Chapter #34: Art of Love

"With books you learn, you educate yourself, travel, dream, imagine, live other lives and multiply yours by a thousand."

~"La Reina del Sur" (Queen of the South) by Arturo Perez Reverte

1558, November 2nd.

Westminster Palace:

It was lust, dangerous, uncontrollable, and it didn't satiate her. They'd spent hours making love. Her awakening passion for another man had not been as strong as when she was in the King of Spain's arms. He woke in her the darkest passions and a desire in her she did not even know she had. Her heart throbbing her, that sword between his legs he thrust in her again and again. Oh how she loved to fuck!

"I have sailed to Spain!" She mocked with her best friend and lady in waiting Philippa when Isabella was not around. Bella was too modest, too chaste despite her married state -something so hard for many, including their sister Kitty to believe who was, all the contrary, and loved to fuck. She demanded of her servants not to act upon any desire and her maidens to guard her honor and to be swooped off their feet by the tender and sweet, appearing to be sincere words of the courtiers whose only interest was their claim over their maidenhood.

"No" "No, never!" Her servants also said, they would never let any man swoop them off their feet. But if they were to rebuke her now was the time. Annie had not done the best hiding her indiscretions with Philip. Servants heard them and the guards, it was rumored, were beginning to whistle a new tune, part Spanish, part English sang, about the idles of the King of Spain and their Queen Dowager.

She laughed after Philip finished his last thrust. They came so natural to her and she rested her head on the crook of his neck after he pulled her to his chest, to lie on top of him. It was so unusual and so refreshing, it made her feel like she had the upper hand. Like she was the one pulling the strings of this upcoming marriage and he, Philip, her darling Philip, was only her puppet free only to do his desires (with her alone), and she commanded him to teach her more about these "hidden pleasures" he boasted he'd learned from his "Felicisimo" voyage during his youth.

They wasted no time, Philip teaching her, and she the exhausted yet willing student.

"I am yours" She boasted after they were done and his seed spilled on her "Completely yours"

Just who was whose? They were completely unaware. They were in each others' arms, resting, their limbs paralyzed, too exhausted, too slow to move, they could barely breath during their final desire.

Eustace rubbed his forehead. He watched over the marriage contract that the Parliament members had approved, of which he was part of. If, if something were to happen. If indeed, something terrible and unusual were to happen to the poor King whose health was never failing unlike his father and his grand uncle the Prince of Wales, the throne would naturally in the absence of his legitimate heirs would pass to Diana. But Diana, they argued was no longer a choice or a person to rally up for since she'd been named Infanta and her title overwritten by the Cortes in Spain. The rebels in Aragon too taken with the tales of the sleeping beauty Queen Dowager and the beauty she passed on to her daughter, had began to accept her as such. Infanta of Spain, not Princess, not Your Highness, not Your Grace even, but Su Alteza, the Infanta. Under Spanish royal influence it would be like having a foreigner rule over them. Nobody wanted, they shouted in the streets despite the love they had for their mother, a girl who'd forsaken her title and betrayed her father's legacy for a poor replacement.

Diana could NOT, would NOT be allowed if ever the occasion presented itself to inherit. It was perpostrous, and worse, Eustace accepted their verdict. Mary had come to his dispatch for one last plea, to play her last card.

"How could you be doing this to me?" She said, her tone demanding and her voice imperious "They are taking away from the only thing that ever mattered"

She was governess to the Princess, by God that was such an honor to be Governess and ruler over the young Princess household despite being the lesser of the Royal brood. She should be proud with the honors that would come with a high position. People in the fields were killing each other for a scrap of bread, she would have been served over thirty to forty different varieties of dishes. She should consider herself lucky when there were yeomen who'd been left destitute by the religious wars initiated by her father who'd barely had if anything a thing to eat!

God what was this woman thinking?

