The Tudor Witness
Chapter Eleven
Catalina knew also that death could be kind when the right person died.
It was 1509 when the news came.
“The king has died,” Henry came with the solemn news that spring morning.
Seven years and Catalina was still here, still stuck in court, and it seemed that nothing would change. There had been a negotiation going on that Catalina would marry Henry, but that had been broken off.
But then, so unexpectedly, Henry got down on his knees, taking Catalina’s hands in his.
“The most beautiful princess in all of Europe, right before my eyes, and it seems that things may finally change,” Henry said.
“What do you mean?” she inquired, looking at Henry’s blue eyes, reminding her of Arthur.
“For years we have grown together. You have lived here like a widow for nine whole years! I have sat and watched you waste your life away while my father failed to do anything about it. And now he is gone, and I shall be king, strange as it may seem, and I must ask you a question,” he smiled.
She had been expecting this question to come for many a year. Catalina smiled.
“I have a dispensation from the Pope, as your marriage to my brother was not valid. Catalina, will you make me the happiest man in the world and agree to marry me?”
“Of course!” she exclaimed, tears already pouring down her face as she threw her arms around him.
His strong arms picked her up and twirled her around. This was truly what she was waiting for. She wasn’t a silly child any longer. She was now ready to be a wife and a mother, and produce an heir.
He kissed her but lightly on the lips, but his kiss was powerful. She wanted more, and kissed him passionately again and again until she knew things would be right. Surely Arthur would forgive her; she had finally found love and finally found a place to stay. She would have her own children, now, and make her husband proud.
After so much suffering, starting with Arthur’s death, then the news of her mother’s death, after that came the death of a baby-a newborn child to the king and queen, and then eventually the death of the queen herself, it seemed that everything was finally coming to an end.
“I love you,” Henry whispered, pulling away from the kissing for just a moment.
“I love you too,” Catalina smiled, knowing she did love him. Maybe she always did.
=+=
Winter
Winter again brought a move to Hampton Court.
I loved Hampton Court. It was much newer than many of the other places we were made to stay, and it was cleaner too, and the gardens bigger and better for horse riding and having fun.
I remembered sadly all the times I’d had with Hannah out in the giant maze and riding our horses out with Mary just that Christmas before. Still a part of me yearned for her. With her, I had a friend that was my age and near me every day of the year. I hadn’t had that in anyone else.
On cold morning after taking my horse for a walk I decided to take the servant stairs up to my room, for they were faster and I could find my way around easier.
I was cold still from the outside, and I was looking for a shortcut to take, so I turned my head to look down a narrow hallway, then I turned back again, only to collide into a servant girl carrying a tray of hot things.
Among the things that fell upon me was a cup of boiling hot coffee. I screamed out in pain, knowing it was all my fault.
“Oh, Miss, I am so sorry,” the girl looked terrified and instantly took out a fresh napkin to dab off the remaining coffee from my riding habit. I could see then the preserves that had fallen upon my skirt, staining it several colors.
“No, no, ‘twas my fault,” I gasped, trying to wipe off the preserves.
The girl looked about to cry. “Oh, Miss, I am so terribly sorry, I should have been looking out for people, but I was so unfamiliar with the steps, I was, as today is only my third day and I was lucky the first two days and did not fall. I really didn’t want to come and work here away from my family, but me mum died of the sweats and my papa has a bad back and I need to help me family as best I can ‘cause I’ve got myself three little brothers and an infant sister to take care of and Miss you don’t know how hard it’s been…”
“Stop!” I cried, just wanting her to stop her talking. I hadn’t met a girl who talked so much in my life.
“Oh, I am such an idiot,” the girl muttered and walked away.
I felt terribly sorry for the girl and I bent down to pick up the pieces of broken glass on the floor.
“It’s okay Miss, I will see to it that it’s cleaned up,” the girl called to me. There was a look of fear in her eyes, a fear that I had seen in mine when I’d first come here, to court.
“Come here,” I motioned to her.
She hesitantly walked to where I was, shrinking back as if she thought I was going to strike her.
“You need a hug,” I smiled.
She nodded slowly and threw her arms around me. I could tell she was crying after only a few seconds.
“You are Elizabeth Rushford, aren’t you?” she asked, still sobbing.
“Yes,” I replied. How did she know about me?
“People have told me about you, about where you come from. Seems our stories are quite the same. Wanted to meet you the first time I heard about you. I’m only thirteen, just turned so in summer. My name’s Margaret. People here prefer to call me Meg, though.”
“Ok, Meg,” I smiled, and turned to walk away.
I thanked God as I walked away, thanked him for a friend, for someone like Hannah. I thought I almost heard Hannah laughing as I turned the corner. Maybe it was her that answered my call.
“I’m so bored!” Tom whined.
“Oh, shut it!” I called to him. I myself was busy sewing clothes for the homeless.
“There’s nothing to do, Elizabeth, it’s not like we know how to knit!” William cried.
“Hey, if you’re that bored then I will gladly teach you,” I laughed.
“No, that’s okay,” William whined.
“But think about it, only a few months until we are courtiers and we leave you in the dust to drag along with Anne. Soon, the two of us are going to have the time of our lives,” Tom sighed.
I felt a bit odd having them talk about all that fun without me.
“Too bad you’ve no one to really hang around with now,” William sighed.
Oh, but I do, I thought in my mind. And I knew I would meet up with her again soon.
But now Mary would come, and that would keep my mind off of other people for awhile. I loved Yuletide.
The queen was in good spirits the morning set for Mary to arrive. Anne was excited too, wearing her ermine robe and new green and red dress. She had spent the night with the king again, I knew, but she had to keep his interests somehow.
The queen’s rooms were decorated in holly and mistletoe and the like, and red ribbons as well. Anne had dressed up my hair with pretty red ribbons to go with my dark green dress.
I had seen Meg that morning. She had been carrying in breakfast to the queen. I hadn’t seen her since I’d first met her, and I asked her where her room was.
It was near my brother’s, and I promised I would come and see her and introduce her to the Princess Mary that night.
I was sitting at the window seat all day, the same way I had done a year before, except Hannah was not by my side, excited to see the princess for the first time in her life.
I thought back to a year before. Hannah was always by my side, always near me. I couldn’t believe that half a year had passed already since Hannah’s death. It seemed like so long ago, years maybe.
Mary’s carriage was easy to point out among all of the other nobles’ carriages.
It was around midday when Mary came. She knew where I was, and looked up to the window and waved. She had gotten taller, looking more her age of almost fourteen now, yet she was always much shorter than most.
I turned my head slightly and found that Meg was near the hearth, busy emptying the ashes. She was a very pretty girl, with light blonde hair and big green eyes. She was tall for her age, nearly as tall as Anne, who was standing beside her, waiting for the princess to come.
“Meg,” I whispered behind her.
She jumped and dropped all the ashes that she’d collected in her little pail. She was much too nervous.
She turned and her hand flew to her heart. “Goodness, Elizabeth, you scared me! Seems I cannot do right at all in this place. I thought I was cleaning up the ashes wrong, but I couldn’t think of how I could. ‘Tis all I do at home is clean.”
“You mustn’t be so nervous, but I will help you,” I bent down, but my mind was blank when it came to cleaning. I hadn’t cleaned anything in almost four years. It made me feel bad, though.
“Thank you,” she whispered when it was all finished.
Half of the ashes had landed on me, yet there would be no time to change. Mary would be there soon.
“Meg, would you…would you like to meet the princess?” I finally asked when she turned to leave.
She nearly dropped the bucket again, but I caught it before it fell to the ground.
