Big Bang Fic: Between Golden Worlds, Chapter 8
Title: Between golden worlds
Author: pamymex3girl
Rating: T, just to be on the safe side
Pairings/characters: Susan, Lucy, Edmund, Peter, Mary Tudor, Thomas more; Susan/Caspian, Susan/OC, Peter/OC, all normal Tudor couples
Disclaimer: I do not own neither the narnian characters nor the historical characters, just my story.
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: death, spoilers for the first three Narnia movies and three seasons of the tudors
Author's Notes: I’ve used some scenes from the series the Tudors and although I’ve tried to be historically accurate I’ve changed some things. I’ve also changed the age of the Pevensies when they went back to Narnia for the second and the third time
Summary: It is August 1524 and the Pevensies are being send to the English court. Having just lost their own world they must now learn to walk in this world. They must accept their place and live their lives, but they must be careful. For the court of Henry VIII is a dangerous place, one step in the wrong direction could prove disastrous...
Chapter 8
September 1, 1532
It was something new, something that had never happened before.
As Cromwell’s new assistant he was privy to the information much sooner than anyone else, and he even knew things nobody else was supposed to know. However, the king knew that Sir Thomas More had taught him well and Edmund Pevensie, no matter what he thought or privately believed would never share his secrets or fuel the rumors already circulating. So he knew it was coming, knew it would happen before it did, but that did not mean he was not surprised by it; the King was elevating his mistress, the women he hoped to make his next queen, to Marchioness in her own right. He knew people would talk about it; he could already hear the speculation; what did it mean? Why was the King doing it? Why was he doing it now?
People would assume that he was perhaps thinking of setting her aside.
But Edmund did not think he would; they would not come this far just to give up so close to the price; he thought the king just wanted to protect her, make sure that the king of France during their next visit. But he knew the rumor mill would work overtime. He wrote to More about it, careful to word everything in a good way, so that, should the king happen to read their correspondence; he would just conclude that he was keeping his old mentor, his friend, up to date to what was going on at court; so that More, when he finally did come back to court, knew what was going on and could act appropriately. He did not think the king truly cared about what he, little Edmund Pevensie, wrote but this was not the time to stop being careful.
Peter was there the day the created her Marchioness, and he realized for the first time how far apart they had actually grown.
****
The messenger had come a week before.
The king was inviting his only son to a special ceremony, though the king did not explain what was going on; and more importantly he was inviting his son to join them on his trip to France. Fitzroy, who loved it when his father paid attention to him, happily agreed and decided that his two best friends, Surrey and Pevensie, were going with him. And so, after so many years away from court, after only seeing his brother a handful of times since their last visit to Narnia, he was returning to court. He knew he’d see his brother there, and he was glad he would, but he could not help but feel that everything was different now; he had not seen him in so long that Peter was sure he wouldn’t be able to recognize the man his brother had become, nor the other way around.
He had seen him as a grown-up once before, but that was a different world, a different life.
He was different too, and though it pained him to admit it, he was much closer to FitzRoy and Surrey than he had been to Edmund. Apart from their time in Narnia when they helped Caspian, he could not remember the last time they truly spend some time together. It hurt a lot when he realized how far apart they had grown, the distance between them while standing in that room and watching Anne Boleyn become a Marchioness, was only a few meters; he was standing next to the king’s son on his left; Edmund was standing closer to Cromwell on the king’s right side. It was just a few meters, just a few steps, and they could have covered it, but it might as well have been different worlds they stood in, there was no way they could cross it.
It made him sad to think that they had grown so far apart that he, Peter, was sure they could never get back what they once had.
And they were probably not going to get the chance.
***
It was Lucy, who on that cold September day got sick first.
Truthfully she’d been feeling ill for some time; the weather was doing her no good, but just like many others she did not want to leave the Princess alone. Over the past few months, she’d been losing more and more of her friends, most people were too afraid to go against the king, and Mary needed all the friends she could get. Only a few hours ago the message had arrived from court that the Lady Anne Boleyn was now marchioness of Pembroke and as such Mary was expected to treat her with some degree of respect. Lucy had been very amazed when Mary, without a sense of the fear and anger she must have been falling, called over for parchment and a quill and sat down to write the Lady Anne a respectful letter, congratulating her on her elevation and wishing her luck on her trip to France.
Later, she explained to Lucy that her father was the king of England.
