Disclaimer: If I did, I would be Goddess Supreme now wouldn't I?
Thanks to all my reviewers, you are the best. "Cartas de Felipe II a sus hijas" (Letters from Philip II to his daughters) by Fernando Bouza; "The Private letters of Countess Erzebeth Bathory" by Kimberly L. Craft, were partly used for this chapter as well as Henry VIII and his court by Alison Weir and Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser.
Chapter #63: Innocent Traitor
"When my father beat me to the ground and called me deficient I swore I would have the bastard's tongue and feed it to his race. When my mother made my breathing stop, I swore I would choke her and be there when she entered hell to greet me with my knife, stuck in her throat, eating her tongue, digesting her insides. Parents, I laugh. It is in their genes you see … it is in their genes in some cultures for parents to be deficient and project their deficiency to their children, calling them deficient, calling them abortions, errors, abominations. I does not matter much when you stand at the edge of a precipice with a needle filled with air in your hand and you feel the air pumping in your veins reaching your heart …
Parents are the worst and the only way to destroy them is to end, not just their lives but their line forever …"
~The Abomination of Parenthood in Traditional Cultures by Lady Vengeance.
1575, July 9th-23rd
Somewhere in France…
Fernando did not know where the Berber pirates came from, he believed the coasts were clear after the Viceroy of Navarre and Valencia had assured they would not be anyone's problem anymore with his tremendous fleet. He was wrong, deeply wrong. And now Fernando was living in some dirty old underground cell, beneath some French castle, paying the price for his reckless behavior.
He had asked about his manservant Philippe. Philippe deserved better than a life of misery like he was about to experience. Philippe was his best friend. "I need to see him." He demanded but the guards only gave him a mock smile and bow. His cell door opened and revealed a man dressed in green and silver, the King of France no doubt, he figured by his neat-trimmed beard, his dark hair and dark eyes, and the lily flowers showing all over his surcoat.
"Your Majesty" He said, even in these conditions, he was still a gentleman and Philip II's son.
Henri III let out a raucous laugh which was followed by a mock clap.
"Your Majesty?"
"Well, well," Cut Henri III with his smooth, silky voice which was said to be so much like his mother, his favorite parent, when she was about to kill someone. Fernando could well believe the rumors of the Italian woman now, but he pushed them out of his mind as the King continued to approach him, his dark eyes shining in the light of the moon, his only light in this dirty cell. "If it is not the Infante of Spain. I am very honored to meet you. It is so sad we have to meet under these circumstances, I would have loved to see you in a more favorable state. You look dreadful. I am sorry about your servant –he was asking for you. It is too bad you were not there to save him."
Fernando's eyes widened.
Henri grinned. "Oh yes your servant is dead Your Highness. Do not worry we gave him a clean death, as well as the others."
His face fell. Philippe, his servants … all dead and it is because of me.
He bit his tongue, he was not going to let the King of France seeing him cry, he was not going to give him that satisfaction.
Big things have small beginnings. The King of France thought as he looked at his captive's wretched form. Unknown to him, he said it aloud and Fernando spat in his books and then lunged at him but was stopped by two of his French guards who roughly kicked him in the stomach. They grabbed his hands stained with his servant's blood and spread them outward.
"Show this Spaniard how we subdue our dogs." The King of France said.
The head of the French guard stepped aside and took out a whip. Fernando pressed his lips so tight together that they felt swollen by the time he let out his first scream. They were beating him senseless and yet he promised he would not scream but he had broken his promise, the pain was too much for him to bear.
"Stop … Stop! I said stop, I beg you please stop ..." He was forced to say bowing down to his knees when the head of the French let down his whip and they let go of his arms. He could almost smell the scent of flowers on the King of France's boots. He was no longer sure of anything more. If the lion knew his own strength no man could control him -Thomas More had said, one of his great grandmother's great supporters who had been right at the time when he referred to his best friend, as he was right now when he thought of Henri who perfectly fit the bill as his great grandfather, Henry VIII of England. Funny how they were both named Henry.
The men in the room laughed, including the King of France. His laughter did not reach his eyes and Fernando saw how they glimmered with malice.
"I-I will do whatever you ask." The King replied with a swift kick of his boot on his stomach as his soldiers had done.
