One more time, thanks to my dear & friend beta NoPondInTheForest! Have I told you lately how much I love you? :D I'm posting chapter 22 right after this one to make up for the 4-week wait. Hope you'll enjoy them. Thank you all guys for reading!
The heavy doors of the royal bedchamber closed with an extremely loud banging sound the moment Queen Elizabeth I rushed out in order to chase down an unstoppable Tenth Doctor.
Not even then, the Eleventh Doctor noticed, did Anne Boleyn flinch, but of course, it was only natural. Merely hours before, the disturbingly frayed thread that this woman's life had been hanging by had nearly been completely torn. Now, however, not only was she safe and sound – she was also under the protection of Queen Elizabeth I who, apart from being her daughter, was also the most powerful woman in the country.
It wasn't all a bed of roses though. Elizabeth was now really far from being the two-year-old child that had been taken away from Anne a couple of weeks before. Instead, she was an old lady who, to her mother's eyes, must have born little or no resemblance whatsoever to the little girl she was sure to have loved and adored.
The question that seemed most important to the Doctor and what he had spent some time wondering by now was, was Anne Boleyn aware of any of those things at all?
"Ms Boleyn?" called the Doctor, his voice loud and clear as he sauntered towards her. "Can I call you Anne?"
The sound of her own name coming out of a stranger's mouth proved to be effective enough to bring Anne's mind back from whatever the place her own anxious thoughts had taken her to. Turning away from the window, she looked up at the Doctor with big dark eyes that were still tainted with fear. She didn't say a single word, and the Doctor, as was his custom, took that as a yes.
"There's no need to be afraid anymore, Anne," he told her, a small smile curling up his lips as he stopped and stood in front of her. "You're safe now. No one here means you any harm anymore."
"That was the thing my rescuers said upon entering my dungeon, sir," she answered in a manner that suggested she was at long last starting to wake up from a terrible dream, "but I chose not to believe them."
"You chose not to believe them?" the Doctor asked with a smirk. "And yet they rescued you, didn't they?"
"Did they, my lord?" she asked him defiantly. "Am I now truly safe? A king once made me his queen, sir, and not even then was I safe. As fate would have it, it would seem that by marrying him all I did was put my dear family and myself in a most terrible danger."
Indeed she had, the Doctor silently agreed. After a twenty-year marriage to Queen Katherine, his brother's widow, King Henry VIII had literally moved heaven and earth to be allowed to divorce his wife and marry young Anne Boleyn, a lady-in-waiting he had been madly in love with for nearly a decade, in a time when divorces were little else than a rumour. After and endless series of obstacles and countless diplomatic conflicts which resulted in a break-up between England and the Catholic Church, Henry eventually succeeded in his plans.
Being finally free to do as he pleased, it seemed that nothing would have pleased him more than to banish Katherine as far away from the British court as possible, and also to disown their daughter Mary. He literally gave everything up to be able to marry Anne, which only made it all even more incomprehensible when, scarcely three years after their wedding, he grew tired of her and repudiated her. By that time, his intention to marry his new love interest, the lady Jane Seymour – ironically, one of Anne's ladies-in-waiting –, was widely known by everyone at court except possibly Anne herself.
Probably owing to the fact that it had taken him nearly a decade to be granted a divorce from his first wife, Henry must have decided that he would not have that happen again, and what better way to be speedily parted from his second than to have her accused of adultery and treason, and possibly even sentenced to death?
Unfortunately for Anne, her misfortunes had not ended there. The King had also considered it reasonable that the rest of her family should also participate in her downfall, and so her father, Thomas Boleyn, was banished from court, whereas George Boleyn, her younger brother, was also tried and beheaded in the Tower two days before Anne's alleged execution date.
"I know you've been through a lot lately," said the Doctor soothingly, "but this is a safe place now, trust me. Like a sanctuary."
"Like a sanctuary, my lord?" she asked, her eyes widening slightly. "And would this sanctuary have also protected my brother had he been taken here as well?"
Under any other circumstances, the Doctor would have said yes, but right there and then, it would have been nothing but cruel.
"I used to have a brother, sir" she went on, her eyes overflowing with tears as she did. "Do you happen to be acquainted with what his fate has been?"
The Doctor wished he hadn't been, but much to his regret, he was.
"I'm really sorry about your brother, Anne," he told her as his eyes darkened.
