Part 29 (1/2)

She dropped to the stool before the little looking gla.s.s, rested her head on her hands and stared at herself. ”He's in love with me,” she said. ”He's mad for me. I spend all my time bringing him close and holding him off. When he dances with me I can feel his hardness like a codpiece. He's desperate to have me.”

”So?”

”I have to keep him like that, like a sauce pot on a charcoal burner. I have to keep him at the simmer. If he boils over what would become of me? I'd be scalded to death. If he cools off and goes and dips his wick somewhere else then I have a rival. That's why I need you here.”

”To dip his wick?” I repeated her crude image.

”Yes.”

”You'll have to manage without,” I said. ”You have only a few weeks. Uncle says that you'll be betrothed this summer and married this autumn. I've played my part, and I can go.”

She did not even ask me what part I had played. Anne always had a vision like a lantern with the shutters down. She only ever shone in one direction. It was always Anne and then the Boleyns and then the Howards. She would never have needed the catechism that George shouted at me to remind me of my loyalties. She always knew where her interests lay.

”I can do it for a few weeks more,” she said. ”And then I shall have it all.”

Summer 1527 AFTER GEORGE LEFT ME AT HEVER I HEARD NOTHING FROM either him or Anne as the court made its progress through the English countryside in the sunny days of that perfect summer. I did not care. I had my children and my home to myself and no one watched me to see if I looked pale or jealous. No one whispered to another behind a s.h.i.+elding hand that I was in better or worse looks than my sister. I was free of the constant observation of the court, I was free of the constant struggle between the king and the queen. Best of all, I was free from my own constant jealous tally between Anne and myself. either him or Anne as the court made its progress through the English countryside in the sunny days of that perfect summer. I did not care. I had my children and my home to myself and no one watched me to see if I looked pale or jealous. No one whispered to another behind a s.h.i.+elding hand that I was in better or worse looks than my sister. I was free of the constant observation of the court, I was free of the constant struggle between the king and the queen. Best of all, I was free from my own constant jealous tally between Anne and myself.

My children were of an age where the whole day could fly by in a set of tiny activities. We fished in the moat with pieces of bacon on strings. We saddled up my hunter and each child took a turn in sitting on her for a walk. We went on expeditions across the castle drawbridge and into the garden to pick flowers or into the orchard for fruit. We ordered a cart lined with hay and I took the reins myself and drove us out of the park all the way to Edenbridge and drank small ale in the house there. I watched them kneel for Ma.s.s, their eyes round at the raising of the Host. I watched them as they fell asleep at the end of the day, their skin flushed with suns.h.i.+ne, their long eyelashes sweeping their plump cheeks. I forgot that there was such a thing as court and king and favorite.

Then, in August, I had a letter from Anne. It was brought to me by her most trusted groom, Tom Stevens, who had been born and bred in Tonbridge. ”From my mistress, to be given to your own hands,” he said reverently on his knee before me in the dining hall.

”Thank you, Tom.”

”And none but you has seen it,” he said.

”Very good.”

”And none but you will see it for I shall stand guard over you while you read it and then put it in the fire for you and we shall watch it burn, my lady.”

I smiled but I began to feel uneasy. ”Is my sister well?”

”As a young lamb in the meadow.”

I broke the seal and spread the papers.

Be glad for me for it is done and my fate is sealed. I have it. I am to be Queen of England. He asked me to marry him this very night and promised that he will be free within the month, when Wolsey is acting Pope. I had Uncle and Father join us at once, saying that I wanted to share my joy with my family, and so there are witnesses and he cannot withdraw. I have a ring from him which I am to keep hid for the meantime but it is a betrothal ring and he is sworn to be mine. I have done the impossible. I have caught the king and sealed the fate of the queen. I have overturned the order. Nothing will ever be the same for any woman in this country again. We are to be married as soon as Wolsey sends word that he has annulled their marriage. The queen will know of it on our wedding day, and not before. She is to go to a nunnery in Spain. I don't want her in my country. We are to be married as soon as Wolsey sends word that he has annulled their marriage. The queen will know of it on our wedding day, and not before. She is to go to a nunnery in Spain. I don't want her in my country. You can be happy for me and for our kin. I shall not forget that you helped me to this and you will find that you have a true friend and sister in Anne, Queen of England. You can be happy for me and for our kin. I shall not forget that you helped me to this and you will find that you have a true friend and sister in Anne, Queen of England.

