Disclaimer: I own nothing but the storyline.
A/N: The story is set in 1526, Henry is still married to Catherine but Charles is a widower. Anne and Jane are closer in age to each other than in history, with Anne being nineteen and Jane being seventeen. Henry and Charles are in their early/mid thirties. Looks wise Jane Seymour is based on Anita Briem and Anne Boleyn on Natalie Dormer.
Charles Brandon invited himself into the King's chamber without as much as a word or a bow. He and the King had been friends for a good number of years now and were past all that silly protocol that required him to bow at bended knee for the whim of a man he thought of more as a brother than his sovereign. Charles was the only man bar Thomas More who could act as though Henry was a man and not the autonomous ruler of a country, yet he could only act like this in private, never in public.
"Why so glum, my friend?" Henry noted from his desk as Charles threw himself half heartedly into the chair opposite him. He was peering over a letter from his nephew, the King of Spain and was rather glad for the distraction, for the King wrote the most tedious letters.
"I am bored" Charles announced, resting his booted feet upon the desk.
"Bored? We have the whole court and kingdom at our feet and you proclaim you are bored?" Henry laughed bemused.
"Everything has been done, there is no sweetness to it any more" he explained. There was only so many times you could get drunk day after day before it lost it's appeal and the taste of wine became bland. He could have a woman but she would never be a woman he cherished. They were usually no better than bejewelled whores anyway. Even the thrill of the hunt and joust no longer excited him and he found himself willing for them to come to a quick climax so that he could find a better hobby but nothing ever seemed to take his fancy.
"Perhaps you should go in pursuit of worthier lady" Henry voiced as he returned to the various letters that swamped his desk, taking up his peacock quill and making various scribbles on different documents. He let the tip of his quill tickle his chin whenever he paused in a moment of thought.
"There are few worthy ladies at court and those who are, are difficult to entice" Charles commented.
"What is this?" Henry chuckled, throwing down his quill and giving Charles his full attention, "Finally, Charles Brandon is having a hard time with the ladies? Perhaps old age is catching up with you" he teased.
It was a notion almost unheard off. Charming Charles Brandon, the man who could seduce a woman with a single look. The most notorious womaniser of the court, seducer of the Duke of Buckingham's daughter and Henry's own dear, late sister. He would have thought that the ladies would be throwing themselves at him, but perhaps in his maturing they found him less desirable than when he was a young buck full of virility and vitality. Had old age finally caught up with him?
"We lesser mortals cannot compete with a crown, we have to rely entirely on our charm in seducing a lady" Charles dismissed the King's taunts. His youth and desirability was a sore subject to him and he didn't like to think that he was losing his magic but he had to admit that his conquests were becoming fewer and far in between since the death of Margaret.
But Henry took offence to this comment and rose to his feet so swiftly that it took Charles aback and he thought his friend had been possessed by a demon.
"Crown? I do not woo with my crown, but with my handsome looks and charm" he declared and he genuinely believed this.
"Bollocks!" Charles laughed and this infuriated Henry even more. "If you were like the rest of us you would not be so successful. All women want the chance to say they have fucked a King!" was his crass response but by this time Henry had managed to calm himself a little, just as More had instructed him to do so. Everyone knew that the King had an explosive temper but few dared to openly provoke it.
"How little you know of women, Charles" he said after a couple of clear, calming breaths and he sat himself back upon his seat. But Charles was not going to allow anyone to tell him that he did not understand women, let alone that he could no longer capable of seducing a lady.
"A wager then! A challenge! To seduce one lady of the other's choosing" Charles declared and Henry's eyes lit up with excitement. He always loved a challenge and it was made all the better when there was a prize at stake.
"Very well. What are the rules?"
"No bribery. No use of Kingly..." Charles began but Henry interrupted him,
"Or Ducal" Henry added with a mischievous smile.
"Or Ducal influence" Charles repeated with the same smile upon his face before he continued, "No means of force, and no hags! Whoever succeeds first is the winner."