“Oh, Elizabeth, I don’t think that would be so good. I nearly collapsed when Mistress told me to go to the queen’s rooms to clean up the ashes. At least the queen has not noticed me, thank God,” Meg sighed, wiping her brow.
“Meg, the first time I came here, it was when the queen herself saved me. She understands us more than most people here do, and she well, became a second mother for me,” I confessed.
Us. I hadn’t lived like a peasant in three and a half years, since I was seven, and here I was referring to myself as one, as us. I was proud of where I came from, but why had I just called my background a simple word like that?
She nodded. “Okay, I will stay, but if I feel uncomfortable, I will leave.”
Just then the guards announced Mary, the Princess and we all stood. Mary looked refreshed and happy as she walked gracefully into the room. She smiled at me, and raised an eyebrow to Anne’s happiness to see her as well.
She embraced her mother and after a few words she ran to where I stood and everyone got back to their duties.
“Mary, this is my new friend Meg,” I explained, motioning for Meg, scared and shaking, to come forward.
“P-p-pleasure to…” Meg could get out until her face turned white and she collapsed into my arms.
I shook my head and sighed.
“Is she okay?” Mary asked with alarm.
“Just nervous, she is. She just came to court, story like mine and all,” I told her.
Mary nodded. “But soon she’ll know not to be nervous around us. We’ll be friends, of course!”
“Well, I’m sure she’d like that,” I sighed, Meg’s body starting to weigh me down.
A maid came over then and picked Meg up in her arms, asking the queen where to put her.
“She’ll be awake soon, I’m guessing,” Mary sighed, and then smiled wide. “So where is Hannah?” After she said it her hands flew to her mouth and her eyes went wide.
Instantly a feeling of sadness came over me. I’d been trying to forget Hannah, yet something always came up and made me remember. I could tell Mary had never tried to think on it, maybe a little less than she should have. I fought back the tears which threatened to fill my eyes and tried to think of all the good times I’d had with Hannah, lying to myself that she was just gone for awhile, but that she would be back.
“I’m sorry Elizabeth,” Mary muttered.
Anne walked over. Her hair was back today, not hanging freely like it usually was. The band holding back her hair was black and lined in thin gold ribbon.
“Would you like to accompany me to the king’s rooms? I thought you might like to say hello to your father,” Anne suggested.
I could tell then what Mary was thinking. Anne wanted to go there only to see the king and show Mary that their love was still strong, and that any day now she would be out of the picture.
A smile appeared on Anne’s face when no answer came. “I was only wondering if my father was there, nothing else.”
Mary nodded and we told the queen we were to go the king’s rooms.
As we were walking along the bright corridors behind Anne, Mary whispered, “Is she really that changed, or is she merely acting? It seems real, though.”
“Anne has changed, Mary,” I was happy to say it. Maybe Mary would have a better respect of Anne from then on.
The king’s chamber was filled with smiling courtiers and nobles from all around the country, ready to pay their respects to the king.
“Oh, I found my father!” Anne cried, pointing to a group of men closest to the king. Tom’s father was among the group once again, as well as Anne’s uncle and brother. They really were the most powerful family in England, besides the Royal Family of course.
“I still do not like her,” Mary spat as we saw her whisper something into her father’s ear.
I sighed. There was no reason to convince Mary of something she would have a hard time believing.
“Why would I waste my time to see my father like this? I’m the princess for God’s sake.”
Mary just walked through the crowd, pushed her way through the men, and they opened up for her when they realized who it was. I followed behind her.
The king looked happy and healthy, and was dressed in a doublet decorated in so many gems that it was practically too high to count.
The grand window in his room was open and it filled the room with sunlight. A light frost had fallen the night before, and it made the countryside look as if it was glistening.
“Oh, Mary, the Princess of Wales! My daughter, how are you on this fine day?” the king cried in his powerful voice. Mary seemed to like that she was called the Princess of Wales. She still had her place.
“I am fine, father,” she curtsied, and I followed.
“And how was your trip from Ludlow? Was the weather fine for you?”
“’Twas cold this morning, but the roads were fine, and I was greeted well in London,” Mary explained, keeping her posture, knowing all eyes were on her and her little friend.
I held my posture as well, as I could do effortlessly, now that I was fully adapted to court as though I’d lived there forever.
Mary and the king continued to talk and I let my mind drift for a bit.
“Hello, again, Miss Rushford,” the king smiled to me.
I curtsied again. “Your Highness.”
Mary and I hurried off back to the queen’s rooms to get everything settled.
Meg woke later in the day just as Mary and I were to leave for supper.
“Well, you were cold out for awhile!” I exclaimed when she finally sat up, rubbing her head.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled sleepily. “Not used to such things as meeting a princess I guess.”
“Well, it took me awhile too,” I confessed.
“I’m just a girl, like you,” Mary explained. “No reason to be scared by just another girl like yourself.”
That really didn’t sound convincing, but I guess Meg thought it did. She suddenly jumped up, fully awake. “I have to go back and prepare supper! I will get a wiping for being late!” she cried.
Mary stopped her. “No, stay, and come to court with us, just this once.”
“Go to court, with the princess?” Meg gasped, looking as if she was to faint again.
She reminded me much of Hannah, how she had acted when she had first come to court.
“Well of course!” Mary exclaimed.
“And you can borrow one of my dresses,” I told her, but then realized that she was much taller than me, as tall as Anne. Mary was just the same height as I was, even though she was almost fourteen.
“Uh…” Meg sighed. “Doesn’t seem like I will be borrowing dresses from either of you.”
Mary nodded.
“I…I guess she can borrow one from Anne,” I suggested.
We walked the short distance to the room I shared with Anne. When I opened the door the place was considerably empty. All that was really left was the bed and a little chair.
There was a maid tending to the fire. She wiped her brow and turned to us, curtsying.
“Anne left?” Mary asked.
“Yes, Princess, Anne Boleyn has moved to rooms-her own apartments-near the king’s rooms, taken her stuff too,” the maid said quickly and left.
So now Anne was leaving me all behind, it seemed. I had my own room now, bare as it was.
“I’ll go check the closet in case,” I declared.
The closet was also considerably bare. I had few dresses and gowns-it was Anne that had so many. But I saw that she had left some of her older dresses, apparently passing them on to me.
I took out a light blue one with black trimming that would match Meg’s light blonde hair perfectly.
“I’ve found one,” I declared, holding up the dress as I came out of the closet.
Meg gasped. “I’ve never seen anything so grand!”
“You will look beautiful in it,” Mary said.
“’Tis quite itchy, this dress is!” Meg complained, trying to loosen the sleeves.
“Stop that!” I cried, finding myself scolding her like Anne had scolded me in the beginning.
“There are so many things to remember, Elizabeth!” Meg seemed overwhelmed. “I don’t like this place.”
“Oh, it’s only your first day,” I sighed.
She took her goblet in her hands and started to gulp it down. I could see Mary staring down at her as if Meg were hopeless.
Tom tugged on my sleeve; he was sitting on the other side of me. “Who is your friend?” he smiled.
“Her name is Margaret, called Meg. She’s my friend, but she works in the kitchens and I’m not sure if she is allowed here…”
“Well I don’t mind if she stays,” his eyes went wide.
“Oh stop it!” I cried. I did not want Tom in an infatuation with my friend.
“I don’t mind, either,” William joined in, sitting across the table.
“What?” Meg looked completely bedazzled with everything going on around her.
“Nothing, Meg, try to eat something, you look faint,” I whispered.
“Like a blonde Anne, she is,” Tom sighed.
