FIRE AND ICE
This is an AU Tudors story where Catherine Howard is a struggling young model in London. Please comment nicely!
Sometimes life is like a speeded up film, with everyone rushing by and the faces all part of one big blur. That's how Catherine Howard felt hurrying across Oxford Street one icy November day. Catherine was shivering in the chilly air. She felt tired and hungry after a long day of modeling tryouts, and she didn't know what she was going to do about dinner. Her money was just about gone. And then all of a sudden someone was calling her name.
"Catherine Howard! Darling, how are you? It's me, Anne!"
"Anne?" Catherine would have recognized the legendary lady director of Cleves Cosmetics a lot faster if it weren't for all the noise and commotion. Anne of Cleves had a very distinctive style. She loved glossy leather boots and military jackets, and she had a trim athletic figure, jet-black hair and flashing dark eyes.
"London is so damp isn't it? Very cold and nasty for this time of year! Don't you have a winter coat, darling? What about the lovely full-length fur you wore at the Tudor Fall Fashion show?"
"Oh, that was just a one-time job," Catherine said, laughing to cover up how much it hurt to be let go by Tudor Furs. The tall, skinny blonde model hugged her bare white arms in the chilly air.
"God in heaven, child, you'll freeze out here!" Anne took her arm, firmly guiding the long-legged blonde across the busy street. "Let's go somewhere quiet where we can eat and talk. You look absolutely famished, darling. Hit a rough patch? We'll catch up over a good meal and a bottle of wine. I may have a job for you."
Catherine didn't quite know what hit her. Anne was always very unpredictable, but the young model was soon eating pasta and drinking wine in a small Italian place just off Oxford Street.
"So Henry Tudor didn't like your face, eh? That disgusting pig wouldn't know real beauty if it bit him on his big fat ass!" Anne was always quite outspoken, and she had the most outrageous opinions about the powerful people who ruled the fashion world.
"He liked my face. He liked my pictures. But you're right. He's nothing but a fat pig!" It felt good to laugh about the man who had wrecked her career and tossed her out into the street. Catherine gulped wine while filling her plate with garlic butter shrimp pasta. She'd been hungry for days, weeks really. This was like heaven!
"Perhaps it's time for a change. Are you ready for a change, Catherine darling? Are you ready to try something new?"
"Huh?" Catherine didn't get why Anne was being so mysterious. She pushed her empty plate away, amazed at how fast she'd devoured her meal. "Do you have a new modeling job for me?"
"Something like that," Anne said. "I want you to become the new face of Cleves Cosmetics, darling. But first we need to get rid of the competition."
"What competition? You mean replace another model? I don't want to take work away from another girl." Catherine loved modeling, but she hated the way backstabbing girls got ahead.
"You won't have to hurt any other girls," Anne of Cleves assured her. "But there's a man who's been making trouble, a rich man trying to take over my business. Thomas Culpepper is his name. That man is trouble. You're going to help me destroy him, darling. And you're going to enjoy it. You see, young Culpepper is gorgeous as well as rich. He's nothing like Henry Tudor."
"Yes, I see." The room grew hot all of a sudden. Her throat was parched, so Catherine picked up her wine glass and took a long swallow. "If you need help, Anne, I'm your girl. You've been good to me when everyone else turned their backs. But I won't do anything that's cruel or dishonest. I'm a nice person, basically."
Anne smiled, watching the out of work model drain her glass. "You're a very nice person. And it's time we got your career back on track. All you have to do is what comes naturally."