And as such he had the right to give titles to anyone he pleased, just like he had done with her half-brother many years ago, and she would treat those people with respect. He just didn’t have the right to against the Pope and God and take away her mother’s rightful title; the Lady Anne would be marchioness of Pembroke, but she’d never be queen. Afterwards, when Mary had retired to rest for a few hours, Lucy had also gone to bed, and now she was ill. Mary, though she did not come to her chamber too afraid to get ill as well, sends her own doctor to care for her.
For all the doctor and Mary did for her in those moments she wished that Susan could be by her side.
She wonders if this is how Mary felt when she was ill, and her mother could not be by her side.
****
Her second child was a boy, which she named Edmund.
It didn't take long to convince her husband; he'd wanted to give him any name but his own (he pointed out that there were far too many Gregory’s at court already) and Edmund, well there weren’t that many of them. Since Edmund was also to be the godfather it seemed only right to give him the name, he had, however, put his foot down about the godmother and convinced Susan that it might be better to name his sister the godmother in contrast to her sister, since she was the one caring for their children. Truthfully, and Susan could understand it; Lucy was still Mary’s companion and naming her godmother, despite being related, might make the king angry, and one did not want to anger the king.
She knows she’ll have to leave her queen at some point.
Both her husband and her father had already hinted at it, but so far it wasn’t happening; Susan assumed that the king was being careful. He would not dissolve Catherine’s household until he was married to the Lady Anne Boleyn. She dreaded that day, knowing that she would have to leave; the king would most likely call her ladies to come to court and serve the new queen, leaving only a handful of servants for the rightful queen. She did not want to take care of a woman who could make a man put his loving wife aside and turn his only daughter away, like they were nothing.
It was the Lady Talbort, who said out loud what everyone was thinking, calling Anne Boleyn a whore and many other names.
The queen had looked at them with a grave expression and told them not to speak nor think like that, but instead the pray for the poor women; for now she stood at the height of everything, as she had many years ago, but if she did not give the king what he wanted there would come a day that they would pity her. Susan wondered in that moment if she, also a queen, would have been able to take that stand or if she called the women who took her place even worse names than the other ladies called their future queen.
She probably couldn’t have.
January 25, 1533
It was a very simple affair, the marriage of the king and the lady Anne.
He’d seen it with his own eyes; the king had invited his son, and he had taken Peter with him, despite having first decided to take Surrey, but he had, unfortunately, fallen ill. There was only a handful of people there, and he watched as they were pronounced man and wife, and he wondered if anyone else found it problematic that the king was, technically seen, still married. However, he, despite his stupidity in the first few years at court, was smart enough not to say out loud what he thought. He’d come far he decided, from the boy who was mostly ignored by the king to one of his son’s (a duke twice over) main advisors and friends. It wasn’t what he had aimed for, but it was close enough, and he would take it, surely the FitzRoy would be close to the king, and perhaps he could make his name known.
He wondered if the rumors about the Lady Anne were truth.
The ones about her behavior before her marriage and the ones were going around about her being pregnant; he decided the first ones didn’t matter, if his king didn’t think there was any truth in it who was he to say any different. However, he assumed that the second rumor was the truth, that the new queen was pregnant; after all why else go through with such a hurried wedding? Why not a few more weeks, for that was all it would take with the new archbishop, and then get married? Why the hurry if she was not about to have a child, a child who if he was a boy the king surely wanted it to be born in wedlock.
May 29, 1533
It was Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, the king’s closest friend and his brother-in-law, who came to tell the queen.
Visibly shaken by what happened, though apparently not enough to speak up for the queen; he spoke the words with as much confidence as he could muster. Susan had been reading to her queen from More’s book Utopia when they announced the duke’s arrival. The queen had told them to just let him in, she was not going to move for a man who would not recognize her place; Susan had to admit he looked confident when he walked in, but lost his nerve when he saw the queen sitting there. The women, who despite being obviously been through a lot, and yet still managed to sit up straight and just radiated strength; in that moment, Susan realized; she looked more like a queen then she ever had before.
‘My lady, the archbishop of Canterbury has declared the marriage between yourself and the king illegitimate on the grounds that you were his brother’s widow, and as such he did not have the right to marry you. He commands onto you the title of Dowager Princess of Wales. In his generosity, the king has decreed that he will pay for your stay in this castle, but he will not pay your staff. He also decrees me to tell you not to try to return to him since he has married the Lady Anne Boleyn, her coronation will take place tomorrow in London.’
