard not to have his mistress present."

"His mistress, you mean the princess dowager?" Anne asked her new companion.

"No, his mistress. Everyone, everywhere calls her that, only not to her face or the king's face for that matter. He gets very grumpy when somebody talks ill of her." She pointed with her clear blue eyes at the Spanish Princess who brushed her youngest daughter's dark auburn hair with her fingers. It was soft and a little wavy, almost like Mary –her sister's. The King's youngest bastard daughter took after him, while his eldest had more of her mother's facial features.

"Is that the lady Mary? She is very beautiful." Anne commented.

At thirteen, she was one of the youngest girls to have ever served the Queens of France and England. Her companion was only two years younger, but no less smarter. Her looks had gotten nowhere, she was not called plain Jane for nothing. But her mother's family, related to the Boleyns and Howards by blood and marriage, had secured her a position within Queen Eleanor's household. Her brothers had been so proud, especially Edward who he himself was on his way to the top.
"You will do well sister. You will make us all very proud." Jane vowed she would. Since her arrival no one had complained about her. She was barely even noticed.
Anne on the other hand, was very commented on. "Look at those French clothes, those jewels." No one had worn that much French fashions, not even the King's sister and she had been Queen of France. Lady Anne was one of a kind and she made sure she was noticed wherever she went.

"Aye she is. Everyone says she will grow to be a great beauty but they also say she is a handful. She does nothing but play war with her brothers' toys and always gives her caretakers' headaches. I can only imagine how hard it is for the Spanish Princess to keep her in line. It is only through great pleading, my sister Elizabeth who serves the Princess, she tells me that she managed to convince her daughter to behave."

Anne doubted that. She didn't see the daughter of two self-controlled royals as a royal brat. Though there were precedents. When royal parents spoiled their sons and daughters too much, they often became headstrong and rebellious. The King's sister, the lady Mary's aunt and namesake was proof of that. She had married the Duke of Suffolk without the king's permission and it was his great love for his sister and his childhood companion that saved them from execution.

Mary fidgeted with her French hood. She told her mother she didn't like it. "I want papa's hat."

"You can't have papa's hat, that is only for boys like me and our brothers." Her brother John said, his lips pursed. They twitched in annoyance when his little sister stomped her foot on the ground and crossed her arms against her chest, saying "No fair."

This was what happened when you spoiled little kids -he told his elder half-brother and their male companions- especially when they were women; they turned into beasts.

"Come, come brother she is your sister. Our sister and the joy of the court. This place wouldn't be too fun if it wasn't for her." Harry said, clapping his hands when their sister came to stand in front of them and showing her strength by taking his jeweled dagger. "Well done sister, you are one little thief."

"I am not a thief. I am a knight."

John rolled his eyes. Good Lord! "You two crazies can indulge in her crazy fantasy, me? I am going to where sane people stand, come Edward." His second eldest brother, Edward Duke of York followed him, chortling as he saw their little sister form a circle of curious ladies and young boys around her as she played with their eldest brother's dagger.

She would be a handful all right! He laughed harder imagining who would be the unlucky bloke who married her.

The Emperor loved the amicability of the English people. They were more reasonable and less treacherous than her mother's brethren. He had been angry with his mother because he had cheated him out of his Spanish inheritance. The Austrian titles and the Imperial seat was not enough. He wanted it all. It was his right as the eldest son of the Queen of Castile, and grandson of Ferdinand II of Aragon. What right did his baby brother have to those crowns?

Just because he was brought up Spaniard? He was much a Spaniard as his brother, he was half Trastamara and he also had Plantagenet blood through his maternal grandmother, and her maternal ancestors. He had the best pedigree of all, but no. His mother could not stand the fact that his father had loved him more than her.

He remembered when she nearly killed him, when she embraced him as a loving mother would after she'd come home from Spain and left his baby brother there. He was only three years and a half and she looked so happy to see him, but prone to jealousy she clutched his shoulders, hurting him.

He cried for his aunt Marguerite Habsburg, the princess dowager of Asturias, who was standing next to him to help him but she was so blind to his mother's fault that she believed she would warm up to the little boy once she saw her reflection in his eyes but all she saw was her husband and the many women he had left her for.

"You are a handsome boy. Your father loves you so much, even more than he loves his wife. His true wife. Do you know that? Tell me! Do you?!" She shook him and slapped him and that's when Marguerite took him. His father came just in time to order him to be taken away, far from where his mother would never touch him. He was not entirely out of earshot when he heard her say –"Think that you can take him away from me when you know that as well as I gave him to you, I can take him from you!"

Charles swore that when he was King of Spain he would lock her up and strip her of memory, beat her until she begged him forgiveness, and erase her from Spanish memory. But that was not to be. His mother had been two steps ahead of him.

Damn her. But God shall wreck vengeance on her. He did not look too good on women who took men's inheritance and who thought themselves better than men.

"Your Majesty." He greeted his brother in law. Henry was tall, as tall as Charles if not taller. Charles was wearing a higher heel than usual. He didn't want to seem little before the English king. He had heard how arrogant and xenophobic. But Charles found very little of that when he was greeted by a large delegation of English nobles.

"Brother in law and brother in arms. Eleanor said you would look imposing, she wasn't lying." Henry said with an open smile, happy to have a young and respectable man as his ally –and a powerful one at that, that would bring him more glory than his mother did.

"Ha, ha, Eleanor loves to boast of everything. You should have seen us when we were children. She said everything I did was great and in turn, I would give her a bigger slice of cake and chicken. We were inseparable her and I." Charles commented, anxious to see his big sister.

As if reading his thoughts, Henry said "You will see your sister, my fair lady and Queen, Her Majesty when we enter the Great Hall. You will be very pleased with the festivities that await a great man such as you, though they might appear humble compared to those in the Austrian court."

"I am sure Your Majesty will prove yourself wrong." Charles said and he was right. After he greeted his sister, they sat next to the king and watched the festivities.

There were young women and boys, representing youth, chastity and virtue, being assaulted by older men and women who represented strangeness, deception, lust and other vices.

"You said this was put by Thomas More, your former tutor?" Charles asked.

"Yes, he has been a knight for many years now. He is one of my most humbler and loyal servants. A great writer as well, I am sure you have read his book 'Utopia'."

"I have, it is a great novel but a dream. Wouldn't we all that the world was as easy as that?" Charles said. He watched the young knights triumph over the older ones and banishing the witches and taking their young maidens to dance.

One of them caught the young emperor's eye. "Forgive me, Your Majesty, but who is that? She is too young to be among the actresses there!"

"Worry not brother, that is our cousin, the lady Mary … Tudor."

The little girl got her mask taken by her dance partner, none other than her ten year old brother Harry Tudor.

The king boasted of his son's strength. He was only ten years old but taller than any boy his age. Indeed, Charles noted. He was very impressive and he was made in his namesake's image, with only a few of Eleanor's facial features on him.

"He is a very handsome boy, he will make a fine king, hopefully in many years to come."

"Hopefully." Henry echoed, beckoning his children to come. Charles was surprised it was not only Harry and her bastard half sister Mary who came forward from the line of actors who formed part of Sir Thomas' play. A girl of nine, the same height as her eldest brother with fox-colored hair and dark blue eyes unlike her little sister, and two younger brothers behind her, a dark haired colored boy who took after Eleanor with his father's dark grey eyes, and last but not least Henry's two bastard boys, John Tudor Duke of Somerset. They were all proof of their father's virility and his dynasty's magnificence, for they all (save for Edward Duke of York) inherited his good Tudor and Plantagenet looks.

Those looks were relative. The Tudor looks as far as he was told by Eleanor and his mother, were dark brown or black hair. This so called great Tudor, largely took after his mother who was red haired and fair skinned. The dark grey eyes though, those were definitely his father's and they could be cold, inviting and unyielding.

"Brother these are your nephews and your three cousins, His Grace Somerset, ladies Isabella and Mary." He rose and kissed all of their foreheads. "My sons, daughters, show your kin his due respect. He is your superior and our honored guest."

"Your Imperial Majesty." They all said in unison. They had practiced this curtsey for week. Lady Salisbury had been sick and in her place, Lady Bryan had schooled them. They resented her for it because she was not as kind or understanding as her superior, but their sister liked her.

"They are wonderful. You have very beautiful children." Charles told them, and grasped his sister's hand. "You must be very proud sister."

"I am." She said and as if to reassure herself, ignoring the entrance of her aunt, she repeated, "I really am."

Katherine was happy to watch her nephew greet her children so warmly. She was worried that the Emperor would show hostility because of their illegitimacy. It was not so, she thanked God for that.

She made her entrance after the children took their place next to their father, at his left. The herald announced her as Princess Dowager and the King's Sister.

"Aunt." Charles said bowing his head deeply. This was the woman who had caused his mother so many headaches, he was resolved to show her respect. Not all was smiles however. She did cause his sister many tears the first years of her marriage, and for that he would show her only a mild respect.

"My lady mother was not wrong about you, you do not look a day older than your portrait at Alcala de Henares."

"You flatter me nephew." Katherine said in a warm voice, her red lips drawing up in a smile charming everyone who saw them including Sir Thomas who never stopped giving the princess dowager praise. He had included her in his instruction book 'the twelve properties of a lover' naming her a virtuous lady, among other mistresses, including her predecessor, Jane Shore. She was admired by every scholar and praised by every honest churchman for the schools and hospitals she kept through her rich donations.
Charles could see a natural charm in her. The only other woman he remembered from vague memory from his mother and aunt's constant lecture, of possessing such a charm, was his grandmother, the Queen of Castile and Consort of Aragon.

"I am no longer what I was. It is your sister who becomes more beautiful each year. I am so happy to meet you at last."

They kissed each other on their cheeks then left with the king and queen to the other Hall where a great banquet awaited them.

The children were seated together. There was one missing. Henry Fitzroy. The king's new bastard from his singer and Charles' sister's former lady in waiting who had (ironically) made the women more united. Bessie Blount. She was said to be very beautiful, blond hair, beguiling green eyes who like a siren had lured the king into her bed.

Eleanor hated her. She was happy the royal brat was only a year old or else she would insist on coming here. She was not unlike the rest, but there was a flare of ambition in her eyes that she didn't like. Her lady aunt was ambitious and conniving as any other snake, but she was a snake she could tolerate because they often worked together for the good of the realm, and she never set herself above the queen or had airs of pushing her sons ahead of hers. But Bessie … Oh, she knew her kind. She had a son and so she must be made the king's mistress, the king's wife! That is how women like her thought. If she didn't have the chicken skin like her father, she would take a sword and behead Bessie.

The rest of the evening they enjoyed more spectacle as the king's jugglers came and another play was put forward, this one celebrating the Emperor and the Queen's great imperial and Spanish heritage, and lastly the king's ancestral roots, tracing all the way back to the mythical Arthur Pendragon.

"You were deadly wrong, this surpasses anything I have seen in my court or in my aunt's." Charles said laughing at one of the jests the queen's fool made.

"How is our aunt? I have written to Marguerite but she hasn't replied. Is all well?"

"She has been very busy, tending to my affairs while I am gone and this new heresy in Germany-" he said a bad word in German. "is taking all her attention."

"The gall of that priest." Hissed Eleanor, cursing him in German as well. He had said terrible things of her in his pamphlet, calling her false wife to Henry and praising her lady aunt instead as a more 'worthy Queen entitled to her crown which has always been hers were it not for the fat dowry a woman as deranged as her sister squandered to have her Jezebel placed in King Henry's remaining son's arms.'
Katherine had joined her and together with Sir Thomas More, convinced Henry to write a pamphlet denouncing Luther as the greatest devil that ever walked the earth.
"They should have burned them at the stake just like they did with the others when they had the chance."

"My dearest sister, the pope was weak, he was too afraid of turning him into a martyr but rest assured, not all flock to Luther like mindless sheep. Many see him for what he is." He turned to Henry. "His Holiness was pleased with your defense of our Mother Church. I read your paper and it is a good defense. Your Majesty is truly a defender of our faith. Now all you have left is oust that libertine Francois from his French throne and reclaim your inheritance." Charles said, knowing how to play his sister's husband.

"We shall. Francois has been a thorn on our side for too long. Together, your troops and my ships, we shall smite the Frenchman and his troops and have France in our hands in less than a month."

"God shall will it, brother." Charles agreed, and shook Henry's hand then embraced.

Eleanor rose from her chair and gave a toast in their honor, everyone raised their cups, echoing her well wishes of her brother and husband.

Wolsey believed this was a bad move on the king's part. The queen had something to do with it, but he never struck him as the warring type. It had to be the Spanish whore. She knew Henry and how to convince him, whispering in his ear like the snake whispered to Eve before she bit the apple that condemned all man-kind.

Nonetheless he was the king's loyal servant and he could do nothing but follow the king's order. If the king won more towns around the French border near Calais, their fortunes would increase and to avoid a further drain to his treasury, the king of France would negotiate a fatter dowry for his daughter, and add another one to marry the king's youngest (legitimate) son. And Thomas would be there to seal the deal.

Katherine brushed her hair then took another brush and brushed both her daughters'. Isabella was delicate, strong but with delicate features while Mary was all the opposite. She looked frail but her voice, graver than a bishop's, proved otherwise. She didn't let her mother brush her, and instead brush herself then pushed her hair up into a ponytail.

"Sweeting wear a cap. It is more comfortable."

"Ursula doesn't wear a cap." Mary countered. "Lady Salisbury lets her wear what she wants."

"Lady Ursula is not a king's daughter, you are. Put on the cap dear."

"No!"

Katherine wringed her hands in the air. It was hopeless.

Isabella laughed. Her daughter gave her mother a kiss on her cheeks after she promised to say her prayers, then left with one of her maids.

"You are never going to make a lady out of Mary mama. She is too wild. You and papa spoil her too much." Bella said as her mother turned back to her and brushed the last strands of her unruly hair.

"Your father and I love all our children, including your brothers by your cousin, Queen Eleanor, but Mary is the youngest and the youngest always get special treatment."

"But not all of them are wild beasts." She said giggling at her mother's face. "It's the truth. Everyone says so."

"Who is everyone?"

"You know everyone. John, Harry, Edward, everyone mama! You spoil her too much. When I am married, I will discipline all of my children like lady Bryan does with hers."

"I hope not. My lady mother, your lady grandmother never disciplined us, unless she really had to. She was always gentle with us and we all turned out fine."

"What about crazy aunt Juana?"

"Bella! She is your aunt and the Queen of Spain and someday your future mother, you must never call her that, much less here. Your cousin Queen Eleanor is her daughter."

"But it is the truth. She was madly in love with her husband. She holds Spain with a firm hand, if she was a commoner, she would have been confined into some convent or thrown into the streets."

"That may be Bella but Juana is my sister and if she were really as mad as you believe, she would not have ruled Spain so well all these years."

Bella was not convinced. "I still think she is crazy, anyone who threatens to burn you in boiling water for disobeying you, must be mad."

"That is how Kings and Queens must be, mi amor, if they want to keep their thrones and their family safe. My mother, God rest her soul, had to many sacrifices to win Castile, when her niece made war with her, she executed many of adherents who refused to pledge their loyalty to her. Her predecessor, her late brother was a good and honest man but very indecisive and weak and if he had been every bit as cruel as my mother, your aunt or your father for that matter, his daughter and not Isabel, would have been Queen of Castile."

"But I would not want to be cruel. There must be another way for kings and queens to hold their crowns without being cruel."

"There is, but that comes with a cost too. Put those fears to rest and give thanks that you will never be plagued by these worries. You will marry a man that loves you and you will spend the rest of your days, here with your family, happy."

"You think so?"

"Yes, I am sure of it." Katherine said then kissed her daughter goodnight.

Mary watched from her bed-chamber window, the king her father and the queen her cousin bid the Emperor farewell. She wanted to be present but her lady mother feared she would be too unruly. Mary wasn't stupid, she knew the real reason.

It was because she was a bastard. Nobody dared say it to her face but she heard it when her playmates thought she and her siblings were in the other room.

" Bastard. Little mite. They are a line of bastards. Imagine the irony, the usurper King Richard III said that the Tudors descended from a bastard line of John of Gaunt and his Swiss whore, and now his descendants are bastards too."

They said worse things about her mother. "Spain whore" "Satan's mistress." "Jezebel." "No wonder Luther praised her above our Queen. She should be roasting in the spitfires of hell."

She thought people would be more forgiving of her mama after all the good she'd done. She had humiliated herself before the common people, washed their feet, kissed their dirty heads, and created new hospitals and Abbeys, and she had also defended her niece, Queen Eleanor against Luther's attacks; and given half of the banquet's leftovers to the poor people of London.

Why couldn't people see that?

Mary decided if she ever married, she would never let anyone speak ill of her or her children. Anyone who spoke ill of them would have their tongues cut out and their eyes taken out. No one would insult her family. Bella and John berated her for fighting the other girls, they said 'forget about it. We are kings' children and our papa loves us, that is enough'. No that was not enough. If they were not going to respect her, she was not going to respect them either.

[1] She has a terrible temper.

Chapter Text

"I do not like Anne Boleyn."

"Yes you do. It's okay if you don't. She is very hot and with those eyes, she can have me anytime."

"You are such a pig John!" Harry threw a light punch at his shoulder. John shrug it off and kept laughing. "You like her admit it, you couldn't keep your eyes off her during the dance." John said.

"Of course I couldn't, she was my dance partner idiot. What else was I supposed to do? Rebuff her? It would have been an insult to my lady's honor."

"Oh listen to him Eddie, my lady. My lady Anne." Eddie sniggered.