“Oh, come on!” I exclaimed, but when I looked to Anne I realized that this was quite true. She had the dark eyes, the long fingers, and the grace was there too, like it just came naturally.
“You can’t deny it,” Tom whispered.
When it came to dancing I realized Meg was natural at that too. I noticed more Anne in her then before.
As soon as we went into the dancing hall, Tom and William both came up to us-Mary, Meg, and I. I expected Tom to ask me to dance, William to ask Mary, as they usually did, but that wasn’t so this time.
Both seemed intent to ask for Meg’s hand.
“May I have this dance?” Tom held out his hand like a true courtier to Meg before William could get to her.
“Sure…” she smiled, and looked back to me with a worried glance.
I knew what that look meant. She could not dance.
They disappeared onto the floor as the slow dance started.
William looked shocked, but he still had the other girl. “Princess Mary, will you grace me with this dance?” he bowed to her and held out his arm, knowing she would say yes no matter what.
I felt like I had long ago, when I had just come to court. I had no one to dance with then.
If I were perhaps older then, maybe someone other than Tom would have asked me to dance. But being just a small girl of only ten, I knew the chances of dancing with another courtier was nothing at all.
Anne was surely dancing with the king, for she always was, so I made my way up to where the queen sat alone.
“Well, hello, Elizabeth!” the queen exclaimed and waved to a maid to get me a chair. “I saw that new friend of yours with you. A great dancer she is too.”
“What?” I gasped, starting to laugh.
“Yes, probably had a dance teacher all her life, am I wrong?” the queen asked, pointing down to the dance floor, where in fact Meg was dancing in Tom’s arms, picking up the steps very easily.
“I…I guess she did,” I lied, knowing full well that Meg had grown up like I had.
“Such a pretty girl too, with those extremely light locks,” the queen smiled.
I looked at her, the smile upon her face.
“I should like to make her a lady-in-waiting,” the queen finally declared, my mouth flying open.
“But she is a kitchen maid,” I gasped out.
“Well you were not anything too special, a beggar I thought you were when I rescued you,” she grunted.
The queen had never been harsh with me, never, save the time Mary and I had gotten all dirty and wet that time long ago, when Anne just had the king’s attentions.
That was the first time I was ever jealous of anyone in my life.
“That Meg girl is very nice,” Mary declared as we were reading in my room the next morning.
“I guess so,” I mumbled.
“What’s wrong, Elizabeth?” she asked. “You look right worried.”
“Oh…no, of course not!” I exclaimed, hoping Mary didn’t see through the lie.
“Ok then,” Mary sighed and laid down on the chaise lounge that had just been delivered to my room. A girl needed some furniture.
“She’ll be your mother’s lady-in-waiting soon,” I announced.
Mary shot up. “Oh, how wonderful that will be!” I wasn’t looking at her, but I could tell she was looking at me. “Ah, I get it now. Elizabeth, she is your friend. You were the one that got her where she is, aren’t you? Don’t worry so much.”
But I always worried, maybe a little too much.
“Anne, I need to talk to you,” I said as the doors to Anne’s new apartments opened.
Before me stood a grand room, much grander than the queen’s parlor, decorated in French furnishings. Paintings hung on the walls, hundreds of them, some of them I recognized as those in Anne’s family, and there was also one large one of the king.
“Elizabeth, is that you?” Anne called from another room.
“Yes, Anne, it’s me,” I answered.
In came Anne, dressed in a grand black silk dress covered in gold lace and buttons. Her hair was done up in elaborate curls and set back with a grand French headdress. She ran to me and embraced me.
“Oh, Elizabeth, I was so sad to leave you, but now I know I’m closer to the throne than ever before,” she declared. “I have everything I want, every single thing!”
“I…am happy for you, Anne,” I said.
She led me over to a pair of long chairs and sat down in one.
“I haven’t seen you in forever! You must tell me everything I’ve been missing with the queen and all.”
Before I said anything, I asked, “You’re not the queen’s maid anymore, are you?”
She started laughing. “You won’t be either for too long.”
“What?!” I gasped.
“Well, Elizabeth, isn’t it obvious that if I’m to marry the king that I will need maids of my own?” she inquired.
“I…I guess so…”
“Good, then you will be my first one,” she smiled. “You can start working for me now.”
Working. Like I would work for my best friend!
“Anne…I mustn’t, I must stay with the queen until she is no longer queen,” I put out, trying to hurt Anne as less as possible. For if she got angry, I wouldn’t be able to talk to her at all.
“Well, I suppose that’s okay,” Anne sighed. “But when it is official and the agreement has come from the Pope, you will be the first I ask.”
I nodded, not intending to ever join as Anne’s maid. If she would still accept my friendship after I told her I was to stay with the true queen to the death, I was not sure.
“I…I need to ask you something,” I declared.
“What?”
“Well…I have a friend…”
“Is she with child?!” Anne exclaimed with amusement in her eyes.
“Uh…no…”
“Oh, never mind then,” Anne laughed. “Sorry, you wouldn’t know how lonely it is being here all alone. I’ve got to make myself jokes if I want to stay sane without many friends.”
“Anne, what are you saying, you’ve got friends,” I reminded her, knowing she always had that constant entourage of people following her, including people like her brother, and the wealthy courtier Mark Smeaton, and many others, most of them men.
“Well, no one like you,” Anne smiled. “Anyway, what was your problem?”
“Okay, my friend, my new friend Meg, it seems that she herself is taking away things from me. I am feeling jealous of her even…” I confessed.
“Who is she?”
“My friend, Meg, weren’t you listening?”
“No…her nobility, the daughter of a duke or what?”
“She was the kitchen maid. I met her only a week or two ago and invited her to court today. Seems everyone likes her over me.”
“Well I surely like you more than her! It will pass, Elizabeth, don’t you worry. She is older, is she not?”
“Thirteen.”
“Well, there you go. There are many, many more courtiers that will like a thirteen year old than a ten year old, I’m sorry to say. Your time will come,” Anne explained.
“But it’s not just with the men. And besides, it’s only my brother and Tom…”
Anne smiled slightly. “Tom Devon, a handsome young boy. He’s to inherit the dukedom after his father. I think you’ve had your first little crush my dear.”
“What?! Anne you are insane!” I cried, thinking how it was impossible for me to ever like Tom.
“It’s only natural. Friends for almost four years…ah, young love,” she smiled.
“Anne, it’s not like that.”
“Well fine, but you also mentioned your brother. Right now your brother is all you’ve got family wise. Maybe little sister just doesn’t want to give up big brother just yet.”
“Maybe…but the queen is going to make her a lady-in-waiting too!” I cried.
Anne’s face turned into a frown. “Tell you the complete truth, Elizabeth, none of us were too thrilled that you became a maid, but now we all love you. If she is your friend in the first place what have you got to lose?”
“The queen’s favoritism,” the words just spilled out of my mouth and I didn’t even know what I was saying. I didn’t think I was the queen’s favorite, though so many had called me that.
“Oh come now, Elizabeth. Of course you are her favorite now, but being favorite isn’t anything too special. I was favorite before you, and before all this, and my sister was favorite before that. Being the queen’s favorite is just a place to do the queen wrong if you ask me. Besides, you are Mary’s dearest friend and the queen is very glad of that. It won’t matter too much longer anyway, for you will be under me, and you of course will be my favorite,” Anne smiled.
I smiled, knowing that at least Anne would always like me best.
“It’s okay Elizabeth, you are young. I was always jealous of those older and above me when I was young. Really, I have not changed,” she laughed. “But now I am the highest, and people are jealous of me.”
“Thank you Anne.”
“Anything for you, Elizabeth,” she smiled.
