Chapter 8:

King Henry had been reading in the library for a while now, George had disappeared a while ago saying something about needing to attend to something in Anne's household-which was quite odd, if King Henry were to be honest with himself. So to pass the time while waiting for Elizabeth, Anne and now, George, King Henry made his way through the vast collection of books in the library in search of a book or two to read.

He was quite impressed with Anne's collection of books as they were all about poetry, philosophy, religion and some even about history- topics which he had always been interested in, seeing all these books just reminded Henry even more of how alike he and Anne had been. He even remembered how much they used to spend hours together discussing books on Philosophy and sometimes history and he remembered how often he and Anne would quote one another with passages from their favorite poetry books.

King Henry was in the middle of choosing which book he would prefer when he kept hearing a small thumping sound. At first he dismissed it as maybe an odd creak in the wood flooring but as time wore on, he noticed that the thumping sound came with a small giggle, a child's giggle.

Deciding to investigate on the matter, King Henry followed the sound to see where it came from.

As he reached the main reading area where a couch, a daybed and several large pillows were placed on the floor and on the window seat, he wondered where the noise was coming from as at first sight, he could see no one in the area. Deciding that it must have been his imagination, he turned back around to return to the bookshelf he was browing, he noticed a small head bouncing right behind the couch. Curious as to what a child could be doing in the library alone, he went to check if the child was okay.

Reaching the back of the couch where he saw the peculiar movement, Henry felt his heart drop at the sight of the little girl with very dark red hair that covered her face as it was unstyled.

"Hello there" King Henry said as he picked up the little girl, he guessed she was about a year old from her size, "What are you doing here all alone?" he asked, the little girl obviously did not understand him and instead smiled at him.

Henry's heart melted at the sight of the little girl's smile, she felt so familiar and yet he knew and was most certain that he had only seen this child for the first time today. Henry couldn't help but think about the fact that had Jane not been barren, they could have had their own child by now, even a little girl like this one would have been welcome but alas, life just kept throwing him off.

As he stared at the little girl, he noticed her wearing a simple gold necklace which read 'Alice'. Henry surmised that Alice must be the little girl's name as he remembered Anne had commissioned the same necklace for Elizabeth when she was an infant.

Suddenly Henry's heart felt like it fell to his stomach when he realised why the child in his arms looked so familiar to him: She was a miniature of Anne. King Henry held the child in arms length once more and noted that the child does indeed have Anne's lips, cheeks and most of all, she had Anne's eyes. He couldn't mistake those eyes for someone else, his Elizabeth has the exact same eyes as this child, They both had his Anne's eyes.

King Henry pondered on what this could mean, if he was correct in his assessment, the child would be over a year old today, which meant that either Anne had indeed been unfaithful to him or Anne had kept his daughter from him.

He honestly did not know how to feel about those two scenarios, for the first one he would be furious, Anne had cuckolded him and got away with it! But if that were true, he hated that there was a possibility that this beautiful little girl was not his. If the child were indeed his, he also knew he would feel angry for Anne to have hidden her pregnancy and their child from him. Over the past year, Henry had realised that while he craved a son more than anything, he would welcome and love any child he would ever have, legitimate or not, girl or boy.

As King Henry focused once more on the little girl in his arms-who was now touching his hair, face and his necklaces curiously- he was unaware that somewhere in the castle, Anne Boleyn had arrived.

The moment Anne entered Pembroke castle she knew something was amiss, for one, most of the ladies seemed quite stressed and afraid then she saw her brother enter also looking quite worried and fretful.

"George, what are your doing here? Is something the matter?" Anne asked as she greeted her brother with a quick hug and kiss on the cheeks.

"Sister, I assume you haven't yet heard. Apparently your marriage to the King still stands, there was a confusion with the papers you and the King signed before thanks to Cromwell but I shall discuss this with you more later, right now we have two bigger problems." George said as he led his sister into the hallway for some privacy. Mary and Lady Bryan had taken Elizabeth to her rooms to rest and to change from her traveling clothes and so the two siblings were able to talk alone.

"What do you mean? What problems? George, you are confusing me." Anne said, she had heard that the King and Jane Seymour had annulled their marriage but she was not aware that her marriage to the King was still an issue.

"Anne, the King is here with me, he insisted on riding to Pembroke with me today and I could not say no. I am so sorry." George said as he held his sister by the arm to stop her from walking.

Anne couldn't speak. It has been over a year since she last laid eyes on her beloved ex-husband and King. She didn't know how after all this time, the mention of his presence still brought out her old feelings for him.

Deciding to just deal with it head on and with the grace she had always possessed, she took a deep breath and spoke, "I see, well, where is he then? It would not do well for us to keep the King waiting as long as he has already been waiting." she said as she prepared to take the first step forward only to be stopped once more by George.

"There is another tiny issue at the moment." George said, tiny was an understatement. He along with Victoria and Gertrude had been looking for the Little Lady Alice for over an hour and they have yet to locate the little girl.

'How can a child as small as Alice get into so much trouble without even knowing it? Oh, she's Anne's daughter', George thought to himself.

"What is it now, George?" Anne said, she could not believe what was happening in her own home! The only time she left for town with Elizabeth and the King suddenly decides to show up in her home!

"Alice is missing." George said, it was best to just come out with it as Anne would be much more angrier should he or anyone dally around the issue at hand.

