AN: I don't own anything you recognise- and not the song in this chapter either. It's Amanda McBroom's "The Rose" and with the Tudor emblem being the rose, I thought it fitted! Enjoy!

Chapter 5

September 1544

A few months later, it was my birthday, and though I wasn't invited to spend it at Court, I had hardly been expecting an invitation. I hadn't spent a birthday at Court since I was eleven.

However, for once Father did not forget my birthday. On the contrary. He sent me a bolt of ivory silk to be made into a gown and a new hunting horn.

To my surprise and delight, it was not the customary page who delivered Father's gifts. Oh no. As I was breakfasting with Blanche, delighting in the copy of Marguerite of Navarre's "Miroir de l'âme pécheresse" that she had given me, the guard by my door coughed slightly and announced "Lord Edward Brandon, Lord Boleyn and Lady Anne Boleyn to see you, Your Highness."

"Edward! George! Anne!" I rose from my seat to greet them, allowing Edward and George to kiss my hand before turning to Anne, raising her from her curtsy and embracing her warmly, whispering as I did so "Lady Anne? That's new. You were Mistress Anne when I saw you last."

"My father's become an Earl. Earl of Ormonde. I'll tell you later." She murmured in reply before releasing me and saying "His Majesty the King sent us, Princess. He wants us to present you with these gifts in honour of your birthday."

Edward stepped forward then, carrying the hunting horn, while Anne went to relieve the maid who had come with them of the bundle of ivory silk that was folded over her arm. I took both gifts from them, caressing the horn and admiring the delicate carvings of my initials "E.T" and the Tudor Roses that were intertwined all over it, before running my hand over the glossy bolt of silk and then handing it to Blanche, who was desperate to take a look at it. Dresses had always interested her more than they had me.

"Thank you, My Lord. Thank you, Lady Anne. These are wonderful gifts. Please convey my feelings to the King and assure him that I am honoured to be thought worthy of receiving such presents."

"His Majesty thought that you could have the silk made up into a gown for the banquet being held in honour of the Tuscan Ambassadors next month." Edward piped up and my eyes flashed to his face, sending him a frantic message "Is my half-brother to be there?". In answer, he nodded almost imperceptibly.

Despite myself, my jaw clenched at the thought of Father recalling his bastard to Court to welcome some Ambassadors. Were Blanche and I, the Princesses of England, not high-ranking enough to do so on our own? Did we really have to be supplemented by the baseborn Duke of Richmond? A moment later, however, I put the matter firmly from my mind. I wouldn't let thoughts of my father's bastard spoil my day for me – not this day, at least.

"We shall see." was all I said before changing the subject completely. "Are you both here for the whole day? Shall we ride out together this morning?"

"Yes. Why not, Your Highness? Nothing would give us greater pleasure, would it, Lord Edward? Brother George?" Anne replied and Edward concurred, smiling at me.

Within the hour, Blanche, Edward, George, Anne and I were saddled up, along with a number of my ladies, but as we mounted, Edward shot me a smile – a promising smile, one that seemed to say "You wait until we're alone and then I'll wish you a proper Happy Birthday."

And he did. Edward and I were both fine riders, so it didn't take long for us to surge ahead and lose our companions, with the exception of Anne, who I didn't mind, because I trusted her with my life. She wouldn't tell anyone about whatever would transpire between Edward and me. Besides, I had just turned fourteen. I was a young lady of marriageable age. I would need a chaperone, if my reputation wasn't to suffer for this private ride. Anne would serve admirably, especially since she already knew that Edward was in love with me, and I with him.

All of a sudden, Edward swung off the bridle path into the relative privacy of the woods, leaning low over the saddle, coaxing his mount into a full gallop. I followed, keen to get to somewhere that we could truly be alone.

We reached a lonely clearing, and it was here that Edward drew rein, halting his horse and sliding to the ground, helping Anne down from hers before he came over to me, ready to catch me as I too dismounted. He embraced me as my feet touched the ground, pressing his lips to mine in one sweet, soft, lingering kiss.

"Happy birthday, Elizabeth."

"Thank you." I cupped his cheek in my hand, the gesture tender and intimate.

"I'm sorry about Anne having to be here." I murmured. "I'd much rather be alone with you, you know I would, but -"

"It's fine. Scandal cannot be allowed to besmirch your name, my love. That's more important than anything. Don't worry about it. Now, let me give you your birthday present."

Edward disengaged himself from my hold and went over to his horse. I stood, not quite knowing what to do with myself, until he came back to me.

"Here. Sit down." Swinging his cloak off his shoulders, Edward spread it on the ground for me to sit upon before dropping to one knee in front of me with his lute in his hand.

"My Father will no doubt have sent you something from the Brandons, but I wanted something more personal as a birthday present, so I've written you a song." He admitted, before strumming the strings of his lute twice and then bursting into song.

