Chapter Text
Chapter 1: The Knock
It was quite late in the night when a hooded man got off his horse and knocked on the door of one modest home in Essex.
When the door opened, the hooded man unlatched his cloak’s lock, letting the hood fall and greeted the woman who opened the door.
“Mary, it’s good to see you.” he said.
“Lord Percy, what brings you here at so late in the evening?” Mary Stafford nee Boleyn inquired as she opened the door and saw who it was standing on her doorstep.
“Mary, may I come in? I’m afraid I have something to ask of you of utmost importance.” Henry Percy said. Concerned and curious, Mary let him in and led him into her modest home. When they both sat down in the living room, Mary spoke. “What is it you wanted to talk about, Lord Percy?”
“Mary, as you know, your brother and several other men were executed yesterday.” Percy began. Immediately, Mary flinched at hearing her brother’s name. It was really painful for her to know that both her siblings had been condemned to death by their King for something that they could not have done!
“Yes, I also know that Anne will be executed tomorrow. What does this have to do with your visit, your grace?” Mary said.
“Well, tonight, the tower caught fire resulting in the death of two ladies in the Queen’s chamber as well as several other guards.” Percy said, at this Mary gasped and stood up.
“No, no! This cannot be! I just lost George and now Anne too?! Dear God, Why?!” Mary said who had begun to cry almost hysterically. Upon her cries, her husband, Sir William Stafford entered and tried to calm his wife.
“What has happened?” William asked, as he looked to Henry Percy for answers.
“Anne! Oh my little sister!” Mary kept repeating as she cried into her husband’s shoulder.
Henry Percy explained what had happened to William Stafford and requested that he assist Mary in sitting back in the chair so he could tell the rest of tonight’s events.
When Mary had finally calmed down and when all three of them were sat comfortable once more, Henry Percy decided to continue his story.
“As I said earlier, there was a fire in the tower. Two ladies were trapped in the Queen’s chamber however I managed to get Anne out of there in time. I had initially planned to have her brought to one of my private estates but upon hearing that my people were being followed, I needed to find a safer place to keep her until she is safe enough to travel out of the country.” Henry Percy spoke as he knew this piece of news would somewhat calm Mary.
“What did you say, your grace? Anne is alive? How? Where is she?” Mary spoke, standing up once more and approaching Henry Percy who had stood up as well.
“Yes, I planned to get her out of the tower and hide her outside the country. I did not expect the distraction that my people would do would be to start a fire that would burn down half of the tower but I suppose it worked to my purpose.” Henry Percy said.
“Where is my sister now?” Mary asked. She could not comprehend anything else right now, just that her sister was alive and somehow safe.
“She is inside the carriage. I wanted to inform you first, I had hoped to hide her here while she recovers, she was hit on the head by some falling debris on her way out with my people. She is currently still unconscious.” Henry Percy said. At this Mary ignored him and ran out of her home and headed straight to the carriage that Henry Percy had mentioned. She didn’t bother with propriety as right now, all she could think of was seeing her baby sister.
Once she opened the carriage, she saw Anne lying unconsciously on the shoulder of a woman who had her arms protectively around Anne and another man, looking at her warily, unsure of whether she was friend or foe.
“Anne, oh my sister!” Mary exclaimed, her sister was alive and safe! Quickly, she instructed the man and the woman to carefully take Anne inside her home and to gather everything they had with them.
As soon as Mary led them inside, she busied herself with preparing a room for Anne to rest in, once that was done, she requested the man and the woman to join her, her husband and Henry Percy in the living room.
Once in the living room, Mary was calm and back to her old self. Henry introduced the man and the woman as Master and Mistress Kingston, the Queen’s steward and guard in the tower. When Mary asked them to tell her what had truly happened, it was Master Kingston who spoke first.
“We had been in talks with Lord Percy about the welfare of The Queen, he informed us that one of his men will be creating a distraction and that it would be best if we were with the Queen by that time, preferably away from her chambers. So we invited her to our chambers to have supper as it would be her last night in the tower. We had befriended the Queen and we sympathize with what she was going through. We did not expect the diversion to be fire. Since we were quite far from the exit, when we were making our way out of the tower, the Queen was hit on her head and lost consciousness. We managed to make it out and into the carriage but not after someone had seen us. I was not sure if the person saw us with the Queen but I did not want to risk it so I took a different route and had one of the men who Lord Percy instructed to wait for us to send word to Lord Percy that we were being followed.” Master Kingston said as he eagerly held on to his wife’s hand.
“Thank you, Master Kingston and Mistress Kingston, for helping my sister and for believing that she did not do such crimes.” Mary said as tears fell from her eyes, this time of joy from news that her sister is truly alive and still loved by some people.
“It is no problem Madam, however I feel we should get a doctor to check up on her majesty as she is has not woken from the time we left the tower, I feel she may have had a concussion.” Mistress Kingston spoke. She had spent much time with the Queen while she was still in the tower and she found that while the Queen had a terrible temper, she was reasonable, wise and kind to her ladies and the people. She was also utterly religious as often times she would hear her say her prayers and often would find her reading the bible. She also found out from the Queen’s ladies, Madge Shelton and Nan Saville along with several other ladies in waiting that all the accusations against the Queen were false however, when Thomas Cromwell spoke to each of them, he twisted their words and turned it against their beloved Queen. How could have they spoken out for their Queen when even the King refused to believe the truth of her innocence? Even the Queen forbade them to speak for her as she claimed that she did not want them to die a traitor to the crown for trying to defend her.
After hearing Mistress Kingston’s story, Mary thanked her for her kindness toward her sister and soon she had instructed one of the few maids she had in the house to cook a meal for the Kingstons and Lord Henry Percy while her husband instructed one of their guards to fetch a doctor quickly and discreetly.
When the doctor arrived, he was quite shocked to see the Queen alive and well despite her being unconscious. Once he informed Henry Percy and Mary that Anne was fine and physically and that there was nothing he could do until she woke up. Nodding, Henry Percy handed him a heavy purse with the promise of his silence on what he had found out today and to return tomorrow.
Once the doctor left with the purse and promised to return tomorrow, Henry Percy left the Staffords and the Kingstons and headed to his estate with the promise of returning as soon as he could with news from court.