"It is a deal then" Henry declared and practically jumped up from his seat to waltz around the table to shake Charles' hand in a gentleman's agreement. "And what is the prize?"
"Will the lady not be prize enough herself?" Charles grinned but Henry did not look impressed. Instead he chose his own prize.
"If I win, I get your best horses" Henry announced. Charles was about to protest but knew there was no point. He was proud of his horses, who were strong, agile and fast. He considered them the best horses in the kingdom and they were almost certainly far finer than the King's, a matter which he had always prided himself on. It actually amused him that the King had inadvertently shown himself to be envious of him for his horses for there were few things that could make a King envious regarding worldly possessions.
"And if I win, I get to rule the country for a week as your regent" he negotiated. He liked his Ducal powers and his ambitious side had been slowly building up in his mind, most probably due to the strong, regal influence of his late wife, so much that he often wondered what would happen if Henry would leave him in charge of the country when he went on his campaigns rather than leaving the country at the mercy of his Queen.
"So long as you do not partake in foreign matters and do not declare war, it is a deal" Henry informed him and Charles found these as acceptable terms and so took hold of his friend's hands and gave it a strong, firm shake.
"So, who is your chosen victim?" Henry asked as he went to fetch the pitcher of wine from the side cabinet that he had ordered his page to leave him so that he could spend the afternoon in peace. It was proving not so peaceful at the moment but rather exciting actually as he waited eagerly to discover the identity of the woman he would soon be wooing and bedding.
Charles thought long and hard for a minute, there was an array of women at court and yet most of them would spread their legs easily for them just because they were brazen hussies in disguise of beautiful, refined ladies. In fact he had bedded most of them already. No, he needed someone new, someone he had never even managed to bed. And then it suddenly dawned upon him. A woman had tried to seduce during one of the summer balls and had thought would jump at the chance to sleep with a Duke but she had cruelly rejected him after making him believe that she would fold like a piece of paper. She was not a prudish woman, no where near, no she was bold and flirtatious. She mastered her eyes well and could give as good as she got from any man who dared to take her on. Charles thought she would have been an easy conquest but he had been very wrong indeed.
"Mistress Anne Boleyn" he revealed with a sly grin. The regency was as good as his now.
"Boleyn? A relation to Mary?" Henry inquired with a raised eye brow.
"Her sister" Charles replied and soon the whole room was filled with Henry's great roar of a laugh.
"Oh Charles, you make this too easy for me" he managed to say through his laughter.
"On the contrary. Mistress Anne is not like her sister. She may act like the little harlot but it is a lot harder than it looks to breach her defences. She is in short, nothing better than a tease" but Henry seemed unimpressed and merely waved his hand dismissively.
"I will tame the beast, do not worry about that" he declared with the utmost confidence. He had never been turned down and he was not going to allow a silly whore to spoil his immaculate record. She would relent just as easily as her sister had done before her.
"And for me?" Charles asked, bringing Henry's mind back to the wager. Charles couldn't help but wonder what poor little thing the King had in mind for him.
"A lady so pure and virtuous that she would put the Holy Mother to shame. I thought to have her for myself but found her so innocent that I could not bring myself to corrupt her" Henry announced, pouring his own goblet with the ruby red liquid before turning to Charles' and filling it right to the top. Yes, simply looking at this girl would cause her to blush uncontrollably and she would retreat to the safety of her brothers and father so that no man had the chance to hear her speak, let alone give her a kiss or take her to his bed. She was a rather sweet little creature actually.
"I could woo the wimple off a nun" Charles coolly announced as though it was no big thing, "Does said virgin have a name?"
"Jane, daughter of Sir John Seymour"
"Well then, a toast to the fair ladies. To Anne and Jane, long may we conquer them!" Charles toasted, lifting his goblet up in to the air and the two clinked their drinks together as Henry repeated, "Anne and Jane" after him.
Neither of them could wait for the chase and pursuit.
