A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, favorite and put this on their alerts, and to Mimi Dubois for Beta Reading.
Happy Fourth of July!
R/R and enjoy!
A Lioness New Hope
"In a coat of Red or a coat of Gold a lion still has claws. 'And mine are long and sharp, my lord, as long and sharp as yours. "
~Rains of Castamere, Game of Thrones 2x09 by The National
1534- 1535
They were staying in Hatfield and the Queen had been kind enough to give them the biggest guest rooms in the castle to reside in while Mary's lie in began. On one cold December night Mary's pains came, she woke the entire castle, including Elizabeth who screamed for her mama.
Anne was already on alert, Bella pushed past her ladies dragging Maggie with her to assist her.
"Now My Lady I need you to push!"
"Argh" Mary's body arced forward, the baby was tearing her in half. She was not sure she could go on, Anne's hand fiercely clutching hers made her look, her eyes said fiercely don't give up.
Outside her sister was in George's arms asking questions about her favorite sister and her middle sister who was now giving birth to a cousin she could play with –she hoped.
"And I will be able to teach her all about tea and dressing, she will be just as pretty as mama." Bess said for she considered no woman prettier than her mama.
George chuckled "How do you know Bess it could be a boy? Wouldn't you want a boy instead? It would make your grandfathers proud."
"No" The girl shook her head slightly. "I don't think so, boys are boring and they only complain and love playing rough games, girls are sweet and smarter."
"That is a very broad statement, you have seen your Aunt Bella" suddenly he lowered his voice, afraid that the beast's ears had reach even here. "she is a beast that one, I think she was born of a she-wolf." Bess giggled, George decided to amuse her more, "She could bite your papa's hand if she could."
"She is uncivilized" Not like Mary or Maggie who were perfect ladies and would never do anything to upset her parents. "Charlie is nice" she said remembering the sweetest boy she met in her life, playing all kinds of games with her. "He loves playing with me and wants to teach me swords."
He laughed aloud, suddenly his worries forgotten. "You must not let your mother see you, she would be mad and I do not suspect a pretty little Princess like you would want to play swords."
"I would except I see pointless play in it."
George smiled at his niece, for a child of one she was very intuitive and seemed to know everything around her before anyone else.
George heard the powerful howl from his wife and at once stood giving Bess back to Lady Bryan.
"My Lord where are you going?"
"I must go there."
"My Lord do not" Susan said in a slight commanding voice "It is not proper, her ladies are with her and they are assisting her along with Your Majesty and her sisters."
"I do not care, if the King of England were there himself, I will be by my wife's side" He did not trust in her ladies, they were well young and inexperienced women who'd barely been at court and were as shy as plain, devout women could be but Mary had trusted none of the well to do, beautiful ladies around her husband.
"Mary" He'd assured her. "I see no greater woman than you" And indeed there was no greater beauty than Mary, he didn't care what the opinion was about her younger sister Maggie –who in his opinion the general opinion of her beauty was much overrated- and his own.
He said to her lady once again -"Do not tell me what is proper, that is my wife in there!" He would not lose her too.
Suddenly a man they all knew very well for he was Richmond Master of the Horse and as of recent had gain a good reputation for his dutiful work in the King and Cromwell's eye, Edward Seymour stepped forward, putting himself between them and halted George. "Lady Susannah is right My Lord, your wife is laboring in the worst travail possible you will only make her more anxious, best leave her with her women and the capable hands of Dr. Linacre."
George would be very angry if this was some commoner speaking to him but Edward Seymou despite his lack of title came from a well to do family, and the Seymours like the Boleyns through his mother's side had royal blood.
George swallowed and sighed, returning to his seat where he picked Bess up and put her on her lap with the Lady Bryan giving him a sympathetic look.
"Mary will be good?"
"Yes Mary will be good" George said consoling his niece, closing his eyes in prayer. What was taking so long?
Please God no … Mary's force threw her lady in waiting, Susan to the floor, Bella helped her up and went to Mary's side, she told Maggie to stay back with the physicians.
Maggie looked at Bella with a look of horror. "You can't be serious?" She exclaimed looking to Anne for support, but she nodded and ordered her the same.
Confined to the physician's side she almost screamed and paled when she saw all the blood gushing from her sister's side and then she screamed "The head! The head! I see the head!"
"Shut up Maggie or you will be making Mary more nervous" Bella snapped, glaring at her younger sister.
"One more push Mary, just one more!" Bella encouraged, softening at Mary's heavy breathing.