"I could not protect him, my lord," she said, looking down as tears started to fall from her eyes. "Can you imagine how I felt, sir, locked up in a dungeon whilst awaiting my own fate, when suddenly one morning I heard the crowd roar and understood that his dear head had just been severed from the rest of his body? I was there, sir, a surprisingly short distance away from him, and I was the Queen of England! Still, I could do nothing to save him. He had always been by my side, my dear George, but my side had unexpectedly become a dangerous place to be by. He was never safe, my lord, and neither was I. And if a Queen can be safe in her own kingdom, then safety must be but just an illusion. What I believe, my lord, is that no human being is ever safe."
The Doctor would have loved to have something to say to contradict her, but the truth was that he didn't.
"Well, maybe you're not entirely wrong," he told her, feeling that much of the kind of sorrow Anne Boleyn had been describing as she spoke of her brother was not entirely unfamiliar to him. "Maybe no one's really safe and it'd be stupid to think otherwise. But even if that's true, it doesn't necessarily follow that one's constantly in danger instead. And you, Anne Boleyn, the queen of the thousand days, you are certainly not in danger anymore."
"And why would that be, sir?"
"Because your daughter Elizabeth happens to be the Queen of England now, and knowing her as much as I do, I can assure you she'll do everything in her power and beyond her power to protect you."
"It is utterly impossible for my poor Elizabeth to ever become Queen, my lord," she told him. "Only days ago my marriage to the King was declared null and void, sir, and my daughter illegitimate. She has therefore been removed from the line of succession."
"Oh that's true! I'd forgotten that part!" he suddenly exclaimed, raising a hand and pointing a finger at her. "Very Henry VIII, don't you think? That man... There was no messing with him! Still, you know what, Anne?" he asked as she kept staring at him incredulously. "History didn't care. It's true others had a go before Elizabeth even had a chance, but eventually your daughter became the Queen of England."
"Are you completely insane, sir?" she asked him, disbelief and confusion written all over her face. "Do you think so little of me as to believe me foolish enough to even conceive the idea that, during my half-month imprisonment, not only did my husband abdicate and my daughter become queen, but that there has also been a succession of impossible kings and queens dancing around the crown of England?"
The Doctor gaped as he locked eyes with her.
"Oh Anne," he finally said. "You have absolutely no idea what's really happened to you!"
"I do, sir," she said, nodding repeatedly as she inhaled deeply. "People at court… They talk, my lord. I know of my husband's infidelity and I know what Jane Seymour's and her distinguished family's intentions have been all along, my lord."
"That's what the Tudor court's always been all about, isn't it?" said the Doctor. "Vested interests and power plays with a king or a queen trapped at the core. But that's not what I was talking about. Come with me, Anne. I want to show you something."
Anne's gaze darted from the Doctor's eyes to the Doctor's arm as he offered it to her. Her eyes then travelled back to his and stared at them for a moment, until she eventually hooked her arm around his own, if only hesitantly. Smiling softly at her, the Doctor reassuringly patted the small hand that was curled around his elbow, then led her out of the royal bedchamber and into the Privy Chamber. An instant later they stepped out of that room as well and found themselves walking along one of the countless and opulent corridors inside Whitehall Palace.
Soon enough, something strange-looking and definitely out of place at the other end called Anne's attention.
"Can you see that thing over there, Anne?" the Doctor asked as they kept walking in its direction.
Anne glanced at the object again, and as they were both now standing right in front of it, she took a moment to examine it closely with curious wide-open eyes.
"It appears to be a strange-looking blue cubicle, sir," she replied pensively, and stepping aside to get a different perspective, she went on. "There are white windows at the front and at the sides, possibly at the back too, and the light coming from the interior is brighter than any other light I may have seen before." The Doctor smiled, but he said nothing. It was plain to say she hadn't finished yet. "There are some inscriptions as well, sir, but even though they are in English, I am not sure that I can completely understand the meaning of such words."
"Well, not bad," said the Doctor, clapping his hands as he rubbed them together excitedly. "Would you like to see what's in there?"
Forgetting all about the conventions of her time, Anne Boleyn was about to say yes when an unexpected sound that seemed to be coming from behind that rare blue object startled her. "Did you hear that, my lord?"
"Did I hear what?" asked the Doctor, who was so excited about what was about to happen that he had not been paying any attention to anything else at all.
"That one, sir," Anne said, fixing her eyes on his as soon as the same noise became audible to her ears again.
"Oh!" exclaimed the Doctor upon finally hearing it. "That's nothing we should be worried about, Anne! It's just some smooching."
"I beg your pardon, sir?" she asked in confusion.
And then, a male voice interrupted her right before she asked what the meaning of the word 'smooching' was.