Harry wrung his hands in the air. "You two are hopeless. I dance with one lady and you think I am hopelessly in love. She is just a girl and girls are the enemy."

"No they are not and the emperor said you will have to marry one of his daughters someday."

"What? No! Ew, that is disgusting. I am not going to marry my niece, that would be like marrying my aunt or my sister!"

"It's actually your sister's daughter but pretty close." John said.

"Why does our lord father even does business with him. I was going to marry that French Princess Charlotte, I signed the agreement in his stead then I get told by Wolsey I am not going to marry her anymore and my sister would get married instead." Adults. They were so weird.

"Be that as it may big brother, you are fucked."

"John!" Harry and Eddie both said.

"What? I am telling the honest truth!"

"You don't have to be so dramatic about it. You can say honest without truth, it is assumed you are already being truthful." Eddie said as a matter of fact. Of the three he was the more dutiful of the Tudor boys, always reminding everyone what they should and should not do.

"Forgive me Your Word Highness but I am not as wise as you are. You are going to have to face facts big brother," he said turning back to Harry. "you are going to marry someday and it's not going to be someone fo your choice. Might as well have fun before you walk down the aisle."

Anne arranged Her Majesty's flowers. Eleanor thanked the girl with a courteous smile and gave her and her companions the rest of the day off.

"I sure love working for her. No other mistress treats us this good." Mary Carey said. She was Anne's older sister and the prettiest of the two. She had had many marriage offers by lower noblemen and high noblemen's second sons but her father had preferred to marry her to one of the distinguished Careys who's properties were nearer to his.
In Sir Thomas Boleyn's mind, property was everything. What good was being a Duchess or a Countess if you had no property? You might as well be married to a nobody.

"Stop it Mary, the Queen isn't here. You don't have to compliment for us." Her sister said.

"Has anyone heard the latest rumors about the Queen's pregnancy?" Catherine Filol asked, she slapped her sister in law's arm. "Jane here has. Tell us all about it mousy Jane."

Jane gave a wry smile. She didn't like being called that but there was nothing she could say without her complaining to the love of her life -her brother Ned. Ned loved his wife, but nobody else could stand her. Behind that innocent façade, hid her true ambition. Her father had approved of the match because of her states and the money she brought into the marriage, but her mother instantly protested. There was something about her I don't like -She confided in Jane and Jane agreed. She didn't like Catherine, the way she behaved herself and laughed about her brother's serious face behind his back.
She tried telling Ned but he didn't believe her. Get to know her -He said -And you will see the real her.
I already know the real her -She wished to tell him. And I fear you will too soon enough.
Ned was not a hard man. Though that was the image he loved to project. He was a man of honor, a man of his word. If he said something, he would do it. He had worked the most menial tasks as a kid to earn his parents' approval. She was their lady mother's favorite while Thomas was their lord father's. Ned worked very hard to gain their approval and everyone had been so proud when he had been sponsored at court by one of their distant cousins, the Bryans and later wrote to them that he had been accepted into Cardinal Wolsey's service as one of his pages.

"I heard it from my mother who is in the Princess Dowager's service-"

"The Princess Dowager? But she is not the Queen, she is just His Majesty's whore."

"Hush Mary! The walls have eyes and ears, you know that. They will hear you."

Mary pursed her lips.

"Carry on Jane."

"Thanks Anne." Jane said. "Anyway, the Princess Dowager told His Majesty that she is expecting another child. She prays that it will be another boy to make His Majesty more happy."

"His Majesty is already happy. Haven't you heard the gossip from their servants? I have, Louis Cartman says they hump like wild monkeys." Mary's companions burst in laughter.

"That is enough Mary! She is the Princess Dowager of Wales and a Princess of Spain, you three should have more respect for her." Anne told her sister and her companions.

"Why?" Catherine asked. "She is just His Majesty's whore and anyone who is anyone knows she is the one who is really wearing the breeches here. The King doesn't do anything without her approval and he dotes more on that monstrous mite of hers than his trueborn heirs."

"That may be true mistress Filol but she is a Princess by birth and marriage and as the mother of his children, you should have more respect for her." Margaret Lee, Anne's confidante said.

"Why? No one here does. Your mother mistress Lee, doesn't And Anne's mother here sure does not either."

"That's true, mother never had any respect for whores."

"Speaks one." Anne said in a low voice.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Meg is right ladies, you should be more conscious about who you disrespect, her daughter will be the future holy Roman Empress and in her hands rests the future of English affairs."

"Speaks the French-woman." Mary said.

"Why must you be so cruel Mary? We were in France together. We used to be best friends."

"That was before I got kicked out and you stayed."

"You know why you were expelled." Anne said suing the correct terminology.

"That is not true, lord father has always preferred you and George over me. You two can do no wrong in his eyes."

"That is because we don't. We are conscious of our duties unlike you."

Mary was about to reply, placing both hands on either side of her hips when speak of the devil the little critter arrived!

"My lady."

"My lady." They all said, following Anne and Jane's example who were the first ones to curtsy.

Mary nodded at them in approval but she stopped.

"My lady?" Mary Carey asked.

"You two forgot to bow, you have to bow your heads." Lady Mary said, speaking to Mary Carey and Catherine Seymour as if she were speaking to children.

"Forgive us, my lady. Is that better?"

"Yes and next time you will look down when you speak at me. I am a Princess daughter and were it not for my parents' union not being legal, I would be your Princess and you would have to address me as such."

Margaret and Anne looked away as Catherine, Mary and Madge Shelton stood with their mouths wide opened, agape at the little girl's audacity.

"Lady Willoughby!"

"Yes, my lady?"

"Please make note to report these three to my lord father, the King."

"My lady you cannot do that, Catherine is Ned Seymour's wife and he is very well seen with the Cardinal, your godfather."

"I do not care. They insulted me and I am not stupid. They think I am but I am not. I hear what you all say! You think I am insignificant because I am a bastard but I am not. Someday you will all be bowing to me and very soon you will be bowing to my sister too because she will be Holy Roman Empress when she marries Charles!"

She told the page coming their way to give her the flagon of wine. He looked to Lady Willoughby who told her he better or else they would have another tantrum from the little Lady.

Mary took it and threw it at the three girls.

"You monster!"

"Bastard!"

"She is horrible! If you were my daughter I would bash your head against the wall until it's soft like a boiled apple! They should throw you down the river Thames."

Katherine told her daughter that what she did was uncalled for. "But mama they were insulting you. I had to do something!"

"Mary, people are always going to say things about us. We are royals, you can't expect everyone to bow to you. Tyrants do that and you mi amor are not a tyrant."

"But I am the King's daughter but everyone treats me like a ... like a bastard!"

"Silencio! I will not have that type of talk here. You are the King's daughter and that should be enough for you. The Queen has given birth to a daughter and you know what that makes her?"

Mary said nothing but she knew what her lady mother was going to say.

"Your better." She shook her daughter. "When the Queen names you or your sister, her godmother and mark my words she will name one of you, you must show respect to that baby because that baby is a Princess, a true Princess of England while you are just a lady."

"But mama, I am a Princess' daughter and the King, my lord father, loves me."

"Basta Maria! You will pay respects to that baby girl and that is it or I will send you to Leeds Castle where you will stay for the rest of the year!"

"No mama, don't send me there! It's cold and lonely. I will be good, I promise!"

"Good, I will announce to the Queen you accepted her invitation. Until then, behave mi amor. I am only going to say this to you once; you are the King's daughter, the King's beloved daughter. Even with a Tudor Princess in the cradle, it will never compare to the bond you two have. Content yourself with that."

Mary did. She carried her newborn sibling to her mother, her lady aunt the true Queen of England. Mary had to be reminded to show her obeisance to her and call her sister by her giving title at all times -my lady the Princess Royal -An invention, the product of the Queen's mighty influence -some jape about- over His Majesty when he had visited her after she'd given birth to their only daughter.

"You must give her a title, she must be differentiated from the rest of your daughters." The Spanish Ambassador heard the King say when he was present for the Queen's major triumph. A son. She had given him two and it still hadn't endeared him to her. But a daughter. That was glorious news.

The King loved his daughters, they were beautiful, they were red-headed and with a hot temper that mirrored their mother's, especially the youngest. This one was even more beautiful. Pretty, fair, soft-featured, with other notable traits. At one point she looked like she was made out of glass because she was so white! The King was delighted with his new daughter. He cried to the four corners of the Earth that he was the proud father of a noble and mighty princess.

What that must have meant for the Spanish Princess, the Princess Dowager and the King's mistress, Katherine of Aragon. She was daughter of Kings, sister of Queens, aunt of an Emperor but most of all, a King's whore. A royal one at that.

The little girl looked flustered but she acted very well to hide it. He mother no doubt, taught her to hide her emotions. Her mother as her own mother before her, is the greatest actress of all and whenever she wanted something, she got it through her smiles and soft tones.

The Queen thanked her cousin and stepdaughter. "You have behaved so well Mary and your sister Princess Joanna likes you."

Mary carefully placed her sister on her mother's hands.

"There, there Joanna, you are safe with mommy now." She gave her to her wet-nurse then directed her gaze at Mary again. "If it pleases you dear cousin, I would love you to stay."

Mary wanted to say 'no' but she remembered her lady mother's words and thought about how mad she would be if the Queen complained about her behavior to her. So she said yes.

The rest of the people left, including the Spanish Ambassador who congratulated her on her lady mother, the Queen of Spain's behalf, leaving only Nor, her ladies, and the two youngest King's daughters, the Lady Mary and Princess Joanna.

Mary watched as all the ladies fluttered around her sister Joanna. Poor girl. She was not even three days old and they were already ogling her, pinching her cheeks and swooning over her as if she was some bloody saint.

"Hungry Lady Mary?" The Queen asked sweetly. Mary nodded. "Here, the cooks brought these. They are fresh from the oven and this is gold cake, it has real gold."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"Not if you consume the right amount. Here have some and have a little wine too. You are what? Five, soon you will be six and you will have to start drinking. My father you know, your uncle, was a drunk. I do not remember much from my days at Burgundy but I can remember my parents fighting. All he ever did was drink-drink-drink. That was all he was good for. Drink. Then one day he drunk the wrong stuff and he died, right here in this bloody island."

Mary said nothing. You must hate me. Her eyes said.

Nor waved her hand as if fanning her thoughts away. "No my dear lady Mary, I don't hate you. How can I hate my cousin? I hated your mother in the beginning until I realized who the true culprits were."

"Who?"

"Your grandparents, who else?"

"When our mothers married our fathers they had such great expectations. Your mother believed she was destined to become a Queen and father a dynasty with your father, my mother believed the same and yet both of them got screwed by their parents. You know what was your lord grandfather's reply when your mother begged him repeatedly to pay up the rest of her dowry so she would marry your father instead of me?"

Mary shook her head.

"Go seek a loan. Not his words exactly but somewhere along those lines. He was at war with my mother over the control of Castile. My lord father had just died and there were rumors of poison by your paternal grandfather's hand. He didn't believe it but he died a week later and that single miserly action condemned your lady mother and placed me in her stead as future Queen of England." She took a sip from her wine cup which was still full. "I know you bare your lady mother resentment over your ... condition. She certainly has much to answer for, but no one can deny the obvious fact that she loves you and she would die for you if needs be. At your age, my lady mother told me she would run around the palace of the Alhambra, pretending she was an empress or unsung warrior. She is really something. You should be happy for having such a woman as a mother." There was something of regret in Queen Eleanor's voice. Almost as if she was haunted by the image of her own mother and wished it could be the other way around. That it was her mother in Katherine's place and her lady Aunt in her mother's.

"I am, Your Majesty. I give thanks to God every night."

"I know you do and you should pray for your sister as well. The Princess loves you." Nor meant it. There was no deceit to be found in her voice. "Her nurses tried to hold her for two minutes and she nearly ate them. She bites everyone who is not you, me or the king. Go to her before he bites one of those hens' fingers off."

Mary pushed the ladies away, telling them in a high-pitched voice that the Queen required their presence.

They responded to her missive with scowls and ugly faces, which she ignored as she set her eyes on her delicate sister.

She was fair skinned, too fair; with pretty dark grey eyes and light auburn hair. Mary lifted her gently from her cradle and set her on the carpeted floor. "Hello baby. I said hello."

Joanna turned her eyes to her sister. She crawled on all fours and when she reached her skirts, she set her head on her knee and closed her eyes. "You are not so bad. A little odd but not bad." She put her sleeping sister back in the crib.

"Well mi amor how was your day with the Queen and your sister?"

"It was good."

"Just good?"

"Mama don't pressure me." Mary groaned then smiled. "I did have lots of fun with my sister."

"I am very happy to hear that mi amor. I know the two of you will grow up to be good friends. Perhaps you will marry someone important when you accompany her to France or Scotland or wherever it is she goes to be married."

"But I would have to leave you and papa."

"That is the fate of all princesses and royal daughters mi amor. But do not be frightened. That will not be until many, many years."

"Were you scared when you came to England to marry uncle Arthur?"

"I was. I nearly threw up when I boarded the ship but I remembered my lady mother. She was not scared when she fought for her throne so neither I should."

"Do you remember your first husband? Papa says Arthur was very weak and unworthy of you."

"I imagine he would. Your father always considered himself the best of the two but it was Arthur who was the crown heir and his parents' main priority in all things. They loved him and he was really handsome and at the time I loved him too because he was everything every little girl dreams of when she is going to marry her white knight. But God took Him and He gave me your father instead."

"Papa is a great man. I will never marry anyone unless he is handsome and strong like him."

"You are too young to be speaking of these things. Like I told your sister, it will come in due time. Now go to sleep and prepare so you can wake early and see your sister again."

Mary obeyed, a first in her young life; and returned to her bedchamber.

It was so unusual for Katherine to be seen like this. She was a headstrong woman, but not one you could notice right away. At first sight she was kind, sweet, docile. No one could see her true nature past these positive attributes. There were women that went to church and their faces alone revealed their nature, others were vulgar and blunt. But not Katherine. She was the first one to arrive to Church and the last one to leave, staying extra minutes to talk to the priests about the sacraments and asking religious advice for her children.

When Juana heard of this new development, she laughed in the ambassador's face. "My sister, the mother who would have known there was a heart deep down in that ambitious core?"

"Your sister, Your Majesty is a Princess and behaves as such and she loves her children very dearly. Our spies within her household confirm this. She gives her eldest daughter, the Lady Isabella a very good example to live by."

"How can she give her daughter a good example Excellency when she whores around in public? Is there anything else you found? Any technicality, anything?"

"No Your Majesty. I am afraid not. The Princess Dowager, your sister is too all appearances ... a very kind woman."

Juana was not pleased hearing this. "I thank you for your services but they shall no longer be required."

"But Your Majesty, I have served you faithfully, no one better than me knows how to navigate through English waters. Give me more time and I can get you what you want."

"How do you know what I want Excellency, I haven't told you of my plans and yet you assume you know them. You are just like every other courtier. Arse licking, boot licking. I will not have you in my service any longer. You are dismissed-"

"Madame!"

"I said you are dismissed. Now go before I take more than just your title."

The ambassador left her, swearing under his breath. She was just as crazy as her mother! Her mother did as she pleased with everyone, with little care for their wealth or their respectability.

Trastamras! He wished that her lord husband and lord father hadn't died so they would have locked her up and put an end to this monstrous reign of women!

Juana I watched him go. She asked the Cortes who would be a good replacement. There were many names on her list but only one caught her eye.

"Him." No words. Just one simple command. That is how it always was with Queen Juana. No smiles, no laughter, just simple words. And you obeyed or else.

"Your Majesty he is elsewhere, perhaps His Imperial Majesty, your son's adviser, the Savoyard Eustace Chapuys. He is clever and hardworking and he has good letters of recommendation from the Archbishop of Genoa whom he first served."

"I didn't ask for your opinion Marquis. If my son wants to impose it on me, he will have to bring his army, otherwise this is still my kingdom and I make the final decisions. I want Mendoza as our new ambassador in England. Make it so."

Juana returned her chambers where her maids dressed her for bed. She was not going to make her sister's life easy. She meant when she said she would never forgive her. She thought she was getting a victory with her daughter as the future Holy Roman Empress but she did not know Juana.

She would ensure that girl knew the same humiliation Juana's daughter had known when her whorish sister usurped her place as the king's rightful queen.

She was disappointed in Eleanor. If she was her daughter, she would deal with Catalina the way you deal with whores in Spain.

Juana should not be surprised. Catalina was always stubborn. Her mother could never make her do what she wanted unless she dropped to her knees and begged her.

The mighty Isabella; it was a rather funny picture. Falling to her knees for her disobedient daughter. Katherine was the one who most took after their mother. Fair, light auburn hair and blue-green eyes. She was the love of the Castilian and Aragonese court and she soon became the love of the English court.

But behind that sweet face and false hypocrisy lay Catalina's true nature. An ambitious conniving woman who will stop at nothing to get what was hers.

Two could play the same game. As Juana got on her bed she was visited by the ghosts of her past. Her father, her husband and her mother. They looked at her accusingly, pointing their fingers at her, reminding her that Catalina has achieved far more than her daughter and that she is England's true Queen.

Over my dead body. Juana replies to them and closes her eyes. If Catalina wanted a war she would get one. Her bastard would pay the price for her mother's ambitions and her youngest would see all her loved ones destroyed by her mother and sister's ambitions.

He finds himself smiling. Anne stumbles upon him. She was running from her sister. Hide and seek. Her favorite game. When he helps her up, he smiles indulgently at her. She smiles back.

Then, all at once, she remembered who he was and snapped out of her trance. "Forgive me, Your Highness, I didn't see you there."