"No, no, this baby is not coming normal, I can feel something is wrong"
"Nothing is wrong Mary, the lad is just too large." Bella said not missing the look of envy from their stepmother.
"No, no I can't feel it moving constantly, it is too large Bella, I don't think I can make it." She swallowed and then said "Please tell George-"
"Stop it Mary and listen to me, I have given birth three times and I can tell you a whole deal each birth is different, this is your first so naturally the pain feels worse than it really is."
"But it is!" Mary whined feeling the baby violently move.
"It is just an aftershock," Bella explained.
Mary breathed and tried to calm herself. "How do you know so much?"
"Before I gave birth to William" she said suddenly invaded by sadness, her poor lad all alone there but at least he is safe –her mind countered. "I bled heavily, the physicians believed I would die and that I'd lost the baby but my husband fetched a serving woman from the palace kitchens who was known to be skilled in childbirth, though she could not engage in her practice for fear of upsetting my brother in law; however Nando sent for her hearing that she had never lost a babe. Her name was Jhemzahra which means light of the moon and she was definitely a blessing for no sooner she came and gave me some potion that I gave birth to my son."
Just like her mother, Anne thought, it was a pity that the serving woman had to be at that precise moment, at the right place. She expected all of Katherine's daughters to be weak, Mary certainly was refusing to push for fear of something greater and Bella, she just heard had her mother weakness in birthing.
"How did you give birth after?" Maggie suddenly asked snapping Anne from her thoughts.
Bella smiled, fond in memory of her serving woman. It had been a pity she could not bring her but she had to protect her children's inheritance and if she suddenly came with a Moriska servant, despite the new men in her father's court claiming to be true Christian, it was widely known that they disapproved of Islam and Judaism greater than their predecessors; it would have given the Boleyns the ammunition they needed to speak ill of her and accuse her of all sorts of things.
"Jhem as me and Nando were fond of calling her, always helped me, she explained to me her mother had been a midwife and her father a doctor at the time of the Re-conquest but they had to convert or else the Queen would expel them from Granada or give them to the Inquisition."
Anne made a snide remark but it went unheard. "She was their youngest child, born many years after and although her parents were forced to be servants where before they had been masters, they passed on all their knowledge but it was her work in the kitchens that landed her with us. By the time Charlie was born I hardly had any pain and she passed on her knowledge to me."
"You used it for Kate?" Bella nodded.
Her niece was every bit of wild as Bella but she did not throw away her dolls the way her mother had done.
"You mean you used infidel magic?" Madge Shelton, one of the Queen's ladies and her cousin, asked her in shock.
"She is hardly an infidel, oh I know all about the God and how they worship and I assure you it is no different from what we believe."
"But they believe in Allah!"
"Allah is the word for God you little fool!" Bella screamed at the ignorant woman. So called Christians fighting for the right cause. Bah! New, old Christians, fanaticism existed in every religion. She was thankful Jhem had not returned to Spain where she would have been as persecuted as her parents had been or England where it seemed prejudice –though cloaked more neatly- still existed.
Mary's screams as a spam broke through her body, the child was coming! Pulling Bella into focus. "Just one more sister and it is over" She promised and Mary pushed with all her might, a huge sigh escaping from her lips as she felt the child slid from her body.
"It is a boy, a boy Madame, a boy!" The Doctor who'd been responsible for much of her humanist upbringing could not help his expression of joy as he held the child in his arms, crying over and over, "A boy, a boy My Lady, Bless the Saints and God in Heaven you have a boy."
Anne ignored the man's crude remark, he knew better than to mention the fallen idols to her former pupil, God would strike him down but just then her worries were forgotten as another pain pierced through her belly.
"Ah God! Now what?"
"My Lady you are having twins." No sooner had he spoken the ladies about her went back to bracing her shoulders and holding her tight against the pain that burst through her belly as she felt the child within her move, eager to come out.
Mary was partly thankful because it meant she would not have to push more than once to get this child out from her body.
Maggie pushed Mary's skirts further up and told her to give one push, Mary did not have to labor hard as the child came right through, howling almost immediately.
"What is it?"
"A girl sister!" Maggie cried being in awe of her little niece. She did not inherit the auburn hair or dark grey eyes of the Tudor, she looked more like a Boleyn, but she was a pretty lass nonetheless.
Anne sighed in relief, she would have been more worried if she had given birth to another son though two healthy babies were troublesome. She had enough with Bella's youngest children staying with them and Henry doting heavily on them.
