CPOV
I do not see Bella again for almost a week. I am told, firmly, that she is not allowed visitors. It is a very long time. Each minute feels like an hour, every hour a day. I can't sleep. I reach for her at night, only to feel an empty bed beside me. Only the fact that our son needs his father because his mother's life hangs in the balance keeps me going. I remember bitterly what happened after she was taken.
"Your Majesty, I beg of you Sire - don't do this!"
"Carlisle, I have evidence!"
"Evidence! Bella is not a witch!" The glower of the great man nearly made me tremble. But I faced him out, remembering Bella's bravery when she faced him.
"She will be tried. I assure you it will be fair."
"Fair! A fair trial for Bella, with this evidence you claim exists, ends in death."
"Carlisle, I had no choice! You will withdraw now. This man will escort you to your rooms. I assume you will remain here?"
"I will remain, Sire, but for my wife. I could not leave her now." the whispers of the Court followed me away.
They gave me rooms on the far side of the castle from the King and Queen. Just two days after they took Bella, there is a quiet knock on the door. The Queen herself slips around it.
"Your Majesty!"
"Shhh, Carlisle, please." She was distressed about something.
"Do you have news of Bella? Is she safe?"
"She is still alive. She's imprisoned in the Tower. If she goes on trial - Carlisle, you must know that the King will have his way."
"Why does he do this to us? Why could he not just let it be? Why could he not have let us slip away? I was going to take her to the country. We were going to have a farm. We planned it. But he could not let it be."
"Carlisle, you know what he believes."
"What he believes is ridiculous!"
"Carlisle, I beg you, keep your voice down. If he knows I came here, we will both be in trouble. He's looking for any excuse to have you arrested too. You must be careful what you say and do. He will twist anything slightly out of mark into treason."
"I cannot lose her. She is my life. If she dies, there will be no reason in the world any more."
"How much do you know of her family?"
"French father, Spanish mother. Carpenter and servant."
"It is a lie." I spun round to come face to face with a stranger.
"This is Fernandez. He is Ambassador to King Henry from Emperor Charles of Spain. He has news."
"Have you seen Bella?"
"Yes, My Lord, I have met with her. She lives, but that is all I can say."
"Why is Bella's parentage a lie?"
"When she was five years old she was smuggled from Spain by Ferdinand of Aragon's most trusted advisor. The story she had been raised under was that of the forbidden union. It was for her safety. The lie she always believed to be true was to save her life. She never met her real father. Her mother died when she was born, that is true, and she was a Spanish serving girl. But her father was not French. He was Spanish."
"Well, what does that change? Just being entirely Spanish rather than half Spanish will not save her life."
"No, but the Emperor protects his own."
"She just one Spanish woman. She's a bastard. In Spain, what status does that give her? It gives her nothing here. Why would the Emperor trouble himself? I just want my wife back. I just want to take her home alive, not home inside her coffin."
"You will. She's a royal bastard. She is Ferdinand of Aragon's daughter."
"What?!"
"The child of a forbidden union: The King of Spain and a palace serving girl in the Alhambra. She was born in the Alhambra, raised in the Sierras and removed from Spain when Isabella of Castille discovered her existence. Katherine knew that Isabella was her half-sister. And she made sure her nephew knew of her existence. She made him promise to protect his blood."
"And now," Jane breaks in. "Now he knows, through Fernandez, that she is accused of witchcraft. He knows she is married and that she has a child. He offers you safe passage - to Spain."
"Wait, wait, wait. If Isabella is, effectively, the Emperors aunt - then she is also the aunt to the Princess Mary."
"That is correct. Perhaps, when the King is no longer King, when his daughter Mary takes the throne, you would be able to return to England, and you would be protected."
"Does the Princess know this?"
"She knows that Isabella is her blood relative: but she doesn't know how. The Emperor considered it too risky to inform her of the exact nature of the relationship. There was also the risk that Mary would reject Isabella: because her faith dictates that a bastard child is nothing."