“So how are things going with the king, if I am not being too bold as to ask?”
“Quite well, actually. He treats me as he should treat his betrothed, with respect, and has not asked me once for a long while now.”
“But how are things with the agreement from the Pope?” I asked, wanting to know just that.
Anne shrugged. “Who really knows? The king does not inform me of anything, for I don’t think there is anything to inform. There is none, not yet.”
I looked around at Anne’s room. It was larger than the queen’s parlor. The king surely loved Anne with all his heart. If things went well she would be the future of the country. That was, if she birthed a boy.
“I need some maids,” Anne muttered. I wasn’t sure if I was intended to hear that or not.
Just then the door opened and in came Anne’s brother George, looking quite intent on talking to Anne privately. Anne waved me off.
I stood and began to walk away, knowing not to get into the private affairs of the Boleyn’s.
“Where are you going?” Anne cried to me, her voice almost angry.
Why was she angry at me? “Yes?” I turned around.
“Curtsy, you ignorant girl!” Anne yelled.
It didn’t know what had caused this sudden change in Anne’s behavior, but I did not like it. I curtsied all the same, and when I came up saw the look in Anne’s eyes, that look of power. At that moment she had gone from my friend, one on the same level as I, to the highest power.
In my book, that was when Anne Boleyn became queen.
Two days after, Meg ran into my room, where Mary and I were sewing by the fire.
“Anne has asked me to be her maid!” she cried. “Anne Boleyn!”
I knew then that things between Anne and I would never be the same. She’d told me herself that she would pick me first. And I didn’t care that she didn’t pick me first. I cared that she had picked Meg instead of any other girl in the whole court. That’s what got me angry.
Mary looked indifferent. “She’s having maids now, is she?”
Meg nodded and smiled. “I don’t even know her, I’ve only heard about her. Yet, this morning she called me to her room. I have no clue as to how she heard of me, but she said she needed a girl like me as her lady-in-waiting.”
“That’s wonderful,” I said in a whisper, wondering how Anne could do such a thing.
I guess that I decided then, who my loyalties would lie with. They would lie with the true queen, Queen Catherine, until the end. Anne was just my friend, and I did not bow down to friends.
“I have you to thank Elizabeth! If you would have not taken me to court that day I would not have found myself, would not have been able to talk to nobility, or at least to boys for goodness’s sake! But now I have Anne, and I have the two of you, and I have Tom,” she ran over to me and embraced me. “It’s all I ever wanted.”
I hoped in my heart that she had not said Tom, that she hadn’t said his name with that passion like she did. But I knew she did. I tried not to attack her as she hugged me, in front of the princess.
I would do it when Mary was gone, I thought to myself with a smile.
“Elizabeth, I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that you are my friend,” Meg sighed, lying beside me.
She had moved into my room that day.
“Meg, may I talk to you about something?” I asked.
“Of course,” she smiled.
“Did…did Anne mention me at all when you went to her room?”
“Well…yes, she did. She said something about asking you first, but that she knew you’d want to stay with the queen for awhile. She looked greatly disappointed that you would not be her maid. Are you friends with her?” she asked.
Her words made me feel much better. I knew Anne got moody at times, that was the Boleyn nature. I could not blame her; she wanted me to be her maid.
“Yes, she was my first friend when I came here to court,” I explained.
“You know, I never would have guessed if I didn’t know your story that you weren’t born a noble girl,” Meg sighed.
“Takes years of practice to seem so I guess. It’s been almost four years since I first came. Yet, you seem to have mastered many things already. You can dance, and certainly have better manners than I first had.”
“We always danced back home, my friends and brothers and I. Country music though, down in Kent. I haven’t seen them in such a long while, since my father died and my mother decided to send me here,” she sighed.
All was quiet for a bit except the crackling of the fire.
“I bet its easier being older when you come to court though. I was six years younger than you are,” I explained.
“That is a big difference,” she agreed.
“So what was it like, growing up in Kent?” I asked.
“’Twas warmer there, and it rained nearly everyday. The harvests were always plentiful, and no one ever went hungry. We had acres and acres of land. We grew wheat and corn and we even had some apple trees. My mother had a garden filled with herbs and vegetables and the most beautiful flowers. We were actually the vassals of the Boleyn family, living close to Hever Castle and everything. My mother,” she smiled, “had been friends with Mary Boleyn. Mary always had time when she was young to go out and see her people, and she truly cared about them. They were friends, but then things changed. She went to court and got overwhelmed with power I guess, like that crazy sister of hers.”
“Best not be talking that way when you start being her maid,” I reminded.
Meg smiled slightly. “I never said that I said yes to her, did I?”
My mouth flew open and I threw my arms around her before I could think. She wasn’t going to be Anne’s maid!
“Nope, the real and true and only queen asked me first, and I said yes. Anne may be nice, but she is already abusing the power she thinks she has, and it will backfire on her unless we can get her to understand,” Meg explained.
“Oh, Meg, it will be wonderful with you as the queen’s maid,” and I meant it.
“I look up to Queen Catherine more than anyone in this court. I will stay with her forever, even if the witch does become queen,” Meg added.
“Looks like we’re in this together,” I smiled.
Christmastime went by fast, especially when Meg became maid to the queen.
Mary, Meg, and I spent all of our time together, except when it came to dancing. Mary was with my brother, and Meg was with Tom. I sat with the queen, who was in high spirits.
It had been years since the king was first infatuated with Anne. Everyone knew it. We all hoped that he would be done with Anne soon, for Anne still would not give in to him, and it was all he wanted.
I saw the fire in the king’s eyes now more than ever, though, and I knew he would not be done too soon. Anne was at the height of her life now, overwhelmed with power and waiting for the day she would finally become queen.
Seeing Tom and Meg together did make me a bit sad, for I never got to see him anymore, but he was sixteen now, a full courtier.
Soon the holidays were over. The dances were over, the fun was over, and Mary was saying goodbye once more.
It was hard on Meg, saying goodbye to Mary this time, but Mary reassured her that she would be back in the summer for the progress.
“Ahh…” Meg plopped down on a chair after it was all over. “This court thing is so much fun.”
I nodded, falling against my bed, in need of a nap. I’d probably be needed to remove the Yuletide things from the queen’s rooms, but I was much too tired to even move.
“May I ask you a question?” Meg inquired.
“Go ahead.”
“How well do you know Tom? What do you know about him and everything, I mean?” she asked.
I didn’t feel comfortable on that subject, but I would for Meg. “Well…he was a stable boy. I was a small girl of seven, just recently arrived in court. I never rode horses before, and he helped me while the rest of the maids and the queen went riding. He taught me how to ride horses, and then we became friends. My brother was a page, and he also became friends with him.
“We rode together a lot and then maybe two summers ago-yes, I think that’s what it was-when I came back from the progress he told me his father was now a duke and that his whole family was to move to court. Back then I only had Mary and Anne as friends, and then his family came to court. He has-um…had-three sisters…”
Meg looked confused. “What do you mean ‘had’?”
“Well…his sister, Hannah, instantly became my best friend. She was the same age as I was, the only one. We spent every moment together-Mary, Hannah, William, Tom, and I. It was…so much fun. Hannah was truly the greatest friend I had. And then the sweating sickness came,” I felt tears fall down my cheeks.
“The queen wanted us to go to Ludlow to be safe-the five of us. Hannah-she decided to stay with her family. Little did we know that when we had fun with Mary, Hannah was dying. And since there was no communication from London, we could not write. A letter came from Hannah herself from right before she died, telling us what had happened,” I wailed, embracing Meg.