Or was it that Eustace saw her in a different light? Ambitious, cruel, and cold-heart, whereas now she behave as if she had a heart, had a conscience and it was weighing heavily upon her as a heretic about to be discovered by the Holy Inquisition in Spain or Henri's French Royal forces in France, who debated with his or her conscience before being racked, shaved, and put on the stake to be burned.

What was it that troubled her so?

And there she said the name that was cause of all her pain and he realized. She cares, God damn it was impossible, it should be impossible, this woman never cared for anyone in her life, but she cares. And it weigh heavily upon her as she mentioned the name again, and again.
"Diana" she repeated "You are taking her away from me. She needs her grandmother. I have loved her, carried her when Her Majesty was not there by her side, me and Philip had read her bedtime stories, we have fed her, clothed her, I have brushed the back of her hair and I can tell you I know every inch of that little girl better than her mother ever has or every will" For that matter -she wanted. Even with all of God's light shining on her, she would never, ever know Diana as her grandmother did.

She was Diana's true care giver. And care, love, tenderness was not something you could grow, just as heart you were born loving a person, or hating it. But never grown.

Eustace stared at her in amazement. So here they were debating about the same girl, the same girl they helped sired through their mother whom they were responsible and the man who claimed he was the more caring grandfather could not withstand the flowing tears and rage that came out from Henry Tudor's firstborn who was, in this case, the true loving grandparent.

"She needs her mother" He was past the age of expectancy when fate started taking things instead of giving things. He knew this long before he reached this age. 68 years old there were some things he could not longer do, he had to let go of the past and look towards the future, prepare, and build on it through focusing on the now. "If we do not let go of Diana she will only be miserable here" he explained "Do you really want that Your Grace? To be a shadow of her former title? Her father promised her the title of Princess of Wales, now that title belongs to her brother. Could you really expect that there will not be animosity between the two children or your doting on Margaret? Though we all know that is not what you really feel for the poor girl, you just see her as a tool, yet Diana is young and naive and she sees things differently" He said as a matter of fact, simply and direct yet holding no accusation in his voice.

They were past that age of fighting. And Mary was tired too. Fate had taken her son though she seemed adamant to still blame it on Annie, and through other set of hands it was going to take her granddaughter away now.

Truth to be told, she said to herself, I do not care about Annie, William, Margaret and I could care about the throne of England less but it was my father's dream that the Tudor dream, the Tudor blood, the only lineage so great, so prominent that has ever lived in this country, did not die out with his heirs. And it was a dream of her son that they should hold the Tudor throne. It was a dream of my mother's, she added to herself. I will not forsake that dream, never. Not for love, not for patience, not for money, not in a million years. Never.
Her mother's motto had been when she'd been married to the sickly Prince of Wales "Never for my Crown". Now Mary would take on that motto for her grandson, Henry's only piece he left on this world before he left from it. Albert. She did not how, when, but somehow no matter what measures she had to take she would make sure that little boy would wear the crown and scepter and sit on the English throne.
Time was not of the essence, only life was. And Henry's life was all she had lived through these years. He was her pride and joy, yet she never saw him as anything else but. She had been her boy, her healthy son, she'd seen him as a success whereas all her mother's had been failures including her. "The girl without a soul" they called her. Henry was the diamond that shined over all the dark stains in her past and her mother's. But she never loved him, she never approached him as a mother should to her only son. She was cold and distant, and the warmth she gave was never the same she gave to Kitty or to Diana ... She gave an inward sigh.

Diana ... She, she thought if Albert could hold the scepter and the crown of St. George, Diana as the first Henry Tudor through the same scheme, could be his consort and they could rule together like their great grandparents.

But now they were taking her away. Mary would never see her. It was not fair. She had to stop Eustace by any means necessary but such means had been reduced to begging, and Mary put on her best mask, shed her best tears to convince her old fling that what he and Parliament were doing was wrong. Completely wrong.

"I love Diana, I love her, I promise her to cherish her as Annie, as ..."

"As you did Annie?" He barked back, interrupting, with a smirk.

