Another installment - I've actually lost track whether I'm on Season 3 or 4 now (I think it's 4) hope you enjoy the new chapter and you can guess where I swiped the first conversation from :p
With Cromwell gone and his marriage to the Lady Anne of Cleave declared null and void Henry turned all his attentions to his new conquest – the young Miss Katherine Howard. Isabella had heard of his new infatuation and on one of his visits to the young Prince Edward at his house she breached the subject with him.
"Seventeen years old?" she asked in jest. "Scandal!" she pretended to chide.
"That's not true..." Henry began smirking at her but on seeing her knowing facial expression he knew that he could not lie to her and changed tact. "Who told you?" Isabella snorted with laughter.
"Suffolk, of course." she stated rolling her eyes.
"That gossiping wench!" he muttered. Isabella laughed that musical laughter of hers.
"So who is this child you're courting?" she asked after she had composed herself.
"Miss Katherine Howard." he told her. "She is a distant relative of the Duke of Norfolk. A very distant relative."
"I believe I have heard of her." Isabella commented. "She is rumoured to be incredibly beautiful...or so I have heard. Is this true?"
"She is." Henry told her. "Most beautiful and most virile."
"Charming." Isabella muttered pretending to be disgusted. Henry heard her and chuckled.
"Oh come now, Isabella, that is what one would expect from a seventeen year old – remember when we were seventeen?" he stated.
"I remember finally giving in to all your years of pestering and allowing you to have a certain knowledge of me that no other man has and then you asking me to marry you." she replied smirking.
"Which you should not have turned down." Henry replied, a smirk of his own plastered on his face.
"No," Isabella replied. "I should not." A moment of silence passed between the two of them as they thought about all that could have been if Isabella had said yes to Henry's proposal all those years ago. Henry would never have divorced Catherine and made himself head of the Church of England, both Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour may still be alive (if the plague hadn't killed them that is), Sir Thomas Moor may never have been executed and Cardinal Wolsey may never have taken his own life, even Cromwell may still have his head. Then again Mary would not have been born, nor Elizabeth or Edward. Isabella and Henry would have their own children.
On the other hand things may have happened exactly as they had done but with Henry divorcing Isabella so that he could take the hand of the Lady Anne instead of divorcing Catherine. If that was the case he still would have pushed for the reformation and it may have been she who had died with suspicions of being poisoned surrounding her death. If that was the case Isabella was very glad that she had said no to him the first time he asked her – she just wish she hadn't been forced to say no the second time. She should not have let Cromwell drive her away because she did not have a noble enough birth (especially considering his own birth and lack of nobility.)
"But let us not dwell on the past." Henry exclaimed, when he saw the forlorn look on Isabella's beautiful face. It was a look that he had seen many times over the years (on occasion he had even been the cause of it) but he was loathed if he was going to be the one responsible for making her look like that now. "Let us look forward to the future – let us look forward to the marriage of myself and Miss Katherine Howard."
"Marriage?" Isabella asked in mock surprise, her wicked smirk reappearing. "Would we call it marriage? Isn't it more like nursing, considering how young she is?" Henry did not reply but shook his head at her facetious expression and laughed loudly.
That summer was the hottest summer in England in living memory of any of its subjects. It had not rained in over two months, which was especially difficult for the five hundred citizens Henry burnt on accounts of heresy. Many were displeased with his actions, especially when he was seen to be burning both Lutherans and Catholics on the same days, but the secret followers of the old religion (men such as His Excellency the Spanish ambassador Chapouis) kept their outrage at this to themselves.
It was rumoured throughout the court (and known as truth by only a few, Isabella and the Duke of Suffolk included) that Henry had already married Miss Katherine Howard in secret – much as he had done with his marriage to Anne Boleyn. He planned to show her to the world shortly after the marriage and the new young Queen was very well accepted by everyone at court when he finally did introduce her to them.
Henry's behaviour after his marriage to the new Queen Katherine was very different to how he had behaved with some of his previous wives. Isabella thought it almost strange that Henry was mimicking the child like behaviour of Her Majesty. He gave her a great many public displays of affection (many more than he had ever given another of his wives, even Anne did not receive such affection while the two were in public). Isabella wondered if it was some sort of mid-life crisis that His Majesty was going through – he was, after all, getting older day by day.