There was a silence so deafening Susan wondered for a moment if she had just lost all hearing.
The queen, visibly shaken by what had happened, did not say a word and the king had apparently not instructed the Duke. What do to if silence was his answer? He could not look at her anymore and turned towards the window; looking out of it as if there was something interesting to see, there really wasn’t. It was the queen who, after a few moments, broke the silence.
‘And my daughter? May I see her?’
‘My lady…. Forgive me.’
It was all the answer she would get and all the answer she needed; the king had decided to use his one and only valuable asset in this fight; her daughter. Susan wondered if he would one day realize that the more he reminded her of the girl the more she fought, for everything she did she did to make sure Mary remained a princess. However, she had lost, despite what they believed; despite what everyone did or said, despite what they felt, the queen had lost. She would be asked to leave any moment now, she and probably many of the other ladies; send to care for the new queen, send by their families to make sure the king did not think for one second that they were on Catherine’s side.
Not for the first time Susan was grateful she was a queen in Narnia and not in England.
***
The man came in the early afternoon.
If Lucy had known who he was, if she had known what his message was she would have asked him to tell her; so that she may, gently, break it to the princess. However, she had not been told, she had been with Mary at the time, and as it was impossible for the Princess to go alone, she had gone with her. She had not recognized him; she knew the Lady Salisburry had recognized him, but she did not say anything; despite being on Mary’s side, she was obviously afraid of displeasing any relative of Anne Boleyn, should she send away, had not wanted to send him away. She did not dare. Later, after Mary had locked herself in her room, she had been told the man was the Lady Anne’s father.
‘I have come to tell you of the judgment made recently by his grace the archbishop of Canterbury…’
And she listened as the man told them that the marriage between her parents was declared null and void, and that she was no longer a princess, then he told them that the Lady Anne was now queen of England. She knew it was coming; she knew her friend would say it even before the man finished his sentence; it would do her no good, her hope that her father’s love would protect her had come to nothing, but she agreed with every word.
‘ I know of no queen of England, save my mother, and I shall accept no other queen, except my mother. ‘
‘In which case I have to tell you that you are forbidden to communicate in any way with your mother from this day forward.’
‘May I not even right to her?’
‘Not even a farewell note.’
It was the perfect game, the one thing he could truly hurt them with; they had been separated for some time it was truth, but until now, they had been allowed to communicate. Now even that road was taken from them and for Mary, who loved her mother so much, Lucy knew it would be hard. She wondered what would come next, what other ploys the king would use; surely, he understood that Mary would never bend to his will, not as long as it meant going against her beloved mother?
Lucy did not know what would happen next, but it would be a long and hard road for her best friend.
And for her as well, for she intended to stand by her side or at least try.
***
She was to leave the next day.
After he had told the queen what he came to tell the Duke of Suffolk called her household together and read of the names of the people who were to go back to court. She was one of the ladies who was called to court to care for the new queen; she had known it was coming and for a moment, she wanted to protest; however, it would do her no good; it might even make the lives of her loved ones worse. So instead she listened as the Duke told them to be ready to go in a few hours and when he allowed them to go, returned to her queen. She had not moved from the place she had been sitting before, and she knew, from the look on her face probably, what It was she came to tell.
She was graceful and while she did cry a little Catherine assured her it would all be alright.
When she left a few hours later she saw the woman she had loved, and would always love, like a mother standing at her window watching them go. She would remember that moment forever; it would in the end be the most vivid memory of her, standing at that window staring at the world below. She’d remember her strength and her courage, how she looked as if nothing could take her down; although she had already lost everything she cared for. Susan looked at her once more before she entered her carriage, and she knew she would remember it forever, that moment that look, those feelings. And the knowledge that this was the last time she would see her, no matter what she told herself.
She remembers how, when she was a child, her governess used to tell her the story of King Henry and Queen Catherine. To her young mind, it had sounded like a beautiful fairy tale, and she had wished for a knight in shining armor like the king to come and save her and marry her. She wonders if, had that young and lost girl known what was coming, she would still have been so wishful to marry the future king. If she would not have just begged her mother to take her home and find her a better husband, a better live. Or would she have married him anyway, certain in her conviction that God wanted her child to be queen of England?
It had seemed like a fairy tale then, but as she watched the queen standing all alone she realized it might have been a fairy tale then, but this right here was how it ended.
And it was anything but a fairy tale.