"Hi Doc!" Anne and the Doctor heard someone say. Immediately afterwards, Captain Jack Harkness, who was still wearing Anne's grey dress, emerged from behind the TARDIS, and an instant later, a flustered and blushed Edward de Vere emerged from behind Captain Jack Harkness. "I didn't expect you to come back so soon!" added the former Time Agent. Darting his eyes from the Doctor to the former Queen of England, Jack winked at her as he gave her one of his trademark smiles. "Hello to you too, my gorgeous Annie! Feeling better now?"
His sense of composure and decorum had made Edward gaze down as soon as Jack stepped outside their hiding place, and for as long as his new and exciting friend spent greeting the green-eyed Doctor, he had felt too shy to look up. However, the moment he heard Jack address some other person by the name 'Annie' and understanding that 'Annie' could be no other but Anne Boleyn herself, Edward lifted his head and stared at her. Then, taking a few steps in her direction, he bowed, after which he spoke to her gently.
"My lady Anne," he said to her in utter amazement, "this is a most unexpected and welcomed honour. My name is Edward de Vere, madam, and as of today, please consider myself to be your most humble and devoted servant."
"Are you gonna go in there, Doc?" Jack asked the Doctor, pointing with his thumb at the spaceship behind him.
"Yes," the Doctor replied with a smirk and a frown.
"Oh," Jack muttered with obvious disappointment. His eyes, however, soon darted to the majestic door at the opposite end of the familiar corridor, and then he asked the Doctor a new question. "Is there anybody in the Queen's chambers right now?"
"Not anymore, no," the Doctor answered lifting his eyebrows.
"Thanks, Doc! I owe you one!" Jack told him with a wide grin. Then he reached for Edward's hand and urged him to follow him. "See you later, guys!"
And with those words, Edward and Jack dashed along the corridor.
"Who is that man, sir?" Anne asked the Doctor as they both heard the heavy door of the Privy Chamber slam.
"The one that's wearing your grey dress? That's Captain Jack Harkness," the Doctor answered. He seemed to relax a bit then, and he was actually smiling before he added one more thing about Captain Jack. "An old and dear friend."
"I know who that gentleman is, my lord," Anne told him. "He was kind enough to introduce himself upon entering my dungeon."
"Oh yes, of course he did," said the Doctor, smiling softly again as he rolled his eyes.
"I meant the other gentleman, my lord," Anne said. "Who is he?"
"Oh, the other gentleman?" the Doctor asked her. The thought suddenly crossed his mind that Anne Boleyn couldn't have known a single thing about William of Stratford, which of course would make his answer much easier and infinitely shorter. "That was Edward de Vere, arguably the most remarkable playwright in the history of human kind."
"I have never met him or even heard of him," she asked, frowning slightly, "but the way he kept looking at me, sir… It felt as if he had known absolutely everything about me."
"Well, he probably did. He probably knows everything about everyone else in this world, too," answered the Doctor as he smiled softly. And then, turning to the TARDIS again, he asked Anne the very same question that Jack and Edward had unintentionally prevented her from answering. "Well, what do you say now, Anne? Would you like to see what's in there?"
"Provided it is not meant to hurt me or hurt someone I love, yes, my lord. I would."
"It's not," said the Doctor, after which he snapped his fingers.
"Oh, my stars! Sir, are you a wizard?" she asked him in wonderment as her eyes darted towards him.
"A wizard?" answered the Doctor grimacing. In his mind's eye, he saw the face of his dear friend Donna Noble, and he couldn't help but smile. "Of course I'm not! Why would I be a wizard? I'm so much better than that!"
"But the door… How did it open?"
"It's okay, Anne," he told her. "Never mind the door. What is important right now is that you get in."
Anne had been somewhat excited about the secret hidden behind the doors of the mysterious blue cubicle, but at this moment, for some reason, she seemed to be slightly panicking.
"But why would I want to go in there, sir?" she asked, her eyes fixed on the door that had been opened for her.
"Because it will change your life," the Doctor whispered in her ear.
It had been only days before that Anne had promised herself never to trust other people. Not that she would have had much time left to make that mistake again anyway. Right now, however, and for some reason she couldn't quite grasp, she was finding it just impossible not trust this young man who seemed and sounded so honest, who was being so extremely kind to her, and who seemed to understand what she was going through, something not many others had had the ability to do in the past.
Having made her mind up at last, she turned her head from the door to stare briefly at the Doctor. After smiling softly at him, she turned around again and went through the door.
As soon as she stepped inside the TARDIS, her unbelieving eyes started to dance around the console room, and while marvelling at every colour, every beam, every sparkle and light and sound inside it, she fought hard to try and regain her breath.
"Anne Boleyn, welcome to all of time and space," the Doctor said from behind her as his back rested on the doorframe.