It seemed only natural that he would want a wife that would allow him to recapture his youth and allow him to relive his younger days. To Isabella she seemed nothing but an air headed silly little girl but if she made Henry happy then that would be enough to keep her happy. Isabella was asked to become a maid in Her Majesty's house by the King but she said she would prefer to stay in the house of the young Prince.
"I have been in the company of Your Majesty's son for a number of years now and he is growing into a fine young man – I would much wish to stay with him to see him grow even more." she told him after he had asked her. "If You Majesty permits it, I believe that Prince Edward needs me more than Her Majesty; she had Lady Rochford to advise and care for her."
"If that is what you wish, Isabella," Henry replied, smiling at her. "then how could I refuse."
"Thank you Your Majesty." she replied, smiling. Of course she wanted to stay in the company of Prince Edward and be free to go and visit the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth whenever she chose but she had really not wanted to be surrounded by Her Majesty and her other ladies who were all of a similar age to her. Isabella was too old for that – being surrounded by adolescents, she had no idea how Henry stood it.
"I feel like a new man, Isabella." he told her, sighing happily. "Katherine has made me feel alive again, and those things which had previously vexed me no longer do." Isabella smiled warmly at him.
"As long as Your Majesty is happy." she replied.
"That girl is not fit to sit in the same seat as my mother!" Mary exclaimed to Isabella one afternoon while the two were out walking together. The afternoon in question was when the new Queen Katherine was introduced to both Prince Edward and the Princess Elizabeth. Mary had already been introduced to the new Queen and considering that the age gap between the two of them was not particularly large she was almost offended when Katherine had called herself Mary's step mother.
"She does show her youth and inexperience in the matter much too much to be considered a fitting person to be the Queen of England." Isabella stated, hedging around actually giving her opinions on the brand new Queen.
"Fitting to be the Queen of England, ha!" Mary laughed humourlessly. "Even the whore Anne Boleyn and the Lutheran heretic Anne of Cleaves were more fitting than her!"
"Be careful Mary." Isabella chided, but in a kindly manner. "As childish as she may be this is the Queen of England that we are talking about." Mary sighed.
"I know and speaking of her in this way can be considered treacherous," she relented. "but she is so ridiculous and horrifically behaved. Why could not my father had taken her for a mistress rather than making her his wife."
"She is the right age to be a mistress isn't she." Isabella commented.
"And the way she carries on in public!" Mary added. "Anyone would think that she was trying to get the attention of every single man in the room and make him adore her."
"Well she certainly has done that." Isabella remarked as she thought back to a few nights ago. She had been going down to the sellers to fix something for herself and Lady Rochford after a long night of conversing together, before Isabella left for the Prince's house the next morning. Some of Henry's menservants were having a drink amongst themselves and she began to overhear some of their conversation. At first it had been nothing interesting but then one male voice caught her attention and held it so that she felt she could not leave that spot until she had heard everything.
"Queen Catherine. She's a little fireball." the voice said and Isabella recognised it immediately as Thomas Culpepper's. She recognised the voice because it was the only one that she had hardly heard before; Henry's men could be raucous on many occasions but Culpepper was the only one that she had hardly ever heard utter a single word in front of her or anyone else.
"Too hot for you, Mr Culpepper." Mr Risley remarked (his voice she certainly recognised for it had been he who had asked her to bring the Prince to see his father the King and meet the new Queen).
"Really?" Culpepper replied as the rest of the men laughed. "Tell me you can't imagine her without her clothes on. Just picture her naked body." The entire room had fallen silent and Isabella could not tear herself away from what she was hearing. "Those breasts." Culpepper continued to his rapt audience. "Those thighs. That sweet, plum little arse. Holy Jesus."
"All those things belong to the King." Risley said after Culpepper stopped seemingly to calm himself down. "I bid you gentlemen goodnight." She had heard Risley get up and she knew that now was the time for her to leave.
"Do you know something Lady Lockhart?" Mary asked, snapping Isabella back to the present day and out of her thoughts of what she had overheard and how much it disturbed her. Isabella shook her head and forced herself to smile.
"No." she replied. "Nothing at all My Lady." She almost wished she was staying at court so that she could keep an eye on this Thomas Culpepper. She felt that he was not a man to be trusted despite what His Majesty may think.