"Some say love, it is a river
that drowns the tender reed.

Some say love, it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed.

Some say love, it is a hunger,
an endless aching need.

I say love, it is a flower,
and you its only seed."

I looked over my shoulder at Anne. To my delight, she had quietly withdrawn a pace or two to give us the illusion of privacy. Smiling, I lost myself in Edward's song again. Anne understood. She had always understood.

"…Just remember, in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed that with the sun's love
in the spring becomes the rose."

Edward's full tenor voice lingered on the last note and I found I had tears in my eyes. I couldn't believe that he had gone to all that trouble for me.

"You wrote that for me?" My voice was scarcely more than a whisper. Edward nodded.

"I did. In honour of your birthday. You deserve it, Elizabeth. My Lady Princess. My Rose. My beautiful Tudor Rose."

"Edward!" I flung myself at him, throwing my arms around his neck. I hugged him passionately and then made to move away, but he leaned over and captured my lips in a kiss, rendering me unable to breathe, let alone move.

"You take some liberties, Lord Edward" I scolded him teasingly when I could breathe again. "Have you forgotten that I am first in line to the Throne of England?"

All of a sudden, Edward released me and fell to his knees before me. "Never, My Lady Princess. Never." He vowed, kissing first my hand and then, as I bade him rise, my lips. "I'd do anything if it meant you were secure on your throne. You know that. I'd die for you if you needed it, Elizabeth."

"Don't say that!" I begged, a jolt of fear coursing through my veins at the thought of losing my beloved Edward. This conversation was taking a far too serious turn for my liking.

As if she sensed my fear, Anne was behind me instantly, smoothly taking charge of the situation.

"Perhaps we should rejoin the others. They may be beginning to notice the length of our absence." she suggested. Edward nodded quickly. "Yes. You are right, Lady Anne. We should go and find them."

He helped me into the saddle and then went to assist Anne. Whilst we were waiting for him to mount his own horse, I turned to see Anne's horse fretting at the short length of rein she was holding him on. I glanced up at her in surprise. She was a good horsewoman herself – her keeping up with me and Edward was proof enough of that. Why was she now so intent on keeping her horse on such a tight rein? The sparkle in her eye was answer enough. She was about to challenge us to a race and she wanted to tighten her reins in preparation for cantering off from a standing start.

Sure enough, as soon as Edward had settled himself in the saddle and picked up his reins properly, Anne looked at us both and said boldly "Your Highness, My Lord, I challenge you to a race. The first one out of these woods."

Edward and I shared a reckless smile. Why not?

"We accept, Lady Anne." He shouted, leaning low over his horse's saddle as he spurred it forwards. Fiercely competitive, I followed, urging my precious bay Irish gelding, Sovereign, first into a canter and then into a flat out gallop.

The muscles bunched under Sovereign's flanks and he bounded forwards, as delighted as I was to be out in the crisp September air, the dry leaves crunching under his hooves.

I felt the pins holding my hood in place begin to slip so I gathered my reins in one hand, putting the other up to my head to keep my hood in my possession. My coppery hair streamed out behind me, hanging what Father or Lady Bryan would call "brazenly loose", but I had no time to worry about that. The trees thinned out not a hundred yards away from me and although I had already overtaken Edward, Anne was still three lengths ahead. I was determined not to let her win.

Flattening myself along Sovereign's neck, I crooned to him.

"Go on! Go on, boy! You can do it. Run for your Princess. Run as you've never run before."

Somehow, he listened. Somehow, he did what I asked of him. Sovereign kept running and soon we were gaining on Anne, drawing level with her, pushing on ahead of her.

I broke out of the trees, instinctively knowing that Sovereign had almost reached the limits of his strength. Anne's horse was level with the cantle of my saddle.

Laughing aloud in triumph, I sat up and loosened my reins, letting Sovereign slow from a gallop to a canter and then to an ambling trot.

"Well done, My Lady Princess. You're a true Tudor. You know what you want, and you'll do anything to get it. Mind, you ride like a Howard. We never look back."

I heard Anne's voice behind me and twisted in the saddle to speak to her.

"I told you to call me Elizabeth, remember?"

Anne laughed in response and waited for Edward to catch us up before saying "We'd better find the others. They can't be far. Besides, we need to get back to the palace before you run that poor horse of yours into the ground, Elizabeth."

"Oh, Sovereign would do anything for me." I replied.

"Forget a Howard. You ride like a Diana, dear cousin. However, even a huntress has her limits." Anne retorted, continuing "Anyway, I need to talk to you. Alone."

My curiosity was piqued, but it wasn't until we had gone back to the palace, eaten lunch with my sister Blanche and left her playing cards with Edward and George Boleyn, who seemed to be treating her very indulgently, almost as if she was his little sister, rather than a Princess of England, whilst I retired to my room to change for the dancing that Kat had decided to permit us because of my birthday that Anne and I were finally able to be alone.