“Seems only those that lost some of their own truly understand the pain of another,” Meg declared, wiping tears from her own eyes.
“Yes, it does seem so.”
It was 1509 when the news came.
“The king has died,” Henry came with the solemn news that spring morning.
Seven years and Catalina was still here, still stuck in court, and it seemed that nothing would change. There had been a negotiation going on that Catalina would marry Henry, but that had been broken off.
But then, so unexpectedly, Henry got down on his knees, taking Catalina’s hands in his.
“The most beautiful princess in all of Europe, right before my eyes, and it seems that things may finally change,” Henry said.
“What do you mean?” she inquired, looking at Henry’s blue eyes, reminding her of Arthur.
“For years we have grown together. You have lived here like a widow for nine whole years! I have sat and watched you waste your life away while my father failed to do anything about it. And now he is gone, and I shall be king, strange as it may seem, and I must ask you a question,” he smiled.
She had been expecting this question to come for many a year. Catalina smiled.
“I have a dispensation from the Pope, as your marriage to my brother was not valid. Catalina, will you make me the happiest man in the world and agree to marry me?”
“Of course!” she exclaimed, tears already pouring down her face as she threw her arms around him.
His strong arms picked her up and twirled her around. This was truly what she was waiting for. She wasn’t a silly child any longer. She was now ready to be a wife and a mother, and produce an heir.
He kissed her but lightly on the lips, but his kiss was powerful. She wanted more, and kissed him passionately again and again until she knew things would be right. Surely Arthur would forgive her; she had finally found love and finally found a place to stay. She would have her own children, now, and make her husband proud.
After so much suffering, starting with Arthur’s death, then the news of her mother’s death, after that came the death of a baby-a newborn child to the king and queen, and then eventually the death of the queen herself, it seemed that everything was finally coming to an end.
“I love you,” Henry whispered, pulling away from the kissing for just a moment.
“I love you too,” Catalina smiled, knowing she did love him. Maybe she always did.
=+=
Winter
Winter again brought a move to Hampton Court.
I loved Hampton Court. It was much newer than many of the other places we were made to stay, and it was cleaner too, and the gardens bigger and better for horse riding and having fun.
I remembered sadly all the times I’d had with Hannah out in the giant maze and riding our horses out with Mary just that Christmas before. Still a part of me yearned for her. With her, I had a friend that was my age and near me every day of the year. I hadn’t had that in anyone else.
On cold morning after taking my horse for a walk I decided to take the servant stairs up to my room, for they were faster and I could find my way around easier.
I was cold still from the outside, and I was looking for a shortcut to take, so I turned my head to look down a narrow hallway, then I turned back again, only to collide into a servant girl carrying a tray of hot things.
Among the things that fell upon me was a cup of boiling hot coffee. I screamed out in pain, knowing it was all my fault.
“Oh, Miss, I am so sorry,” the girl looked terrified and instantly took out a fresh napkin to dab off the remaining coffee from my riding habit. I could see then the preserves that had fallen upon my skirt, staining it several colors.
“No, no, ‘twas my fault,” I gasped, trying to wipe off the preserves.
The girl looked about to cry. “Oh, Miss, I am so terribly sorry, I should have been looking out for people, but I was so unfamiliar with the steps, I was, as today is only my third day and I was lucky the first two days and did not fall. I really didn’t want to come and work here away from my family, but me mum died of the sweats and my papa has a bad back and I need to help me family as best I can ‘cause I’ve got myself three little brothers and an infant sister to take care of and Miss you don’t know how hard it’s been…”
“Stop!” I cried, just wanting her to stop her talking. I hadn’t met a girl who talked so much in my life.
“Oh, I am such an idiot,” the girl muttered and walked away.
I felt terribly sorry for the girl and I bent down to pick up the pieces of broken glass on the floor.
“It’s okay Miss, I will see to it that it’s cleaned up,” the girl called to me. There was a look of fear in her eyes, a fear that I had seen in mine when I’d first come here, to court.
“Come here,” I motioned to her.
She hesitantly walked to where I was, shrinking back as if she thought I was going to strike her.
“You need a hug,” I smiled.
She nodded slowly and threw her arms around me. I could tell she was crying after only a few seconds.
“You are Elizabeth Rushford, aren’t you?” she asked, still sobbing.
“Yes,” I replied. How did she know about me?
“People have told me about you, about where you come from. Seems our stories are quite the same. Wanted to meet you the first time I heard about you. I’m only thirteen, just turned so in summer. My name’s Margaret. People here prefer to call me Meg, though.”
“Ok, Meg,” I smiled, and turned to walk away.
I thanked God as I walked away, thanked him for a friend, for someone like Hannah. I thought I almost heard Hannah laughing as I turned the corner. Maybe it was her that answered my call.
“I’m so bored!” Tom whined.
“Oh, shut it!” I called to him. I myself was busy sewing clothes for the homeless.
“There’s nothing to do, Elizabeth, it’s not like we know how to knit!” William cried.
“Hey, if you’re that bored then I will gladly teach you,” I laughed.
“No, that’s okay,” William whined.
“But think about it, only a few months until we are courtiers and we leave you in the dust to drag along with Anne. Soon, the two of us are going to have the time of our lives,” Tom sighed.
I felt a bit odd having them talk about all that fun without me.
“Too bad you’ve no one to really hang around with now,” William sighed.
Oh, but I do, I thought in my mind. And I knew I would meet up with her again soon.
But now Mary would come, and that would keep my mind off of other people for awhile. I loved Yuletide.
The queen was in good spirits the morning set for Mary to arrive. Anne was excited too, wearing her ermine robe and new green and red dress. She had spent the night with the king again, I knew, but she had to keep his interests somehow.
The queen’s rooms were decorated in holly and mistletoe and the like, and red ribbons as well. Anne had dressed up my hair with pretty red ribbons to go with my dark green dress.
I had seen Meg that morning. She had been carrying in breakfast to the queen. I hadn’t seen her since I’d first met her, and I asked her where her room was.
It was near my brother’s, and I promised I would come and see her and introduce her to the Princess Mary that night.
I was sitting at the window seat all day, the same way I had done a year before, except Hannah was not by my side, excited to see the princess for the first time in her life.
I thought back to a year before. Hannah was always by my side, always near me. I couldn’t believe that half a year had passed already since Hannah’s death. It seemed like so long ago, years maybe.
Mary’s carriage was easy to point out among all of the other nobles’ carriages.
It was around midday when Mary came. She knew where I was, and looked up to the window and waved. She had gotten taller, looking more her age of almost fourteen now, yet she was always much shorter than most.
I turned my head slightly and found that Meg was near the hearth, busy emptying the ashes. She was a very pretty girl, with light blonde hair and big green eyes. She was tall for her age, nearly as tall as Anne, who was standing beside her, waiting for the princess to come.
“Meg,” I whispered behind her.
She jumped and dropped all the ashes that she’d collected in her little pail. She was much too nervous.
She turned and her hand flew to her heart. “Goodness, Elizabeth, you scared me! Seems I cannot do right at all in this place. I thought I was cleaning up the ashes wrong, but I couldn’t think of how I could. ‘Tis all I do at home is clean.”
“You mustn’t be so nervous, but I will help you,” I bent down, but my mind was blank when it came to cleaning. I hadn’t cleaned anything in almost four years. It made me feel bad, though.
“Thank you,” she whispered when it was all finished.
Half of the ashes had landed on me, yet there would be no time to change. Mary would be there soon.
“Meg, would you…would you like to meet the princess?” I finally asked when she turned to leave.
She nearly dropped the bucket again, but I caught it before it fell to the ground.