She rose from her chair. One thing was pleading, another was standing for his slander. She could not have both. She could very well loose this fight, but she would rather loose than stand for his slander.

"I never" she said with a hissing voice, venomous and disdainful. "never mark my words hit that child. I did my best to love her, I carried her in MY arms. I held her against my breast, I tried to feed her but you and my sister corrupted her. I thought I could use her against you but she cried when I held her. Just as she cried when you took her from me"

He waved her hand at her. "Please My Lady in terms of theatrics you are not the best in the show. Let's not forget I have traveled to more courts in Europe than you will ever have your share of. So let us cut to the chase" He sad enjoying her scarlet red cheeks and her eyes that were ablaze with fire. She has done me worse things to me and my family than that.

His rivalry with Mary was getting too old, redundant, and frustrating. It would end now and whether or not Annie ever recovered her memory, Mary would sit down and retire to a nice, comfortable household she would rule for their youngest grandchild, Princess Margaret.

"You do not want Diana simply because you claim you loved her but you intend to stage up a rebellion and don't tell me no My Lady for I know you just as you say you know me so let us be frank. You want your grandson in the throne of England with Diana to cement his claim, don't deny it" Mary pressed her lips very tightly together, it made her look as if she did not have a care in the world for what he was saying. If anything her eyes looked dull and her expression bored
"In your wild dreams you harbor these incomplete illusions that the people based on their past love for your mother which has need I remind you long been forgotten, will rally up to you and embrace your cause!" He was past his tipping point, his patience had weathered, he stood up, hands holding strongly on the old wood. "Old age, lunacy or both, I cannot begin to tell you how much Your Grace me and my wife laughed when we discovered how far your ambitions went!" He finalized with a nervous laugh that would resonate her ears years later transforming into a cackle, a haunting, mad, and terrible cackle she'd hear whenever she sensed doom's coming.

Mary presently eyed him with hatred for his assertions but kept her emotions hidden behind a mask of coyness.
"And when would that be?" She asked him, playing on her outer appearance, wearing a proud smile on her face.

"When you were stupid enough to press on your puppet Bishop, Bishop Gardiner to convince the rest of the council members along with other of your lesser puppets to invest Diana with the principality of Wales which would be just another step to crown her Queen of England" He said turning deathly serious, with an even deathlier whisper he finalized: "Don't take me for a fool, you can take others for a fool even Philip but not me. It insults my intelligence. Now if Your Grace should be so kind as to leave me to my work, there are guards outside my office as you've seen that can escort you, but the decision has been reached and want it or not, love her or not, Diana is going to be dropped from the line of succession and the Cortes in Spain have already agreed to adopt her as Royal daughter of Spain, Infanta if you want us to get technical once her mother is married to His Majesty."

Mary left the office frustrated, squeezing her palms, momentarily her crazed mind thinking to the open window next to Eustace's study but Eustace had not in vain mentioned the guards stationed outside his office, at a very close distance between the door and his desk. Even in the simplest gestures he mocked her as if to say 'here I am, I stand invincible and there is nothing you can do'.

She returned to her chambers, the door behind given a great slam woke up the inhabitants of the room and maids rushed, including her own ladies, to her side to see if there was any need for her.

"Out, all of you out! Not you Susan, you stay here!"

They obeyed her and Susan and her newly awaken daughter and her husband, Philip putting on a long robe that covered him from head to toe sat on the couch. The women sat on the opposite couch to his that was also covered in red velvet.

"Mother are you alright?" Katherine asked crossing herself mentally against any lashing of her mother's. It was not she who would suffer but poor old, useless Susan who seemed only more weak, haggard and well useless really. Kitty could not tell why was it the woman was always praying? If she prays so much why not go to a convent, why have the beads danger from the belt around her dress like some poor Abbess. She looked like a disgrace even now dressed in black and white gown her mother gave her for her birthday.

