Chapter 6

October 1544

A month later, Lady Susanna was styling my copper curls on the day of the banquet for the Tuscan Ambassadors, when my half-brother barged into my rooms without warning.

"Are you not ready yet, Sister?" he demanded. "Father's already greeting the Ambassadors in his Privy Chamber."

Lady Susanna glanced at me worriedly, but, no matter the circumstances, I would not let Edward see me rush. Gesturing to her to carry on weaving my curls into a circlet of copper around my head, leaving the lower layers free to tumble down my back, I met his eye in the looking glass coolly.

"We're not expected down until the banquet formally begins. I've got time. Lady Blanche, fetch me the amber and crystal necklace, would you, please?"

"Yes, my lady. And the crystal earrings?"

"You read my mind." I smiled at Lady Blanche as she went to my jewel casket and pulled out the jewels I wanted. As she looped the necklaces around my neck, I held my head perfectly still before I tilted it to let her hook the earrings into my ears. By this time, Edward was going wild with impatience and when I finally rose to my feet, after Lady Susanna had framed my face with a ivory coloured French hood studded with tiny chips of dark polished amber, he grabbed my hand so hard it hurt.

"Finally! If we're late, I'm blaming you and your fripperies!"

"We won't be late." I sighed, but I gave in and let him pull me along roughly. It would be far better for me to appear the calm, long-suffering one than for me to be caught brawling with an insolent boy four years my junior.

It wasn't until we reached the top of the stairs leading down into the Great Hall that Edward let me go, and that was only because he had paused to pull his doublet straight. Taking a deep breath and fixing a regal half smile in place, like I always did whenever Edward escorted me, I laid my hand on his arm when he offered it to me.

We descended the steps and my father's herald announced "Her Highness the Princess Elizabeth and His Grace the Duke of Richmond and Somerset."

Edward and I proceeded down the length of the hall, before halting in front of the dais and performing our required bow and curtsy side by side. Father bade us rise and then came down to us and, taking my hand, presented me to the Ambassadors.

"My older daughter, the Princess Elizabeth."

"Enchante, Your Highness." The older of the two Ambassadors kissed my hand, whilst the younger murmured "She's a true English Rose. You must be proud of her, Your Majesty."

"I am, but she is not for your eyes; well, not as a bride anyway. Her sister Blanche is younger and sweeter. She will suit your master's son better, I should think." Father replied, whilst I smiled in response to the Ambassador's compliments. "It's a pleasure, Your Excellencies."

Father seated me between himself and the Ambassadors, as courtesy required, and only once he had done so did he turn to Edward to present him, eager pride leaping into his voice as he did so.

"My son, Edward, the Duke of Richmond and Somerset."

"I'm honoured, Your Grace." The elder Ambassador bowed briefly to Edward. By courtesy, Edward should have returned the gesture, made some appropriate comment and then taken his seat, but he did not. Instead, he lifted his chin and met the Ambassador's eye challengingly. "Have you come for Blanche?"

The Ambassador looked nonplussed and I didn't blame him. Didn't Edward know that even if Blanche's betrothal to the little Tuscan Prince went through to the final stage of marriage, she wouldn't leave England until her bridegroom was fourteen, unless she was sent earlier to accustom her to her new country before she had to rule it?

At last the Tuscan Ambassador answered Edward as best he could. "My colleague and I have come to meet her, that is true, Your Grace. We must decide whether the Princess Blanche, so fair and gentle, is the right person to be little Prince Francesco's future wife and Duchess."

"I see." Edward said gravely. Father, his eyes gleaming with pride, gestured for Edward to seat himself at the High Table, but, used to reading every nuance of Edward's body language, I knew there was more to come. I was right. Edward tilted his chin a fraction higher and spoke with thinly disguised arrogance.

"Prince Francesco is welcome to my sister, Your Excellency, and I am sure I hope that Blanche will make him a fine bride one day, as Princess Joan will to me."

"Princess Joan, Your Grace?"