"Oh sir, what is this place?" she asked in wonder as her eyes kept travelling in all directions.
"It's my ship," said the Doctor, smiling the way he always used to smile whenever the time came to explain the things his beloved ship could do. He entered the console room as well and stopped right behind Anne, and as he started to speak about his beloved spaceship, his tone became as passionate as nothing Anne herself had ever heard before. "It's my ship, Anne, but it doesn't travel across seas. It travels in time and space, which is infinitely much bigger and exciting. If you wanted me to, I could show you any of the billions of billions of billions of billions of planets in the universe. I could take you to the past and show you how the Tower of London was built five hundred years ago, or I could take you to the future and show you how there'll be absolutely nothing left of it before this planet is engulfed by the sun in about five billion years. But most importantly, Anne, I can show you how this is not the year 1536 anymore. This is the year 1600, and your daughter Elizabeth, apart from being a lady of a certain age, has also been the Queen of this country for over forty years."
When the Doctor spoke of her daughter, realisation finally struck her.
"That woman in the Tower…," she said as she turned around to stare at the Doctor. "She looked at me and called me 'mommy'… But she can't be my daughter, my lord! I refuse to believe that she is!"
"And why would you do that?" the Doctor asked her frowning.
"Why would I do that?" she asked incredulously. "Did you not hear the things that lady said before, my lord? That could be no daughter of mine… That must have been a beast unleashed from hell!"
"And were you not like her once, Ms Boleyn?" asked the Doctor. "Her conduct may not have been exemplary at all times, but she never had it easy either. You know what it's like to be a queen, don't you Anne, when those around you are only wolves in sheep's clothing."
"I shall not deny the fact that I have been no angel, sir," she told him. "However, although I may have been like her once, that is not what I want to be anymore, my lord, and as of today, not how I want to live my life – provided that I have, in fact, been gifted with another chance to live it."
A soft smile appeared on the Doctor's face as he spoke.
"You have, Anne," he told her, putting both hands on her shoulders. "You really have. And how you choose to live from now on is your decision and yours alone. But it's only fair that you know who your daughter is, 'cause old as she may look, deep inside her there's still a lonely child who grew up in fear because her mother was not there to protect her. You saw what she was hiding inside her ring, didn't you?" Anne didn't say a word, but her eyes gazed down by way of an answer. "She's been wearing that ring every single day of her life for nearly seventy years. She's always loved you and needed you, Anne."
"But she is not a child anymore, sir!" Anne snapped. "The way she spoke to you and my gentleman saviour before, oh that spoke how much she is not a child! Instead, she sounded like a ruthless monarch, probably because her own father became one himself near the end of his life! Am I not right, sir?"
"Well, you're not wrong I guess," answered the Doctor.
"Precisely!" Anne said, her eyes filled with rage and fury. "I do not wish to be loved or needed by someone who is powerful enough to inflict the most incredible pain and misery on others, sir. As regards pain and misery, I consider I have already had more than my share! If there is anything I want right now, my lord, it is to run away from this place that I once used to call home… To run away from these people! And given that the greatest misery imaginable was inflicted on me and my family by someone I loved deeply, I want to devote the handful of days I may have yet to live to try and relieve the pain of those upon whom the same sorrow has been inflicted."
Once Anne finished talking, the Doctor realised that her words had filled him with such awe that they had rendered him speechless. It wasn't until she collapsed and he quickly took her in his arms that he found himself capable of responding to her plea.
"Oh Anne," he said he grabbed her by the elbows. "Have you heard yourself just now? That was… Absolutely out of this world!"
"I want to leave this place, sir," Anne said again as tears started to fall down her face. "I want to leave this place right now!"
"Listen to me, Anne," said the Doctor. "Let me show you one more thing… Just one more thing! Let me take you somewhere else. If, after that, you still want to leave, I'll let you go. What the hell, I'll even give you a ride! But please, let me take you somewhere. I really need to do something, and I think you'd love to do it with me."
Trying hard to regain her composure, Anne brushed away her own tears with her hand. Once again, she found this man so honest and so true that it was impossible for her not to do what he had just asked her to.
She didn't say a word, but the Doctor's eyes went wild with joy the very second she nodded. Happy as a lark, he planted a kiss on her forehead before he let go of her and rushed to the console, where he started to pull levers and press buttons. Anne kept looking at him in astonishment, and it took her a while to get back on her own two feet and ask him a new question she suddenly wanted to ask.
"Where are we going then, sir?"
Lifting his eyes from the console for just one second, the Doctor looked intently at her and smiled before he replied.
"To the Tower of London."
