I got this prompt on Tumblr so I thought I'd post it here as well:
"Would you consider writing a drabble where Anne lives and gets to meet Robin?"
I wrote four different ones because I can't help myself.
Info so this makes a bit more sense…I'm going with Anne eventually giving birth to a son around the same time Edward was born historically and having Henry die at the same time he does historically. In the last drabble, Anne's son is the King, Anne is the Dowager Queen, and Elizabeth is currently first in line to the throne if her brother dies without heirs. The first one takes place prior to Robert's birth in June 1532.
"How many children do you have, my lady?"
Jane Dudley blushed slightly and the soft pink hue on her cheeks made every other feature on her face look brighter, like a singular star lighting up a night sky.
"Four sons and one girl."
Anne Boleyn gazed down at Jane's rounded stomach, a wistful look on her face. "You are very blessed. I can think of nothing more honorable than to be a mother. Children are the greatest gift." Would motherhood suit her as well as it did Jane Dudley? She very much hoped so. It was her duty to bear the future heirs to the throne, but she wanted motherhood to be fulfilling and not simply a game of numbers.
"I am very blessed," she agreed, reaching for Anne's hand and clutching it gently. "But I have no doubt you shall be blessed yourself in the near future." Jane leaned forward with a sly smile and whispered in Anne's ear, "When you are our Queen." The Dudleys were a family that knew how to remain steady despite the changing winds, but they had always been committed reformers. They were ready and willing to serve the queen that was to be.
Anne grinned, her eyes burning with desire. "I very much hope that will be in the near future. I can't wait any longer."
"You won't have to," Jane reassured her. "And when you have children yourself, they will bring about a golden world."
Anne squeezed Jane's hand affectionately to let her know she was thankful for her words. She'd make sure to reward them for their loyalty when the crown firmly rested on her head.
"Your children will be educated right alongside mine. They shall be companions."
"I would be very honored, my lady, if my children could be so fortunate."
"Is this little Robin?" Queen Anne exclaimed as she looked at the growing boy standing in front of her. He had inherited his father's dark looks, in sharp contrast to his mother's pale skin and light blue eyes.
The boy's eyes looked at her steadily and without fear, but with just enough deference to avoid impropriety.
He certainly didn't lack for spirit, though. "I am Robin, but I am not so little. I'm five years old now!" he replied, boldly.
Anne turned to his mother and saw her face grow pale with mortification. "Robert," she began sternly, but Anne's laughter, ringing throughout the room like the tinkling of a bell, cut her off.
"Five years old!" Anne began to count the years on her fingers. "One, two, three, four…"
Robert held out his own finger. "One more."
"Ah, yes! Five!" she said and held out her entire hand for him to see. "You're my whole hand."
Robert looked down at his own hand as if this was a profound revelation.
"Why, you'll be a man in no time at all. You know, Elizabeth won't let me call her little, either. Mother's will always want their children to stay small, though." He was too young to understand what she meant, but he nodded along as if he did. "You know how small you were when I first met you?"
He shook his head.
Anne knelt down so she was nearly eye-level with him. "You were still in your mother's stomach."
Robert's eyes grew wide in amazement and he looked at his mother to confirm if this was true.
Jane nodded her head and smiled. "I have been Her Majesty's friend for a very long time."
"Mother says you're a real queen."
"I am," she confirmed, with a look of clear satisfaction on her face. She had fought hard to be recognized as England's true queen.
"You are the most beautiful queen I have ever seen."
Anne found this sentiment endearing even though she knew she was the only queen he had ever seen. She was charmed by this forward little boy and the way he spoke so plainly to her. He reminded her of her own precocious daughter, who was eyeing him warily from across the room.
"Since I am a real queen, that makes my daughter a real princess," Anne told him and motioned for Elizabeth to come over.
"You two knew each other when you were still babies."
Elizabeth looked at her mother skeptically before turning back to the boy in front of her.
Robert didn't wait for the suspicious girl in front of him to speak first and quickly introduced himself. "My name is Robert and I am five years old."
"I am four," Elizabeth replied with as much dignity as she could muster. Only her furrowed eyebrows gave away how terribly annoyed she was that she wasn't five as well.
"I'm older!" Robert practically shouted with excitement, as if this accident of birth was a point of pride. Older meant wiser, didn't it?
His mother gave him a look, so this time he leaned in close to Elizabeth and whispered it. "I'm older."
"But I am a princess." That was always Elizabeth's winning card. What was one more year of life when she was a princess?
Both mothers were silent as they waited to see what turn this conversation would take. Their children were quite…outspoken. It was endearing to their mothers, but neither child had ever met their match and no one knew if this would end well or in utter destruction.
"Yes, you are a princess," Robert agreed. "And you're the prettiest princess I've ever seen."
Anne and Jane looked at each with barely contained amusement. He had managed to turn the conversation in his favor and effectively end an ensuing quarrel.
Elizabeth stared at him for a few moments and then, when she decided that his answer was satisfactory, she nodded her head. "And you are older."
They shall be companions.