“Oh, Elizabeth, I don’t think that would be so good. I nearly collapsed when Mistress told me to go to the queen’s rooms to clean up the ashes. At least the queen has not noticed me, thank God,” Meg sighed, wiping her brow.
“Meg, the first time I came here, it was when the queen herself saved me. She understands us more than most people here do, and she well, became a second mother for me,” I confessed.
Us. I hadn’t lived like a peasant in three and a half years, since I was seven, and here I was referring to myself as one, as us. I was proud of where I came from, but why had I just called my background a simple word like that?
She nodded. “Okay, I will stay, but if I feel uncomfortable, I will leave.”
Just then the guards announced Mary, the Princess and we all stood. Mary looked refreshed and happy as she walked gracefully into the room. She smiled at me, and raised an eyebrow to Anne’s happiness to see her as well.
She embraced her mother and after a few words she ran to where I stood and everyone got back to their duties.
“Mary, this is my new friend Meg,” I explained, motioning for Meg, scared and shaking, to come forward.
“P-p-pleasure to…” Meg could get out until her face turned white and she collapsed into my arms.
I shook my head and sighed.
“Is she okay?” Mary asked with alarm.
“Just nervous, she is. She just came to court, story like mine and all,” I told her.
Mary nodded. “But soon she’ll know not to be nervous around us. We’ll be friends, of course!”
“Well, I’m sure she’d like that,” I sighed, Meg’s body starting to weigh me down.
A maid came over then and picked Meg up in her arms, asking the queen where to put her.
“She’ll be awake soon, I’m guessing,” Mary sighed, and then smiled wide. “So where is Hannah?” After she said it her hands flew to her mouth and her eyes went wide.
Instantly a feeling of sadness came over me. I’d been trying to forget Hannah, yet something always came up and made me remember. I could tell Mary had never tried to think on it, maybe a little less than she should have. I fought back the tears which threatened to fill my eyes and tried to think of all the good times I’d had with Hannah, lying to myself that she was just gone for awhile, but that she would be back.
“I’m sorry Elizabeth,” Mary muttered.
Anne walked over. Her hair was back today, not hanging freely like it usually was. The band holding back her hair was black and lined in thin gold ribbon.
“Would you like to accompany me to the king’s rooms? I thought you might like to say hello to your father,” Anne suggested.
I could tell then what Mary was thinking. Anne wanted to go there only to see the king and show Mary that their love was still strong, and that any day now she would be out of the picture.
A smile appeared on Anne’s face when no answer came. “I was only wondering if my father was there, nothing else.”
Mary nodded and we told the queen we were to go the king’s rooms.
As we were walking along the bright corridors behind Anne, Mary whispered, “Is she really that changed, or is she merely acting? It seems real, though.”
“Anne has changed, Mary,” I was happy to say it. Maybe Mary would have a better respect of Anne from then on.
The king’s chamber was filled with smiling courtiers and nobles from all around the country, ready to pay their respects to the king.
“Oh, I found my father!” Anne cried, pointing to a group of men closest to the king. Tom’s father was among the group once again, as well as Anne’s uncle and brother. They really were the most powerful family in England, besides the Royal Family of course.
“I still do not like her,” Mary spat as we saw her whisper something into her father’s ear.
I sighed. There was no reason to convince Mary of something she would have a hard time believing.
“Why would I waste my time to see my father like this? I’m the princess for God’s sake.”
Mary just walked through the crowd, pushed her way through the men, and they opened up for her when they realized who it was. I followed behind her.
The king looked happy and healthy, and was dressed in a doublet decorated in so many gems that it was practically too high to count.
The grand window in his room was open and it filled the room with sunlight. A light frost had fallen the night before, and it made the countryside look as if it was glistening.
“Oh, Mary, the Princess of Wales! My daughter, how are you on this fine day?” the king cried in his powerful voice. Mary seemed to like that she was called the Princess of Wales. She still had her place.
“I am fine, father,” she curtsied, and I followed.
“And how was your trip from Ludlow? Was the weather fine for you?”
“’Twas cold this morning, but the roads were fine, and I was greeted well in London,” Mary explained, keeping her posture, knowing all eyes were on her and her little friend.
I held my posture as well, as I could do effortlessly, now that I was fully adapted to court as though I’d lived there forever.
Mary and the king continued to talk and I let my mind drift for a bit.
“Hello, again, Miss Rushford,” the king smiled to me.
I curtsied again. “Your Highness.”
Mary and I hurried off back to the queen’s rooms to get everything settled.
Meg woke later in the day just as Mary and I were to leave for supper.
“Well, you were cold out for awhile!” I exclaimed when she finally sat up, rubbing her head.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled sleepily. “Not used to such things as meeting a princess I guess.”
“Well, it took me awhile too,” I confessed.
“I’m just a girl, like you,” Mary explained. “No reason to be scared by just another girl like yourself.”
That really didn’t sound convincing, but I guess Meg thought it did. She suddenly jumped up, fully awake. “I have to go back and prepare supper! I will get a wiping for being late!” she cried.
Mary stopped her. “No, stay, and come to court with us, just this once.”
“Go to court, with the princess?” Meg gasped, looking as if she was to faint again.
She reminded me much of Hannah, how she had acted when she had first come to court.
“Well of course!” Mary exclaimed.
“And you can borrow one of my dresses,” I told her, but then realized that she was much taller than me, as tall as Anne. Mary was just the same height as I was, even though she was almost fourteen.
“Uh…” Meg sighed. “Doesn’t seem like I will be borrowing dresses from either of you.”
Mary nodded.
“I…I guess she can borrow one from Anne,” I suggested.
We walked the short distance to the room I shared with Anne. When I opened the door the place was considerably empty. All that was really left was the bed and a little chair.
There was a maid tending to the fire. She wiped her brow and turned to us, curtsying.
“Anne left?” Mary asked.
“Yes, Princess, Anne Boleyn has moved to rooms-her own apartments-near the king’s rooms, taken her stuff too,” the maid said quickly and left.
So now Anne was leaving me all behind, it seemed. I had my own room now, bare as it was.
“I’ll go check the closet in case,” I declared.
The closet was also considerably bare. I had few dresses and gowns-it was Anne that had so many. But I saw that she had left some of her older dresses, apparently passing them on to me.
I took out a light blue one with black trimming that would match Meg’s light blonde hair perfectly.
“I’ve found one,” I declared, holding up the dress as I came out of the closet.
Meg gasped. “I’ve never seen anything so grand!”
“You will look beautiful in it,” Mary said.
“’Tis quite itchy, this dress is!” Meg complained, trying to loosen the sleeves.
“Stop that!” I cried, finding myself scolding her like Anne had scolded me in the beginning.
“There are so many things to remember, Elizabeth!” Meg seemed overwhelmed. “I don’t like this place.”
“Oh, it’s only your first day,” I sighed.
She took her goblet in her hands and started to gulp it down. I could see Mary staring down at her as if Meg were hopeless.
Tom tugged on my sleeve; he was sitting on the other side of me. “Who is your friend?” he smiled.
“Her name is Margaret, called Meg. She’s my friend, but she works in the kitchens and I’m not sure if she is allowed here…”
“Well I don’t mind if she stays,” his eyes went wide.
“Oh stop it!” I cried. I did not want Tom in an infatuation with my friend.
“I don’t mind, either,” William joined in, sitting across the table.
“What?” Meg looked completely bedazzled with everything going on around her.
“Nothing, Meg, try to eat something, you look faint,” I whispered.
“Like a blonde Anne, she is,” Tom sighed.