"No, forgive me my lady. I was the clumsy one. Are you looking for somebody?"

"My sister, we were playing hide and seek. It is our favorite game. Does Your Highness love games?"

"I do, my favorite is chess but I love hide and seek too."

An idea suddenly occurred to her as he offered to escort her to her chambers until her friends stopped playing. "My brother and his friends are going to have a small party this weekend. Perhaps you'd like to come?"

"I would love to. I will bring my books with me, I heard your brother loves reading and is a good poet."

"Yes, father has taught him well and our tutors always praised him but they praised me too. I can read in Latin and Greek."

"Really? That is amazing. I mean ... that's good. A girl should learn the same things as boys, that is what Sir Thomas More always says."

Anne suppressed her laughter. The Prince looked so funny being so nervous.

He went to the literary meeting. After he finished his chores, reading the bible and translating his tutor's exercises from Greek to English, he grabbed his favorite books and went to Anne's brother's chambers.

George Boleyn was a young man of sixteen. Tall, handsome and well built. Like Anne, he took after their father, inheriting his dark looks and none of their mother's fairer ones.

George was very honored to receive the Prince of Wales. He warned him in a joking manner that he should run while he still had the chance, or else it would be the ones who would be running away from the spitfires of Catholic hell.

Harry looked at him confused but then Anne came, and he became calm again.

"I thought you would not come. What books did you bring?"

"The usual, classics and Petrarch, and Erasmus."

"They are great but you might want to leave Petrarch out after my brother introduces you to new ones."

Harry asked what did she mean by that, but just then discussion started and by the time it ended Harry was wide eyed and shocked.

"This is heresy."

"Why? Because of what Roman priests said?"

"No, I mean it's wrong. I know your concerns over the corruption of the church, I share those thoughts too, my siblings and my lady mother do as well."

"That is not true. Your lady aunt maybe but your mother, our Queen, has shown no concern over the state of religion in this country." George Boleyn said.

Harry opened his mouth but Anne intervened before this escalated into a major fight. "Forgive my brother Your Highness. He means well, he is very passionate about these maters as you clearly are. Please give this a try, if you don't like it you need not come back, we just ask that you keep this a secret. There are many who would burn us just for talking about this."

Damn right! Harry thought. But then seeing all the men and women, young boys and girls here who were so happy and committed to this 'new learning', Harry agreed to Anne's proposal.

He excused himself and went to his chambers.

"Are you sure he is not going to tell? What were you thinking in inviting him here? His brothers would have been better."

"Do not be foolish George, his brothers are vain and they only care about flashy jewels and toys. The only one in the royal family who cares a little about the poor state of affairs in England are him, his lady aunt, the Princess Dowager, and her daughter the lady Mary."

"Maybe we should invite her too. It would be a good revenge against Mary for calling you black crow the other day."

Anne smiled deviously. Oh yes, Mary would love it. The young monster, the girl she called bastard and called her mother whore behind her back, suddenly became her little sister and brother's best friend. Then her smile faded when she thought about her mother and warned George against it.

"Why not? Her lady mother is getting older and if it's true her courses are becoming irregular as our lady mother has heard from one of her cousins in the Princess' service then she might have another miscarriage. At her age it will be very bad for her health then the little Lady and her siblings will find themselves orphans at the Queen's mercy and in need of new friends."

"You sound like father when you start conspiring but don't get ahead of yourself George. The Princess Dowager will live for many more years. She is strong and she is as conniving as they come. I know because it is the same smile I gave lord father, remember? When I was a little girl and wanted to get things my way."

George nodded, remembering.

"The Princess Dowager cares about the English people but she is a Catholic at heart, if she finds we are teaching her favorite daughter about Luther and the Swiss reformers, she will have both our heads. You know she will. She is the true Queen in Henry VIII's court."

"Do not stress yourself Anne, I was only giving a suggestion. It will just be Princess Harry." George promised but his eyes twinkled with ambition.

Their father said it was always better to have two aces under your sleeve in case the first one proved defective. Prince Harry was very smitten with his sister and he was the king's favorite because he was the crown heir, and his sister the lady Mary, was his other favorite whom he called his 'pearl'. If it came to pushing for reform, the two of them could be useful tools. Their father indulged them in everything and even when he didn't, they always got away with everything because their mothers loved them beyond compare.

Ned Seymour heard the exchange between his sister's companion and her brother. He was resting his back on one of the four walls looking opposite their direction. He had a gift for making himself invincible and George Boleyn was always too full of himself to notice anyone, certainly not a knight's son like him.

So they wish to play with His Majesty's two favorite offspring. What a surprise there? He thought George Boleyn would have more tact but then he guessed, some things are not inherited. One being his father's intelligence. It was obvious who was the real brains of the Boleyn children. He glanced briefly at Anne.

He understood that the Lady Mary was a monster. A girl with no boundaries who did what she wanted, whenever she wanted. His sister told him differently, defending her as she always did because she was a child and in Jane's view all children were innocent.

But his wife had another tale to tell. She is evil, she swore. Evil and rotten.

Ned had seen her a few times and she seemed very ordinary. Pretty but ordinary. Now he became more intrigued as they, the two Boleyns, talked of their future plans for her.

Perhaps he would pay her a visit, run into her when she is playing in the gardens or running into her sister. He was fourteen years old and she five, the two of them could make good friends and if the Boleyns' plan worked, he and his family would benefit from it in the future.

Chapter Text

To those who wonder what the ages of the royal children are, a list of the children's birthdates will be posted at the end of the chapter and to clear things up, chapter 5 is situated in 1520 and chapter 6 in 1521. I will put the dates in the coming chapters starting with this one. Enjoy and review.

1523

"Master Cromwell, is it?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. It is an honor to make your acquaintance."

"The honor is mine. Any man of Wolsey is a friend of mine. He says you bring me good news. Let us here it."

"The Emperor has begun construction for new ships and hopes that Your Majesty joins him for the attack of Tournai."

"I will be delighted, if only the women in this kingdom did not worry a lot." He said. He looked expectantly at him.

Cromwell gave a chuckle and words of comfort to His Majesty. "The Queen's great care for Your Majesty is a great example to all women and my lady the Princess Dowager is even more."

The King nodded in approval again. The Cardinal's new secretary knew how to behave himself.

"When I went to war with France in 1513 I captured the town of Therouanne or Tournai for my English compatriots who can't speak a word of French. Can you believe it? The most learned court in Christendom and I am surrounded by ignorants all around."

That was debatable. Thomas Cromwell was a man of the world and he had been to far worst courts than His Majesty's. As far as he could tell, Henry's the best you could find. Except France but that was because the French King loved all things beautiful. He bullied his courtiers and people into submission, so he could keep enjoying his vanities.

"You visited Antwerp, am I right?"

"Yes. I spent more time in Padua and the Vatican. I fought in the battle of Tournai."

"Oh, really? What side were you on, did you fight on the side of the French as so many of the merchants here who repudiate foreign trade but who won't doubt for a second to betray their own home country if it means money, will do?"

"I fought on the side of the Italian mercenaries Your Majesty. I had no sides."

"You did. Everyone takes sides." He gave a tired sigh. His face dropped, lost in thought with the recent developments of his daughter's betrothal and impending war with France. His last campaign ended in disaster. He would never admit that his wife and especially his mistress' victory at Flodden was more significant than his at Tournai. But it was. "They just don't know it yet." He rose. "Walk with me Master Cromwell. My wife has been nagging me that I should do more exercise. Are you married? Of course you are married. My lord father wished to marry me at a very early age, I would be the father of a twenty two year old right now instead of having to wait for my children to grow up and take up arms and ride alongside their father but my lord father, greedy half-breed Welsh man that he was chose to wait five years. Five years Master Cromwell! Bah! Wolsey has probably told you all about it. He loves to confide in you, he has said so many good things about you and until now I realize he was right in hiring you."

"I am not sure what to say. I am just as shocked as you are." Thomas said. Indeed he was. He never imagined the Cardinal placed that much faith on him.

Henry slapped his back. "Come, come, it does you no service to be that humble. Tell me more of the Cardinal's good news and the other ones, the one he didn't want my Council to hear."

*My* council. That is how it always was with the King. My council, My palace, My realm. He didn't even view his loved ones in terms of fatherly or spousal love, they were always *His* property. To do and dispose with them as he pleased.

Katherine greeted Mr. Cromwell and invited him to sit next to her and her youngest daughter, Lady Mary Tudor.

Cromwell was enchanted with the little mite. He expected her to be more rebellious. He had heard enough horror tales from the royal nursery and the Cardinal himself, to brace himself for what was coming. But the little royal behaved herself with dignity and grace.

"Your Grace and Your Highness have a lovely daughter. I have a daughter her age."

"What is her name? Perhaps you can bring her here. My daughter doesn't have a lot of female companions, she spends most of her time playing with the boys."

"Her name is Grace my lady sire and she is a very well behaved child. She knows Latin and Greek very well."

"She sounds wonderful. Mary how would you like to have a new companion?

"But mama I like the boys better." Mary complained putting her wine cup down. It made a loud noise which disturbed her mother and amused her father.

"Maria basta. We talked about this." She hissed in her daughter's ear.

The seven year old made a face but no longer voiced any complaint. Her lady mother said royal Princesses did as they were told. She was not a Princess, she was a mere lady. A king's daughter but a lady nonetheless.

But it was no use fighting her mother and she didn't want to make her any more upset.

"Master Cromwell here thinks that I should stay at home like you Kat, and leave the war to the younger men."

"My lord king is right, it is a king's duty to show himself on the battlefield. All the great kings have done so and His Majesty here is a great king." Her daughter echoed her mother words and for a second Cromwell thought she had changed her mind, but then she added, "Of course that is what an honorable wife would say, a more practical one sets her feet on the ground and doesn't waste her time telling lies placate her lord husband. Many valiant kings's duty to show himself on the battlefield. All the great kings have done so and His Majesty here is a great king." Her daughter echoed her mother words and for a second Cromwell thought she had changed her mind, but then she added, "Of course that is what an honorable wife would say.

Ha! The King gave twice the hearty laugh. "Spoken like a true Queen!" He sighed. "See?! I told you Master Cromwell, my father did us wrong not marrying us faster."

He did us wrong not marrying us at all. Henry really said.

Cromwell said nothing. He kept his mouth shut. He learned through Wolsey it was better to smile and nod at everything these royals said. He gave a side glance at the Princess Dowager's ladies. They glanced at each other nervously, very few dared to raise their eyes at Cromwell. But there was no need. There was fear in their eyes. If one of them -just one- dared to voice this to the Spanish Ambassador, there would be hell to pay for the King's eldest daughter. Their future Holy Roman Empress.

"My lord King speaks wisely." Brandon said coming into the king's privy chamber with his wife and eldest daughter, Frances. "Mister Cromwell is it? I never fancy seeing you here. You said you weren't fond of court life."

"You must have heard me wrong Your Grace. I am very fond of court life." Cromwell said, repressing the urge to scowl at the pompous man.

Thomas More also joined them with his youngest daughters, the unwed Elizabeth and Cecily More. Lizzie and Cis. The latter was very quiet but inviting. The older bubbly and gossipy. Not the type the little royal daughter liked to frequent.
Mary pursed her lips. Lizzie stopped talking. She'd upset the little lady. She changed to a more pleasant subject. "My daddy visited Barking Abbey, it houses the bones of its first Abbess, St. Ethelberger. It has a beautiful cross and each year they do an Easter play of God harrowing from hell. They sing beautiful songs and then release the saints from hell. I am going to visit it this year with our lady stepmother, Alice. You can come with us."

"That is not how it is pronounced." Mary said quietly taking a small piece of bread. Her lady mother and lady aunt complained she was too skinny. Dwarf her lady aunt's younger and brainless ladies called her.
Huge grants of land in South of London had been promised to the eldest of them, a certain Mary Boleyn. The older sibling of the dark haired, hook nosed and olive skinned Anne Boleyn, that his brother was madly in love with. The two could not be more different. Whereas Mary was fair and pretty, Anne was to Lady Mary's opinion more plain.
"You have never seen her up close Mary, you have seen her from afar and you base your opinion on her sister." Her brother Harry said, his opinion that of a boy in love. Mary replied angrily "Of course I do. Her sister called my mother a whore when she opened her legs for the King of France and tells everyone that I am ugly and should have drowned in mother's womb." She didn't like Mary Boleyn. Why should she like her sister? Her brother shook his head and tried to get her to meet Anne but she wouldn't. It would be a cold day in hell before she saw a Boleyn girl who was actually nice to her.

"Excuse me?" Lizzie asked, her tone one of frustration. She looked annoyed. Nobody interrupted her, except Meg and even then, their lady stepmother always reminded her that it was rude to interrupt somebody, especially a member of one's family.

"It is pronounced," Mary started saying the correct word in two languages so this idiot wouldn't be confused. "And no, my lord father does not take me there. Going to Abbeys is not befit of royalty."

"You are right, it is not but you are not a royal, you are a lady and you know what that makes you? A commoner just like us and just like us the same rules that imprison us, apply to you and you know why?" Lizzie lowered her voice, glancing briefly at the adults who were entranced with the King's retelling of the battle of Tournai -A battle her grandfather, Sir John More, the old judge told her was nothing more than an embarrassment to English pride. "Our King is an idiot and Thomas is even more an idiot for pampering him and telling him how good he is instead of being blunt. He used to be blunt and that got me in jail but then he became soft. Let that be a lesson to you granddaughter. Never be sentimental. Speak your mind, not your heart."
She intended to follow her grandfather's words, she leaned forward and with a whisper, she repeated the words she said only seconds ago; savoring her victory as the little bastard's eyes widened and glistened with unshed tears.

Lizzie giggled. "It's the truth my lady. Everyone speaks it. And your lady mother is not the only one. Your father has had them all. Mary Boleyn, Anne Hastings, two French whores when he was in Tournai, another one when he was in Burgundy. You might recognize her. She stayed in England for two years until you turned five. Her belly was always big with children, your daddy's children."

"Shut up! Shut up! That's not true! I am not a bastard!"

"Lizzie stop it." Cecily said, holding her sister back.

By now all the adults were looking at them. Katherine figured out what had happened and rose from her seat. She put her hands on her daughter's shoulders and knelt before her, blocking the pesky More girl from view.

Honestly! Out of all of Thomas More's girls, he had to bring that girl! She wondered if she wasn't adopted. Thomas was known to adopt many orphans, including her son's betrothed, the wealthy orphan, Anne Cresacre who brought with her the wealthy states of her late parents. When he died, her son would be one of the wealthiest laymen. It was a good move but Katherine warned him not to do anything in haste. Let the two kids get to know each other just like her and Henry. Thomas heeded her advice and had Anne attend all of his children's lessons, and sit next to John at the dinner table.
Katherine couldn't believe that this man, this honorable man who was always so pious and loyal, and treated all of his children equally, not putting his son above his daughters like most men did; could have fathered this monster for a daughter!
There is one in every generation. Aye, she knew but this had to be some cruel joke of nature.

"Maria, Maria, it's alright. She can do nothing. Shh, don't cry my sweet girl."

Henry glared at the second youngest More girl. She should fall to her knees and beg his daughter for forgiveness. She was lucky she was Thomas' daughter, otherwise he would throw her into a dungeon. He turned to his former tutor and best friend who looked very sorry and apologized for his daughter's actions.

He didn't understand, he and Alice had raised Lizzie good. Thomas had married a good woman, Alice Middleton who had a daughter of her own, also named Alice. Joan had died when Lizzie was four and Cecily two. They barely knew their mother and Tom barely knew his wife. She was comely and kind, but whenever she was around him, she grew quiet and frightful. Thomas was not the sort of husband a woman like Joan, needed. But he could not say no to a man like his father who had arranged his first marriage.
He locked eyes with his twelve year old daughter and moved his head slightly to his right, towards the lady Mary. Apologize. His eyes spoke. No, hers said.

Henry went to Kat's side and in the moment he spoke, her grip softened and Mary took this opportunity to break free and pull Lizzie from her chair.

"Ah! Daddy take her off me! Take her off me!"

"Mary Tudor stop what you are doing!" Katherine yelled but her daughter didn't listen. She slapped Lizzie around and pulled her hair. Lizzie tried to take her away but she was too overpowered by the little monster.

"Daddy!" She pleaded looking at her father as he came over to help her.

He waited for Harry to do something, he called his friend, pleaded with him but the King stood still. Unmoving, his eyes shining, his lips drawn upwards in a smile.

Thomas chose to intervene. He helped the Princess Dowager pull the two girls apart.

"I told you daddy. I didn't want to come here, look what she did to my diadem!"

"You called me a bastard and my lady mother a harlot!"

"She is a harlot, you little imbecile."

"Lizzie stop it, I command you!" But his daughter didn't heed him, she flinched at the sound of her father's voice. He had never spoke to her that way but seeing the rebellious look in the royal bastard's eyes, she continued venomously: "Why do you think everyone laughs at you? You know what you are and yet you behave as if the rules don't apply to you. They do. You might have royal blood but you are no better than a commoner, just like me and Cecily you will marry a nobody and you will have to watch your legitimate brothers marry people greater than you whom you will serve."

Mary bit her lip. Nothing the other girls said had hurt her. Her father said "she never cries" and showed her off to the new Spanish ambassador when he first arrived to England. She was not one to cry, but there was always a first time and today was Mary Tudor's first time. Disgusted with her show of weakness, she bolted and ran to her room.

"Mary!" She ignored her mother's cries. She punched her pillows and threw her covers over her head. She did not want to be comfortable, she wanted this sadness to disappear.

