Oddments Reprise
Disclaimer: I am not a Theologian, a Historian, or a TV Producer; I therefore do not own any thing.
Pairing: Thomas Wolsey/ Joan Larke
Prompt #24: Faith
"Joan, love, are you certain you will not reconsider? There is a household already in place for you and the babe." Wolsey asked softly. He sat, legs stretched before him, leaning against the headboard. Joan leaned against him, their child, only hours old, nestled in her arms. She tore her doe eyes from the child, her baby, and glared at him.
"I told you, I am not hiding away like your scarlet woman." She hissed.
"Joan," he said taking a deep breath, trying to remain calm and quiet for his daughter was sleeping blissfully.
"It's not shame, Joan, damnit, I love you and I love our daughter, that's why I am begging you. Please. Move to Ipswich, I know you can be safe there." He was pleading. He loved her, Joan was her wife, and this child, new born, her auburn downy head nestled to her breast – she was a little angel in swaddling cloth. He would lay down his life for her, her they had yet to name.
The court, the court was no place for a person he loved. The court was harsh, ugly, and vengeful. It was a place that destroyed people as quickly as it built them up. His child, he would not expose his baby to that. Have her hated, ridiculed, the stigma of his and Joan's relationship, his own lower class birth. In Ipswich she could begin her life with nothing but love. He would protect her, to the ends o the earth, he would go if he could see the best for her. The best for her was Ipswich.
"Thomas, I am raising our daughter with her father, a child should be raised by their mother and father. I am not leaving you."
"You know I only want the best for our baby, that is why I am asking, please, Joan, I want to keep her safe, I want to ensure that she is kept far from harm in-"
"If you say Ipswich I will rip this leg hair out." Joan said sweetly, her narrow fingers closing around a clump of hair exposed by the linen shorts he was wearing, his robes abandoned after they tripped him up while trying to assist his woman in the birth. She looked seriously at him, her eyes able to see through him as if he were as transparent as glass. "You want to give her the best life possible, and I have faith that you can achieve that here just as if we were in Ipswich or Putney or anywhere else." She gave the leg that moments ago she threatened a gentle squeeze, he gazed at his daughter. She had faith in him, faith that he could make everything alright.
He prayed it wasn't misplaced.