“Oh, come on!” I exclaimed, but when I looked to Anne I realized that this was quite true. She had the dark eyes, the long fingers, and the grace was there too, like it just came naturally.
“You can’t deny it,” Tom whispered.
When it came to dancing I realized Meg was natural at that too. I noticed more Anne in her then before.
As soon as we went into the dancing hall, Tom and William both came up to us-Mary, Meg, and I. I expected Tom to ask me to dance, William to ask Mary, as they usually did, but that wasn’t so this time.
Both seemed intent to ask for Meg’s hand.
“May I have this dance?” Tom held out his hand like a true courtier to Meg before William could get to her.
“Sure…” she smiled, and looked back to me with a worried glance.
I knew what that look meant. She could not dance.
They disappeared onto the floor as the slow dance started.
William looked shocked, but he still had the other girl. “Princess Mary, will you grace me with this dance?” he bowed to her and held out his arm, knowing she would say yes no matter what.
I felt like I had long ago, when I had just come to court. I had no one to dance with then.
If I were perhaps older then, maybe someone other than Tom would have asked me to dance. But being just a small girl of only ten, I knew the chances of dancing with another courtier was nothing at all.
Anne was surely dancing with the king, for she always was, so I made my way up to where the queen sat alone.
“Well, hello, Elizabeth!” the queen exclaimed and waved to a maid to get me a chair. “I saw that new friend of yours with you. A great dancer she is too.”
“What?” I gasped, starting to laugh.
“Yes, probably had a dance teacher all her life, am I wrong?” the queen asked, pointing down to the dance floor, where in fact Meg was dancing in Tom’s arms, picking up the steps very easily.
“I…I guess she did,” I lied, knowing full well that Meg had grown up like I had.
“Such a pretty girl too, with those extremely light locks,” the queen smiled.
I looked at her, the smile upon her face.
“I should like to make her a lady-in-waiting,” the queen finally declared, my mouth flying open.
“But she is a kitchen maid,” I gasped out.
“Well you were not anything too special, a beggar I thought you were when I rescued you,” she grunted.
The queen had never been harsh with me, never, save the time Mary and I had gotten all dirty and wet that time long ago, when Anne just had the king’s attentions.
That was the first time I was ever jealous of anyone in my life.
“That Meg girl is very nice,” Mary declared as we were reading in my room the next morning.
“I guess so,” I mumbled.
“What’s wrong, Elizabeth?” she asked. “You look right worried.”
“Oh…no, of course not!” I exclaimed, hoping Mary didn’t see through the lie.
“Ok then,” Mary sighed and laid down on the chaise lounge that had just been delivered to my room. A girl needed some furniture.
“She’ll be your mother’s lady-in-waiting soon,” I announced.
Mary shot up. “Oh, how wonderful that will be!” I wasn’t looking at her, but I could tell she was looking at me. “Ah, I get it now. Elizabeth, she is your friend. You were the one that got her where she is, aren’t you? Don’t worry so much.”
But I always worried, maybe a little too much.
“Anne, I need to talk to you,” I said as the doors to Anne’s new apartments opened.
Before me stood a grand room, much grander than the queen’s parlor, decorated in French furnishings. Paintings hung on the walls, hundreds of them, some of them I recognized as those in Anne’s family, and there was also one large one of the king.
“Elizabeth, is that you?” Anne called from another room.
“Yes, Anne, it’s me,” I answered.
In came Anne, dressed in a grand black silk dress covered in gold lace and buttons. Her hair was done up in elaborate curls and set back with a grand French headdress. She ran to me and embraced me.
“Oh, Elizabeth, I was so sad to leave you, but now I know I’m closer to the throne than ever before,” she declared. “I have everything I want, every single thing!”
“I…am happy for you, Anne,” I said.
She led me over to a pair of long chairs and sat down in one.
“I haven’t seen you in forever! You must tell me everything I’ve been missing with the queen and all.”
Before I said anything, I asked, “You’re not the queen’s maid anymore, are you?”
She started laughing. “You won’t be either for too long.”
“What?!” I gasped.
“Well, Elizabeth, isn’t it obvious that if I’m to marry the king that I will need maids of my own?” she inquired.
“I…I guess so…”
“Good, then you will be my first one,” she smiled. “You can start working for me now.”
Working. Like I would work for my best friend!
“Anne…I mustn’t, I must stay with the queen until she is no longer queen,” I put out, trying to hurt Anne as less as possible. For if she got angry, I wouldn’t be able to talk to her at all.
“Well, I suppose that’s okay,” Anne sighed. “But when it is official and the agreement has come from the Pope, you will be the first I ask.”
I nodded, not intending to ever join as Anne’s maid. If she would still accept my friendship after I told her I was to stay with the true queen to the death, I was not sure.
“I…I need to ask you something,” I declared.
“What?”
“Well…I have a friend…”
“Is she with child?!” Anne exclaimed with amusement in her eyes.
“Uh…no…”
“Oh, never mind then,” Anne laughed. “Sorry, you wouldn’t know how lonely it is being here all alone. I’ve got to make myself jokes if I want to stay sane without many friends.”
“Anne, what are you saying, you’ve got friends,” I reminded her, knowing she always had that constant entourage of people following her, including people like her brother, and the wealthy courtier Mark Smeaton, and many others, most of them men.
“Well, no one like you,” Anne smiled. “Anyway, what was your problem?”
“Okay, my friend, my new friend Meg, it seems that she herself is taking away things from me. I am feeling jealous of her even…” I confessed.
“Who is she?”
“My friend, Meg, weren’t you listening?”
“No…her nobility, the daughter of a duke or what?”
“She was the kitchen maid. I met her only a week or two ago and invited her to court today. Seems everyone likes her over me.”
“Well I surely like you more than her! It will pass, Elizabeth, don’t you worry. She is older, is she not?”
“Thirteen.”
“Well, there you go. There are many, many more courtiers that will like a thirteen year old than a ten year old, I’m sorry to say. Your time will come,” Anne explained.
“But it’s not just with the men. And besides, it’s only my brother and Tom…”
Anne smiled slightly. “Tom Devon, a handsome young boy. He’s to inherit the dukedom after his father. I think you’ve had your first little crush my dear.”
“What?! Anne you are insane!” I cried, thinking how it was impossible for me to ever like Tom.
“It’s only natural. Friends for almost four years…ah, young love,” she smiled.
“Anne, it’s not like that.”
“Well fine, but you also mentioned your brother. Right now your brother is all you’ve got family wise. Maybe little sister just doesn’t want to give up big brother just yet.”
“Maybe…but the queen is going to make her a lady-in-waiting too!” I cried.
Anne’s face turned into a frown. “Tell you the complete truth, Elizabeth, none of us were too thrilled that you became a maid, but now we all love you. If she is your friend in the first place what have you got to lose?”
“The queen’s favoritism,” the words just spilled out of my mouth and I didn’t even know what I was saying. I didn’t think I was the queen’s favorite, though so many had called me that.
“Oh come now, Elizabeth. Of course you are her favorite now, but being favorite isn’t anything too special. I was favorite before you, and before all this, and my sister was favorite before that. Being the queen’s favorite is just a place to do the queen wrong if you ask me. Besides, you are Mary’s dearest friend and the queen is very glad of that. It won’t matter too much longer anyway, for you will be under me, and you of course will be my favorite,” Anne smiled.
I smiled, knowing that at least Anne would always like me best.
“It’s okay Elizabeth, you are young. I was always jealous of those older and above me when I was young. Really, I have not changed,” she laughed. “But now I am the highest, and people are jealous of me.”
“Thank you Anne.”