Katherine sighed. The Queen came to her chambers. Mary Stafford was with her, as well as Catherine Seymour whose eye was purple.

"I am deeply sorry to hear what happened. Is Mary okay?"

"No. She refused to open her rooms to me and I know better than to press her. This is mmy fault, I should have warned Thomas-"

"No Katherine don't blame yourself. Thomas knew what his daughter was capable. It's his fault for not controlling his daughter. I will speak to Henry and tell him to dismiss Sir Thomas."

"No" Katherine quickly said. "That would hurt him. We will speak to him together and tell him to speak to Thomas, and convince him to place his daughter with me."

"With you? But why?" Had her lady aunt gone mad? The girl had pierced a knife through her daughter's heart. If anyone did the same to her, she would kill them. But here was Katherine wanted to pardon the little chit.

Katherine saw what was going through her mind, and said "You can't be too mad at a little girl like that. She is only a girl. When my lady mother, your lady grandmother had the same problem with her sister in law, Juana de Avis, she showed herself her better. Do not strike, do not show them weakness. Show them you are better, bring a smile, say thanks, give them that humble voice they hate so much and they will be humbled. I plan to make a lady out of Tom's pre-teen daughter and whether she likes it or not, she will be subdued."

1525

There were clashes between those who supported and those who vehemently had opposed the Anglo-Spanish alliance in the past and now had more reason to do so. They alliance had brought England nothing. Henry raged at Mendoza.

"I have Your Majesty and His Imperial Majesty the best of my soldiers and what do I get in return? My ambassador's secretary came to me with a letter informing me that your mistress and her son released Francis. Why wasn't I told?"

"Her Majesty did not see it fit to inform you, her actions are her own."

"What about our according? The Emperor just made another marriage offer to some bloody Portuguese Princess. He refutes my daughter and I don't find this through him but my bloody servant! How do you think this makes me look! I am the KING OF ENGLAND AND I LOOKED LIKE A FOOL!"

Mendoza looked straight into the King of England's eyes. This was no king but a child throwing temper tantrums. His mistress was right when she told Inigo not to take this child seriously.
She hated him with a passion. The King believed he was a major player in European politics but he was nothing more than a worm in the mighty Queen of Spain and her ambitious son's eyes.

"Your Majesty did not pay the dowry, it is not His Imperial Majesty's fault he had to look elsewhere. Understand that the Emperor is in dire need of an heir and the House of Avis is the most ancient house in Christian realms, such a marriage will be more prestigious. He sends his apologies and my mistress offers to repay half of the small dowry you paid."

Henry clenched his teeth and balled his fists. Next to his vacant throne chair was his whore, the Queen's sister, the Princess Dowager. She was still as the rest, her eyes looked nervously at Mendoza, warning him against his next words but he paid no heed.

"Send us the word and Her Majesty will gladly recommend someone else for the Lady Isabella."

"Get. Out." Henry said darkly. His voice chilled everyone that heard it, to the bone but not Mendoza. His arrogance as a descendant of the Grandes of Spain, allowed him to keep his chin up and stroll out of the room unflinching.

On his way he found Sir Thomas Boleyn. "Sir Thomas, your services to the Crown are well noted. The Emperor and my mistress would like to congratulate you on your recent elevation as Viscount of Rochford."

"And what does the Queen or Emperor care about my elevation?"

He gave him a letter with his mistress' seal on it. Thomas Boleyn took it and hid it underneath his doublet. "My mistress cares about the future of this country, she would appreciate your help and she rewards well."

"If I was the man you think me to be Excellency I would gladly accept your proposal but alas, thank the Lord I am not. You can tell your mistress that this is not Spain where women can do as they like. If she wants another minion to do her dirty work, go look for someone else."

Juana read the letter the newly named Viscount of Rochford had written to her. Attached was the letter of recommendation she had sent to Mendoza to give to him.

"Bastardo." She swore. "Malditohijo de puta."[1] He thought he could speak like this to her. Her! A Queen!

She ordered her ladies to bring her ink and paper. They did so right away. Their eyes were lowered to the floor as their mistress began writing. No one dared to look at her as she gave them her finished letter. Her bad temper got her nothing but the courtiers' animosity, so she used her smile instead. As a little girl she was taught to please, it was a lesson she never learned until she returned to Spain, this time to stay after her mother had died. It was when Juana smiled that you knew you were in trouble, the way her lips curved up, her eyes sparkled, sent a chill down their spines.

Juana delighted in seeing her useless maids tremble. She reclined in her cushioned chair and adjusted her diadem. She loved dressing in the best fabrics and wearing the most expensive jewels. She intended to look the part, a queen regnant, a female king, not a hypocrite or a nun like her lady mother.

She looked at her right, at the window. Her youngest son Ferdinand, her heir, was speaking with one of her new ladies. A young chit. Red hair, blue eyes, she could see those eyes shining, her laughter soft yet loud. It reminded her of her sister.

Whores. She had met all kinds of them, first when she had been an Infanta and then when she had been a wife. She had loved Philip so much and he loved her so little. Why did men prefer these women? She never understood.

She had written to her daughter, warning her against her friendship with her lady aunt. Her ambassador had informed her how the King was becoming annoyed with his wife's nagging. Juana wanted to laugh when she read the letter. Nagging? Who does more nagging? My daughter or my sister who does nothing but complain and complain. It was her who wore the breeches. Maybe she should wear the crown and Henry, the skirts.

Eleanor should speak her mind. Be not afraid, she wrote, tell your lord husband who you are and if he is really your lord, to show it by hearing your advice. Make yourself known. Otherwise you will be another pitiless English consort. Look at their history. All English consorts are nothing but breeders. Do you wish to be a breeder? Or do you want to leave your mark on history?

Eleanor did wish to leave her mark on history. When she received her mother's letters, she realized what a fool she'd been. Henry had yelled at her after they came home from the Mass. He accused her of passing down military secrets to her mother and brother.

She growled at him, actually growled that she did no such thing and if anyone was the idiot it was him for refusing to listen to her mother when she advised him not to go deeper into French territory.

"What am I supposed to do then? Abandon the campaign because your dearest campaign was in cohorts with your brother behind my back to release the King of France?!"

"You knew since the beginning Henry that my mother was NEVER going to give you France. Everyone did but even Katherine did not dare mention it because they'd knew how you would react."

"Henry, listen to me you can still salvage this situation if you write to my mother-"

"No! I refuse to be made a fool a second time. You and your mother can go to hell for all I want."

She and Henry had had fights before but not like this. Katherine was always there to intervene but even Katherine could not calm Henry down. He was angry, very angry. Her lady mother had done many things behind her back and while she agreed, it was wrong. Her mother had a valid point. She was Queen of Spain and her brother Charles was the Holy Roman Emperor. Did he really think they would risk their power for Henry's ambitions?

Of course not! No other King would have believed their lies but Henry did. In parts because he was stuck in the past, he wanted to relive the old Lancastrian glories. He wished to be another Henry V. Oh, he very well could be. Her husband was very handsome and scholarly, just like the warrior king but he did not possess his other virtues: patience, fidelity.

She began to understand what her lady mother meant by weakness. She was being weak. She had let Henry behave like a fool and tolerated his misdeeds for far too long. Things needed to change and she would start with their children, who were becoming unruly like their half-siblings.

1526

Anne looked warily at Harry. He had gotten into another argument with his mother. She had discovered his love letters to Anne and threatened to reveal him to his father. He ordered her not to but her response was throwing those letters away and telling him she was never going to see Anne again and if he did, she was going to tell his father.

Since the King's quarrel with his wife, things had gone downhill for the royal family. The Queen and the Princess Dowager, who had set their differences aside for the good of the realm after the latter's youngest daughter was born, became bitter enemies again. The Princess didn't show it, she kept a straight face, smiling and greeting the Queen whenever she could but the Queen in turn ignored her. She ordered her children be removed from the royal nursery. Katherine did not take offense, she kept on smiling, replying sweetly in a melodic voice that she was grateful for Her Majesty's decision for it would allow her to spend more time with her children.

She rested her dark head on his shoulder. "It will pass. Your parents have fought before and they always made up. You mustn't trouble yourself with this."

"It's different now. My lady mother never threatened me before. It's like she's changed. I don't know her anymore, I barely know my father anymore. He's becoming more ambitious and talks of nothing else but alliances, women and more alliances. He has even made my lady aunt upset. She doesn't say it but I know she is upset." He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips to kiss.

"I don't want them to separate us."

"They won't." Anne said firmly, pressing both lips together. There was a fierce determination that shone in her eyes, mixed with ambition and love.

"We can be man and wife now. Nobody would know until you are carrying my child and by then it will be too late."

"No, Harry, you know that is impossible. Your father would annul our marriage in a second, just like that." She snapped her fingers. She wanted nothing more than to marry him.

He was unlike other boys, handsome, well-built but without none of their arrogance. He was best friends with his sister, the little monster as her sister Mary called her, Lady Mary Tudor. When he arranged their meeting, she was very skeptical. Mary Tudor hated her sister and she heard how she vowed she would never like any family member whose sister or other relative called her mother foul names. But as soon as they saw each other and began to talk about every day things, their opinion of each other changed.

"He won't. My father could have killed my aunt Mary when he had the chance, hell, he had every reason to be angry at her union with uncle Charles. He had not yet divorced his wife when he married my aunt. With a future prince and king of England in the oven, he will have no choice but to recognize our union. Besides, it's not like you are a commoner. You are not. You descend from the First Edward and your father was elevated to Viscount of Rochford."

"But don't you see. Our union would be forbidden by Rome."

"Who cares what Rome what thinks?" He said passionately. Under the law they were adults. He was fifteen and she was eighteen. They did not need their parents' permission and they were not so closely related unlike many royal couples.

"I know you don't and if it comes to that, we will make our case elsewhere."

"Where?" Anne demanded, raising an eyebrow, looking skeptical.

"Do not worry about that Anne. Just worry about what you are going to dress when you marry me." He said and kissed her.

Births:

Prince Harry Tudor (b. Autumn 1510)

Lady Isabela Tudor (b. early Winter 1511)

Lord John Tudor (b. late Summer 1513)

Prince Edward Tudor (b. Winter 1512)

Lady Mary Tudor (b. historical February 1516)

Lord Henry Fitzroy (b. historical -1519)

Prince Joan Tudor (b. 1521)

Anne Boleyn (summer 1507)

Mary Boleyn (spring 1501)

George Boleyn (spring 1504)

Catherine Seymour nee Filol (b.1505)

Ned Seymour (b.1506)

Margaret Lee (b.1506)

Jane Seymour (b.1509)

More children: Margaret, John, Lizzie and Cecily, I am going with the ages of the show instead of their historical births. So yeah most of the characters here are portrayed by their Tudors' counterpart except Katherine of Aragon who has strawberry blond hair here as in her portraits and blue eyes. Anne and Henry VIII also look like their historical counterparts.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

1527-1530

Mary threw her bloody scarf on the floor. Her brother still mocked her from beyond the grave. She had found this after Anne and Harry had returned from their short exile -after their father had made a big show of showing his displeasure when he found out what they'd done, exiling them to Ludlow where they remained until Anne gave birth to their sons, perfectly healthy twin boys.

It was buried on one of the loose floorboards of her old bedchamber. Anne and Katherine had bonded over the summer when she visited them, on her husband's behalf, to congratulate them for their newborn sons. According to her maids, when she held the first one in her arms she broke in tears.

'I had a baby just like him. He was so beautiful. The whole world condemned us' Katherine said meaning her and the king 'but we didn't care. I was his wife in spirit and he loved me and more importantly God blessed him.' And now she had nothing. She gave the child back to Anne, and fell to her knees, sobbing her son's name.

She -and not Queen Eleanor- advocated for Prince Henry and Anne. They were met with great joy, the King hugged his son and welcomed his new daughter in law. She had given him two sons. Who cared if she was a commoner. She was a Princess of Wales now and mother of future kings.

How quickly they forget, Mary thought. That night she crept into her old bedroom. Her mother and Anne were remodeling most of the old wing. Some of these rooms had been torn down and filled with new furniture and wood. Mary's old room however looked the same except for those loose floorboards of course.

She picked that scarf again. How did it get here? -was her first thought but then she remembered. That fateful day she had let her brother borrow her chambers so their older brother and his new wife could stay in his for their honeymoon.

Mary cried. The blood did not look a day old. "John … John..." It was dried but it still felt wet. It was the blood her sister, Lizzie More, Lizzie Tudor. She hated her for insulting her mother, but now she missed her. She missed their fights and her witty remarks, and her brother's laughter when she fought with her.

They had killed them. Like sacrificial lambs, they had offered them as tributes to whoever greedy master their assassins served. "I will not let it go. I promise you John, Lizzie … I will find your attackers and bring them to justice." She said and returned the scarf to its resting place.

The King's enemies were telling his beloved pearl that no one was safe. They got to her brother, they could get to her. By some ugly twist of fate, whoever had orchestrated this, her mother had been humbled. She never lay with her father again and took refuge in the religion that had sheltered her all those years that she lived in uncertainty following Prince Arthur's death. Mary took refuge in it too, but she didn't see God as the loving and forgiving father. She desired vengeance and she pleaded with the Almighty Father to grant her, her wish.

"My lady mother is coming for Lent. You better be prepared then. She will not expect tardiness. She is a very punctual woman." Queen Eleanor said.

Charles Brandon who was dining with the King and Queen, seated next to his wife -the Queen Dowager of France- knew this very well. He had accompanied Tunstall and Gardiner to oversee the marriage treaty with the Queen's son and his niece, lady Isabella. The King wished to know if she still agreed or if she was going to break it -as she did everything these days. Luckily she didn't. It still stood and she had berated them when they arrived one minute late. He told her in a polite tone that they were delayed by storms and bad weather but she did not care. One minute was enough to earn her scorn.

Charles felt bad for his friend. Every day he felt himself slipping from his sanity. He couldn't control his wife and his supposed love cried at night, pleading with God to forgive her. He and the Princess Dowager had not slept since that fateful day of her son's murder.

"My brother also tells me you should entertain her with new pageantry and bring our grandchildren from their seclusion."

"They are children Nor, you can't expect them to travel all the way from Hatfield."

"Oh I know my lord dearest, but my lady mother is very anxious to see them. And as their father it is a good opportunity to make alliances. They will inherit England someday and Joanna is only nine but my mother will find someone to marry her if you can't."

Henry grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly. "You are my wife, not my minister, my secretary but *my* wife, do you understand?"

"I do and as such it is my job to advise you. My mother is the Queen of Spain, my brother rules half of Germany, part of Italy and beyond and now the new world. I figured my dear husband would love to join the club."

Mary Tudor looked sharply at her sister in law. "Sister, the King is great and mighty, he has won two towns, haven't you Henry. You too Charles, you speak of the battles every day."

"Yes, they were glorious battles. I remember one day when we were half drunk and this idiot snuck on us from nowhere and Henry was the only one sober enough to save us." Charles said with a light laugh.

Henry felt grateful at his friend and sister.

"That is such a doubtful tale. From what I heard of my brothers' soldiers you could barely stand on your feet, Your Grace. If it would not have been for my lord husband, you would all be dead."

"Indeed we all would have been, that is why I said it is thanks to him we are alive."

"You enjoy being a boot licker don't you? Your father loved licking my husband's father boots so much that he died, a spear in the heart or what was it? Hacked to pieces while Henry VII hid behind his horse?"

Henry VIII spun violently to her. "That is enough, speak one more word and I will cut your tongue myself."

"Do that and my brother will put a price on your head so high that you will be maimed by your own guards." Nor said with a cruel smile.

Henry grabbed her hand again and squeezed tighter. Mary was on her feet, telling her brother to stop before he did something he would regret.

She went to her brother and put her hand on his shoulder to calm him down, like she would when they were little and Katherine wasn't around. "Let it go, she is not worth it. You love your wife, you love Katherine and all your children. Think how badly this will reflect on you. Remember your dreams, your children. Do not give in to your anger, I beg you ...please listen to me."

Henry lifted his one hand then put it down and let go of Nor's hand. He turned to Mary and thanked her.

Mary returned to her seat and tried to change the subject, Charles helped as well but Henry did not feel the same.

"Excuse me dear brother, sister, I have lost my appetite." He walked out of the room. "I will see you later Charles, we must finish discussing that matter about the King of France."

What matter? Nor was about to ask, but her husband was already out of the room.

Juana was deeply proud of her daughter. "In two months you have taken care of all your enemies. It's such a sad thing what happened to the King's boy, such a sad thing." She repeated.

"Did you have anything to do with that, mother?"

"What?" She asked. She sat down on the sette facing her daughter.

"I asked, did you have something to do with that? If you did, I must know."

"I might have given one or two courtiers but the decision was theirs rest assured." Juana said, she ordered wine and food to be brought to them. "I know how you feel about the murder of a child but he was no child. Your husband said he was going to move him to the line of succession. Something had to be done."

"You didn't have to kill him. And his wife, Lizzie More was a good kid. She was Sir Thomas' daughter. He is a renown humanist and the King's best friend. Killing her, you killed his humanity."

"He is a Humanist dear, he will get it back. All dreamers do. They care more about their useless dream than they do their children." She laughed at Eleanor's stunned face.

"How can you be so cold mother? You didn't use to be like this. I remember when you and father played with me. You said you were happy. Why did you have to kill them? Was it because you were afraid?"

"They were going to usurp your sons' place. That chit's family couldn't see it. Do not mistake me for my mother, Nor. I will do what is necessary to protect my family, even from itself."

"What does that mean?" She asked, suddenly aware of her mother and what she was capable of.