Well, Robert and Elizabeth did indeed become companions, but in a way that Anne hadn't anticipated at the time she spoke those words. They were a curious pair and from a distance, it often seemed as if they didn't like each other at all. They teased each other and fought over trivial things. Everything became a competition and both of them hated to lose. But Anne saw it. Anne saw the quiet moments when Elizabeth leaned over him to read his translation, when they took turns reading from a book. Anne even noticed that anytime Elizabeth turned out to be the victor in their games, after minutes of justifying his loss, Robert would grin at her daughter with something like begrudging admiration in his eyes.
"Robin is handsome, don't you think, Elizabeth?" Anne asked, causing her daughter's face to suddenly match her hair.
"Maybe you two will get married someday," Anne jested lightheartedly. That would make Elizabeth stomp her foot and stammer about in denial. "We will not! I will never marry, mother, and certainly not him!"
Anne raised her eyebrows. "If you say so, Elizabeth."
"I must say, Lord Robert, that you have grown into a very handsome and witty man," Anne said, looking him up and down to assess his qualities as she did every man at court. Clearly, she had found his qualities very satisfactory.
Elizabeth's face flushed a bright red as it had when she was a child, but she resisted the urge to stamp her foot this time. Instead, she pursed her lips and looked sternly at her mother
Robert avoiding looking at Elizabeth, knowing that acknowledging her embarrassment would only make it worse. "Well, that is quite a compliment, even more so because it comes from the lips of the most beautiful and intelligent Queen England's ever seen."
Anne was quite satisfied with that response and tossed a little smirk her daughter's way. Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Anne flirted with every and any handsome man at court. It was always a platonic and innocent game she enjoyed playing, but Anne particularly enjoyed a little witty repartee with her daughter's favorite man at court because she loved her daughter's reaction. Even now at sixteen years old, Anne couldn't help but love to see her daughter's little temper flare. She found it endearing. It always reminded her of when she was a child and would stomp around, her mood just as fiery as the red curls that bounced with every step. Elizabeth would always be her little lion's cub.
"Rob - Lord Robert," Elizabeth corrected herself. She wouldn't give her mother any more ammunition by calling him Robin. "Would you excuse me for a moment? I need to speak with my mother in private."
"Of, course Your Highness." He bowed towards Elizabeth and then gave an even more exaggerated bow to Anne. "Your Majesty."
Elizabeth pulled her mother away and made sure she was far enough away before she spoke.
"Mother, you were flirting with him!"
"I was merely making an observation. I have eyes, my little cub," Anne dismissed her daughter's suggestion with a nonchalant wave of her hand.
"He's young enough to be your son!"
"Oh, Elizabeth. I was just trying to tease you. You can forgive your mother for wanting to have a little fun, can't you?" Anne pouted as if her daughter had done her a very grievous wrong.
"Of course," Elizabeth sighed, her annoyance receding. She couldn't stay mad at her mother because flirtation was a game she liked to indulge in herself and she admired her mother's vitality. "Just…we don't have to do that every time he's at court, do we?"
Anne distinctive laughter made a few courtiers turn towards them. She lowered her voice. "I'm not making any promises."
Elizabeth linked her arm with her mother's and leaned her head against her shoulder, something that was getting very difficult to do since Elizabeth was becoming an unusually tall woman.
"You know, it's too bad he's marrying that girl from Norfolk."
"I heard that wasn't official," Elizabeth replied quickly, as her head snapped back up from her mother's shoulder. "I can't imagine Robin marrying that little country wench."
Anne looked at her daughter curiously and Elizabeth's dark eyes grew wide with the realization of what she just said.
"I was simply making an observation," she added, in a poor attempt at justifying her intense reaction.
"About a girl you've never met?"
"I…"
Anne reached forward and stroked her daughter's cheek. "You know I'm not being serious, don't you?"
Elizabeth smiled and nodded her head. "Besides, why should you or I care? I thought you were set on making a French match for me."
"That is my preference, but it doesn't mean I'm blind to the way you look at him or the way he looks at you."
Anne knew exactly how this would play out because she had once been young and in love herself, overly consumed with a passionate reckless that, unfortunately, often ended in heartbreak. Anne could not bring her own heart to put an end to it, though. Not when she saw her daughter's face flushed with excitement and her eyes filled with happiness. Being a royal was often stifling, but right now her daughter was a burning flame that illuminated everything in her path and Anne couldn't be the one to douse it.
"He's got such fine eyes," Elizabeth whispered to her mother, as if she was gossiping with a friend. "Dark blue with…"
"Little spots of brown.
"And his calves. He's got such fine calves."
"And his codpiece. Very prominent, I must say."
Elizabeth gasped, but more from amusement than shock. "Mother, you're absolutely wicked!"
"Try to tell me without even the littlest smile appearing on your face that you've never looked yourself."
Elizabeth looked at her mother with a steely gaze, determined not to smile even in the slightest. "I have never once looked at his -" a smile broke out on her face and she started to laugh so hard that she couldn't finish her sentence. "You win, mother. You win."
"I always do," Anne winked. "Now go back and enjoy yourself. That's an order from the Queen."
"If it's an order, I shall obey," Elizabeth winked back and bowed before rushing back to find Robert in the crowded hall.
*If anyone has a prompt that they'd be interested in, let me know!