Prologue | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight | Chapter Nine | Chapter Ten | Chapter Eleven | Chapter Twelve | Epilogue
Author: pamymex3girl
Rating: T, just to be on the safe side
Pairings/characters: Susan, Lucy, Edmund, Peter, Mary Tudor, Thomas more; Susan/Caspian, Susan/OC, Peter/OC, all normal Tudor couples
Disclaimer: I do not own neither the narnian characters nor the historical characters, just my story.
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: death, spoilers for the first three Narnia movies and three seasons of the tudors
Author's Notes: I’ve used some scenes from the series the Tudors and although I’ve tried to be historically accurate I’ve changed some things. I’ve also changed the age of the Pevensies when they went back to Narnia for the second and the third time
Summary: It is August 1524 and the Pevensies are being send to the English court. Having just lost their own world they must now learn to walk in this world. They must accept their place and live their lives, but they must be careful. For the court of Henry VIII is a dangerous place, one step in the wrong direction could prove disastrous...
Chapter 8
September 1, 1532
It was something new, something that had never happened before.
As Cromwell’s new assistant he was privy to the information much sooner than anyone else, and he even knew things nobody else was supposed to know. However, the king knew that Sir Thomas More had taught him well and Edmund Pevensie, no matter what he thought or privately believed would never share his secrets or fuel the rumors already circulating. So he knew it was coming, knew it would happen before it did, but that did not mean he was not surprised by it; the King was elevating his mistress, the women he hoped to make his next queen, to Marchioness in her own right. He knew people would talk about it; he could already hear the speculation; what did it mean? Why was the King doing it? Why was he doing it now?
People would assume that he was perhaps thinking of setting her aside.
But Edmund did not think he would; they would not come this far just to give up so close to the price; he thought the king just wanted to protect her, make sure that the king of France during their next visit. But he knew the rumor mill would work overtime. He wrote to More about it, careful to word everything in a good way, so that, should the king happen to read their correspondence; he would just conclude that he was keeping his old mentor, his friend, up to date to what was going on at court; so that More, when he finally did come back to court, knew what was going on and could act appropriately. He did not think the king truly cared about what he, little Edmund Pevensie, wrote but this was not the time to stop being careful.
Peter was there the day the created her Marchioness, and he realized for the first time how far apart they had actually grown.
****
The messenger had come a week before.
The king was inviting his only son to a special ceremony, though the king did not explain what was going on; and more importantly he was inviting his son to join them on his trip to France. Fitzroy, who loved it when his father paid attention to him, happily agreed and decided that his two best friends, Surrey and Pevensie, were going with him. And so, after so many years away from court, after only seeing his brother a handful of times since their last visit to Narnia, he was returning to court. He knew he’d see his brother there, and he was glad he would, but he could not help but feel that everything was different now; he had not seen him in so long that Peter was sure he wouldn’t be able to recognize the man his brother had become, nor the other way around.
He had seen him as a grown-up once before, but that was a different world, a different life.
He was different too, and though it pained him to admit it, he was much closer to FitzRoy and Surrey than he had been to Edmund. Apart from their time in Narnia when they helped Caspian, he could not remember the last time they truly spend some time together. It hurt a lot when he realized how far apart they had grown, the distance between them while standing in that room and watching Anne Boleyn become a Marchioness, was only a few meters; he was standing next to the king’s son on his left; Edmund was standing closer to Cromwell on the king’s right side. It was just a few meters, just a few steps, and they could have covered it, but it might as well have been different worlds they stood in, there was no way they could cross it.
It made him sad to think that they had grown so far apart that he, Peter, was sure they could never get back what they once had.
And they were probably not going to get the chance.
***
It was Lucy, who on that cold September day got sick first.
Truthfully she’d been feeling ill for some time; the weather was doing her no good, but just like many others she did not want to leave the Princess alone. Over the past few months, she’d been losing more and more of her friends, most people were too afraid to go against the king, and Mary needed all the friends she could get. Only a few hours ago the message had arrived from court that the Lady Anne Boleyn was now marchioness of Pembroke and as such Mary was expected to treat her with some degree of respect. Lucy had been very amazed when Mary, without a sense of the fear and anger she must have been falling, called over for parchment and a quill and sat down to write the Lady Anne a respectful letter, congratulating her on her elevation and wishing her luck on her trip to France.
Later, she explained to Lucy that her father was the king of England.