Jane Seymour was currently sat in her bedchamber with which she shared with her fellow lady-in-waiting Anne Boleyn. Although there were never two girls who could have been as different from each other as they were, they were the best of friends and practically inseparable. One might think they were sisters from the amount of time they shared in each other's company although their contrasting looks was a dead give away that they were not. At the moment, Jane was sat on her bed and watching with great awe as Anne sat at her dressing table and was rubbing rouge onto her cheeks.
"I wish I was as beautiful as you" Jane sighed enviously all of a sudden and Anne stared at Jane's reflection in her mirror as though she was the strangest person in the world.
"Ha, I am not beautiful! Certainly no more beautiful than you, Jane. What a peculiar thing to say" she said, furrowing her brow at her friend. She did say some silly things at times.
"You are beautiful though, how else do you explain why there are so many men in love with you" Jane pointed out and Anne couldn't help but roll her eyes as she spun around on her little stool to look at her friend in the face.
"Beauty is not synonymous with love" she announced, "Men like me because of my wit, my charm, my style. We must take what graces God has given us and nurture them to our utmost ability"
"And what graces do I have?" she asked, unsure that she had any in the first places. Anne cocked her head and regarded her friend closely. She had so much potential and yet she never took advantage of it.
"Sweetness and innocence in abundance" she smiled kindly but Jane merely looked down at the floor glumly.
She didn't view these characteristics as graces at all, in fact she considered them more of a hindrance. She lacked the confidence and worldliness of her peers and so always got tongue tied around boys. But Anne continued with her words of wisdom that Jane always did find so comforting.
"And if you use these virtues carefully, you will have men flocking around you. Many men are enchanted by the sweet, virginal type" she explained. But Jane could not comprehend the notion. Weren't sweet, virginal girls thought of as dull and uninteresting? She was, after all, the standard wallflower in a court of roses.
"Will you teach me?" Jane asked her uncertainly and she was met with a look of pure annoyance from Anne.
"Of course I will!" she exclaimed, she was shocked that she even needed to ask. They were best friends! "And I will show you what clothes to wear which will best enhance your features" she informed her, jumping over on to the bed and playing with a stray curl that hung around from Jane's face. "You have such pretty hair and yet you never show it off. You are much more suited to pastel colours, and blue will bring your eyes out marvellously" Anne noted as she observed the girl's face and played with her hair as though she were a doll. Jane didn't seem to mind much and sat there as obedient and pliable as any doll could have been. And as they played around their conversation soon turned to typical girl talk and all those silly questions that young ladies loved to talk about.
"If you could be married to any man at court who would you choose? It does not matter if they are already married" Anne asked with her back turned as she raided her chest to find some lozenges to sweeten her breath.
"Any man?" Jane thought long and hard for a moment before a name popped into her head. "You swear you will not laugh?" she asked and made Anne promise. It always distressed her when people laughed or made fun of her. Once her brother Thomas made fun of her for mispronouncing a word in one of her books as a rude word, which had eventually reduced her to tears. It was only the loving arms of her father that calmed her down. Anne knew how sensitive Jane was to things like this and so she swore, remembering that she would have to bite down on her lip if she did say something amusing, to spare her feelings.
"I swear" Anne promised, hand in the air as she landed softly on the bed next to Jane and offered her one of her sweets whilst she placed one in her own mouth.
"I am rather fond of Thomas More" she quietly informed her, not being able to look her friend in the eye, and it took a moment for the name to sink in to Anne's mind. But when it did, she could not help but burst out into laughter.
"More! But Jane he is old" Anne almost choked from laughing too hard.
She remembered the socially stuffy and perfectly pious silver haired man and often wondered how a man so close to being priestly managed to conceive any of his four natural children in the first place. But the thought of sweet little Jane serving him on hand and foot, sighing longingly after him and trying to seduce him in bed made laugh out aloud.
Jane could feel her cheeks burn in humiliation at her friend's betrayal of her promise and her vision was becoming distorted as her usually bright turquoise eyes began to fill up with unborn tears.