"Joan of Spain, Your Excellency. My Lord Father the King does not want a Princess of some paltry city state to be my wife. He has opened negotiations for the hand of the daughter of the mightiest monarch in Christendom."

There was a stunned silence when Edward had finished. The Ambassadors exchanged glances. Father hastily interposed "Excuse my son, Your Excellencies. The lad is young yet, but precocious. He cannot wait to be a married man."

Father chuckled and the Ambassadors forced themselves to laugh along with him. However, though they had schooled their faces not to show their emotions, I could tell what they were thinking. I was thinking it myself. "King Henry is a fool to treat his bastard like he's anything special and an even bigger one to try to win him the hand of Joan of Spain. The Emperor will never let his daughter degrade herself by marrying a mere Duke – and an illegitimate Duke at that."

Gritting my teeth and inwardly cursing Edward for putting me in this position – for making me have to save him in order to save face – I stepped forward.

"Would Your Excellencies care for some wine? Or, if you prefer, we have cider, fresh off the boat from Brittany."

"Cider would be wonderful, Princess, thank you." With some relief, the Ambassadors turned their attention to me, leaving Edward free to slip to his appointed seat. He did so without another word. I think even he realised that he'd pushed things a little too far.

Due to the length of the exchange, we had only just sat down when the herald coughed again and announced "Her Highness the Princess Blanche Tudor and the Lady Anne Boleyn."

Blanche walked steadily into the room, every inch of her the regal Princess. She was wearing a tight fitting gown of cream silk embroidered with Tudor Green and the emerald brooch Anne had given her the month before. Emeralds glittered in her hair and ears as well and the string around her neck caught the light as she came forward and swept her formal curtsy.

"Your Majesty. Your Excellencies."

"Princess Blanche, it is an honour." The Ambassadors rose and bowed to her deeply. Then they looked at Anne and inclined their heads to her. "Mademoiselle."

I followed their gaze, puzzled. What was Anne doing, entering the Hall behind Blanche like that? This was a public supper for the Tuscan Ambassadors. Father wouldn't jeopardise things by flaunting his new sweetheart before them, surely? Especially not after what a spectacle my bastard brother had made of himself with his usual arrogance?

But I was wrong. Anne wasn't just Father's new paramour. Even as she curtsied before us, I noticed the sumptuousness of her new gown. It was scarlet damask and her intricate gold necklace ended in a cascade of rubies and rose pearls. The whole ensemble was an outfit worthy of a Queen.

Or a King's fiancé.

Standing, Father quickly nodded to Anne to rise. Walking around the table, he reached for her hand and clasped it in his own as he turned to the Ambassadors.

"Excellencies, may I present the Lady Anne Boleyn, my fiancé and England's future Queen?"

If Edward's announcement had stunned the Ambassadors, this one was a hundred times worse. They just gaped at Father and Anne in disbelief. For my part, I was struggling to find a way to save the situation. Out of the blue, Blanche beat me to it, stepping forward and turning wide innocent eyes on the pair of them.

"Congratulations, Papa. Congratulations, Lady Anne."

I wanted to kick Blanche for not calling Father by his formal title in public, but then she made it worse, impulsively blurting out "May I call you Mama now?" to Anne. She didn't mean it; the shock had made her unable to tell what she was saying, but I caught my breath. If Anne didn't save her now, we could all be in serious trouble, particularly Blanche. She was nine years old and a Princess. She should have known better than to be so open with her feelings.

Luckily, after Anne had stared at Blanche in surprise for a moment or two, she laughed merrily. "Yes, if you like, Princess. After all, I will be your Mama soon. May I call you Blanche?"

"Of course!"Blanche ran round the banquet table and hugged Anne impetuously. Father roared with joy at their warm embrace and pulled off Blanche's hood so that he could ruffle her blonde hair affectionately. The Ambassadors laughed too, clearly charmed by my little sister, and offered their congratulations on Father's impending marriage. In an instant, the whole evening suddenly seemed a thousand times merrier, and I found I was smiling widely as we all sat down and began to eat.