What had happened to her? Even when her father locked her up, she was never this cold. She always pretended, always put a smile for her

Had it all been true? The whispers, the rumors. Was her mother really mad?

Juana saw what was going on through her mind and put her cup down, hitting it loudly on the table. Reminding the onlookers who were present during the quarrel between a younger Elizabeth More and the Lady Mary Tudor, of the latter.

"I never let myself be bothered by morality or sentimentality. I knew what your lord father and yet I fell madly in love with him because I thought that if I did, he would let me in. But he distrusted me. Such is the nature of men, Nor. You should know that by now. If I allowed them to live, then what? What of your plans? You hate Anne Boleyn, you can't say it to her face but I know you do. You are not a good actress like your aunt my dear, people can see right through . I did you a favor."

"What kind of favor? Making me an accomplice for murder?!"

"I gave you a tool to use and you let it go to waste. The murder is on your hands, girl. I killed that bastard and his bitch so there would be no witnesses to their wedding. Think, Nor! Do you think me that stupid as to kill someone for no reason? I gave you the solution to your answers girl and you wasted it! Just like your father wasted away every advice my father and I gave him."

"Mother … why … why …" She took a deep breath. It dawned on her too late. The coins on the floor that everyone assumed were of a French assassin. They were placed there so she would look at them and acting on her hatred for Anne and the Boleyn and Howard families, she would denounce them since they were well known to favor France above any other Christian nation.
How could I have been so blind?

"Now you notice. Well congratulations dear, I rid you of one problem and gave you the solution to the other and you let it go down the river."

"You could have told me from the beginning from the beginning. Why didn't you?"

"What was I supposed to say? Hello my dear daughter I am going to kill your nephew, that no good backstabbing whore's son and his insignificant wife so you can have an excuse to annul your son's wedding to that English French loving whore? Do you think me that stupid?" She laughed. Her laughter cut deeper than swords. Her eyes, shining with malice made Nor look away. "You were always so innocent sweetheart but a fool. A loving and obedient daughter, but a fool nonetheless. That is why you let everyone step on you. Why you tolerated that whore for so long because you thought that if she loved you, your husband would love you. But let me tell you this now: Love no one, absolutely no one, but your family."

"Well that is great mother. That makes me more helpless."

"Do not be dramatic. A woman without a strong family is nothing. Give thanks to the Almighty that you have one -who is also a united one." She added. "Look at the Tudors. Their blood is tainted, they love killing themselves over everything. If it is not power, then it's greed, envy and saints only know what else. It comes from their Yorkist lineage, if they are really Yorkists at all. Wasn't their matriarch married to the Duke of York when she was very young? As a woman who has had four miscarriage, I can tell you it is not a very good time to leave your spouse alone in a castle with only servants and untrustworthy soldiers …"

"Stop it mother."

"Come now Eleanor, do not be so naïve! You believe it too. You wrote to me how you shouted at your husband that he was not a true son of York and Lancaster. You know the truth as well as I do. He is nothing. Everything he and his father have is thanks to the women in their family. Without Bess of York he would have never have achieved peace and reconciled the North to his cause. Without you, your husband would not have lasted a day in his throne. You gave his children royal blood, true royal blood. No one will contest their crowns when they inherit the crown and marry into other royal houses."

"You still look unsettled." Nor didn't answer. Juana went to her daughter and knelt next to her. "My father sent his astrologer when I was pregnant with you. My mother did not buy into superstition but my father … he believed certain traditions must be upheld. He told your father I was expecting a boy but when he turned to tell his councilors the happy news, he said to me 'You shall have a gold and beautiful she will be but deep will be her sorrow and all her children will wear crowns. They will be remembered and hailed but so will her husband's. Gold shall be his little dragon's wings. They will sore high and this little dragon shall be your great undoing. Infamy will be overlooked by greatness the dragon will birth.' I had just found out about Philip's infidelity. I did not want the same unto you so I demanded to know what he meant by that, but Philip returned his attention to us and he said nothing else."

"That is it? My nephew and his wife were killed because of a prophecy?!"

"Not any prophecy Eleanor. He predicted accurately I would have a girl and that your husband would have a son outside of marriage."

"Mother that could have meant anything! How do you know it's not Harry Fitzroy?" It could very well be him. The thought always crossed her mind. Henry favored him more as of late, Katherine was angry but she was mostly angry and bickering about just about everything these days so that didn't surprise. Her husband on the other hand, was another matter. That boy he called his worldly jewel, was paraded and just the other day she heard the most outrageous thing: He had betrothed his bastard son with that chit's cousin, Mary Howard!

There was a sudden chill in the air. Her ladies retreated as the Queen of Spain rose. She cupped her daughter's cheek and ran her thumb against her right cheek. "I love you Eleanor but love is not enough to keep us alive. Henry Fitzroy is a useless boy. You have seen how he parades that boy as your father and mine paraded his bastards to prove his virility. If Mary Howard dies giving birth to a girl, he will marry him to another and then another and another to secure his nobles' loyalties. I could have spared you the agony." She headed to the door, her ladies following her. Before she left, she turned and said, "What's done is done. You must live with it just as I've lived with mine."

"Mary, your lady mother asks you to come." Meg said. "Mary do not make things harder on yourself. She is going to get very mad at you if you don't come and your lord father has a surprise for you. Come."

Mary didn't come. She remained where she was and Margaret Douglas eventually grew tired and left. Bella asked her why she left Mary where she was. "I tried getting her to come Bella, but she is very … well … off. Nothing I say or your parents say is going to change that."

We will see about that. Bella pushed Mary to the ground. Damn it was freezing, Meg complained and Bella shut her up. "What do you think you are doing you dwarf? You think you can stay here and wallow in your pain? You are not the only one who lost a brother idiot, I lost a brother too and I have cried every night but I made my peace with what happened. Our parents are really trying to make things better and you just stand here like a statue."

Mary turned around and saw her sister. She was not her sister. She punched her in the nose and made her way to her room. Her mother came knocking, dragging her from the room where her father was waiting for her.

"Yes?" Mary asked without lowering her eyes.

His daughter would have lowered her eyes in the past. She was bold but she was never disrespectful. He loved her above all his children, the girl standing in front of him could not be his child. Something had taken his precious daughter and twisted it, transforming it into this nightmarish version.

"Well?" He said in a cold, deadly voice. His lover's ladies flinched at his tone, even Katherine but not Mary. She had a will of iron.

"Well what?"

"Do not play coy with me Mary. You know what you did to your sister-"

"Is no more than what she did to me! She has been acting all high and mighty pretending she is some princess about to marry a handsome prince but anyone with half a brain knows Charles will never marry her. Why would she marry a bastard when he can have one of those beautiful women in Portugal, France or someone else? Even Margaret Douglas will do, she was born in wedlock."

Her father advanced to her, his hand forming a fist. But Mary was not intimidated. "If it's true what they whisper, he must be sleeping with his brother's wife, I heard another rumor that she is carrying his bastard child and that is why she couldn't come with aunt Juana this year as she'd promised. Is that true daddy? Did she really open her legs for cousin Charles just like mommy did for you when you made me, Bella and John?"

Henry slapped her.

Mary held back her tears. Her cheek stung, it was red and she tasted her own blood. His ring had graced her face. Her beautiful face, her mother thought. Katherine was on her knees wiping the blood and tending to her immediately. Her hard eyes bore into her daughter's. Apologize. Apologize now! They said. Mary shook her head and yanked her arm from her mother's and threw the cloth.

"You killed my brother! You gave Harry and Edward protection because they are your trueborn sons while John was your bastard. Why did you withdraw the guards daddy? What would have cost you to replace them. Did you really consider us a nuisance?"

"You have no idea what you are speaking of Mary. I loved John just as I love all of you and I punished all of the perpetrators." He said. He did not have to justify to his daughter.

"You are a liar. Anyone knows it is not easy to kill a royal. You said that yourself. Do you think they could have easily entered into his chambers daddy if they didn't have any help?"

"Stop it Mary, stop it or I swear to God I will box your ears until they are red."

"Henry-"

"No, Katherine! It's time she learns some obedience. I have been too lenient with you. If you can't learn how to behave like a lady then you will be treated like a savage. Guards!"

"No, Henry no. Please she is my daughter, the only daughter I will have left after Bella leaves. Please Henry, I beg you" But her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Henry had his daughter dragged from her chambers and put into his own quarters where the bed adjacent to his was prepared and she was dumped there, still dressed in her blue and white gown then locked inside.

"Mi amor I beg of you, she is just a little girl."

"She is not a little girl! She is fourteen Katherine. Fourteen! I will not have a savage for a daughter. You saw what she did to her sister. She has been nothing but trouble ever since John died." He fell on the couch. Katherine sat next to him. Henry put an arm around her bringing her closer. "She blames me for his death, the day after his funeral she ran into my study where I was discussing that marriage offer with the Duke of Bavaria's heir, his nephew, Lord Philip and she told me 'I hate you, I hate you, I wish you would die!' She blames me Kat! I cried when I found our son was murdered, I searched every corner of the country for his murderer. I am still searching and I had to content myself with executing his guards instead. She does not know the pain I have lived with, she just thinks of herself."

"She is like you Henry. If you only saw how alike the two of you are. I know you still suffer over our son's death; I suffer too. Every day when I go to sleep and I see his face staring back at me." She chuckled as she told him of the next sequence. "I was so happy when he was born. I brought you a son, I didn't care that he was baseborn, he was a son and he was ours." Her laughs turned into sobs.

Henry hugged her. He squeezed gentler and partly withdrew to take her face in his hands. "I love you. I wish I could be the monster that Mary thinks I am, cold, uncaring so I didn't have to suffer this much. Does that make me selfish, Kat?"

"No my love. It can't be selfish to want a little happiness I often myself wondering the same thing."

"What do you do? How do you keep them at bay?"

He knew she was going to say 'I pray' but he needed to hear it for himself, he needed to hear her say those words so he would know that his passionate Kat, the woman he shared his dreams, ambitions and hopes for was gone. And he would be gone from her life forever as well. But he was -thankfully- proven wrong.

"I do not. I live with them every night, when I wake up they are there, when I dream, they are there too. Especially when I dream." She added quickly, looking down.

Henry lifted her chin up. Their eyes locked. Henry leaned forward and kissed her.

Katherine could smell the smell of roses on him. Her favorite perfume, he still wore it just for her. Henry was the cleanliest person in England and when he had fallen in love with her, he took great pains to find what her favorite perfumes were. As a good lady, she never revealed them. She let him find out on his own, keeping his interests prolonged. When it was too much for him, Katherine finally told him, leaning forward and whispering in his ear 'Roses, the type You Highness wears on your coat of arms and jasmine'. He immediately set to find the best apothecarians to brew him a perfume. When he became king, he gave her a box of gold decorated with pearls. She still kept that box. Inside it was a bottle with her favorite essence. Being hit by that aroma again, awoke in her passions she thought long gone.

She returned the kiss and as their lips touched again, the guards and her ladies left, giving their masters privacy. Henry took Katherine to the bed. She did not look a day old. He thought his eyes deceived him when he unlaced the back of her gown. She had put on some weight, but she was not as big as she boasted to keep at bay when he tried to rekindle their passion. She was no more obese than Mary Boleyn, his former whore and daughter-in-law's sister and she was not even big-boned! He loved every part of her body, tracing every line to memorize it.

He did not want this moment to end and he made sure it would always play in his mind, when he felt helpless. Katherine welcomed him when he came, and he came in hard, and they became one again, regaining the feeling they had missed for four years.

Four years -they thought. It was such a long time. Young couples, vain and fleeting, did not think much of their spouse. They had all the time of the year. What was one year or two? They were chained into marriage, love could come later and even if it never came, as long as one of them was wealthy, that was all that mattered. It didn't work the same for Katherine and Henry. Katherine brought no dowry, no alliance. When her mother died she had gone from being Katherine, Infanta of Spain to Katherine, Infanta of Aragon. Henry still took her, he rescued her from the solitude of her soul, and offered her something priceless.
Katherine never looked back since then. Henry could have given her the crown if he wanted to. There was nothing he would not have done for her at the time, but Katherine was not that ambition. She was, she thought after some time when he painfully withdrew from her; but she was not stupid. Ambition was one thing, having the means to accomplish your goal was another. And she was just Princess Dowager with no country to back her, not even a pope since the new one had ruled against the prior's ruling. So she had to rely on her own. And for one year she had to watch as everything she ever loved was taken from her. Her respect, her dignity, and most of all, her crown. But she got them all back. The latter was less harder to obtain than she thought and invisible. She was Queen in all but no name, while her niece, a Queen in name, possessed a hollow crown. One where she could wield no true power.
It was her mother who taught her, win the people, win your husband and you will be powerful beyond your imagination. As the king's mistress, she discovered, she had more power than she would have as king and she intended to use it for good. She helped the people who had helped her and she had done a great service to the English people, visiting their shrines daily and giving half of her fortune to them. And she didn't stop there, she used her influence to build more hospitals and schools, make of England the Camelot her would-have-been husband dreamed of. Henry welcomed it, it was his dream and he was proud to see it coming true. But that was not the real reason why he was proud. Kat was there for the worst moments of his life. She had comforted him when no one else had, understood him and saw him not as a prince or a king, but as a boy and as a man she could love.
Henry owed her everything, and as he turned and saw Kat smiling invitingly at him, he got on top of her and resumed their lovemaking.

8 months later ...

Anne bagged her sons' caps and mittens she had sown in the chests. The carriage waited for them; she was helped by her husband. "Are you sure you don't want to leave the children here? They get very bored easily."

"No, it will be good for them to spend some time at court and meet your sister."

"I am not sure that is a good idea Anne. Mary has always been more difficult. My mother writes to me how she spends more time speaking about politics and swords …"He sighs. "She is becoming crazy."

"Why? What is wrong in talking politics? You never berated me for speaking in the Welsh council."

"Well, that is different. You are my wife and Princes of Wales, someday my queen. Let's hope in many, many years from now. Mary is just … my sister." He said, thanking the Almighty for not saying the word bastard. Anne would not let him sleep with her if she did. "It was about time that father put limits to her, I was very disappointed with her. You met her before, she was never like that. She'd fight us, sometimes all of us at the same time but she would never resort to violence. Not to us, her family."

"It cannot be easy on her. She is the youngest daughter of her your aunt and your lord father. She knows her place in the royal family, one day she will marry and then what? She will leave or she will stay but she will lose her freedom. Can you not see, Harry? When you were little you saw how your sister loved to be treated as your equal. You gave her love, you treated her like a brother would his sister. But she is grown up now. She is no longer a child, she is fifteen and she knows her time is approaching."

"Lord father has arranged for her a good marriage. Any girl would be happy to be married to the Duke of Bavaria. He was only Count Palatine when he came to England for the first time, now he is a Duke and if his brother leaves no heirs, she will be his Electress Palatine as well. What is not to like?"

"You are a man Harry, you do not see the bigger picture. For a girl like Mary who has had nothing except insults and then hears her brother is murdered, freedom is everything. You should let her decide on this matter."

"It's not my matter Anne, it's my lord father's and even if I did. What can I do? Let my little sister waste her life away chasing some stupid dream. Nay, she will be a lady and a wife, and she will be happy because the Duke will treat her as a Princess, just like she always wanted."

Anne sighed. Men could be so narrow minded and thick headed. But she said nothing. If that is what Harry thought it best, she would support him. But secretly, she wished to see her sister in law's reaction when they told her she would marry this dashing new Duke and she started screaming at him, throwing everything she could find to convince him a marriage with her was a bad idea.

Anne did not have to wait long. When they reached the palace, they were the first to watch the Duke disguise himself as a servant to surprise her, and she taking a pebble struck him in the chest.

Harry groaned and went to his sister's side, while Anne introduced herself to the Duke and excused her sister in law's attitude.

To their great surprise the Duke laughed it off and walking past Anne, he re-introduced himself to Mary, taking off his hat and giving a quick bow. "I believe this little thing is yours. Marble, there used to be many of these where I grew up. My mother was always building or remodeling so she left a lot of these scattered in the four winds, or is it the other way around? Forgive me, the English language is very difficult. This is the second time I come here and I still find it very difficult-"

"You were here before?"

"Yes, do you not remember?" Mary shook her head. "How rude of me. The first time I came was about five years ago, my uncle was there in your fahter's study when you burst into his chambers. He was very angry but I thought it quite funny. You looked like one of the amazons or better yet, the valkyries. You do know about the valkyries? They are these women from Germanic myth-"

"I know who the Valkyries are, spare me your lessons in theology." Mary said, bearing no expression. This man was laughing at her. He thought his good looks would make her swoon like all the stupid ladies in her lady aunt's court, but she was not like them. She was not stupid and like the women of his favorite myth, she was not going to yield to any man. Least of all, him.

"Mary stop being so rude. Forgive her Your Grace, as my wife said. She is very tired and she has these crazy notions in her head. Perhaps it would be better if you took our cousin Meg Douglas, she is a true charmer and-"

He had done it. At the signal of calling her unstable and crazy, Mary launched at him and ripped his leather and jeweled gloved he had tucked under his belt and snapped the back of his head.

"I am not crazy. Just because I do not want to be sold to this man, I must be called crazy. Then fine do it but I would rather be sent to a nunnery then marry him." She said letting go of his gloves and giving a scowl to Philip who made her angrier when he returned her scowl with a smile.

"She is feisty." Philip said with a grin.

"Are you not in the least bit angry?" Mary asked, surprised by his reaction.

"No, I have seen more scandalous behavior from my men. It is a miracle seeing how such a bold little woman like yourself could be also so beautiful."