She came into the room where Lady Susanna was brushing my hair, and I instantly dismissed Susanna. Anne stepped forward and took over the gentle arranging of my curls in silence, until, unable to bear the suspense any longer, I spoke.

"Well, Anne?"

"Well, Your Highness? I mean, Cousin?"

"You promised me some answers. Why is your Father now Earl of Ormonde? Why did Father allow you to visit me? And to bring his presents for me with you? Not to mention Edward."

Anne sighed and set down my hairbrush, before taking a necklace, brooch and a ring out of her skirt pocket. She held them up to my looking glass. I knew what they were at once, even before she asked "Do you recognise these, Cousin?"

"Of course I do." I breathed. They were my mother's."

"Your father gave them to me last month. I didn't ask for them; I never even wanted them. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, you and Blanche should be the ones wearing them." Anne gently reached out and clasped the necklace around my throat, caressing my shoulders tenderly as she did so.

"The brooch is for Blanche. I thought the emeralds would go better with her blonde hair than the aquamarines. They wouldn't have enough contrast."

"And the ring? The amethyst ring? Can I have that?" I asked impulsively, realising immediately afterwards how spoilt and greedy the question would sound. Hastily, I rescued matters by adding "I didn't mean for myself, Anne. I was thinking of Eleanor and Jessica. Mother was their mother too. They deserve a keepsake of her."

"I know, Elizabeth, but they can't have this." Anne held up the ring as she spoke. "This came out of the Royal Treasury at the Tower. It's part of the Queen's official jewels. Nobody's going to accept this being given to a pair of bastards. No, I was thinking of giving this to the Lady Mary."

"Why her?" I was too startled to act with decorum, and spat the words out without thinking. "All right, so she's my sister. So are Jess and Nora. Mary's still only my father's bastard. No more and no less. Though God knows she seems to think she's something special. She never shows me respect if she can help it. Nor Blanche."

"Lady Mary's mother may not have deserved to have been Queen, Elizabeth, but she held that title for nearly twenty years before the Blackfriars trial."

"And then Cardinal Campeggio decided in my father's favour and annulled her marriage to him within the space of a week!" I cried triumphantly, snapping my fingers at Anne's cautious words. Anne sighed.

"Yes, that's as may be, but what I'm trying to say is; Dowager Princess Katherine used to be Queen, Elizabeth. The common people were used to viewing her as such. They were used to viewing Mary as a Princess. The fact that she's now a bastard doesn't mean much to them. Haven't you noticed the way they shout for her as well as for you when you travel among them? She's still a cut above other children born out of wedlock – even other royal ones like the Duke of Richmond."

"Still, to give her a ring from the Queen's own collection – hang on, did you say that ring came from the Tower?"

Anne nodded and I began to muse aloud as my mind whirled.

"If that came from the Tower and Father gave it to you…if he's given you more gifts than that…if he's created your father Earl of Ormonde…" my voice trailed off as I grasped the sheer enormity of the situation. Anne nodded again, her face grave.

"Your father's courting me, Elizabeth. It's how I was able to persuade him that I should come down to Hatfield for your birthday – and bring Edward Brandon with me."

"Yes, thank you for that." I flashed Anne a blaze of a smile, before getting straight to the heart of the matter, like any Tudor with Howard blood would.

"Has he proposed?"

"No. Not yet." Anne shook her dark head. "But it's only a matter of time, little cousin. He falls more and more in love with me every time he sees me; and I won't ever become his mistress. I've made that clear enough already."

"What are you going to say when he does ask you?" I was genuinely curious, though Anne's answer shocked me to the core.

"I'm going to have to accept. What else can I do?"

"Anne, for God's sake! My father's three times your age!"

"Your father is also the King of England!" Anne snapped back. Immediately regretting her harsh choice of words, she softened. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout at you, Elizabeth. I just – look, if I refuse to marry your father, not only will he be angry, but my own family will be too. They'll accuse me of not caring for the advancement of our family. You know how this Court works. We all jockey for royal favour all the time. It's why my uncle abandoned your mother at the time of her disgrace. It's why the Culpeppers will have nothing to do with your little sisters. At least if I'm Queen, I can help you. Make things easier for you, for Blanche, even for the Lady Mary. I might even be able to secure a proper governess for Jess and Nora, if I tell your father I want to raise them to be worthy of becoming Maids of Honour to you or Blanche at some point in the future." Anne paused for breath and also to let all of that sink in properly, before pleading "Please understand, Elizabeth. This isn't a case of what I want to do. It's a case of what I have to do."

I let the silence between us extend for a moment or two, fiddling with the brooch and ring that lay on the table in front of me.

Then I pushed my chair back and got up.

"All right." I sighed. "Let's go and find Blanche so that you can give her the brooch."