AN: This is just a short interlude between Mary and Katherine:) Some of you wanted to see more of how they handled this.
Interlude Mary and Katherine
March 3 1525
Mary walked up to the convent dreading her task. She had never wished for this. She had never desired or coveted this position. For the last time she would be able to address the most beloved Queen with her rightful title. The Queen had already begun her transformation from Queen to nun and it would shortly be complete. Mary was here to say goodbye.
The convent of choice was pleasantly situated and the nuns were able to receive visitors, preferably only family relations. Most of the nuns had once been married. Some had willingly given up married life or were widowed. Some like the Queen had been compelled to enter the order and some were forcibly placed here by male relations. The evergreens and lingering frost gave Mary some calm before she would enter the most difficult conversation in her life. As she stepped around the corner she saw the one she was looking for, Katherine, Queen of England, Ireland and France, daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand. Mary curtsied deeply for her Queen.
"Please Mary rise." The Queen's voice was pained and Mary quickly rose and stepped towards her. The Queen did not extend her hand like is times past so Mary smiled sadly, but understandingly and stood beside the Queen.
"I am sorry, I did not know." The Queen nodded.
"You cannot refuse the King. It is not to be done I know." The Queen sighed and sat down on a bench.
"I need to let go of my anger for I cannot yell at the King and you do not deserve to face my anger for a situation you did not create." Mary sat down next to her and looked out into the kitchen garden.
"I cannot do much. All things you did not bring with you have been given to the Princess Mary, who is to be given an establishment very near to this convent, so that you can see her every week. The Imperial ambassador will be able to visit you as he is representing your nephew. It has been deemed unseemly for me to meet you again after…" Mary hesitated and then kneeled before the Queen and latched onto her hand. She pressed a kiss to it.
"If there is anything I can do for you within my power; anything I can ask of the King, name it I beg you. I am so sorry that this has happened." The Queen covered Mary's hand with her own.
"Be a good and just Queen and mother to my daughter. See that she is married well and that her happiness do not suffer. I know the limitations of a Queen's power Mary. Be as good as you can be. What is done, is done and I am not reconciliated with it, but I strive to be so. I am to be a bride of Christ so I cannot hold onto resentment and anger. For any unwitting and unwilling involvement you may have, I forgive you. Yes I am not happy, but I hope I will be. Promise me Mary, that you will care for my daughter as if she was your own." Mary raised her head, tears running down her face. She looked into the Queen's eyes, a woman she may love and who loved her in return, a woman who she had been proud to be able to say she was a friend of. Mary would never feel like her equal. She studied the Queen's face and committed it to memory.
"I do so solemnly promise." The Queen rose and thus forced Mary to stand as well.
"Now you must go back and become Henry's Queen." Both ladies parted with tears in theirs eyes and regrets still unsolved, never to see each other again.
Short, but needed. Next should be the last chapter if everything goes as planned with Mary, Anne and Henry!