"What are you saying? Women can't be beautiful and bold all the same?"

Philip chuckled and looked at Anne nervously. She grinned then gave an open smile and glanced towards Mary then back to him as if to say 'That is what you'll get if you marry her'. But it was not the mocking smile and look that Bella would have given him, it looked more natural and even amused and proud that her sister in law had no fear to act this way.

Anne would have never had the courage to act this way in public. There was too much at stake for her. Everyone expected her to outdo the Queen. She wasn't royal. Though her family had a spec of royal blood through her mother and the Howard line, it wasn't much compared to the Queen and the Princess Dowager's ladies in waiting. Therefore, she had to act exceptional and become a role model for women.

Mary on the other hand was a bastard. That carried a certain curse and a freedom -that she didn't know yet she had. And her mother was the most influential woman at court. A good friend and surrogate mother to Anne.
She felt sorry for the Princess Dowager, she tried so hard to act respectful to others but in the eyes of many, she remained a whore. Then there was the loss of her only son. Anne did not want to imagine what that felt, she prayed to God she never experienced such loss.

"My lady allow me to apologize and let us start anew. I am Count Philip, future Duke of Bavaria and you are the Lady Mary, the King's beloved daughter and pearl. It will be my pleasure to get to know you before we marry."

"And then what? You will take me, knightly style, carry me in your arms like I am some helpless maiden?"

"No, I will treat you as an equal. Lady Mary I know how reluctant you are to marry but I promise you that if you give me the opportunity you will see I am an okay guy."

"Yes, said the man who had one bastard son from his late mistress." Philip raised an eyebrow, Anne sharpened her gaze at him. "I am well informed too, Your Grace. Brother, I will see you inside, sister..." She said to Anne embracing her and kissing her cheek, not waiting for her to greet her, "… I bid you farewell until we see each other for the feast as for you, Your Grace, goodbye."

"I am terribly sorry about that Your Grace. My sister … she is complicated. She doesn't know what she is saying. You must be tired. Come inside with me and Anne, we can show you inside. I almost forgot, these are our sons."

"How beautiful, they are very big."

"And strong." Anne said proudly giving the eldest a slight push. The Prince of Wales' sons both bowed but it was the eldest who bore a cocky smile like his mother.

Philip was shown to his rooms after he finished talking with the Prince of Wales and his wife. Bella spotted him from a distance, hidden behind a purple curtain with her friends."

"Is that him? He is handsome." One of them said.

"I know, Mary is too stupid. She has been writing Insults all day. Poor father and poor lady mother too!" Bella said and whispered to them after he disappeared from sight, what she found out from Mary's secret diary. They all laughed.

"Is she that dim-witted."

"Mary is not dim-witted, she is just too wild. I have been telling lord mother for years to tell lord father to stop spoiling her but they never listen to me."

"It is quite ironic you know." Bella added after they stepped from the curtain, seeing no point in hiding anymore.

"What is?" The shorter of her friends, a girl with pale blue eyes and dark hair like her middle brother Thomas, asked.

Bella looked at her like she was stupid. "Our lady aunt is named Mary, she is named Mary."

Dorothy stared at her blankly.

Bella laughed and slapped her shoulder. "Duh! Our aunt Mary married a commoner and Mary is doing what she wants."

"Oh … I still don't get it."

"You are a little fool Dotty," It was a wonder that she was related to the handsome young Ned Seymour who was the Cardinal's most able man. He had been promoted to her lord father's service and her father did not promote just anyone. The only thing she regretted about leaving England was that she would not get to know Ned Seymour. Behind that cold façade was a hot being, she was sure of it. Catherine confided in her sisters in law how he was so good in bed. It was really stupid of Cathy to have an affair (and with his father of all people!). She got what she deserved.

"Aunt Mary married without my lord father's permission after the old King Louis died, and now Mary is going to do the same."

"But … Duke Philip, I mean Count Philip is not that old."

"No but he is a warrior and he will go off to fight some useless battle at the head of his armies, pretending he is Alexander the great or fend off the Turks from his cousins' duchies and then what? She will be a widow and marry the first idiot she comes in contact to."

The girls giggled and shook their heads. "The Lady Mary can't be that foolish." The youngest of them, Anne Bassett, said. She was a poor little thing but unlike Dorothy she wasn't as mousy and spoke her mind more often which was why Bella liked her.

"Oh but she is. Father send her to a nunnery and made her go down on her knees every day and pray forgiveness, and she did because she likes praying but that is not the whole story. I heard father tell my mother once before she went into confinement, that the real reason they brought her back was not because of her good conduct but because she would prey the names of the people she said hurt her in her dreams. The nuns were terrified of her."

"I bet." Dotty said.

"That is why they sent Mary home. She behaved like a lady, said her prayers, knelt more than everyone else but she would say those names every night and her eyes, the Abbess said, were cat-like, demon eyes."

"You exaggerate Bella."

"I don't." She said to Dotty. "She is impossible. I don't know how we are related."

"Maybe she is like the Queen, your lady grand-aunt, Her Majesty Juana of Spain."

"Oh shush Dotty of course she is not. Juana is a queen and Mary may be mad but she is not a royal. The only reason I am marrying the emperor is because our lord father needs his alliance so bad and because he also wants Germany in case my future husband betrays him."

"You should not be saying these things." Dotty said."

"Why not?" Bella said crossing her arms against her chest.

"Poor Dotty thinks we are being spied by the old queen." Anne said.

"The old Queen, why are you so afraid of her Dotty? She is back in Spain and can't hurt us and her daughter, my cousin …" She sniggered "...well she can't hurt us either."

Dotty was not so sure. The Queen had been very mad when she heard her lady's mother had conceived. Princess Katherine was not a young woman anymore. Some men still found her attractive and they begged for her favors at tourneys but Katherine only reserved her favors for one -and that was when the Queen was not present or ill.
Her mother, lady Margery, told her that many royal women had given birth in their forties like Eleanor of Aquitaine -an ancestor of Their Majesties and Her Highness. But it was very rare for them to survive and the Princess Dowager was forty six. The commons prayed that she would survive the birth and give birth to a son, but at her age it was impossible.
But Dotty kept her mouth shut. 'Silence is golden' her older sister Jane said. 'The less you talk, the better you are.'

Philip stepped out from the shadows after the women had gone. So this was the good educated, prized woman every Englishman was fretting about? He didn't see the beauty in such a girl. She was good to look at, he will give her that. But not exceptional. Mary was far more beautiful than her sister. She was just less seen and stubborn.

Thinking about what her sister said, he was glad that he got to marry the more rebellious of the two. Mary had a mind of her own and it wasn't just her wits that made her attractive, but the beauty, an inner beauty that he could not explain, that came from inside.

He returned to his chambers and wrote to his brother and uncle, telling them of his warm reception and that after meeting the lady Mary, he was confident they would be married before the summer was over.

Katherine sighed when she heard from the Princess of Wales of her daughter's reaction.

"I should have expected it. I told Henry to move her to that nunnery where your aunt is the Abbess but he did not want to hear me."

"Katherine, you must not put anymore stress on yourself. You need to save it for when the baby comes."

"I pray God hears you Anne." Katherine said, sliding a hand to her stomach. Anne was pregnant with her third child as well, but she had not entered her third trimester. She was safe from harm.

"He will." Anne promised and the two closed their eyes, kneeling their heads down in prayer. Anne had not told Katherine about her Protestant beliefs but she knew that the Princess Dowager suspected. But she had said nothing, why? Her husband said it was because his aunt bore nobody any ill will. She did not have any malice in her bones. Anne thought differently.

Every woman has malice. What makes Katherine different is that she doesn't show it. She bottled it all up like the Queen she was trained to be, and convinced herself that if she did not show it, nobody would know and she would be held to such high standards that nobody would hate her. But some did hate her. The people who killed her son, clearly did. Anne never believed it was the guards who did it. They fell asleep at their posts but they were paid by someone or else they were drugged. Someone or a group of someones wanted to hurt her aunt-in-law and they almost succeeded. If Katherine was like the rest of the women at the English court or in her sister's family, she would have cried, she would have remained in solitude blaming herself but Katherine was not like most women. She took after her mother and having her father's determination, she pushed herself out of her depression.

After night came, Katherine told Anne to stay. She did. "I want you to pray with me. Will you do that?"

"You need not ask, you know I will."

Katherine smiled, grabbed Anne's hand, the rosary beads she had inherited from her mother on the other, and the two began to pray in silence.

Chapter Text

1531

"You have to admire, the way in which she conducts herself like a soldier, conserving her resources while praying away her pain and praying for her enemies' deaths." One of her ladies said.

The Lady Mary came out of the nunnery like a new person. Her rebirth did not went unnoticed by her father who greeted his daughter like he greeted a new host. Today was the day of her mother's churching. The period where the church told women it was acceptable to be part of the secular world (once again) after the uncleanliness of birth had been washed away by the holy waters of the church's basin. A basin filled with gold. Or at least that is how it seemed. To Mary it was just a basin. She was there with her mother when she took communion and afterwards dipped her two middle fingers in it and made the sign of the cross. Mary followed her. The Cardinal Wolsey's daughter, Mary's new companion along with her other ladies, watched this with interest. Never doubt what the church teaches, Mary told her new lady. Nevermind that it is stupid, it is the law. That was what the lady Mary was all about. Law. Order and of course, revenge.

Mary did not forgive and she didn't forget. People whispered that out of all the King's children, she was the one who took more after his mother's maternal relations, the Woodvilles. There was witchcraft in her eyes -they said. The way she looks, the way she speaks. She doesn't carry herself like a woman, but like a man. And she behaves as one with little regard for the rules.

Her mother tried to curb her behavior and remind her that although a descendant of her grandparents, the infamous kings of Spain, she was her father's daughter and as such things were expected of her "This is not Spain Mary, women can't just shout and do as they please. If your grandmother, my mother acted this way, do you think she would have lived one day? Of course not."

"What about the Princess of Wales, lady mother?" She asked back. "She does what she likes."

"She is a princess, a royal through marriage and the mother of future kings, she is allowed certain liberties."

"I don't like to."

"Nobody is telling you to. But that is just the way things are."

That is just the way things are. Everyone kept repeating that to her ears, it sickened her. Why did things have to be this way? Why couldn't they change? She missed the days when she was a child. Carefree, careless.

In the ensuing days after her mother's churching and looking after her new brother and sister; the king, her father, makes preparations for his daughter-in-law's churching. He wants it to be a spectacle to rival any seen before. It is a boy, the astrologers have said, and like all superstitious folk, they believe it. Mary resisted the urge to scoff. She could stand the queen's mother believing in such cock and bull, but her father and most of all, Anne? A woman she admired and she recently became friends with again because she was the only with common sense and was not afraid to tell her brother when he was wrong?

She asked her one day "How can you believe such things?" And she said peacefully "Not everything is about alchemy and mathematics Mary, some things are better left to faith." Yes, said Mary. Revenge, leave that to faith, not the future gender of your offspring. These people sounded like charlatans. They said she was a boy when she was in her lady mother's belly. They also said Bella was a boy and then they said that John was a girl.
Anne smiled at the little girl and touched her cheek. To her, she always seemed a little girl. She was so young, beautiful and she had enticed the new Duke of Bavaria and Count Palatine who had come to court her. It was a shame to everyone that Mary repeatedly told him she was not interested. "Some day Mary you will understand." And she said nothing more.

Mary took her brooch from her dress. She hated diamonds. She used to love them when John was around. Lizzie hated them so she asked her tailor to put as much diamonds as he could on the boarders of her neckline to make her jealous. It was so fun to tease Lizzie More. She was so easy to tease, and it gave her a respite from the boredom of court-life. When they found Lizzie, she had a diamond ring, the only thing with diamonds that she liked. It was a gift John gave her for her birthday. Her father scowled at it and warned his daughter not to get too comfortable with her new wealth. He wanted her to remember what he taught her -humility and charity. Mary wondered about Thomas More often. He was rarely seen at court since it happened. He did not look more gaunt, on the contrary, he looked as if he was untouched by age, but his eyes were different. He was not the laughing philosopher people knew him as. He was distant, far away into God knows where. Her father asked about their grandchildren daily when he was here. Mary overheard them once. Thomas sighed, a long and heavy sigh and passed his hand through his hair after he took his black hat. "They're fine" He said then he looked away. "Very fine." And that was it.

Lost in thoughts, she did not hear the heavy footsteps of the dashing figure approaching. A figure she thought she had convinced him to go from where he came from. "Lady Mary."

"My lord Duke, fancy seeing you here."

"You don't sound surprised."

"I am not surprised at what you do Your Grace, you have tried very hard to get me alone and now that you have achieved it, it should be proof enough that you and I can never be. I am happy being in the solitary state that I am. I am not going anywhere." Least of all you.

The Duke laughed, a merry laugh. "My lady you have me very confused with one of the other royals you and your lord father have met. I am a man of honor as he, and I come to bring you a new proposal. You and I may live here in England for a while, at least until my uncle passes away -God be willing it is from many years from now and then we can move to Bavaria. It is a beautiful country my lady, you would love it. We have mountains like you have never seen, our palaces are famous."

"So I have heard. But tell me Your Grace, supposing I were to say yes, when would we get married?"

"Any day you wish. Now if that is what you like."

Mary smiled a sarcastic smile. She took a step closer. "Allow me to disappoint you once more Your Grace, but I will remain here and nothing, no comet, no omen, no magic, and no marriage offer is going to take me away." She turned her back and walked away.

"I am sorry to hear that lady Mary but I am afraid you don't have any choice on the matter."

Mary spun violently. "What did you say?" Philip laughed. She gathered her skirts, slightly lifting them up, and walked to him. "Are you threatening me Your Grace? If you really are Your Grace because now that I remember you are not a Duke yet. That is why you want to remain here, right? I heard many stories from the Imperial ambassador, Eustace Chapuys. How you lost -what was it?- twenty thousand crowns in one year. You never manage your states and you are a poor administrator of your finances. Your brother Otto always has to manage you out. God only knows why Duke Albert agreed to make you his heir. And stop laughing!"

"Aye, my lady. I have no mind for finances but you have."

"So the leopard finally reveals his spot."

"That is a fine compliment I have been called worse. Though I would have preferred lion, lions are much braver and I have laid siege to the Turks' territories and been very successful."

"Do not change the subject Your Grace, my lord." She said pointedly, saying both his titles with mock. "I know why you want to marry me. You are a fierce warrior, feared and loved throughout Germany but you can't save a few coins. You love to gamble, you love to drink and most of all you love to fornicate."

Philip raised his eyebrows. He heard what a virago she was, but she surprised him for spitting such words with venom. He shook these fears from his head, he was determined to win her hand. "If you put it that way … yes. But I can change."

"That is what every royal says. Men like you don't change."

"Do not judge too harshly, you never know. The right woman always changes the most sinful of hearts."

"I am not that woman." Mary said firmly. "If I told you what I was you would consider me a monster." Her voice softened. "My brother died more than three years ago and since then I have desired nothing but revenge. You don't want a wife like that."

"Forgive my bluntness my lady, but who are you to tell me what rules my mind and heart?" Philip asked, suddenly serious. "Everything you said about me is true, but you missed the most important part. I am loyal to a fault. I used to be reckless and famed across Germany as a man who bedded woman after woman. I stopped after the last one miscarried my child. I haven't slept with any woman since. That is the truth. You are a good judge of character, you can look into my eyes and see that I am telling the truth."

"Do you take me for a fool?"

"No, it is why I am asking you to look into my eyes."

Mary twisted her mouth. Philip was pushing his luck. Nonetheless she gazed into them, and saw nothing. No deceit, no lies, nothing.

"See?"

Mary said nothing. Philip boldly took a step forward. "May I be allowed to kiss you."

Mary tilted her head. Who did he think he was? She smiled then, remembering the way he spoke about her to Princess Anne when she was hidden behind the curtain, and she nodded, saying a small "Yes."

Short, sweet. That was how Mary described it. She replayed the kiss in her mind. She touched her lips and pinched herself mentally to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Philip, as she got to call him now, blinked at her when they crossed paths. Always accidentally of course. One night Philip visited her after she retired her maids. They talked endlessly of everything they had seen, Mary's sad and happy experiences and his own sad and happy experiences. She was anxious to ask him about the wars, the battles he fought. The reason for his fame. But she decided against it. Just as he said she could read him really well, he could also read her very well and he saw a sadness in her eyes, a longing. The same longing he had.

Something in those battles, the men he lost or the men he fought, had triggered this new attitude in him. She asked his servants if it was true. He claimed by the holy virgin which he still worshipped that it was. "All of it my lady. His Grace has not gotten a good night's sleep without coming out of bed, drenched in cold sweat, muttering to himself the names of the men he fought and lost."
She sensed it was more than that.
In due time, she thought. For now, all that mattered was the present.

Henry was pleased with his councilors. He had signed the peace of everlasting peace with the German duchies. Eleanor was not there, as was to be expected. Her brother, the Emperor had tried to subjugate most of these territories and once again failed. They were too much ingrained in Protestant doctrine.

"The King knows better though." Thomas Cromwell told Cranmer, the man who had succeeded Warham as Archbishop of Canterbury. "The German duchies, most of them follow the old ways but they don't recognize the pope. Some of them prefer the Emperor, I have heard it from Barnes."

"That is ludicrous. How can they obey one man who follows Rome but then claim they deny Rome themselves?" Cranmer was pragmatic but some things he chose not to understand.