"You swore you would not laugh!" she cried and Anne immediately did her best to cease her laughing, though she couldn't help but let out a little chuckle here or there, "And anyway, he is an admirable man. He is God fearing and a good father and he has the ear of the King. Though I confess my admiration for him is less romantic and more...platonic?" she replied uncertainly. In truth, she had never felt anything romantic for a man. Why did she need to marry when she had her father and her brothers to take care of her.
"Sensible Jane, always thinking with her head and not her heart" Anne smiled sincerely.
She always did regard Jane as the more sensible and grounded between the two of them and there was no shame in marrying someone for security. Anne liked to think of herself as a romantic. She was passionate and was in love with the idea of love. But her ambitious Boleyn nature made it impossible for her to fall in love with a nobody.
"Are you not going to ask me the same question?" she inquired, curious about Jane's own curiosity. But for once Jane regarded her with a self superior air.
"I already know the answer" Jane proclaimed rather haughtily, "You are still in love with Lord Percy" she announced and there was a sudden silence in the room between them. She knew instantly that she had gone too far in saying his name and regretted bringing it up now. Anne looked down into her lap and swallowed hard at hearing that name.
"I have not been in love with Henry Percy for almost a year now" she revealed, though the tone of sorrow and bitterness was still evident.
Henry Percy had been the perfect man for her. Charming, wealthy, handsome and powerful. A man she could love for being himself whilst still having the security and status that her Boleyn nature desired. She loved him so much it almost hurt and she was thrilled when he proposed that they should marry. But fate works in mysterious ways and they were forced to separate, never to see each other again. It was a hard lesson for Anne to learn but she never made the same mistake twice and now she protected her heart a lot more carefully.
She looked up and saw Jane was looking at her sympathetically, something which her pride would not allow her to accept. She put on a brave face and let out a chuckle as she continued with her conversation as though there had been no mention of Henry Percy.
"I suppose I would like Master Wyatt...if he were not such a ninny" she announced and the two girls burst into giggles at the thought of Thomas Wyatt mooning over Anne like a love sick puppy.
It was at this moment that a man entered the bedchamber unannounced, though this did not bother or alarm the two girls. It was none other than Anne's older brother, George Boleyn, and he watched the two girls giggling and whispering to each other, unaware that there was someone in the room.
"What are you two fiends giggling about?" he inquired as he sneaked up on Anne and grabbed her by the shoulders, pulling her backwards so that she fell into the bed. Noting her vulnerable position he took his opportunity to exploit her and he began to tickle her relentlessly as she writhed and wriggled beneath him.
"The secret desire of women's heart" she managed to cough out between laughter. Once she had managed to escape his grasp she hit him playfully on the shoulder as he seated himself with the two girls on the bed.
"Well then, I propose a swap. If you tell me said secret desires of women's heart I will share with you some good news" George bargained. But Anne was not impressed.
"And betray my fellow sisters so that you can acquire your victims more easily? Never! Now tell me what news you have or I'll box your ears" she jested in good fun and Jane let out a soft laugh as George made a face of mock outrage. The Boleyn siblings were always very good at theatrics.
"Very well. The King is organising a special masquerade for the Queen's birthday and has invited the sisters Boleyn to take part in the entertainments" he revealed and Anne's face transformed into a look of pure wonderment as she imagined herself dancing in the middle of the great hall in front of the King and Queen in a stunning dress that would make all the men lust after her.
"You are blessed with good luck Anne Boleyn" Jane sighed enviously once again, "You get to do everything"
"Ah, do not look so glum my dear Jane" George turned to Jane and he stroked her cheek in a familiar manner, though Jane did not think it improper as she regarded George as an almost honorary brother. "I have seen the list of who is to take part and your name is firmly upon it" he revealed. Jane could not believe her ears.
"Truly?" she asked suspiciously.
"Truly!" he confirmed in a playful whisper and it seemed that it brought both Anne and George more delight to see Jane happy than it brought Jane delight to take part in the royal masquerade.