"My Lord." Susan said coming outside and curtsying to George and the Princess who was sound asleep in her arms.
"What is it? I heard her screaming, what did she give birth to? Is she alright"
Ned snorted –like brother like sister. They did not know how to conduct themselves. Yet the Princess had made a good match, George Boleyn would be a doting father.
George could barely contain his excitement, he pushed Ned aside who was blocking his way and entered the chamber.
"My Lord it is my pleasure to inform you that you are the proud father of two healthy babes, a son and a daughter." Dr. Linacre said with a smile gesturing over to Mary who looked every bit as triumphant as her mother did, from the tales he heard from his uncle, in the aftermath of Flodden.
George's eyes widened, he could almost feel the tears running down his cheeks, he gave his niece to her governess and ran to his wife's chamber, she was already cleaned and changed.
"Madame you made me the most happy." He said taking her lips in his, forgetting about all the rest.
Mary smiled, still sweating but holding her chin out proud with her back erect, propped against a soft pillow Meg had arranged for her, she seemed every bit the warrior Princess her mother had been.
"Don't you want to see them George?" George's heart skipped as he motioned for her sister and lady to bring the children.
Bella carried their son, he was the first one George saw, with his eyes open and alert, dark brown just like a Boleyn he seemed like a perfect carbon copy of his cousin, the Princess Elizabeth.
"He is beautiful." George said rocking him, the baby squirmed and his arms but after a small song from his father he remained silent and then drifted to sleep. He moved to his daughter who was soundly asleep in Susan's arms.
"She looks just like you." He said turning to his sister.
Anne blinked, pointing a finger at herself. "Me? Are you sure?"
"Come and see, she has your hair even your awkward skin tone." George jested. Anne snapped the back of George's head playfully and leaned closer to look at her niece.
Unlike their previous niece and nephew who looked nothing like William or the Boleyn and Howard side of their family, the little girl in Lady Susan's arms looked like an exact copy of Anne except for her eyes, when she opened them they were a dark grey color like her mother's.
"I think we should call her Anne." Mary frowned, she was not sure if she wanted to call her daughter Anne, sure the woman had helped her through her birth but she still didn't trust her and besides with all the damage she'd done to the true faith and the monasteries, the world did not need another Anne Boleyn.
Seeing the discomfort in her stepdaughter's face, Anne quickly added, "No George I think we already have too much Annes running around this court, Master Seymour's wife is named Anne after all, how about you name her something more pleasant, something more common that you both like?"
George shook his head, he thought of no better name than Anne, he looked to Mary seeking confirmation.
Mary hated herself for nothing fighting harder but she ended up shrugging and saying "Anne it is"
And her children were baptized exactly three days later in the New Year by a local Catholic priest who had escaped the King's brutal persecution because Mary took him as her chaplain.
"Anne seems like she is going to cry" Bella commented to her sister's long time friend and confidant, the Imperial Ambassador.
After Mary had given birth, almost immediately –when he realized his daughter had had them baptized in the Roman Catholic ritual- he sent for his messenger and summoned them to court where he had a small ceremony prepared for them in the great hall of Greenwich.
He was very angry and disappointed with his wife for not giving him a son, it had been over a year since Elizabeth had been born and still no baby boys in the Tudor cradle except for his grandsons but he had made the colossal mistake of declaring his daughters bastards -now for the first time he had began to rethink on his strategy -something Henry VIII rarely did.
"I hardly think it is an occasion for her to celebrate, when she is forced to attend her rival's triumph." Bella nodded and told her daughter's wet nurse to take her to her grandfather where Charlie also was. How convenient, she thought that her father used her children when it suited his purposes of proving his virility before foreign dignitaries, the way his new grandchildren baptism was celebrated was almost as of that of a newborn Prince.
Anne was burning jealousy, this was supposed to be a private but Henry had invited more than he meant to, he wanted to show the world that the Tudor dynasty lived on, if not through his heirs by Anne, through his other children from Katherine. Anne seethed with greater envy when she heard Cranmer ask on to his stepmother the name of her nephew and she responded "Arthur".
Like the legends of old Mary wanted to preserve what remained of her father's Welsh ancestors in her son, the Boleyns after all descended from Welsh and the Irish folk as well, it was the least she could do and her own grandfather, she had reasoned when she discussed names for her son with George, had attributed more to his Welsh heritage than his English one.