However, my half-brother didn't seem to be enjoying himself nearly as much as the rest of us. Once he had asked when exactly Father intended to wed Anne and found out that the ceremony was to take place at Nonesuch at the end of the month, he lapsed into a sullen silence. A sullen silence that he only broke when courtesy demanded that he ask me to dance with him.

As he led me away from the adults, he growled "You planned this, didn't you?" He was careful to keep his voice down, but the implication, that he didn't like Anne for some reason and was blaming me for her having caught Father's eye, was clear.

"I don't know what you talking about." I hissed in reply, forcing a thin smile as we lined up to take our places in the set.

"This! Our Father planning to marry Lady Anne. Everyone knows she's a Howard like you and your mother. Everyone knows she used to serve you. Everyone knows you liked her best of all your maids. You must have primed her; told her how best to enrapture our Father. Father would never marry a girl like her of his own free will."

We separated for a moment so that we could dance through the arch being formed by my Father's best friend and his wife, the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk, but as I took his hand again, I retorted "Believe me, brother, I had nothing to do with this. I might be Father's best girl Bessie, but even I don't know how to play him that well. Trust me, if I did, you'd leave Court immediately and never come back."

Before Edward could respond, I twirled away from him and danced a few steps on my own. As he pulled me back into his hold, however, he answered through gritted teeth "I already have. Do you have any idea how horrible my mother's family were to me? They wouldn't let me do anything I wanted to do. I had to spend hours praying Father would forgive me. Every day! Every single day!"

"You deserved it." I shot back, unable to help myself. "Maybe now you'll realise that the world doesn't revolve around you."

"What, like you?" Edward scoffed.

"Yes, like me!" I retorted in a whisper. "I learnt the hard way."

Fortunately, the music ended just then, so I was able to drop the stiff curtsy that etiquette demanded and then walk away from him before he goaded me into openly losing my temper.

As the clock struck midnight, Blanche and I were sent to bed. Edward came with us, still grumbling about Father's choice of bride and blaming me for it. Eventually, even Blanche, the patient one among us, grew tired of his complaints.

"Oh Edward, please! Bessie had nothing to do with Anne catching Papa's eye. Papa doesn't take orders from anyone. Besides, Anne doesn't even serve us any more. She's in the Duchess of Suffolk's household."

"She used to be. Now she's got a household of her own, with all of us forced to bend the knee to her."

Blanche opened her mouth to say something, but Edward cut her off angrily.

"Don't tell me she's sweet and gentle and all of that rubbish. Of course she is to you. You share her blood and she knows it. You and Elizabeth are going to be her bridesmaids when she marries Father, but what am I going to be?"

"You're going to be the ring bearer. Anne told me so." Blanche protested.

"Only because Father ordered it, I'll bet."

Blanche flinched at the harshness of Edward's tone. "Can't you give Anne a chance?" she begged. Her voice trembled, and I could tell that she was close to tears. Scowling at Edward, I slipped my arm around her shoulders. "Come on."

Without even glancing back at our bastard brother, much less bidding him good night, I pulled Blanche into our shared apartments and shut the door behind us.

Almost at once, Blanche dissolved into tears, burying her face in my chest.

Lady Bryan hurried forward, but I shook my head. Blanche didn't need her governess, she needed her sister.

Taking my younger sister into my room, I gently untied the laces of her corset, and unpinned her hood. Calling Mary Norris to fetch me my sister's night shift, I quickly changed my sister for bed, and then guided her to sit down on my bed so that I could change my own clothes. Kat and Lady Blanche got me ready for bed between them and then I dismissed them so that I could kneel behind Blanche to brush out her cloud of golden curls myself. I tended to her silently, pretending I didn't see the tears still coursing down her cheeks. At last, she choked "Why does Edward hate Anne? He's never even met her properly."

I sighed. How to explain this to Blanche in a way that she would understand? I swept the brush through her golden hair a couple more times whilst I considered how best to answer her.

