Notes: I am actually pretty much Team All The Wives (yes really) and possibly the only Team More and Cromwell person ever. For I am odd. But anyway, this is just a bit of another one-shot glimpse of Jar of Hearts (I cannot for the life of me write the full version myself due to not braining reasons and it being less fun writing it myself but this got in to my head and would not leave). This is very much show based, not history based (if it was historically based my history majoring brain would just explode with the need to Do All The Research). Title and quotes from Jar of Hearts by Christina Perry
And who do you think you are?
Runnin' 'round leaving scars
Collecting your jar of hearts
And tearing love apart
You're gonna catch a cold
From the ice inside your soul
So don't come back for me
Who do you think you are?
I hear you're asking all around
If I am anywhere to be found
But I have grown too strong
To ever fall back in your arms
And I've learned to live half alive
And now you want me one more time
He stands before the court and there, there is Wolsey, standing as a witness.
"You never did learn, Henry."
The cardinal sounds heartbroken but there is a cynical twist to his expression that Henry has never seen directed at him before.
"Learn what, perchance?"
"That you cannot truly delude others - only yourself. Certainly not God. My boy, you can run from yourself no longer. And believe me Henry, I did not want this - not from you, who were almost a son to me over the years. And to learn, in the end, that it meant nothing."
And Thomas More, smiling sadly.
"It was your command that made me Chancellor, Harry. By your leave I would have left for Chelsea and lived the quiet life of a lawyer, forsaking politics. It was your command, Harry. Your hand that signed my death warrant - not Queen Anne, not Cromwell. None but you. And truly, it is a hard thing to find yourself the demanded conscience and light of a King."
Cromwell, dressed in black.
"Perhaps my death was no more than I deserved, my lord. But what I did, I did for you. What parts of my soul I gave away, was at your command. For it was you, you my lord who had us all dancing on the edge of a knife - of your want, need and desire to possess."
Brandon, young again.
"You are the sun Henry. But I was truly burned, to stay so close to you. I wish I had known what it was I was giving up, what I would do to be in your favour."
He dreads it when his wives begin to speak. Katherine, scornful as she had not been in life. Anne, who was cold as she had never been. And Jane. Sweet, pliable Jane, who was perhaps the angriest of all, who stood arm in arm with Anne.
"You think I was not terrified, my lord. You think I did not recoil in disgust when I saw how you were. I only had the fortune to die before you could tire of me - or did you think I did not know it. And that was my punishment for my sins, perhaps. To see that I would only be your beloved Jane if I remained forever obedient. Pliant and quiet and silent."
She turns to Thomas More and they share a look, fleeting and soft. A shared understanding, a kinship.
"You killed me, Henry. You killed me as surely as you killed Anne. And we have both learned to love each other, knowing what we do."
And there's Anne, Anne and Thomas Cromwell.
"We were both burned. Both of us, grasping for your love."
They walk towards him, hand in hand.
"And in the end we both paid. We all have."