"What do you want from me?" Fernando screamed. It was a stupid answer and it merited no real one, but he was compelled to ask nonetheless. He didn't care anymore that his father would be ashamed of him, this was all his fault for sending him in the front.
"I want your submission you bastard. Your father's father treated my father like an animal when he had his father imprisoned after he and the King of England went to war with France. He exchanged his son, my father to save his life. He never recovered from the mistreatment he suffered at the hands of Charles V." He knelt to Fernando and grabbed him by the hairs, Fernando squealed closing his eyes to hide his tears but there was no use as they spilled down his eyes. "I want you to know the misery my father suffered at the hands of your grandfather and your great-grandfather. England and Spain's offspring will pay for their father's sins."
"I am innocent of the crime you ask, if anyone it was my grandfather he has long been dead." He received another blow to his cheek this time by the King's dagger who unleashed it at the time he began to speak.
"Why are you doing this? You have what you wanted, you have a truce, my brother is the King of Engalnd and my father of Spain, they will send troops for me."
"Are you sure they would send troops for their weaking brother and son?"
Fernando nodded vigoursly. The King's dagger dashed through this cheek tearing a peace of flesh. "I heard my daughter exclaim when we first brought you here, she said you bastard were the handsomest Prince she ever laid eyes on. She won't be so happy when she sees you now, your limbs torn from your body, your face eaten by dogs ..."
Fernando squealed feeling the cold steel being pressed harder against his skin. He could almost feel it reaching his jaw. God why wasn't he dead yet? No human could possibly survive so much pain.
"Juana ... Juana" He uttered his sister's name, since they were children they had shared a special connection. Usually when one was hurt the other would know. He prayed to her instead of God who seemed to have abandoned him. "Juana ... protect my father and our family from evil ..."
Henri let go of the Prince and let him fall on the ground on top of the straw like a common animal. "Look he is praying to his sister. I never thought I would see this. The King of the pious King of Spain and brother to the heretic King of England, a pagan himself."
They gave a mock clap. "I could not have done it better myself. It is in their blood after all. The line is tained with bastards and commoners."
Before, when his mother was alive, when he wasn't this weak, he would have defended himself and his family's honor. But now things had changed, he no longer felt the need to fight, he wanted all to end.
Just when they left he began praying to his sister so that she could hear him, so that she would feel his pain and know that the end was not so far now, and that he regretted not being there for the major events in her life -her wedding, the birth of her children, and the courting of dozens of the finest suitors all over Europe. He wanted to tell his father how much he missed him and how much he desired that they would all be the family they once were when their Queen of Hearts alive.
You and your siblings are all that is left of her legacy ... He opened his eyes and rubbed them, he could barely move, he was paralyzed by the pain in his back and his mouth.
"W-who?" He said hoarsely closing his mouth when he felt a searing pain in his left cheek where Henri's dagger penetrated. "Wh-who is there?" He said very slowly letting a loud sigh when he finished, falling back on his back and pushing himself against the straw.
He tilted his head to his left then moved to the right to see if there was not any tormentor hidden in the shadows. He would not be surprised for Henri to send some of his goons after him.
No one. Absolutely no one.
The place was deserted. This was a dungeon made only for animals and weak livestock. You and your siblings are all that is left of her legacy. He heard it again. He closed his eyes and drifted to sleep. In his dreams he saw a beautiful woman with the same shape of his mother's eyes except her essence was different.
"There is nothing you should fear Su Alteza. Annie, your mother, and me are one. Different body, same soul,"
Her dark curly black hair flowed freely behind her back and she wore a French Hood on top the color red as his mother used to wear in the portraits he'd seen from his uncle Anthony before she married the King of England, and her dress was the same color with pearl buttons in the center.
Suddenly Fernando was aware who she was. "Anne Boleyn"
It was not a question. Anne smiled for finally someone had gotten a hint of her true idenity. "In another life I was once Anne Boleyn but to you I am your mother, Annie."
Fernando swallowed hard the information this woman ... No, his mother... was telling him. He took a deep breath and asked her: "What must I do?"
Anne walked to Fernando, how alike he was to her own Elizabeth and the Jane Seymour look-alike she had given birth to in more ways than one but carrying that Boleyn arrogance and pride that none other of her children with Philip inherited.