"It's because Anne's a Howard like Mother was." I said finally. "Because Mother loved another man apart from Father and had his children, a lot of people hate her. They hate the other Howard girls too, because they don't trust them. They think they'll be like Mother and not stay faithful to their marriage vows. Edward's been brought up to think like them, so he does."

"But that's not fair! We're not like Mama! We're not! Why would Anne be like her?" Blanche sobbed. I broke through the last of the knots in her hair and turned her round to face me as I set down the brush. "There. All done."

Flinging her arms around my neck, she pressed herself against me with a strangled cry. "It's not fair!" she repeated.

"No, sweetheart, it's not. But don't worry. Anne will soon be Queen, and when she is, she'll win the people over very quickly. They'll forget that they ever grumbled over another Howard being chosen for the throne and fall in love with her for herself. Don't worry. Don't worry."

Unfortunately, the stress and the excitement of preparing for the Ambassadors' banquet had taken their toll on Blanche. This, coupled with the shock of Father's announcing his remarriage to Anne and the realisation that Anne would have to battle a number of prejudices when she came to the throne, not least among them the hatred of our father's bastard son, the Duke of Richmond and Somerset, which effectively ruined Blanche's hope that we would all become one stable happy family, was all too much. She was inconsolable. All I could do was hold her close and whisper sweet nothings into her hair as she finally cried herself to sleep.

However, Blanche was far too much of a Princess to ever show anyone, save her family and most favoured ladies, how she felt. The banquet had been an accident and now she was putting things right. When Anne called us to her rooms to discuss our bridesmaids' gowns and also the gowns we would wear to her coronation, she was all smiles. Especially when she realised that Anne was allowing us to choose our own fabrics. Blanche loved that kind of thing.

Anne was to wear silver silk trimmed with dark green for her wedding, so Blanche and I chose Tudor green damask studded with tiny crystals for our dresses. Anne's dress had so many emeralds sewn on to it that it probably could have stood up on its own. Edward was to wear black velvet for his role as ring bearer, but when Anne offered him the choice of the fabrics to have another doublet made for her coronation, he refused.

"I'd rather not, my lady." He answered stiffly. "I'll make do with just the one new doublet, thank you. Black velvet will do nicely for your coronation too."

"But, Lord Edward, you cannot wear black to a coronation. It is meant to be a joyful day." Anne protested. "A wedding is just about understandable because it is tradition, but not for a coronation. Come, choose your fabric."

"I said, I'd rather not!" Edward flared up at Anne. "Black reflects how I'll feel that day!"

"Lord Edward!" Anne cried, shocked. I stepped forward, as did both Kat and Lady Bryan, but Anne raised her hand to halt us in our tracks as Edward continued "You can play Happy Families with the girls as much as you like, Lady Anne, but it won't work with me! My mother should be in your shoes. She should be on the cusp of being Queen of England. You don't deserve to be as lucky as you are. You're nothing but a loose-moraled Howard, like Lady Katherine used to be, and you don't deserve to be marrying my father!"

With that, Edward spun on his heel and walked out, leaving Anne staring after him and me shaking with barely suppressed rage.

"Anne, I'll go after him. I'll make him see sense. You don't deserve to be treated like this!" I exclaimed, but Anne shook her head.

"No, Elizabeth. I know you mean well, but you'll only make it worse, my dear. Stay here, please."

"Then let me go, My Lady." Lady Bryan offered. "Her Highness is right; he cannot be allowed to get away with this!"

"No, Lady Bryan. I won't allow you to go either. No, leave Lord Edward alone. He's only young, and his world's changing around him. Of course he's going to resent the change. He just needs time to come around to the idea of me marrying his father. We'll all get along soon enough. Just give him time and he'll come round."

I opened my mouth to answer "I'm not sure he will." but Anne didn't give me time to say anything, instead turning to the Lady Mary as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened and asking "Well, Mary? Have you decided what colour gown you would like to wear to my wedding?"