"No. I am not alright and neither do you if you do not stop flirting or blowing kisses in the air to that pale, skinny, cousin of yours!" She snapped.

"Sweetheart maybe we should discuss this the three of us in private I think"

"No Philip I will not discuss this in private, I invited Susan here because I want her to know, and I want him to know"

Susan's heart began to race faster. "Him?" she asked meekly.

"Him? Him? Do not repeat yourself like a ninny Susan, you know very well who I am talking about. Eustace Chapuys the man you spilled our secret to"

If it was possible a heart could stop and your breathing too and you could still breath and the rest of your motor functions be intact, Susan was the proof. Her eyes went wide, unblinking, her face white, her eyes transparent where now Mary could see the truth of her betrayal.

"Well do not stand there with your mouth open. You are not here to catch flies."

Susan closed it and began, stammering "Ma-Mary ..." For her long years of service and their long friendship they had no need for such titles "M-Mary I-I assure you I t-told H-H-His G-Grace nothing!" The poor frantic woman returned to her former state, remembering the abuse she suffered, tossed down and threatened by the Duke Alexei and Chapuys. "P-please I-I did not tlel them anything"

"Lady Susan how could you be so careless. You have any idea what you have done?" Philip screamed.

Mary's serous face turned to a twisted smile surprising everyone with her next words: "I do not care what you said or did with him. I reward my informants but my friends more. I know you did not mean it Susan but next time tell me. Are we so apart now that you forget your station in my life. We are friends are we not?"

"Y-yes"

"Then as your friend you should have told me. It should not be your burden to bear, I would have helped you. You think so lowly of me Susan?" Susan shook her head, tears spilling "Then why so much distrust. Oh Susan come here" She pushed the old lady in waiting in fur clad arms where the sharp and itching ruff of her neck bit Susan's face yet she said nothing. It felt good to be back in loving arms and not to be judged.

"I am sorry" She said over and over "I am so sorry. I was so wrong. I am sorry. I thought the former Ambassador ... t-that I could help with what I had witness ... I-I-I thou-though that I could make him see the good woman in you. He and Dke Alexei were so rough with me"

The three of them looked at each other. So it was that Duke, that useless Isabella's husband, not so useless after all, who had played spy to them as well? Well he would be dealt with. Mary thought. Hiding her true feelings to Susan showing only tenderness to the poor woman. "I will not let anyone hurt you anymore. I promise" She kissed her forehead and bid her farewell.

Susan looked at her puzzled "I thought you wanted me to stay"

"No dear not now, later Susan when you are well, for now rest and I shall pray for you and Tony" Susan did not need to be told twice she bowed to the occupants in the rooms, said her farewells and left.

Mary then turned to her daughter. "That Su Alteza is how you build friendships, is how you hold people to your will"

"Why did you not punish her?" It was Philip.

Mary smiled sweetly at him, her smile scared her more than her scorn. It made it impossible for him to know what she was thinking. "Punish her and give away that man that we know his little secret my best friend told. No. Philip remember our son, Henry did ways subtle, my great grandmother, My Lady the King's mother was the same way. I am a Tudor Philip, I did not get this graying hair for acting brash. Susan will go back to her little sanctum with her son and pray."

"If you knew" Katherine spoke for the first time, clearing her throat to gain attention, yet afraid her mother would lash out on her as she had first at Susan and then patting her head and making her completely hers. Kitty admired her mother but she wasn't one for sick games. "Why did you not do it before?"

"All in due time dear, all in due time. You want your son to be King of Spain don't you?"

Kitty nodded eagerly. She cursed herself inwardly for responding too quick, her father and Henry had taught her a wise person takes his or her time with his or her answers. But it was too much to put on hold. Who would not want their son to be King and of Spain, the greatest empire in the world? Just think, she told herself, of all the riches I will enjoy. I could be Queen, the most celebrated, loved Queen in all the world.