She put her hand on his cheek. "Your must do whatever your heart tells you. You are the son of a great dynasty, you must restore that dynasty to its true name. It was great once, it can be great again. Times will be hard and I will not sugarcoat anything by saying you will be successful in all your ventures because you will not. You will often have disagreements with Ligo and your half-brother William over the state of government and that will be normal but you must always remember who you are and where you come from. You are not just Tudor" She said stopping to consider her next words, if they would be too much of a shock on Fernando but seeing how William was turning out to be thanks to her daughter and a loving and determined wife who reminded Anne so much of herself and when she'd been Annie (the form she identified herself with now more), she knew she had to tell him. Fernando like William had more Boleyn and Tudor in him than all of the other children combined. They would change the world, but for that they needed to know the truth first. "You and William were born with Tratasmara spirit, with Tratasrmara blood, Chapuys blood but you were born with my predecessor, the form you see now, spirit. You have a lot of my previous form family's spirit in you and Tudor and Chapuys. You will need each other if you want to survive in this world."
"But how? William and I have not seen each other in years ..."
"Leave that to me, a mother knows" She said smoothly transforming into the woman he'd known and loved.
"Mother"
"I will always be with you. I love you, William, Diana, and Bess. You four are what I treassure the most in this life and while I love both your fathers, Edward and Philip, I cannot think of them separately as together like you four, make the perfect being. You made my life wonderful and I will never forget that. One day I will return and I will be there with William to guide you to the gates of heaven."
"Mother ..."
"Sleep my son," She kissed his forehead and he immediately closed his eyes and returned to harsh world of reality but this time with a strong determination that he had his mother's spirit with him and his siblings and Aunt, to guide him all the way.
Anne and Annie smiled from their resting place, as one, at the son they created with the second love of their lives. They did not know what to feel about Henry. He was a lost cause at the time Anne met him and she believed she could tame the wild beast and Annie believed she could soothe his heart as his daughter in law and granddaughter but both had been wrong. Henry was not made to be tamed just as he was not made to know or understand love.
They had been very happy when they met Edward and Philip, they saw each other as one. And they were.. One being split into two. When Philips body died he would merge with Edward's soul and the four would finally turn into two and enjoy the rest of eternity as Annie and the simple boy she fell in love with on two occasions.
She wished she could have stayed longer to witness the birth of her grandchildren. To see Diana and William become grandparents themselves but what Fate gives, Fate takes and Annie was not about to dispute that order. She was content with the lives she lived and that in her last one she had had a loving and considerate father -who, no matter who she'd been in the past, loved her beyond measure.
Fernando awoke. He no longer felt pain his jaw, his muscles had ease and he could now walk.
When the door burst open unexpetedly Anthony had to blink twice to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He had not seen a person in months, possibly years ... he was no longer sure how long it had been since he landed in this hell-hole.
"Uncle?"
"The very same. Are you not going to give me a hug?" Fernando wrapped his arms around Anthony passing them to his hair to make sure the scent and the feel of his hairs was real.
Anthony steeled himself. He'd been told of the horrors his nephew faced by the Queen's Court master, who had been the first envoy to the French before he angered the King with one of his blunt comments, but he was not prepared by what he saw.
His chin was scarred and filled with dry blood and his eyes were constantly blinking.
"How are you holding up with the French bastard?" Anthony asked switching to Greek.
"It has been worse. I do not feel pain. Now tell me, why have you come here? I know it can't be because of the food. Whole cell stinks but I hear there are worse so I consider myself lucky"
Anthony tried to smile for his nephew's sake. His beautiful face had been cut and the gash grew uglier with every facial movement.
"Your brother convinced parliament we should try to rescue you but with the condition first of negotiating for your surrender."
"I do not understand."
"You will swear loyalty to the King of France and denounce your rights to the Crown of Spain and loyalty to your father. If he asks you to spit at his portrait and your brother you do so. The King will give you rroms worthy of a special guest in the Chateu du Chambord where court is scheduled to move-"
Fernando interrupted him, outraged with the whole proceedure. "I will never renounced my father. Tell the King of France and my brother that thanks but no thanks." His uncle was mental. How could he think that he, a Prince of Spain could denounce his father? He would never show himself in Spain if he did that.