Anne had not been unkind though when she stood in the first ceremony of baptism, albeit a Catholic one, she held on to her son with pride and boasted of her own brother's prowess to her ladies. George had been the envy of the court, every lady coveted the position of sister in law to the new Queen and had been very envious of Mary and thought her too kind to raise her so high when her mother had been very reluctant to accept the truth -that she was no longer the Queen. Yet Mary had won the people with her fake charisma and her charity. She had restored several of her grandfather's inheritance to their glory and turned them into hospitals, it was hard not to love her after that or the Queen Dowager Bella who paraded her son wherever she went and brought him with her and his Aunt to their charities.
This meant -at any given time with the right motivation, they could rise up in their favor, but if this was so, what would that mean for her and her family? For her own daughter? She began to fear Mary's hold on her own brother. Would he really betray her for lust? Did he really love her enough to favor the claim of his own nephew and children over her daughter?
It was all too complicated and frightening to brood on. She must put it past her, she had to live the present. It had only been one miscarriage, she had born a healthy daughter whereas Katherine had a long trail of dead babies and stillborns. She was younger besides, she could still give Henry a son. I must -for her life depended on it.
"She gambled high, she lost, she is not getting any younger and it is highly unlikely she will give father a son at this rate." Bella said venomously glancing at Anne who glanced back, and flashing a smile at her she scared her into wheeling back.
"She started as the King's salvation now she's turned into the one thorn the King can't get rid of" Chapuys said. "I pity your sisters for having to bare her presence." The shouldn't had to, he explained, their mother certainly hadn't and she had been suffering, embracing the true faith for their safety's sake.
"Please Your Excellency you must be considerate it is you yourself who said to my sister we must all dissimulate if we want to survive this lion's den."
"More like wolves."
"On that we see eye to eye, wolves are scarce though, they are clever for a while but separate their leader from their pack and they start going crazy." She said eying Anne then her eyes turned to Cromwell. "Foxes though I should worry about more, foxes are the type of creatures wolves will sooner devour because they can't keep up with their plotting and outsmarting them, wolves are envious little creatures, wild by nature. Lions on the other hand stay close to their pray and they do not strike immediately, they can wait for an entire decade if needs to rip through the belly of their dinner, but when a lion is all alone he will turn to foxes for only foxes known where the wolves' weakness truly lay."
"You speak with greater wisdom Madame-"
"Aye that you hoped for" said Bella slyly, finishing for him.
However the Ambassador commented: "As long as I see the wicked prosper and the good perish there shall never be peace in England."
"Peace was never an option." Bella said leaving.
Eustace smirked, Charles was right, the Princess Isabella Tudor was not a woman to reckoned with.
"Excuse me My Lady." Henry said helping the lady he bumped accidentally into, to her feet.
"Thank you Master …"Maggie stopped in full sentence recognizing who he was. "My Lord Surrey, I apologize."
"No, it was my fault, I already said it, I did not know where I was going, I got distracted and …" His eyes focused to the lute in her hands. "You fancy the lute Lady Margaret?"
"I do not fancy anything, the lute is my second talent after poetry." He raised an eyebrow.
"You love poetry?" She nodded, "Who are your favorite poets? So do I, though I must say I have gone past poetry and also excel at many mediums, not just the art."
"Oh?"
"I am known to be a fine archer and a jouster, my father thinks someday I will make a great politician and is planning to make a great match for me."
Maggie nodded, becoming interested in his story. "Where you going to see my cousin, the Queen?" He asked while emphasizing on his importance.
She nodded picking up her skirts and wheeled away when she was stopped once again by this pompous boy. "Wait" He said taking her arm and turning her around. "Maybe I can accompany you, it is not safe for a Lady to walk by herself at this hour of night."
"You are certainly right Lord Surrey." She said giving her winning smile, which made him still.
"Is that a yes then?"
"Yes, lead the way My Lord." He smiled, twining his arm around hers, keeping her close to him as she her eyes looked at him in admiration. He didn't know what it was, he never thought about anyone that wasn't himself but her eyes, they had something that bewitched him.
"Here we are. I bid you goodnight My Lady."
"Goodnight My Lord." She said flashing him another smile before entered the Queen's chambers.
"I shall see you tomorrow?"
"Perhaps you will My Lord, perhaps you won't but keep your eyes open." She said cryptically, her sapphire eyes twinkling with mischief.
He tried shaken the feeling of intrigue off of him but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't stop thinking of her and those bewitching eyes.