Her daughter's vanity was plain as Jane Seymour's plain beauty. She caressed with her fingertips her daughters cheeks and went to her lips. "These are your greatest attribute. Have the mad Prince in your grasp and you will never have to worry again"

"But how?" The mad Prince was a monster they said and with a big head. Big egg head was more like it, how the English Ambassador had last remarked about him. Who could ever love a monster like that?

"The Prince of Asturias is not a monster, have you seen his portrait?"

Kitty nodded.

"He is not so ugly isn't he? Not a big head in his portrait. Portraits lie but even our envoys in England admit how his eyes are a vibrant blue, a brighter shade than his father's sapphire blue and his hair is the color of the sun. He is a boy of thirteen Katherine, he has not had much love in his life. He needs someone to care for him, some to look after him, someone he can trust."

Someone he can love, someone to care for him ... someone to control him. Were the sentences her mother was trying to convey to young Katherine who, at her young age, knew the importance of her sex and that her only value in life would be through the number of (male) children she'd provide her royal husband. Mad or not he would be King someday. And her mother was telling Katherine to do whatever in her power to keep it so.

As other women Katherine relied on others, powerful men, to cement her power. And through Carlos, she and her son would gain the notoriety that her mother never did. Mothers lived for their children, no statement had ever been truer as for Mary Tudor whose every moments revolved around her children. She pictured herself in her children's place, and all their glory was naturally hers.

Kitty, it first dawned on her she would stop to be Kitty. Kitty was not an adequate name you'd want to be called for as Princess of Asturias. As Dona she would be official Royal. Leo X had done a terrible mistake rebuking his predecessor's ruling of the marriage between Katherine of Aragon and her first husband, the (then) Prince of Wales to have been not null and valid therefore making hers with the present King null and incestuous. Something monstrous, something unthinkable, and the King's gravest mistake. With the pope after Leo's successor captured, her mother thought that it would be a matter of time before the matter was rebuked once again. But why go against a pope's ruling twice? It was lunacy, the Vatican had enough of dementia. And Henry VIII had reported in all his supremacy as when he'd been made Head of the English Church, he would never give England as part of a "wench's dower to satisfy her foreign husband" or -some claimed "her bastards".
That was how Kitty and her siblings were seen all their lives in the court of His Majesty, her grandfather, as bastards. It did not help their father was a staunchly Lutheran. Their mother remained a devout although secretive Catholic and a rebel to her father and uncle's legislation.

Her mother always relied on Henry, on Henry alone to restore the honor on her family Leo X and so many heretics ruined. Now the honor passed on to her and she was not sure she would be ready to take such a task. First she had to make way with her old name and come to Spain as Catalina. A strange name, but it was the name of her grandmother. Surely if she practiced and told her servants and her ladies to call herself Catalina she would get used to it by the time she took the Prince to her bed.

And her mother had a point, 13 years old. He was only a boy, he could easily be mold, reshaped, and controlled to her bidding.

Just imagine Queen of a mighty Empire. Empress in all but name -her mind told her.

"Will you be that person my sweet, sweet, kitten?" Mary continued withdrawing her fingers from her daughter's skin, breaking her daughter's chain of thought.

Kitty, no ... Catalina could still feel her mother's touch. She looked to her father, the only individual who shared her green eyes.

He smiled at her and went to sit besides her and ran his fingers through her loose red, semi wavy, hair "You are a beautiful woman. Have I ever told you the story of Brunilda? The German heroine?"

Katherine ... no, she racked herself, not Katherine, not Kitty anymore. It was time to do away with childish things. Catalina now, shook her head.

"No?" Kitty shook her head again "Hmm? Too bad I thought I did." Old age was affecting him, but it was mostly due to his regrets. Mary thought he was cold and only cared for her and her ambition, but when Henry died his heart like Kitty's died with it. Kitty was the only person in his family with the Wittelsbach strength. The future of this family would not rely on Albert or years of planning for his ascension, but in Kitty's strength.

