Hey guys, here's a little filler chapter between series 2 and series 3. A lot of people have been asking me when Isabella is going to get married/why she isn't already so I'm addressing that fact now, hope you enjoy :)

One afternoon, not too long before he was due to marry Jane, Henry took some time away from the politics of his court to spend a little time with his lifelong friend Isabella. He called her into his chamber for the entire afternoon so that they could eat, drink and catch up on all the things they had missed about each other from the last few years – Isabella had not been in his company much while Anne was Queen. Henry was sorry that he had allowed Anne to make him send Isabella away as she had been such a dear friend to him over the years. The two were having a game of cards when Henry asked Isabella a question he had been wondering for a very long time now.

"Why is it that you have never consented to marry me, Isabella?" he asked. Isabella chuckled softly and shuffled the cards in her hand.

"Do you really want to open that door Henry?" she asked, he laughed shuffling his own cards.

"No seriously, Isabella," he said leaning forward on the table and moving closer towards her. "in all the years we have known each other why have you never agreed to be my wife?" Isabella smiled and raised her bet by a few coins. She then sat back in her chair, playing absent-mindedly with her cards.

"If I may speak plainly with you..." she began.

"Of course." Henry said, raising his own bet and sitting back. "I just would like to know why you have never shown a desire to marry me, despite my asking."

"Henry you divorced Catherine, drove her to the point of choosing death rather than renounce her marriage to you, and then beheaded Anne. You track record with women is not fantastic, to be perfectly honest I'm wondering if Jane Seymour knows exactly what it is she's getting herself into." Isabella said, smirking at him slightly. Henry didn't look angry with her for what she had just said (which was particularly insolent for her), he seemed more amused by it. "Besides," she continued turning her attention back to her cards when he didn't respond. "I have no desire to be Queen."

"Pity." Henry remarked. "You would have made a fine Queen." Isabella smirked and bowed her head slightly.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." she replied. "I am honoured you think so but I am happy with my place in the world and desire no unnecessary elevation." Henry chuckled.

"And that is why I love you Isabella." he stated. He tapped his cards on the table in thought momentarily before asking her another question. "Why have you never married, Isabella?" he asked. "I know you have no desire to marry me but there must have been someone." Isabella shrugged; it was not something she had particularly thought about. She had had a number of men asking for her hand and for the privilege to court her but she had turned each and every one of them down.

"I've never particularly desired to get married, I have never found the right man for me." she told him.

"But you have had suitors, yes?" he asked, leaning on the table towards her. Isabella shrugged.

"Yes but none of them were particularly enthralling or interesting to me." she replied. "I suppose I had an idea of the kind of man I wished to marry and none of them came close to that idea."

"Not even His Grace the Duke of Suffolk?" Henry asked, tilting his head questioningly. "I heard that he tried to pay court to you after the death of my beloved sister."

"He did." she replied. "His Grace did attempt to court me and Charles was the only man who ever came close to gaining my interest but I told him that entering a new relationship so soon after his wife's death was not one of his best ideas. A few weeks later he married Katherine and they are happy together." Henry sat back in his chair and scratched his chin.

"You're much too good for Charles anyway." Henry stated, which Isabella only smiled at. "I must confess that I would find it very difficult, to say the least, to see you with another man as your husband. I can only imagine how you do it."

"Do what Your Majesty?" Isabella asked.

"See me with other women." he stated. "After all we have known each other for so many years now." Isabella shrugged, again it was not something she had particularly thought about a great deal.

"You are the King," she replied. "it is expected that you will take as many women as you want. Once you had married Catherine I allowed myself to become accustomed to seeing you with another, it is no longer quite such a shock." Henry sighed.

"Do you ever think it would have been different?" he asked. "If you had said yes to my proposal when we were seventeen?"

"Probably." Isabella replied. "For one thing Mistress Boleyn would still have her head." She smirked slightly as she said this and Henry chuckled softly before becoming sombre.

"I should have listened to the warnings about her and her family." he stated.

"Your Majesty was not to know what was in the head of her scheming father," she replied. "Or her head for that matter." she added.

"Do you know she was convinced that I had a harem full of women somewhere." he stated. Isabella laughed.

"Yes I had heard that she was particularly paranoid about the fidelity of Your Majesty." she said. "Then again you know what they say about those who are paranoid of their husband of wife's fidelity."

"No, what?" Henry asked leaning forward on his elbow on the table.

"It is because they are the ones being unfaithful." she replied. Henry let out a soft laugh and leaned back in his chair.

"Mr Cromwell said that she had over a hundred men come to her bed."

"I highly doubt that." Isabella told him switching around the cards in her hand. "It is difficult for affairs to be kept secret with even a small number of people so I highly doubt that she would have been able to keep a hundred secret from you. Besides; one hundred lovers? Who on earth had time for that?"

"Someone with very little else to occupy their time." Henry replied grinning. "You know I still wonder about Elizabeth's legitimacy on occasion. It is widely known that she is the spawn of Anne and the traitor Henry Norris."

"It is widely assumed Your Majesty." Isabella corrected.

"What do you mean, Isabella." Henry asked and Isabella smiled kindly at him.

"Henry I have known you all my life. I still remember what you looked like as a child and I have also seen the Lady Mary grow from a child into a fine young woman." she said.

"What is your point?" he asked.

"My point is that both yourself Elizabeth and Mary all have similar looks. I know in my heart that she is your child."

"But the other's – what about the children she miscarried?" he asked.

"That I know not." Isabella replied. "As little as I cared for Her previous Majesty I will say that when I first met her she did have a genuine affection for you."

"And somewhere everything went horribly wrong." Henry replied sighing. Isabella leaned forward and took hold of one of his hands. She gave it a small, loving, comforting squeeze and Henry looked up into her beautiful blue eyes.

"Do not dwell on the past, Henry." she told him. "What is done is done and there is little we can do to change that. Just be happy with what you have and look forward to starting your new marriage with the lovely Lady Jane." Henry placed his other hand on top of hers and gave her hand a small squeeze too.

"Yes." he said, sighing contentedly. "We are about to enter a brand new age in the Tudor Dynasty. We should rejoice and make ready for a brand new rule of England."

"I couldn't agree more Your Majesty."