Hey guys, brand new chapter update! Feels like I'm moving quite slowly with the plot line in this but then again series two moved pretty slowly and I was watching that while writing (which makes sense really) anyway hope you all enjoy :D also we've got a new lady in Henry's life being introduced here, if you know who I mean ;)
Anne's paranoia was not only beginning to affect her relationship with Henry but it was also beginning to affect her life. She had constant dreams of being burned alive and that Mary was the one starting the fires. On occasion it was Isabella bringing about Her Majesty's death but more often than not it was Mary bringing about her end and that thought filled her with more fear than she could imagine. Anne no longer feared Catherine – the Dowager Princess was no longer a threat now that she was away from the King and it was well known that her health was deteriorating and she was dying.
The Queen frequently told her brother George of her fears. She raved about Catharine's inability to die – all she heard about was how ill Catherine was yet the previous Queen was still managing to cling to life in an attempt to spite her. She told him that the next time Henry went abroad Anne would have power over the country and she could just have Catherine killed. The thought greatly amused her, while it angered George. He told her to snap out of it and that she was the Queen of England and she should act like it. He told her that she should be more like Catherine. This both greatly subdued and worried Anne as she didn't want to suffer the same fate as the previous Queen.
This was an idea that Henry also shared. He wished that Anne were more like Catherine. Anne was too outspoken and she constantly tried to make Henry involve her in his politics. She wanted Elizabeth to be married to King Frances' son but the French King had already refused the Princess once and Henry was not willing to beg for it. He told Anne to stay out of his business and to leave the politics to him. He also found constantly having to emphasise that her food her been tasted, that it was not poisoned, irksome when she refused to eat it.
One night Anne threw a small party in her bed chambers in an attempt to cheer herself up and prove to her brother that she was capable of handling her emotions. Henry walked in on the party and allowed himself to dance with Anne. The dance swiftly turned into a heavy, passionate love making session. Anne told Henry that she desperately wanted to conceive a son to be 'the living image of his father'. She told him that she could not conceive a son while Catherine and Mary were both alive – asking the King to have the pair of them killed. This angered and worried Henry; Anne had pressed Henry into the execution of Sir Thomas More and Cardinal Fisher. He had stated to Brandon that every time it had come to the crux of it he had thought about relinquishing More's sentence but each time he had Anne had pushed him further to have him killed.
One early afternoon Isabella came back to court to bring the Princess Elizabeth to visit her mother. Anne was overjoyed to see her daughter but took no happiness from Isabella's presence; she still believed that Isabella wanted her crown and that she would take her husband from her. Isabella had no such desire but there was no use telling the Queen this. She left the Princess in the company of her mother, she could sense Anne's pain at the constant separation from her daughter but if Her Majesty did not want her help then Isabella was not going to grant it.
It came to pass that Catharine's illness finally got the better of her and she passed away. According to her only remaining ladies maid her last thought was of Mary and that she dreamt that the young Princess was there with her. She wrote a letter to Henry stating that she did not blame him for what was happening to her and that she still loved him. She also asked him to be a good father to the Lady Mary and begged him to allow her back to court. With her affairs as in order as they could be under the circumstances Catherine finally died, leaving the cruel world that had caused her so much heartache.
Henry was devastated by the news and wrote at once to Isabella, asking her to tell Mary the terrible news. Mary received her mother's jewels and the official parchment that proclaimed Catherine and Henry's marriage valid and true. Anne, on the other hand was overjoyed by the news and threw a great open air party that many nobles were invited to. She saw Catharine's death as a cause for celebration – she openly said to her father that there was good news all around; Catherine was dead and she was pregnant. She stated to him that they were on the brink of a Golden Age before she went to enjoy her party.
One day a few weeks later, while out of a hunt with the Duke of Suffolk the King stopped off during their ride for a visit with an old friend of theirs. The pair of them went to visit the house of Sir Edward Seymour. Sir Edward was very happy to have the King dine in his home and while there Henry first laid eyes on his beautiful daughter the Lady Jane Seymour. Henry invited Jane to come to court as a ladies maid to Her Majesty. He also asked Isabella to come back to court to ease the Lady Jane into the transition. The two ladies immediately became firm friends – neither was particularly fond of the current Queen and both had a genuine love for His Majesty.
Isabella liked Jane; she was a sweet young girl and had a chaste nature. She was innocent and seemed as if she would not be corrupted by the likes of Anne and her family and the court needed more people like that. Isabella was glad that she had been away from the court for so long – from what she had gathered (from her short visits and what the Duke of Suffolk had told her) Anne and the rest of the Boleyn family were trying to coerce some of the more impressionable members of Anne's court into granting them certain...favours. Isabella did not know what those favours consisted of (her sources could not determine what they were planning) but Isabella knew that it could not be good news.
"What will Her Majesty be expecting of me?" Jane asked Isabella one afternoon in the Lady Seymour's chambers in the castle. Henry had commissioned Isabella to help Henry's wife's new ladies maid move from her father's house to the Palace and Isabella was only too happy to comply.
"I do not know of the Lady Anne," Isabella stated "as I have not been in her service for many years now but while I was in the service of the late Queen Catherine – God rest her soul – I was required to dress Her Majesty, help her to bathe and accompany her wherever she goes. It is the same as being a ladies maid to anyone but you are in the public eye more and have to behave as such."
"And will Her Majesty require me to pray in public under the new reformation?" Jane asked with the slightest hint of fear in her eyes.
"Are you still a follower of the Catholic faith My Lady?" Isabella countered Jane's question with one of her own. Jane bit her lip and thought a while before answering.
"I prefer to keep my religion and my religious beliefs private." Jane stated. Isabella classed that as a yes but she smiled all the same.
"I would not worry; I very much doubt that your religious beliefs will be of any concern to the current Queen." she stated and Jane visibly relaxed.
"And what of His Highness the King?" she asked, changing the subject. "What is he like?" Isabella noticed Jane blush slightly as she asked this. Isabella knew that look: it was a look that she had herself possessed on many an occasion when the topic of conversation was Henry. She could tell that even after their one and only meeting Jane was already infatuated with the King. It was hard to blame her – there was just something about him that drew women to him.
"His Majesty is very gracious and, despite what many people say about his treatment of Catherine, he is very kind. He has always been very kind to me; he gave me a home and a job after I was orphaned, he has given me a great number of things in my life which I will be forever grateful for." she said finally.
"His Majesty is truly a wonderful King." Jane stated.
"A word of warning though," Isabella told her. "His Majesty may be a gracious and kind man but leave his political adventures to him. Both Catherine and Anne have tried to get involved with his political endeavours and they have both momentarily fallen out of favour with him because of it. That is an area of his life that one should stay out of even if they know better than he. His Majesty will do as he wishes regardless of any…advice one may give him."
"Oh I very much doubt I will see enough of His Majesty to become even slightly involved with his political life." Jane replied smiling coyly.
You never know." Isabella shrugged returning the smile. She had assumed, when she first met Henry as a child that she would not see him much, or ever again for that matter, and she had been so very wrong about that.