"Bella is Catholic. Bella clung to her faith even when King Henry enforced Protestantism upon the country. She is ashamed of the fact that she is illegitimate. She prays that her parents sins will be forgiven."
"Regardless, the Princess Mary does not know she was her mothers half-sister. She is aware that Isabella is illegitimate - but not of the precise relationship."
"So what happens to Bella? How does this help her?"
"The Emperor will not consent to see his blood relative killed. Especially when she is his aunt. If the King charges her with witchcraft, and carries out the death penalty - he will have rendered to Charles an invitation for open war."
The three of us stared at each other over the light of a single guttering candle. We were all aware in that moment that if anybody were to have over-heard this conversation, the three of us would be arrested and charged with treason.
For nearly a week, myself and Fernandez met in secret, to talk about how best to inform the King just whom he had under arrest in the Tower. And then a warrant for her release arrived from Spain. It bore the Royal seal of Charles himself. Queen Jane distracted the King from the presence of the Ambassador once he had been formally introduced, allowing us to meet and plan. It was all too clear to us that Bella and our son must leave England. I could stay: the King, Queen Jane reported, had no quarrel with me, and would allow me back into favour: if I consented to divorce my wife and deny the marriage and our son ever existed. But I made it perfectly clear that I would not leave Bella. If the Emperor would consent to have me, I would go to Spain with her. If he did not, then we would leave Spain, and change our names, go to Italy or the Netherlands. Fernandez assured me that the offer of safe passage and a secure future extended to me, as her husband.
For nearly a week, I prayed for Bella's life, wishing she was there when I woke in the night to the sound of my son's cries. Wishing she was there to comfort me when I feared so much for her life, I cried, unable to prevent the tears.
Finally, finally, I saw her. My heart almost gave out in relief to actually see her alive. If I hadn't been holding our son, I would have run into her arms like a child.
She walked into Court with her head held high, flanked by guards who were wary of her. The Spanish ambassador to Emperor Charles of Spain steps forward. He bows to the King - and then he turns, kneels to Bella, and kisses her hand. Colour enters her cheek, but she does not drop her gaze. She glances round and sees me. Silence settles like a cloak. Nobody even breathes loudly. The King looks furious at the Ambassadors treatment of Bella.
"Explain this! Why is the witch brought back into my Court, with neither my permission nor approval?"
"She is brought here under the protection of the Emperor Charles himself. She will not be harmed, nor will she be imprisoned. I am here to take her back to Spain - her and her family."
"You will take her nowhere! She is charged with witchcraft, and she will stand trial, be judged, and is required, punishment will be exacted! The Emperor holds no sway here!"
"But he holds sway in Spain, in Rome and he has armies ready to protect what is his." Whispers sweeps around the Court. Face after face turns to either the King, or to Bella. Her gaze is fixed on the King.
"What is his? What is his? This witch is the bastard of a French/Spanish union. She cannot be his!"
"If she were to be harmed, Your Majesty, then the reaction of the Emperor would be swift and final. She is not the child of a French/Spanish union. She is Spanish."
"It makes no difference. One less Spaniard in the world would make no difference. I doubt it would overly concern the Emperor."
"No Your Majesty. She is a bastard, this is true. But she is a very powerful bastard - the sort you well know of, Your Majesty, having several of them yourself."
"Then who is she?" The King's tone is mocking. "Tell us, little Isabella, tell us who you are!"
"I? I, Your Majesty, I am the child of Ferdinand of Aragon and his mistress. I am Katherine's half-sister and, effectively, The Emperor's aunt. I am your half-sister-in-law. Your Majesty, I am your daughter's aunt."
There are three seconds of absolute silence. Very suddenly, people seem to be aware that there are two people with Royal blood in their veins standing in front of them. Bella looks every inch a Princess. Her head is held high, her gaze is square on the King, her back is straight. Her shoulders are set, her chin is thrust forward proudly.
"You cannot be."
"You see the resemblance between Katherine and I, everybody saw it the day I first came to Court. It isn't because I am Katherine in spirit. It is because I am her sister."