"The story of Brunilda was she was a Princess then turned Queen from a Kingdom where she ruled all on herself. She was the most beautiful woman, the Roman Venus and Greek Aphrodite would be put to shame. But as a woman she had twice the enemies than me, so one day another German hero, an aspiring warrior came and took her maidenhood and claimed her for his own. What happened later is not important but what happened after."

"What happened after?" Kitty asked now completely entranced with her father's story. It was easier to relate with a person who shared your eyes, and who, despite being the weakling Henry claimed him to be, understood his oldest and youngest child better.

Philip smiled at his daughter and petted her head "They had a daughter from such union despite she' been forced to marry the King the German hero Sigfrid who took her served. Said daughter married a King, by this time the girl had been living in exile and no one knew she was the Princess of the two legendary heroes. When the King laid on her just like you, she had beautiful green eyes and he was completely taken with her. She was pregnant but the King's eyes began to wonder"

"Why?" She demanded. How can a King find a more beautiful woman with eyes as jade? A woman's beauty was not through the delicacy of her face but the precious jewels she had on her eyes. Anne Boleyn and so countless others before her were proof of that. Even now the infamous love between the King whose love for his old Queen had wavered in favor of a Kentish low born knight's daughter who through her mother she had as much royal blood as any other well born lady in court, was still legendary. People wondered if Pope Clement VII ever regretted giving the King his annulment, and if Charles had as well for not going farther when his mercenaries sacked Rome and he had Pope Clement under "protective custody", in restoring his Aunt and former uncle's marriage. Kitty self-confessed she hated the woman who made her mother a bastard, but if she could go back Kitty would berate her grandmother instead for not fighting harder to keep her husband or, in the worst of cases, step aside and kept her daughter's legitimacy. Women were in the position they wanted because of their own doing, she considered.

"The King my daughter needed a royal wife"

"But she was royal she came from a King and a celebrated knight"

"Yes but the King did not know that and the King's eyes wandered elsewhere and men from the North presented him with a beautiful Princess but when the Queen had confronted him she told him the truth about her heritage. He laughed and then she said 'if you do not believe me my King look at the son I carry, nine months time I shall give you a son and that son's eyes will be as green as mine, as strong as you and within his eyes you shall see a serpent swimming in his green ponds' The King of course did not believe her but gave her the benefit of the doubt. Nine months later she gave him a son and on his eyes he saw a snake swimming in his eyes as she said and he had the son and the great dynasty he always wanted. And they remained together"

"So you see Kitty all you have to do is treat your servants fairly, be tough but never too tough. Be silent but never too much. Be pious but never border on exaggeration, that destroyed my mother. And above all enchant your husband, enchant poor Don Carlos who will need your support. Enchant him and fill his head with stories and promises and he will succumb and before time you will give him what all men desire, a son" Mary said her eyes shining with ambition as they centered on her daughter's.

She turned to her father "Listen to your mother. Do not repeat with Lady Susan unless you need to. You kill more flies with honey than vinegar, remember that. Sweetness and mercy are a deadlier weapon, and your beauty ... use it" He said.

Kitty nodded. She did not have any idea what her mother planned for Susan but she did not dare ask. Her father was surprised as well. Women, what curious creatures they were. One minute they could be gentle and tender, the other they were furious, and complete animals. Yet the way they dealt with things was without talk, without patience, they were quick in their methods and more ruthless than men. They had to be, what other way they could hold their power in this man-made world?

As a child I have always been fascinated with the Norse and Greek mythologies more than Egyptian though their myths are pretty neat, however I think that since Philip Wittelsbach being German a German myth would tie in better with what he was trying to convey to his daughter.

To Flojera Registramer: Hey thanks for your review it has been a while since I have seen you review, and I thank you for the advice however I will keep going my own way.

This chapter serves as interlude to show just what Mary is brewing, Eustace, and Kitty's formative years and how they will affect her when she and Annie come to Spain. Plus I could not leave my readers without some Philip and Annie peace. Purely physical but more dialogue later on ;)