"Wait Fernando, let me finish." He lowered his voice. "Your fahter has a regiment of many foot soldiers and he is building the largest naval fleet, along with England, to rescue you and invade the heart of France. Albert's cause is defeated no matter what the German Palatinate says, but the King of France is still strong. Your only chance is to swear loyalty to your new master."
"But my father ... Uncle, I will not be a traitor, I rather die than be a traitor."
"You will not be cosindered a traitor. The document you sign will not be valid on any court after the King of France dies without an heir."
"How is my father going to ignore the contract? The King of France's bishops helped him formulate it. The Church will not forget this slight."
"Not at first but your father is prepared to give back papal authority over some of the provinces near Naples where he holds indirect control. The pope will give him a papal dispensation thus anuling the contract."
"Would that no be hypocrisy?"
"Not if it comes from the pope."
"But surely my father could do more." An uncomfotable laugh emanated from him. "He is the bloody King of Spain and rules over half of Europe ... surely ..."
Anthony lowered his gaze and sighed. "Fernando your father wants to distance himself from this as much as possible-"
"But he could pay the ransom…" He stuttered. He had to, his father had to pay the ransom, he could not afford to leave his second oldest son, his second heir at the hands of his enemies. But by Anthony's eyes alone he knew he would. "… he has to pay the ransom, he could give Navarre, Milan …"
"He won't, I am sorry. They are too much prized possessions, he would not risk them for anything in this world"
Not even for you –was the unsaid answer.
Fernando trembled. My own father … "My b-brother if he does not care … then why are you here?"
Anthony's light blue eyes met Fernando's light gray ones. There was a bit of story to that. He explained about the whole ordeal of his father trying to convince the King, William, to send him as a representative to the court of France and replace him with George in the front. "It was not easy and your brother did not stop complaining and neither did my mother or Cecil for that matter … but he figured it would look bad on him if he did not try to do something."
He allowed himself to smile when he recalled the Queen advising William it would be best if he listened to his Lord Protector just this once, when he posed the benefits it would bring the King the publicity of releasing his brother when his own father had not the guts to do it.
"The Queen wanted to send someone else."
"Who?" Fernando asked, nonchalantly.
"Her personal accountant and her property manager of her family states in Nyirbator, Hungary, since you are aware her older brother Istvan died followed by their younger brother and her sisters are too young and married to men lower than they."
Fernando nodded completely distant except for his eyes which did not reflect how lost he felt.
"The Queen trusts men with her life and they have done an excellent job keeping the villagers and her ambitious in-laws from sacking her family's property."
"Have you met them?"
"I met Andras Hajas, her accountant, never met the other fellow but Andras told me he is just as charming as he."
"So he is here."
"Yes, Her Majesty was not going to have it other way."
And God knew how William never denied every little request to his little vixen.
Since she had borne him a son, it seemed like she was on top of the world. Every time the King had a present, he had to show it to her first and he did not dare look at other women for fear of displeasing her. Anthony wished he could have someone like that by his side that did not let his eye wander. He had Jane … but Jane was not his wife and they always had to see each other in secret.
"Sorry I am verging on a tangent here but you should have seen how your brother reacted when the Queen demanded to send Hajas, your brother nearly fell on his knees to try and calm her down."
Fernando smirked. His uncle somehow knew how to lighten the mood.
"What will happen to me now? I will never show my face after I sign that contract and I don't want to be the cause for William loosing half of Northern France."
"It does not matter now. He would not be able to keep it anyway and your father … you will have to sign,"
"But-"
"Otherwise I can't do anything for you."
Fernando eyes widened with shock. "So ... I am all on my own then? Is that it? No one is going to help me? If I am executed right now…" he sobbed " no one would care?"
"Fernando you are not Helen of Troy." He said harshly to remind his nephew of who he was. "Your father will work hard to get you back but he is a King first than a father, same as your brother. They will not risk a million men for one." His voice softened. "Your tears will not help you, you only have on choice here, if you want to help your father, you must clean those tears and sign the contract."
Fernando nodded, filled with resolve and disappointment at the man he once admired and called father.
You deserted me, you treated me like a spare, but do not worry father I will not disappoint you or your dear lady, Spain.