And as such he had the right to give titles to anyone he pleased, just like he had done with her half-brother many years ago, and she would treat those people with respect. He just didn’t have the right to against the Pope and God and take away her mother’s rightful title; the Lady Anne would be marchioness of Pembroke, but she’d never be queen. Afterwards, when Mary had retired to rest for a few hours, Lucy had also gone to bed, and now she was ill. Mary, though she did not come to her chamber too afraid to get ill as well, sends her own doctor to care for her.
For all the doctor and Mary did for her in those moments she wished that Susan could be by her side.
She wonders if this is how Mary felt when she was ill, and her mother could not be by her side.
****
Her second child was a boy, which she named Edmund.
It didn't take long to convince her husband; he'd wanted to give him any name but his own (he pointed out that there were far too many Gregory’s at court already) and Edmund, well there weren’t that many of them. Since Edmund was also to be the godfather it seemed only right to give him the name, he had, however, put his foot down about the godmother and convinced Susan that it might be better to name his sister the godmother in contrast to her sister, since she was the one caring for their children. Truthfully, and Susan could understand it; Lucy was still Mary’s companion and naming her godmother, despite being related, might make the king angry, and one did not want to anger the king.
She knows she’ll have to leave her queen at some point.
Both her husband and her father had already hinted at it, but so far it wasn’t happening; Susan assumed that the king was being careful. He would not dissolve Catherine’s household until he was married to the Lady Anne Boleyn. She dreaded that day, knowing that she would have to leave; the king would most likely call her ladies to come to court and serve the new queen, leaving only a handful of servants for the rightful queen. She did not want to take care of a woman who could make a man put his loving wife aside and turn his only daughter away, like they were nothing.
It was the Lady Talbort, who said out loud what everyone was thinking, calling Anne Boleyn a whore and many other names.
The queen had looked at them with a grave expression and told them not to speak nor think like that, but instead the pray for the poor women; for now she stood at the height of everything, as she had many years ago, but if she did not give the king what he wanted there would come a day that they would pity her. Susan wondered in that moment if she, also a queen, would have been able to take that stand or if she called the women who took her place even worse names than the other ladies called their future queen.
She probably couldn’t have.
January 25, 1533
It was a very simple affair, the marriage of the king and the lady Anne.
He’d seen it with his own eyes; the king had invited his son, and he had taken Peter with him, despite having first decided to take Surrey, but he had, unfortunately, fallen ill. There was only a handful of people there, and he watched as they were pronounced man and wife, and he wondered if anyone else found it problematic that the king was, technically seen, still married. However, he, despite his stupidity in the first few years at court, was smart enough not to say out loud what he thought. He’d come far he decided, from the boy who was mostly ignored by the king to one of his son’s (a duke twice over) main advisors and friends. It wasn’t what he had aimed for, but it was close enough, and he would take it, surely the FitzRoy would be close to the king, and perhaps he could make his name known.
He wondered if the rumors about the Lady Anne were truth.
The ones about her behavior before her marriage and the ones were going around about her being pregnant; he decided the first ones didn’t matter, if his king didn’t think there was any truth in it who was he to say any different. However, he assumed that the second rumor was the truth, that the new queen was pregnant; after all why else go through with such a hurried wedding? Why not a few more weeks, for that was all it would take with the new archbishop, and then get married? Why the hurry if she was not about to have a child, a child who if he was a boy the king surely wanted it to be born in wedlock.
May 29, 1533
It was Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk, the king’s closest friend and his brother-in-law, who came to tell the queen.
Visibly shaken by what happened, though apparently not enough to speak up for the queen; he spoke the words with as much confidence as he could muster. Susan had been reading to her queen from More’s book Utopia when they announced the duke’s arrival. The queen had told them to just let him in, she was not going to move for a man who would not recognize her place; Susan had to admit he looked confident when he walked in, but lost his nerve when he saw the queen sitting there. The women, who despite being obviously been through a lot, and yet still managed to sit up straight and just radiated strength; in that moment, Susan realized; she looked more like a queen then she ever had before.
‘My lady, the archbishop of Canterbury has declared the marriage between yourself and the king illegitimate on the grounds that you were his brother’s widow, and as such he did not have the right to marry you. He commands onto you the title of Dowager Princess of Wales. In his generosity, the king has decreed that he will pay for your stay in this castle, but he will not pay your staff. He also decrees me to tell you not to try to return to him since he has married the Lady Anne Boleyn, her coronation will take place tomorrow in London.’
There was a silence so deafening Susan wondered for a moment if she had just lost all hearing.
