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Whitehall Palace. July 2, 1540.

Anne of Cleves commanded the royal tailor to make the Dukes some English attire. The brothers were thankful for this because now not only did that they not have to keep wearing the same clothes, but they could also fit in better. However, two days had passed since Anthony and Katherine Howard had shared a kiss. The two has taken great pains to put space between themselves. Meanwhile, discontent had been brewing at the English court. Henry had become increasingly discontented with Anne of Cleves. He was growing desperate in his attempts to get the marriage annulled. He was equally angry with Thomas Cromwell, whose desire for a union with the Protestant League had gotten him into this marriage in the first place. Ethan felt sorry for the woman, but Anthony knew that Anne of Cleves would make out all right in the end.

"Are you sure that she's going to be OK Anthony?" Ethan asked when they were alone.

"Yeah," Anthony replied. "I mean, Cromwell's gonna get his head chopped off; nothing is going to stop that, but Anne of Cleves will be fine. She gets an awesome settlement from Henry and she outlives all of his other wives."

"Well that's good I guess," Ethan replied with a shrug.

"It's Katherine Howard that you should be worried about," Anthony insisted. "She's the one who gets beheaded after Henry catches her with that douche Thomas Culpepper."

"What the Hell kind of name is that...Culpepper...it sounds like a weird spice." Chicago inquired. Ethan always had a habit of pointing out weird sounding names whenever he heard them.

"I don't know bro, it's the 1500's...people had weird names in the 1500's." Anthony replied, surly the brothers had more important things to argue about some guy's weird ass name.

"The point is that it would be wise of you to put Katherine Howard out of your mind," Ethan insisted. "Just let her have her 15 seconds of fame and then she and Culpepper will meet the chopping block and that will be the end of it."

"Wow, way to show empathy, jackass!" Anthony snapped.

"Hey, if it comes down to her or us, it's her dude!" the Duke of Chicago exclaimed. Ethan had no intention of risking his life for some teenage tramp whose family weasled her right into King Henry's bed.

"Can't it be neither?" the Duke of Springfield asked desperately.

"How?" Ethan asked, knowing full well that he wouldn't like the answer.

"What if I just told her not to hook up with Culpepper?" Anthony offered. Without Culpepper, all Catherine would have to worry about was Francis Dereham.

"First of all, who, when, where, and how lady Katherine Howard fucks is none of your damn business; and second of all, it would put our deception at risk."

"Katherine is a decent person, she doesn't deserve what Henry's going to do to her."

"She did cheat on him Anthony," Ethan stated as Anthony turned red.

"So what, that means she deserves to die?" he asked as his brother shrugged his shoulders.

"Maybe?" Ethan replied. Anthony had never been so annoyed by his brother as he was at this moment.

"You are an asshole Ethan, a fucking asshole!" Anthony said as he stormed out of their chambers.

"Oh yeah, well at least I'm not a dead asshole!" Ethan shouted. Anthony took a deep breath as he tried to calm his nerves. His brother had always been a pain, but now he was basically saying that

Anthony needed to get away from his dumb ass of a brother. It was bad enough that he already knew that Katherine was a dead girl walking, he didn't need Ethan to rub it in his face. Anthony made his way through the palace until he arrived at the queen's chambers.

"His grace, the Duke of Springfield," a servant announced as the elder brother entered the room.

"Your highness," Anthony said as he gave her a bow.

"Ah, mein Lord Springfield, I hope that this day finds you good, ja?" Anne of Cleves asked as Anthony locked eyes on the lady Katherine Howard.

"Very much so, your highness," he replied. "I come on the King's business. He asked me to deliver a message to the Lady Katherine Howard. It is for her ears alone." Anne slowly nodded as a surprised Katherine bowed before the queen and followed Anthony out into the passageway.

"Your Grace?" Katherine asked as Anthony took her to an alcove where they could talk without being seen.

"I had to see you milady, I wanted to talk about what happened between us."

"We can't," Katherine argued. "There are things that you don't understand."

"Like what?" Anthony inquired.

"My uncle is the Duke of Norfolk," she explained. "he brought me here so that I could provide a distraction for his majesty. He hopes that I might be able to take the place of his wife."

"That's why he put you in the queen's household?" Anthony said. He was trying to act like he was hearing this information for the first time

"Yes."

"Do you want to be Henry's wife?" Anthony asked. Catherine looked down for a moment. Henry was decades older than she, but he was insanely wealthy and anything that she wanted would be hers.

"It might be nice to be Queen," Katherine admitted. Anthony sighed as he took Katherine's hands in his.

"You know that his majesty has a reputation with his wives," he said. "If he's what you really want then that's your choice...all I'm saying is be careful." Anthony sadly walked away as Katherine was left to ponder her future choices.

WHO WILL KATHERINE HOWARD CHOOSE? REVIEWS NEEDED AND APPRECIATED.