"Yes, I have, Anne, thank you." Mary replied calmly. "I'd like to have one made of this dark blue satin, if I may."

"Of course you may, Mary." Anne replied, nodding approval of her choice. "It's a good choice. I think it will suit you."

Personally, I couldn't see much of a difference between that colour and the black that Mary usually had her dresses made out of, but at least it wasn't a mourning colour. After all, she was going to witness the wedding. To my surprise, Mary actually seemed happy about that. I couldn't see why. Anne was younger than her and a Howard. Since Mary hated Blanche and myself who were both half Howard Tudors, and resented us our positions as Princesses, I couldn't understand why she should be happy about another Howard marrying Father.

However, when I pulled Anne aside and asked her about it, she wasn't surprised at all.

"Lady Mary, Elizabeth, has had a very hard time of it. You probably don't remember it, because you were grieving yourself, but after your mother was executed for treason, your father put her under increasing pressure to sign the Oath. She was twenty-five, then, Elizabeth, with a decade of hardships behind her. A decade. Ten years of pain, of humiliation, of being cast aside by the father she adored. She broke, as most people would. She signed the Oath. But the damage has been done. Your father still never sees her alone or favours her. If I can help her; make things easier for her, she'll be grateful. We were friends once, the two of us and now I'm hoping to build on that to be a kind stepmother to her. I want to be a kind stepmother to all of you."

"Good luck with that one." I scoffed. "You saw how Edward reacted when you offered him a new doublet for the coronation."

Anne sighed and nodded. "I know. But he's only ten, Elizabeth. I'm hoping I can bring him round."

She turned and took a couple of steps away, moving to help Lady Mary choose a colour for her Coronation Day gown, but I called her back.

"Hang on. Anne?"

"Yes, Elizabeth?"

"I've been wondering...you don't expect me to call you "Mama" or "Mother", do you? I mean, I know Blanche already does, but -" I couldn't go on. Luckily, Blanche, though she was unaware of what we were discussing, proved my recent point by calling "Mama?"

"I'll be there in a moment, Blanche!" Anne called back before turning back to me, walking over and resting a hand on my shoulder.

"No, Elizabeth. I don't. I know I can never replace your mother. Besides, I'm only three years older than you are. I wouldn't feel comfortable with you addressing me as "Mother". No. It's going to have to be "Your Majesty" in public, of course, but in private, I hope that you and Mary will carry on calling me Anne, like you used to."

For a moment, the childish part of me rebelled against calling Anne anything that the Lady Mary called her, but then common sense prevailed. Anne was her given name. Of course we would both be calling her that, at least until we found our own nicknames for her. I nodded silently.

"Good. I'm glad that's settled." Anne grasped my hand and squeezed it gently before hurrying over to Blanche, stopping to commend the Lady Mary on her choice of crimson velvet for her gown for the Coronation Day celebrations.

"Mama, can I wear this cloth of gold for your coronation?" Blanche asked, too young to realise that cloth of gold didn't suit her, even with her artist's eye. She was just dazzled by the sumptuousness of the cloth.

To Anne's credit, she didn't laugh. Slipping her arm around Blanche's shoulders, she answered "I'm not sure gold's the best colour for you, Blanche. Let me show you what I had in mind for you."

With that, she deftly led Blanche over to the paler colours like pale blue, rose pink and pale green. I watched them go, appreciating the efforts Anne was making towards us, even now that my baseborn brother had stormed out.

As for Edward, I only hoped that his longing to be part of the celebrations and to show off would outweigh his inborn dislike of our soon to be stepmother. Not for my own sake. Oh no. Personally, I couldn't care less whether His Grace deigned to join the celebrations or not, but Anne genuinely seemed to want to bring us together. She wanted the common people to see us all happily united at her Coronation, and for her sake, I wanted it too. For her sake, I hoped we could pull it off.

But first, I would have to choose my gown. Putting the awkward topic of my half-brother from my mind, I turned my attention to the task at hand.