The queen, visibly shaken by what had happened, did not say a word and the king had apparently not instructed the Duke. What do to if silence was his answer? He could not look at her anymore and turned towards the window; looking out of it as if there was something interesting to see, there really wasn’t. It was the queen who, after a few moments, broke the silence.
‘And my daughter? May I see her?’
‘My lady…. Forgive me.’
It was all the answer she would get and all the answer she needed; the king had decided to use his one and only valuable asset in this fight; her daughter. Susan wondered if he would one day realize that the more he reminded her of the girl the more she fought, for everything she did she did to make sure Mary remained a princess. However, she had lost, despite what they believed; despite what everyone did or said, despite what they felt, the queen had lost. She would be asked to leave any moment now, she and probably many of the other ladies; send to care for the new queen, send by their families to make sure the king did not think for one second that they were on Catherine’s side.
Not for the first time Susan was grateful she was a queen in Narnia and not in England.
***
The man came in the early afternoon.
If Lucy had known who he was, if she had known what his message was she would have asked him to tell her; so that she may, gently, break it to the princess. However, she had not been told, she had been with Mary at the time, and as it was impossible for the Princess to go alone, she had gone with her. She had not recognized him; she knew the Lady Salisburry had recognized him, but she did not say anything; despite being on Mary’s side, she was obviously afraid of displeasing any relative of Anne Boleyn, should she send away, had not wanted to send him away. She did not dare. Later, after Mary had locked herself in her room, she had been told the man was the Lady Anne’s father.
‘I have come to tell you of the judgment made recently by his grace the archbishop of Canterbury…’
And she listened as the man told them that the marriage between her parents was declared null and void, and that she was no longer a princess, then he told them that the Lady Anne was now queen of England. She knew it was coming; she knew her friend would say it even before the man finished his sentence; it would do her no good, her hope that her father’s love would protect her had come to nothing, but she agreed with every word.
‘ I know of no queen of England, save my mother, and I shall accept no other queen, except my mother. ‘
‘In which case I have to tell you that you are forbidden to communicate in any way with your mother from this day forward.’
‘May I not even right to her?’
‘Not even a farewell note.’
It was the perfect game, the one thing he could truly hurt them with; they had been separated for some time it was truth, but until now, they had been allowed to communicate. Now even that road was taken from them and for Mary, who loved her mother so much, Lucy knew it would be hard. She wondered what would come next, what other ploys the king would use; surely, he understood that Mary would never bend to his will, not as long as it meant going against her beloved mother?
Lucy did not know what would happen next, but it would be a long and hard road for her best friend.
And for her as well, for she intended to stand by her side or at least try.
***
She was to leave the next day.
After he had told the queen what he came to tell the Duke of Suffolk called her household together and read of the names of the people who were to go back to court. She was one of the ladies who was called to court to care for the new queen; she had known it was coming and for a moment, she wanted to protest; however, it would do her no good; it might even make the lives of her loved ones worse. So instead she listened as the Duke told them to be ready to go in a few hours and when he allowed them to go, returned to her queen. She had not moved from the place she had been sitting before, and she knew, from the look on her face probably, what It was she came to tell.
She was graceful and while she did cry a little Catherine assured her it would all be alright.
When she left a few hours later she saw the woman she had loved, and would always love, like a mother standing at her window watching them go. She would remember that moment forever; it would in the end be the most vivid memory of her, standing at that window staring at the world below. She’d remember her strength and her courage, how she looked as if nothing could take her down; although she had already lost everything she cared for. Susan looked at her once more before she entered her carriage, and she knew she would remember it forever, that moment that look, those feelings. And the knowledge that this was the last time she would see her, no matter what she told herself.
She remembers how, when she was a child, her governess used to tell her the story of King Henry and Queen Catherine. To her young mind, it had sounded like a beautiful fairy tale, and she had wished for a knight in shining armor like the king to come and save her and marry her. She wonders if, had that young and lost girl known what was coming, she would still have been so wishful to marry the future king. If she would not have just begged her mother to take her home and find her a better husband, a better live. Or would she have married him anyway, certain in her conviction that God wanted her child to be queen of England?
It had seemed like a fairy tale then, but as she watched the queen standing all alone she realized it might have been a fairy tale then, but this right here was how it ended.
And it was anything but a fairy tale.
Prologue | Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight | Chapter Nine | Chapter Ten | Chapter Eleven | Chapter Twelve | Epilogue