Cromwell said, "Do not be too judgmental Tom. They will bend the knee to Luther, Calvin and any other Reformer as long as it helps them break free from the yoke of Rome and the Emperor. The soon-to-be Duke is no different, except he and his relatives, the Wittelsbachs and the Julies-Cleves-Berg prefer to live with the soles of their boots grounded on the earth instead of chasing dreams."

"That doesn't help a lot. The Emperor wants everything and he will not stand for it."

"He will when more duchies slip from his fingers. Anyhow, the King's daughter marrying a man of the new faith benefits our cause. He will have trouble converting her but she will come to see things his way."

Cranmer was not so sure. The lady Mary was a very stubborn girl. At first he began to suspect he got that from her mother, but now seeing the king discussing matters over the upcoming birth of his grandson and impending churching of his daughter in law, with his eldest son; he realized she got it from her father.

"Whatever you say my lord secretary."

Thomas chuckled. "Do not call me that. I am not a lord."

"No? You are the person everyone flocks to." Cranmer said with a smirk that Thomas returned, feeling flattered.

Katherine was happy to be with Anne. It was a difficult birth. "Push my lady, Push."

Anne screamed. She pushed and pushed. After five long hours, the child finally came.

"A boy." Anne smiled. "Give me my baby. Let me see him." Anne said then when they cleaned her and still didn't finish cleaning her son, she turned to Katherine. "Tell them."

"Her Highness would like to see her child."

The midwife lowered her head to hide her expression. Katherine could still see it. She was one of Nor's chief midwives. The one who had delivered all her children. Naturally she felt a strong hatred towards Katherine.

She handed the babe into Katherine's arms and she handed it to Anne. "He's beautiful." Anne breathed. "Hello baby, I am your mama."

Katherine smiled. Every birth she assisted was difficult, including her own. The twins she had did not (and would never) replace the child she lot. Her firstborn.

"Katherine, are you okay?"

"Yes, I was just reminiscing of old days. It is nothing. The Queen and your lord husband will be here soon."

"No wait, stay here with me." It was not a command, it was a plea. Katherine shook her head. Nor and she had fallen out, and seeing her here would make her livid. "I have to go." She told her grand-niece-in-law. "Take care of that baby. Have you and Harry chosen any names?"

"We didn't think we would be this fortunate being blessed with another boy. What do you think his name should be? I was thinking Thomas after I saw him or Geroge after my father and brother, he certainly takes after us Boleyns, but his eyes are a perfect mixture of dark grey and my own dark brown."

"Why not opt for two names?" Katherine suggested, then said "I know" in a soft voice. "Owen Tudor after the King's great-grandfather."

"Owen Tudor" Anne said it very slowly, her voice barely heard except for Katherine and Nan Seville, her chief lady in waiting, and her sister, Mary Carey. "Owen. I like it." She nodded and looked down at her child who gazed up as she said the name again. "Owen Tudor, our little Duke of Gloucester."

Henry, Harry and Nor came. The Queen ignored her aunt and went straight to see the child. "He is beautiful." She said with great pride. "Isn't he Henry?" She asked, snapping him from the conversation he was having with Katherine. He thanked her for all her good services and briefly inquired on their own children.

Henry nodded at Nor, a perfect smile on his face that his disguised his anger at her for having interupted a pleasant moment between him and his love, Kat.

"Our son, our third little boy. He is heavier than his siblings. He will be a mighty warrior." Harry said, his tone also ringing with pride, but it was the type of pride that was shared by both him and his wife, mixed with true happiness at having been blessed for a third time with another son.
Anne told him about Katherine's suggestion.
"I like it, he shall be Owen Tudor, Warrior Prince and protector of Harry X." He said with a big smile on his face. Everyone laughed.

"He will be strong man like his father." Henry said slapping his son's back. There was genuine pride now. He always loved all of his children, but Harry. There was always something about Harry that made him long for the days when he was young, when he was bolder. He thought that because he was a Prince he could have it all, until his father burst his bubble. "You have done well Princess Anne." He said, congratulating his daughter in law.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, but I could not have gotten through this without the love and support from friends and family." She looked straight at Katherine then shifted her eyes at her husband. He smiled kindly at her. "I do not know where I would be without you."

"And I without you, Anne." He said, very serious now. He sat next to her on the bed and Anne carefully placed the babe on his arms. "You are very fortunate my son to be so loved. You will be a great warrior, I know. Because you will fight with your heart."

Henry was overwhelmed with the scene. He, Nor, and Katherine retired the rest of their servants and ladies, and walked out of the chambers.

Nor saw the look on Henry's face and asked what was wrong. "Nothing Nor. It is just … seeing them there, happy, so in love. Reminds me of the time we three used to be so in love and trusted each other."

Katherine and Nor looked down.

"What happened to us?"

Nothing Henry, nothing happened to us. Nor thought, but said instead. "We got older, we became greedy. You became greedy, I became desperate and Katherine …" She turned to her lady aunt.

Katherine steeled herself for the worst, straightening her back, and showing a mild smile. Even in the face of adversity, she would keep a placid face. She was a queen born. Even if that title was taken from her, she would behave as one to the day of her death.

"Katherine loved you."

"That's right Katherine. I know. You loved Henry, ever since he inherited the title of your first husband. I never questioned you. We are royalty, our love may be different from the common people, but no less passionate. I thought I could make him love me, see me as a woman and not as an obligation our parents put to him. But I was wrong."

"Eleanor," Henry started.

"No Henry I must say it. You two love each other and I can never find fault in that. If that is your destiny then so be it."

There was a glimmer of hope in both their eyes, but then Eleanor crashed it.

"But no love comes without a price. True love, pure and sophisticated, it is the stuff of fairy tales. Wonderful to the eyes, like a soft melody you can dance all day but eventually you grow tired. If you two were to marry it would tear the country apart. I know you Henry, you love Kat but would you really give up everything, your love, your throne just for her sake?" Her eyes became narrowed slits, she felt satisfaction at Katherine's pain. Her lady mother was right. There was more pain to be found in truth.

"I hope you two live happily for the rest of your lives, but know this. If you relinquish your position for your son's and for her, so you two can be together. I will not be responsible for the foul mouths and jeers that the nobles throw at you. Sure you might have the commons' support, they love Katherine, they always have. You are their star, their Madonna." She said. When her lady aunt was pregnant with Isabella, a foreign painter came to England. He asked to paint the Princess Dowager. Nor asked him why. He claimed he saw a vision of the holy mother, and she was in Katherine's likeness.

"Are you threatening me Nor?" Henry asked in a delicate voice. His eyes however, showed his true feelings.

"No Henry. I am only warning you." She said and began to turn but Henry stopped her, grabbing her arm.

"Harry, love please." Katherine said but Henry did not listen.

"Nobody threatens me. You are the mother of my children, but do not think that gives you permission to threaten me or Kat."

Nor said nothing, Henry waited for her but she remained silent. He let her go. Before she was on her way again, Katherine asked. "What happened to us Nor?" Echoing Henry's earlier question, excepts her was filled with desperation. Tears sprung from her cheeks.

You are a good actress milady. But no better than she was. Years at the English court had turned her heart black. "You happened Katherine, My mother happened. We all happened."

"Can we not be the way we were? Remember how happy we were, how we assisted each other, how we sew banners for the soldiers before the battle at Flodden."

"I miss those days too aunt but we cannot go back. We have our roles in life as you once said, you are the true queen of my lord husband's heart, and that is a problem. One I am willing to overlook for peace's sake but I cannot look the past the sight of seeing you two together, dancing, laughing, holding hands like you were man and wife, and have everyone whisper Queen Eleanor is a shadow Queen, the true Queen is the Princess Dowager."She remembered the jeers, the whispers. For every night Henry spent with her, she spent ten with Katherine. Her mother's plan of making her baby sister feel so ashamed of her behavior that she blamed herself for her son's death, failed.
"It hurts me, it is beneath my dignity as a Queen's daughter and an Emperor's sister."

"Don't be so dramatic Eleanor. You are still my Queen and you know I would never do something like that."

"No? When you threatened me to leave me for her when I opposed the match of my cousin Mary and the Duke of Bavaria."

"I spoke out of anger." Henry said, growing more tired with this conversation. Why did God forsake him with these women? Life would be so much easier if he was cold like his father. The man never seemed to love anyone except his older sister, Margaret and of course his mother -if bishop Fisher were to be believed. (Personally, he didn't. He had never been close to either of them, when he was with his mother, he treasured those moments but his father was never there. So he never saw any display of affection between the two. It was duty. Nothing more).
But Katherine awoke something he never felt before. He wanted her to be his first but his father reminded him. Duty. Duty son. That is all that matters. To this day he wished he didn't feel so it wasn't painful having to see Nor cry or nag him every time he went to visit Katherine. Or to see Kat sad when he left her chambers.

He came to a resolve. "If it is respect you want, I will give it to you but you will have to earn it. Speak out of turn or come into the privy council again without my permission and the deal is off."

Easy. Short. Simple. Nor said "No."

Henry's face turned purple. "What do you mean no?!"

"I mean no Henry. I will not accept the deal. If you want to treat me with respect, that is your choice. You are the King, you can do as you please."

"Then why all this melodrama?" Henry demanded. Was this another one of her tricks? Henry wished he could have the power to strike her without the weight of his conscience berating him afterwards.

Eleanor grinned. "Because I wanted to see just how far you two would go and because I wanted you to know how much you have hurt me."

"No more than you have hurt me Eleanor when you speak ill about my family, all my family."

There was such defiance in Eleanor's mocking grin that drove him to the point of madness. Finally Katherine, the Princess Dowager and voice of reason, put her hand on his shoulder. "Henry, let her be. She wants love just as you and I. If you want me to fade my dear niece, I will but allow me to remain at court so I can be with my children and let me keep my charities."

"Of course aunt, what type of woman I would be if I didn't let you?"

Four weeks passed since Anne's churching. Three since Owen Tudor, Duke of Gloucester and Earl of Lancaster's ennoblement. It was the time for another celebration.

The King welcomed his new son-in-law and Mary. Technically they were not married yet, but betrothed was as good as being married. Mary smiled at her father then at the Queen. She didn't look all too happy with this marriage, but she smiled at her anyway because appearances were everything, she had learned at the nunnery. Appearances and a good smile to destroy your enemies.

Before the wedding, Juana sends another one of her spies to scout the future Duchess.

She is beautiful, wise but willful. She will make a good Duchess.

That was not what she wanted to hear. Anything? A scandal? Anything?!

Non my lady. Replies her informant, writing in his native tongue.

Damn her. No girl can be that pure in a court like her father's. She kept all her ladies under a tighter leash than her sister. Nothing went past her. Katherine on the other hand, always so pure, so gracious, she didn't care what the others did as long as he reputation remained in tact. Juana unleased an unregal fit of laughter. Reputation. Her sister had thrown that down the river Thames when she opened her leg for her daughter's husband.

God and all the angels in heaven damn her. If it weren't for their blood, she would have killed her. Then she thought -Why haven't I? She is my sister, but not my subject. And she did betray her.

A plan began to form in her mind.

It was wrong to act too hasty. Eleanor was too naïve back then. She was not naïve now. If something were to happen to Catalina or her youngest daughter, the king's beloved pearl, Nor would react immediately.

She thought about the English French-bred whore Anne Boleyn. The girl had proven herself useful. She could not be disposed of. Three Princes sounded enough but they never were. Her mother had many miscarriages and her father had lost nearly all of his male bastards. Who knew what the future would bring? With the English being so dirty and the sweating sickness visiting England every two summers ...

The girl would live. For now. Should she raise her finger, when she became Queen, against the might of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, she would be dealt with. For now Juana had more important matters at hand. She sent one of her servants to her spy's servant. Everything is now in motion, move the first piece. Let me take care of the rest. She wrote.

Chapter Text

"It's so lonely here,

surprised by all my childish fears" ~Evanescence

Mary congratulated Harry and Anne for the birth of their son. It was the newest addition to the Tudor family. He was so tiny, she could hardly believe that he had been inside Anne for nine months. The fact that he was small didn't bother Anne. She kept saying that he would grow strong as his older siblings. Mary did not doubt this but she couldn't help but feel regret every time she looked into the baby's eyes.

This should be John's baby who stands in his place in this very moment. If only Sir Thomas wasn't to scared and his family to ninny to fight and uncover who was the true culprit. She thought with anger, squeezing her fists. She walked out of the room.

Sir Thomas refused to bring his grandchildren to court. He said they were unimportant and now that the Princess Dowager had given His Majesty two new additions, his grandchildren no longer matter.

Mary saw the truth behind the man's words. It pained him to say it -that he was weak. That he was afraid.

Cecily Heron, his youngest and newly married daughter told her in confidence that she was deadly afraid for her father because every time he went back home, it was her, Alice or some other member of their family who gave the children toys or looked after him. He claimed he was too busy to spend time with them and locked himself in his study, working, praying or God only knew what.

Men like him were easy to decipher. Mary didn't like them. Sir Thomas More was a good soul, but he was too weak, indecisive and to stuck in his own notion of good and evil to really act. If she was him, he would stab the people she suspected of killing her daughter and make them suffer. She would make sure they watched and heard everything she did to their loved ones, and face death with the same fear Lizzie More faced.

But she was not a man. She was born a woman and as a woman she had to content herself with what God gave her, as her mother told her. But why? She wondered. That was not Catholic philosophy or any Christian philosophy for that matter. The Heretics believed that if God made you evil, you had to be evil even if that meant killing, raping and hurting others. Those who were destined to go to Heaven, would do good. But, she once asked her husband-to-be Philip, if she was a bad person destined to go to Heaven and still did bad things. What then? Did that prove God's judgment was flawed or rather the new faith's understanding of His ways was flawed? Philip as a member of the new religion who had grown Catholic but adopted the new ways, told her that it meant nothing. God worked in mysterious ways and His ways would find a way to rectify things.

Mary wasn't pleased with this answer but she said no more. Philip did not want to argue about religion anymore than she did. It was pointless. Words were nothing more than tools to enslave people and confuse them into thinking they are wrong or right. Of all the weapons that man invented, speech was the strongest. And it was her mother's best weapon and Anne's as well.

She grabbed her copy of Plato's Republic and began reading where she left off. She read this a million times but she never tired of it. Plato always made things seem better when they were in fact, not.

Just then Philip entered her chambers. She dismissed her ladies and greeted him. "How was the trip with my father to Richmond? I hope you did not mind hunting. I heard you didn't like it from your brother."

"My brother only said that because he thought as your lady mother, you wouldn't like it."

"How little he knows me then. I love hunting. My father and I used to di it all the time with Harry before he married." She said then added "It is my favorite sport."

"I thought your favorite sport was riding."

"They are practically the same thing. What did my father want to discuss with you?" She asked, hiding her emotions with a placid tone. She knew how taciturn her father was, and she feared that he would be calling off the engagement.

"Nothing serious. He wanted to give me a present for our wedding." He showed it to her. "He said it belonged to his mother and her mother before her. I have never seen a more beautiful ring."

"It is beautiful." She acknowledged. It was a golden ring in the form of a crown. "My father never told me he had it. He must really have a good impression of you."

Her father didn't give things like these to strangers. If he really meant it as he claimed then he was seriously considering making Philip his son in law and allying himself to the German separatist league.

"I was hoping I could practice putting it on you now."

"Now?"

"Yes." Philip said with a wicked grin. Mary blushed. It was a first in her. She had always played with boys, preferring their dangerous games over girls' mindless chit-chatter and other stupid games. But she had always seen them as friends, nothing more. Now it was different. It dawned on her that she loved Philip Wittelsbach and not just love him in the spiritual sense, but in the physical sense. She wanted to make love to him and she wanted him to whisper her name in her ears, the way she heard men did when they made love to their lovers and wives.

Mary extended her hand and he placed it slowly on her middle finger. The touch of his fingers against her was electrical. She blushed deeper when he looked up and grinned even wider.

"Lady Mary will you be my wife?"

"Yes" She said, and both grinning, they kissed.

~o~

Katherine nestled her darling boy Ferdinand against her breast. He was hungry again and before the nursemaid could hear his cries, she pushed down her chemise and thrust her breast forward to his mouth.

It was unseemly for a Queen to nurse her child. Thankfully she did not have to worry about that. Nor had made it clear to Katherine what she thought of her, and just thinking about it, hurt. Katherine did want to be friends with Nor. There was so much she could yet teach her and the two could learn from each other. For almost ten years the two had been cordial to each other but then Nor had changed her tune again. After what she told her and Henry after the birth of Anne and Harry's child, Katherine realized that the two would never be friends.

It might be for the best -she thought. We are both so different. And in any case, she has her duties and I have mine.

Satisfied, Ferdinand withdrew his lips. Katherine wiped his mouth with her handkerchief and put him back in his cradle next to his little sister, Matilda.

Matilda slept soundly, shifting uncomfortably every time her brother moved his tiny legs or hands against her. She was impatient and stubborn. Ferdinand tried to move her but she remained still. Finally the babe grew tired, turned his back and closed his eyes.

They were so unlike John when he was born. It was not a hard labor like Mary, she had come out fine but Lord, how did he cry! "That boy has lungs!" Maria had said before the King came in to see his new year baby. Katherine handed him to him, and he was immediately in love.

"A son" he said and born on New Year's Day. Though the ceremony didn't begin until March, it was still an auspicious day. Surely it was a good omen of more good things to come.

And it certainly seemed so -At first. Henry had another son with Eleanor, another daughter with her, a son with Bessie Blount and finally a daughter with his Queen. All in all, he could boast of his virility to the world. Three legitimate children, two of them boys, and two boys from his mistresses.