At hearing this, Anne suddenly felt cold. Her baby girl is missing! How could they lose such a small child in her own home! "What do you mean, 'missing'? How could she be missing, she's a child! She should be watched by two grown adult women!" Anne said fuming. Victoria and Gertrude have some explaining to do! She could not believe she allowed herself to entrust her daughter to two such flighty girls!

"Gertrude and Victoria had gone to fix Alice's bath and change of clothes for the day and when they returned, Alice was no where to be seen. I overheard them in the courtyard looking for Alice and instructed them to ask the others to help search for the child. With the King here and Alice missing, there is a rather large chance that the King might see her and then we'll have some rather large explaining to do." George explained.

Groaning, Anne took another deep breath to try to calm herself and her thoughts on how she would murder Victoria and Gertrude for their incompetence. Of all the days they could lose sight of her daughter-not that she would ever allow such a thing to pass-, it had to be the day that the King visits! "With my luck, I would not be surprised to find Alice with Henry right now." Anne said as she told her brother to take her to where the King was, she would deal with everything else later.

True to Anne's words, she was not surprised to find King Henry with her youngest-their youngest- child, Alice. What she was surprised to see though, was that King Henry was currently stationed by the window holding on to a calm Alice as he read her a passage from a children's story book.

Anne hated to disrupt the scene before her but as she noticed Alice's unkempt hair and dirty clothes, she knew she had to get her daughter out of there to be bathed and then formally presented to her father. There was no point in hiding anymore, after all, Anne thought. King Henry was here and he had already met Alice, there was no point in hiding the truth from him any longer. She just hoped he would understand why she had never mentioned their children to him sooner.

After instructing George to bring Victoria and Gertrude to the Library, Anne made her presence known. "Your majesty." Anne said as she curtsied with her head bowed.

She did not see the King suddenly tense up at the sound of her voice.

"Lady Anne, please rise." King Henry said as he laid the book he was reading down and adjusted Alice in his arms so that he could stand up and approach Anne.

As Anne rose from her curtsy, she once again failed to notice how the King's breath got caught in his throat.

If King Henry ever doubted his feelings for Anne before, there was indeed no doubt now that he truly still has romantic feelings for his supposed ex-wife. She had filled out a bit since the last time he had laid eyes on her, her bosom was fuller and her waist, a bit wider but these only proved one thing to him: Anne had been with child and had given birth and had hidden it from him. Why?

As soon as Anne was in her full height, she dared to look at King Henry and felt the same love she had for him resurface quickly as she saw King Henry look at their daughter affectionately.

At seeing Anne and hearing her voice, Alice soon became restless and had only calmed down when King Henry reluctantly handed her over to Anne. "Alice, my sweet, I believe you caused quite a ruckus with the maids today." Anne said as she lovingly hugged her daughter and kissed her forehead. At the exact moment, George arrived with Gertrude and Victoria.

"Oh Lady Alice! You gave us quite a scare!" Gertrude said as she curtsied to the King and to Anne. "My Lady, we are so sorry, we didn't mean to lose her, we've been looking for her everywhere!" Gertrude added. Anne silenced her and instructed them to give Alice her bath and to make sure never to let something like this happen ever again. As Anne handed Alice over to Victoria, she whispered "This is not over, Come to my study immediately after you put Alice to sleep, both of you" and watched the two ladies leave with a worried expression on their faces, she turned to George and said, "George, would you be so kind as to escort those two to Alice's room? I'm afraid of what else they might end up doing with Alice."

"Of course sister" George said, he knew that Anne wanted to be alone with the King for what she was about to say. George also knew that the King had many things on his mind that he wanted to get out in the open with Anne and so leaving them to their privacy was the best for them all. "Your majesty, please excuse me once more." George said to King Henry who merely nodded. George closed the door to the Library and left.

Once they were finally alone, King Henry And Anne Boleyn did nothing but stare at each other and wonder how they were to start their long overdue conversation.

AN: Short chapter but I felt like there were already a lot going on with this chapter and I felt that the confrontation and the snowball effect should take up a chapter for themselves. I don't know when I'll be finishing this story but I'm dead set on not more than 15-20 chapters! Hopefully I can end it in 15 chapters! :)

Isn't Alice and Henry's scenes cute? Seriously. You're probably wondering how one year old little tiny Alice managed to get away from her nannies in her room all the way to the library... Well.. You've watched baby's day out, right? If not, I seriously advice you to watch it! Tiny humans get up to so much trouble sometimes (and yes, I know its a movie which means the babies actions are fake, but still, its such a cute movie!)!

Sorry for the silence guys, I didn't want to publish this chapter without finishing another chapter and since I've been so busy with school lately, I haven't been able to finish the 9th chapter however, since I'm almost done with that one, I figured I could post this one early! I'm so excited to publish the next chapter but that will have to wait because I'm still a few scenes away from finishing it! Anne and Henry moments are so hard to write, I don't know if its because they have too much chemistry or because I don't know which Henry's or Anne's I should be writing! (oops, there's a clue in there somewhere of what next chapter will be all about! I mean, its really huge guys, I think this whole Author's note is one big clue already!)

Anyway, please review if you like, or you know, don't review, its really up to you but I do love hearing your reactions to this story! How am I doing so far anyway? :)

xx

unamedhpauthor

P.S. The Tudors aren't mine (Disclaimer)