I rested the letter on my lap and looked at the embers of the fire. Tom stepped forward.

”Shall I burn it now?”

”Let me read it once more,” I said.

He stepped back but I did not look at the excited scrawl of black ink again. I did not need to remind myself what she had written. Her triumph was in every line. The end of my life as the favorite of the English court was complete. Anne had won and I had lost and a new life would start for her, she would be, as she already signed herself: Anne, Queen of England. And I would be next to nothing.

”So, at last,” I whispered to myself.

I handed Tom the letter and watched him push it to the very center of the red embers. It twisted in the heat and browned and then blackened. I could still read the words: I have overturned the order. Nothing will ever be the same for any woman in this country again. I have overturned the order. Nothing will ever be the same for any woman in this country again.

I did not need to keep the letter to remember the tone. Anna triumphant. And she was right. Nothing would be the same for any woman in this country again. From this time onward no wife, however obedient, however loving, would be safe. For everyone would know that if a wife such as Queen Katherine of England could be put aside for no reason, then any wife could be put aside.

The letter burst suddenly into bright yellow flame, I watched it burn to soft white ash. Tom put a poker into the fire and mashed it into dust.

”Thank you,” I said. ”If you go to the kitchen they will give you food.” I drew a silver coin from my pocket and gave it to him. He bowed and left me looking at the little specks of white ash floating on the smoke up the chimney and out to the night sky, which I could see through the great arch of brick and soot.

”Queen Anne,” I said, listening to the words. ”Queen Anne of England.”

I was watching over the children having their morning nap when I saw a horseman with grooms, from the high window. I hurried down, expecting George. But the horse that came clattering into the courtyard belonged to my husband, William. He smiled at my surprise.

”Don't blame me for being the harbinger of gloom.”

”Anne?” I asked.

He nodded. ”Outflanked.”

I led him into the great hall and seated him in my grandmother's chair nearest the fire.

”Now,” I said, when I checked that the door was shut and the room empty. ”Tell me.”

”You remember Francisco Felipez, the queen's servant?”

I nodded, admitting nothing.

”He requested safe conduct from Dover to Spain but it was a feint. He had a letter from the queen to her nephew and he tricked the king. He went by specially hired s.h.i.+p out of London that very morning and by sea to Spain. By the time they realized they'd lost him he'd gone. He's got the queen's letter to Charles of Spain; and all h.e.l.l has broken loose.”

I found my heart was pounding. I put my hand to my throat as if I would still it. ”What sort of h.e.l.l?”

”Wolsey's still in Europe but the Pope is forewarned and won't have him as deputy. None of the cardinals will support him and even the peace deal has fallen through. We're back at war with Spain. Henry's sent his secretary flying off to Orvieto, straight to the Pope's prison, to ask him to annul the marriage himself, and allow Henry to marry any woman he pleases, even even one whose sister he has had, one whose sister he has had, even even one he has had. Either a wh.o.r.e herself or a wh.o.r.e's sister.” one he has had. Either a wh.o.r.e herself or a wh.o.r.e's sister.”

I gasped. ”He's getting permission to marry a woman he's had? Dear G.o.d, not me?”

William's sharp laugh barked out. ”Anne. He's making provision for bedding her before marriage. The Boleyn girls don't come out of this very well, do they?”

I sat back in my chair and took a little breath. I did not want my husband to taunt me about unchast.i.ty. ”And so?”

”And so it all rests with the Holy Father who is reposing in the care of the queen's nephew at Orvieto Castle and very very unlikely, I would think-wouldn't you?-to issue a papal bull which legitimizes the most unchaste behavior one can think of: sleeping with a woman, sleeping with her sister, and marrying one of them. Least of all to a king whose legitimate wife is a woman of unsullied reputation, whose nephew holds the power in Europe.”

I gasped. ”So the queen has won?”

He nodded. ”Again.”

”How is Anne?”

”Enchanting,” he said. ”First up in the morning. Laughing and singing all day, delighting the eye, diverting the mind, up with the king to hear Ma.s.s, riding out with him all day, walking in the gardens with him, watching him play tennis, sitting beside him while the clerks read the letters to him, playing word games, reading philosophy with him and discussing it like a theologian, dancing all night, ch.o.r.eographing masques, planning entertainments, last to bed.”