"Let us see Francois top that!" She remembered him saying. How they laughed and cried tears of joy every time he said it. But then their darling boy and his wife were murdered. Katherine's heart broke into a million pieces when she heard. She immediately asked about her grandchildren. If they had been killed, she would die right there from grief. Thank God both were fine. Henry came to her chambers and both grieved together. They were no longer young as they once were, but they still loved each other and she still saw in Henry, the boy she had so much ambitions and hopes for, the boy she hoped she would marry and become his Queen and his equal. In Katherine, she knew he saw his childhood love, the woman he had convinced himself (and she had convinced him as well) he was meant to be with.
The loss of their son hit them hard. Katherine was convinced this was God's punishment. "Maybe I am cursed." She told Maria Willoughby. "Maybe God is telling me that I should stop seeing Henry."

But she couldn't do it. Even if God had meant it, she couldn't keep Henry away from her. He wanted her and she wanted him.

Perhaps God's will is mysterious. She thought. And He was telling her not to give up. Ferdinand and Matilda were proof of that.

"Mother?"

"Isabella, daughter! What are you doing here? You shouldn't be seeing me like this."

"Calm down mother, it is not like I haven't seen you before in your chemise. Remember when I would sleep with you and father when Mary was being her usual bratty self?"

"You were not so good yourself, chasing her down with those scary tales."

"I know but it was fun having the upper hand against my little sister for once."

"What brings you here?" Katherine said sitting down. Isabella sat next to her.

"Father has been talking. Mary is going to get married soon and so is Edmund."

"And you want to know when your time is going to be." Katherine finished for her.

"Yes! Mother, I am going to be twenty three very soon. Many girls are married by my age. My little sister is going to be married before me. John ... I know you don't like talking about him, but he and Lizzie were married before they reached the age of Mary's betrothal. I don't want to be left behind."

"And you won't sweetheart. But you must understand these things take time and the emperor your cousin ..." She tilted her head and gave a mild smile. "... it is complicated but have faith in your father's council. They are doing their best."

The council discussed the matter amongst themselves in private. The king was adamant in marrying his eldest daughter with the Emperor while the Emperor had other ideas. He was smitten by the princess dowager's little kitten, and he said it many times how he wished he could marry her but she was not what he was looking for. The emperor had a critical eye for women. He wasn't just looking for attractive women, he was looking for a woman whom he could share his secrets and govern together with. Lady Isabella for all of her education was not born a leader. She knew very little about ruling and she was very young when her mother and cousin had been co-regents in their king's absence.

The Lady Mary in contrast took a lot after her mother. She was the second youngest of her brood, but she was the brightest and the only one of the king's children who took after him. It was a shame -Cromwell told them -that the king's second eldest daughter and princess dowager's second youngest was not the one they could use to bring the Emperor into their fold.

"There are other priorities to be discussed." Thomas More said, not really caring anymore who Harry married his children to. As long as they were far from the kingdom, the better.

"We do Sir Thomas but if you remember, the king's children are of an utmost priority for foreign policy." Sir Thomas Cromwell said as amicably as he could."Gentlemen, the Princess of Wales' brother is going to be reassigned to the Emperor's court. He is going to be giving His Imperial Majesty, our Majesty's letter and tell him that it is in his best interest to pick our dearest lady Isabella over any other royal he has in mind."

"That is going to be difficult." Thomas Howard said in earnest, not liking Thomas Cromwell taking control of the council. He didn't like Thomas More either, but at least More was of the right stock. "My nephew will be up against strong competition."

"Rumors are that Charles has taken a special interest for his sister in law, Isabel of Portugal and she is waiting for their second child." His son, the Earl of Surrey, supplied. The rest laughed. The rumors were well known.

"Oh really? I had not heard of them." Thomas Cromwell said, not really caring if the Portuguese Princess was a whore. The Emperor's affairs were his own predilection, whom he picked as his mate was theirs.

"Even if the Princess of Asturias' royal brats are the Emperor's bastards, it doesn't make any difference." Thomas said calmly. "The Emperor is not stupid to admit on his folly and neither will his brother, if this is true, that he has been unmanned by his own brother."

"Perhaps not now. But if she keeps giving him more sons that look like Charles, his mother will borrow his breeches and take matters into her own hands." Thomas Howard said, and no one said a word on the contrary. The Queen of Spain was well known for her anger taking control of her. She had beat two of her councilors last week, according to their ambassadors when they gave her negative reports.

"The bitch is crazy." Cromwell and More heard some whisper, and they could not agree more, but remained silent. If the nobles wanted to be as crass as they always were, then they would let them. After all they had gone through, especially More, they refused to sink to their level.

"Your Grace, you are reminded you are at the highest meeting of the realm; the Queen and her daughter in law are not to be made fun of."

"Come on Cromwell, you do it as well. Everyone here knows the Queen cannot stand her daughter in law and neither does her husband since he discovered her in his brother's bed." Thomas Seymour, the youngest and newest member of the council said. His elder brother, Ned elbowed him, glaring at him. Shut up Thomas -his eyes screamed.

"I keep my thoughts to myself Master Seymour as should you." Cromwell said, not bothering to look at the impatient youth.

"I have filed for a new bill to open a new poor house."

"Under whose authority?" The Duke of Norfolk asked.

"Under the King and Queen of course. They are worried that there might not be enough and the two Princess of Wales, the Infanta Katherine of Aragon and Her Highness, Anne Boleyn, your niece Your Grace, are interested in expanding education to the lower classes."

"And naturally you accepted."

"Naturally I did as the King's humble servant. Back to the matter at hand my lords, the King wants to make it mandatory that every parent sends their school to these elementary school and every noble contribute at least one percent of their wealth to these new poor houses."

"That is reasonable. I say aye." The Duke said and others followed.

With the meeting over, Thomas Cromwell called Thomas More to stay behind. "I noticed that you said neither 'nay' or 'yay' to any of His Majesty's projects. Why is that?"

"His Majesty asked me to come here in good faith, I did, so he would leave me and my family alone. I have no wish to be part of the King's policy making."

"But you can't run away from it. You are, whether you like it or not, related to the king through your grandchildren. I have also noticed that you have never once brought them here and you have refused the King his visits. If His Majesty were a tyrant he would force you give up custody of them but let's thank God he is not."

"Cromwell, you are a good servant and a good politician. You care for the King's affairs and I admire you for that but keep your business strictly the King's, do not meddle in my affairs." Thomas More said, pursing his lips so tightly together they formed a thin line then he wheeled around and walked away.

"You as I do know I can't Sir Thomas. The King's affairs are my business but so is yours. The King misses you, he speaks highly of you and the Princess Dowager has always held you in such a high steam. Personally I don't follow most of your ideology but I can see why they do. You are a man who believes deeply in family and has devoted himself to it."

"Out with it Cromwell." Thomas said spinning around, in frustration. If he wasn't half the man he was, he would beat this man into a bloody pulp. Who did he think he was meddling in his personal life? "What is it that you want from me? To admit that I am hurt, that I cry every night asking the Lord why is it that I, his faithful subject who has never wavered in his religious and secular duties, had his daughter taken from him? Is that it?"

"No, Sir Thomas. I just want to understand why you closed yourself from the entire world. Two years and we have known nothing about you except when you show up and the King has to drag you for that." Cromwell said. "You lost your daughter and it hurts, I know it, and you can laugh all you want but I know how much it hurts but it will pass. It is not the end of the world."

For you it was not Cromwell, but for me it was. When you lost your daughters, I heard how you cried and when you lost your wife too. I remarried shortly after Joanne, many accused of me opportunist and gold-digger but I ignored their accusations. Alice is a good woman, my children needed a mother and she volunteered. I have never regretted that but when they told me that my daughter was stabbed, my heart broke. I did cry for days, I cursed God and then I cursed myself because I realized that her death was my fault. I killed my daughter. I may not have held the blade to her heart but I did things in my past that made this happen. And I have to live with it."

"Sir Thomas we have all done terrible things once or twice, God doesn't murder children because of that. If He wanted to punish us, he would do it by other means."

"That is what you believe Cromwell?"

"It is." He said in full honesty. He didn't believe that God punished sinners by taking away their children. A merciful God would not do that. Regardless of Sir Thomas More's beliefs, the real God was not a mad-man hell bent on punishing everyone who disobeyed him. If that were true, then they would all be dead.

"I can't tell you how to live your life Sir Thomas, but for the sake of your children and your other loved ones, you must move on or otherwise you won't be able to come out of this depression." Thomas Cromwell said then walked away, ahead of Sir Thomas, heading for his own chambers.

Thomas More thought on what Cromwell had said. He had a letter from his daughters, the two Megs and Cecily, telling him about his twin grandchildren music lessons. Like their paternal grandparents they loved music and they loved to dance. When he wasn't present, or pretended to be asleep, not wanting to be bothered by their voices or faces that reminded him so much of his daughter and his former pupil and friend, Harry. They would start running around his room and then across the halls of the second floor then hold little masques where they would pretend to be some deity or saint.

Alice always invited him but Thomas responded he was too busy. One day he saw them. He was standing near the doorway, hidden in the shadows when he gasped. They were wearing his cap and furs, his grandson pretending to be him while his granddaughter was wearing Lizzie's favorite flat hood pretending to be her maternal grandmother.

He went to his desk and took out ink and quill and began writing to his daughter Margaret Roper with whom the twins were staying with now. He was going to let them come to court with her and her husband William, as their chaperone. It was not going to be easy for them. But it was time they got to know their royal relatives.

Mary was happy to see her niece and nephew once again. Her brother Harry introduced them to his wife, the Princess of Wales, Anne Boleyn.

"Your Highness." They said, bowing their heads down. At last the family was reunited.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Mary put her book down. Her dreams of wielding a sword on one hand and a rod on the other, were replaced by new ones. The fancy sword was replaced by a spear, tightly held by her left hand whilst a red ribbon lay on her open right hand.

"Bad dream?" Her cousin asked. Mary nodded. "You shouldn't be afraid, he is going to be a good husband. You are living the dream. Even your sister is envious of you."

"Yes, I know." Meg didn't need to remind her of Isabella's fits of jealousy. These had gotten worse in the past two months. Mary's husband was every girl's dream while Isabella's, while wielding enormous power, was still his mother's puppet. Poor her. She didn't feel much pity for her older sister. Pity was something she hated. She reserved pity for the people she loathed. Isabella is my sister but the two of us have always been strangers to one another.

Isabella's ambitions were easy to piece out. She was an open book whom had little control over her desires. Mary on the other hand, was a mystery. Even to herself.

Who knew what she truly wanted? What if Philip was not the key to her happiness but instead, she ended up stuck in a loveless union like her father?

It was useless to fight. Their fate would soon follow and she knew it.

But how to live like that? Knowing that you were meant for pain and regardless how many times you try and the little times you succeed, you would always go back to restart the same cycle. Live, try, succeed, fail, repeat.

It was as if God had chosen her family to entertain him. No! She was going to keep fighting and resisting the violent winds of conformity by unleashing her own winds. She wasn't born a Princess; yet royal blood cursed through her veins. She was the blood of the dragon, the lion's cub. Whatever was thrown at her, she would deal with it and come out triumphant.

"I shudder every time I think about the Chin. Don't laugh. It's true! The size of that thing." Meg made a dramatic gesture. "God Almighty."

"That is not a nice thing to say. The man is no Adonis but he's the most powerful man in Christendom. If he wished, he could obliterate us all."

Now it was Meg's turn to laugh. "He will never be so bold. He is still under mommy dearest's thumb. Every command, he follows like a lost puppy."

"He has no choice." Mary said.

"Don't tell me you feel bad for his Imperial Majesty? He is a fool."

"Correction, he is a tool, not a fool." Mary said. Meg opened her mouth to reply but Mary beat her to it. "You're right, if he wanted, he could kill her, lock her up in some convent and assume power but he never will because he is not stupid. If she were to die, there would be revolts so he has to put up with her."

"That's too much one man can bear. If I were him-"

"But you are not. He sees kingship as his true calling. It is what he was raised to do. If it means enduring endless fits of rage from that shrew, so be it. He's not sentimental, ambition is what drives him. My aunt knows this, it's why she both likes and distrusts him. Were he a boot licker, desperate for love like Ferdinand, she'd hate him. The way you described him earlier, that is how his brother is."

"Another victim of the mad Queen's greed. I feel sad just thinking about him now that you told me this. Always cheerful, expecting her approval and getting nothing in return for his love." Meg said, not feeling at all what she expressed.

"That's the way of kings." Mary said with a tone of finality. Were she to continue with this conversation, she would tell her cousin that her aunt was far from mad. It's those around her who perceived her as mad because she was more aware than they were, and exhibited very little emotion.

If my mother were in her place … Mary ventured to think that night after the two cousins changed into their nightgowns. What type of queen would she be?

Her mother was known for her compassion. But she also had a strong character. She wouldn't dismiss her councilors as easily as Juana did. Neither would she fall for their flattery. Her father's councilors found it difficult to convince him when her mother was around. The Princess Dowager never missed anything they said or did. Every gesture, every word was recorded so when they wanted to gaslight their opponents –or her- to get the King dancing to their tune, she played it back.
As Queen regnant, she would behave differently, although not all that differently. She would fool her councilors into thinking she agreed with them, then surprise them. If they rejected her plan, she'd use whatever they said or did in the past against them.

My mother's greatest weapon is the truth. "Truth" –she said –"is what reminds you of who you are. If you embrace its message, you won't listen to naysayers or flatterers whose words will just push you down the cliff."

She was right of course. But truth wasn't always as powerful a weapon to wield against the venomous serpents and hungry wolves in their midst.

Eleanor read the latest batch of poetry written by her husband. Henry did not want to admit that he was inspired by the same influences that had shaped her brother into one of most illustrious princes in Europe. It is a shame that those barbarians in our mother's country do not appreciate his efforts. Her brother had introduced Castiglione's manual to those brutes in the lower regions of Spain and their response was to spit at the boots of their civilized overlords. "My father would have burst out laughing." She sighed. "Plebs. Sheep without shepherd always run amok."

Madge Shelton rolled her eyes. The Queen and her ladies were so invested in what their mistress was saying they didn't notice Madge's mocking gesture. She told Anne all about it when she visited her royal chambers.

"I feel sorry for her. It is hard not to when the only person standing between her and the King still holds the upper hand."

"I hate being with that fat cow."

"You should care for the Queen like you care about yourself, Madge. Think of her as you and all will be well." Anne said curtly.

"It is easy for you to say, cos. You don't have to attend or listen to her every word. It is treason I tell you."

"Hush Madge, even walls these thick have good ears." Anne told her.

Madge needed no reminder. The Queen had her spies, so did the King and her aunt, the Princess Dowager. Court wasn't safe. You couldn't even trust your own shadow. "I miss the good old days when it was just us the Howards, Shelton and the Boleyns."

"Say goodbye to those good old days." Anne said. "We have a chance here to do real change. The Queen can act however she wants and do what she likes. Her time is coming to an end, it is why she is colluding with the King's enemies."

"There shouldn't be a reason why I keep my mouth shut. It's torture. Nobody likes her. Let me return to your service Anne."

Anne gave an exasperated sigh. Good Lord, give me patience. "I told you before, Madge. It's too late for that." She lowered her voice. "You have to start thinking about the big picture. When His Majesty, God willing it doesn't come soon, dies, my husband will have the crown of St. Edward placed upon his head and I shall be crowned his queen. The new King will be different from others before him." Her lips curled up into a big smile. "Everything we have dreamed of will finally come true. We are at the edge of a golden world, Madge."

"But-"

"We are so close." She repeated. She grasped her cousin's large hand. "Think of the possibilities."

Madge nodded. The road back to Windsor was noisy. The Princess of Wales' ladies were chatty. Madge was the only one in her entourage who was silent. She smiled and gave a slight shake of her head whenever they said something amusing or she disagreed with, to keep up appearances.

Anybody who is somebody was watched by another somebody.

"Is this all it will take?" Juana asked Sir Conroy. The man had been loyal to more than three masters; she didn't trust him. The man viewed her as a sorry-excuse for a queen in contrast to her mother who had been worthy of her crown and whose exploits had won her the love and respect of her people.

If they only knew the woman as well as I did. Her mother was a self-righteous hypocrite, a domineering mother and wife whose sins had come back to haunt her in her last days.

"No more, no less. The King of England simply asks that you let him keep the Norman lands that are his by right of his Norman ancestors."

"Yes, yes," she said, waving her hand dismissively, "I do not need a historical lesson. He can have those god-forsaken lands."

Sir Conroy conferred the Queen of Spain's message to Henry. Henry thanked his ambassador to Spain for this glorious news. He relayed them to Katherine who told him the same thing Wolsey did when he read him Juana's response. "You must consider her offer. Give credit to Nor while you are at it, so she won't be swayed by my sister."

He wished it were that easy. "Nor will plot nonetheless. She and her mother think they can buy me with their medicines and France."

"Juana knows that you share her interest in health and alchemy. She and mother have always had a strong interest in science, it's the only thing that the two had in common."

"I do not trust her. What if it is poison?"

"My love, Juana is many things but she is no fool." Although I wish she was. It was one thing to have an envious sister, another thing entirely to be hated by one whose intelligence equalled her envy. "She is not going to risk a civil war she knows Nor can't win."

Katherine was right, but for once, her words didn't bring him any comfort.

Chapter Text

Thanks to everyone who have supported this and every other fic of mine. However, I've come to the end of the line. I'll no longer be continuing this or any of my other works in progress. I've come to the end of my writing cycle. I don't have the spark. If I ever did, it's gone and I won't be writing anymore.

Yours truly,

AnnaCipactli12.