“Anything for you, Elizabeth,” she smiled.
“So how are things going with the king, if I am not being too bold as to ask?”
“Quite well, actually. He treats me as he should treat his betrothed, with respect, and has not asked me once for a long while now.”
“But how are things with the agreement from the Pope?” I asked, wanting to know just that.
Anne shrugged. “Who really knows? The king does not inform me of anything, for I don’t think there is anything to inform. There is none, not yet.”
I looked around at Anne’s room. It was larger than the queen’s parlor. The king surely loved Anne with all his heart. If things went well she would be the future of the country. That was, if she birthed a boy.
“I need some maids,” Anne muttered. I wasn’t sure if I was intended to hear that or not.
Just then the door opened and in came Anne’s brother George, looking quite intent on talking to Anne privately. Anne waved me off.
I stood and began to walk away, knowing not to get into the private affairs of the Boleyn’s.
“Where are you going?” Anne cried to me, her voice almost angry.
Why was she angry at me? “Yes?” I turned around.
“Curtsy, you ignorant girl!” Anne yelled.
It didn’t know what had caused this sudden change in Anne’s behavior, but I did not like it. I curtsied all the same, and when I came up saw the look in Anne’s eyes, that look of power. At that moment she had gone from my friend, one on the same level as I, to the highest power.
In my book, that was when Anne Boleyn became queen.
Two days after, Meg ran into my room, where Mary and I were sewing by the fire.
“Anne has asked me to be her maid!” she cried. “Anne Boleyn!”
I knew then that things between Anne and I would never be the same. She’d told me herself that she would pick me first. And I didn’t care that she didn’t pick me first. I cared that she had picked Meg instead of any other girl in the whole court. That’s what got me angry.
Mary looked indifferent. “She’s having maids now, is she?”
Meg nodded and smiled. “I don’t even know her, I’ve only heard about her. Yet, this morning she called me to her room. I have no clue as to how she heard of me, but she said she needed a girl like me as her lady-in-waiting.”
“That’s wonderful,” I said in a whisper, wondering how Anne could do such a thing.
I guess that I decided then, who my loyalties would lie with. They would lie with the true queen, Queen Catherine, until the end. Anne was just my friend, and I did not bow down to friends.
“I have you to thank Elizabeth! If you would have not taken me to court that day I would not have found myself, would not have been able to talk to nobility, or at least to boys for goodness’s sake! But now I have Anne, and I have the two of you, and I have Tom,” she ran over to me and embraced me. “It’s all I ever wanted.”
I hoped in my heart that she had not said Tom, that she hadn’t said his name with that passion like she did. But I knew she did. I tried not to attack her as she hugged me, in front of the princess.
I would do it when Mary was gone, I thought to myself with a smile.
“Elizabeth, I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that you are my friend,” Meg sighed, lying beside me.
She had moved into my room that day.
“Meg, may I talk to you about something?” I asked.
“Of course,” she smiled.
“Did…did Anne mention me at all when you went to her room?”
“Well…yes, she did. She said something about asking you first, but that she knew you’d want to stay with the queen for awhile. She looked greatly disappointed that you would not be her maid. Are you friends with her?” she asked.
Her words made me feel much better. I knew Anne got moody at times, that was the Boleyn nature. I could not blame her; she wanted me to be her maid.
“Yes, she was my first friend when I came here to court,” I explained.
“You know, I never would have guessed if I didn’t know your story that you weren’t born a noble girl,” Meg sighed.
“Takes years of practice to seem so I guess. It’s been almost four years since I first came. Yet, you seem to have mastered many things already. You can dance, and certainly have better manners than I first had.”
“We always danced back home, my friends and brothers and I. Country music though, down in Kent. I haven’t seen them in such a long while, since my father died and my mother decided to send me here,” she sighed.
All was quiet for a bit except the crackling of the fire.
“I bet its easier being older when you come to court though. I was six years younger than you are,” I explained.
“That is a big difference,” she agreed.
“So what was it like, growing up in Kent?” I asked.
“’Twas warmer there, and it rained nearly everyday. The harvests were always plentiful, and no one ever went hungry. We had acres and acres of land. We grew wheat and corn and we even had some apple trees. My mother had a garden filled with herbs and vegetables and the most beautiful flowers. We were actually the vassals of the Boleyn family, living close to Hever Castle and everything. My mother,” she smiled, “had been friends with Mary Boleyn. Mary always had time when she was young to go out and see her people, and she truly cared about them. They were friends, but then things changed. She went to court and got overwhelmed with power I guess, like that crazy sister of hers.”
“Best not be talking that way when you start being her maid,” I reminded.
Meg smiled slightly. “I never said that I said yes to her, did I?”
My mouth flew open and I threw my arms around her before I could think. She wasn’t going to be Anne’s maid!
“Nope, the real and true and only queen asked me first, and I said yes. Anne may be nice, but she is already abusing the power she thinks she has, and it will backfire on her unless we can get her to understand,” Meg explained.
“Oh, Meg, it will be wonderful with you as the queen’s maid,” and I meant it.
“I look up to Queen Catherine more than anyone in this court. I will stay with her forever, even if the witch does become queen,” Meg added.
“Looks like we’re in this together,” I smiled.
Christmastime went by fast, especially when Meg became maid to the queen.
Mary, Meg, and I spent all of our time together, except when it came to dancing. Mary was with my brother, and Meg was with Tom. I sat with the queen, who was in high spirits.
It had been years since the king was first infatuated with Anne. Everyone knew it. We all hoped that he would be done with Anne soon, for Anne still would not give in to him, and it was all he wanted.
I saw the fire in the king’s eyes now more than ever, though, and I knew he would not be done too soon. Anne was at the height of her life now, overwhelmed with power and waiting for the day she would finally become queen.
Seeing Tom and Meg together did make me a bit sad, for I never got to see him anymore, but he was sixteen now, a full courtier.
Soon the holidays were over. The dances were over, the fun was over, and Mary was saying goodbye once more.
It was hard on Meg, saying goodbye to Mary this time, but Mary reassured her that she would be back in the summer for the progress.
“Ahh…” Meg plopped down on a chair after it was all over. “This court thing is so much fun.”
I nodded, falling against my bed, in need of a nap. I’d probably be needed to remove the Yuletide things from the queen’s rooms, but I was much too tired to even move.
“May I ask you a question?” Meg inquired.
“Go ahead.”
“How well do you know Tom? What do you know about him and everything, I mean?” she asked.
I didn’t feel comfortable on that subject, but I would for Meg. “Well…he was a stable boy. I was a small girl of seven, just recently arrived in court. I never rode horses before, and he helped me while the rest of the maids and the queen went riding. He taught me how to ride horses, and then we became friends. My brother was a page, and he also became friends with him.
“We rode together a lot and then maybe two summers ago-yes, I think that’s what it was-when I came back from the progress he told me his father was now a duke and that his whole family was to move to court. Back then I only had Mary and Anne as friends, and then his family came to court. He has-um…had-three sisters…”
Meg looked confused. “What do you mean ‘had’?”
“Well…his sister, Hannah, instantly became my best friend. She was the same age as I was, the only one. We spent every moment together-Mary, Hannah, William, Tom, and I. It was…so much fun. Hannah was truly the greatest friend I had. And then the sweating sickness came,” I felt tears fall down my cheeks.
“The queen wanted us to go to Ludlow to be safe-the five of us. Hannah-she decided to stay with her family. Little did we know that when we had fun with Mary, Hannah was dying. And since there was no communication from London, we could not write. A letter came from Hannah herself from right before she died, telling us what had happened,” I wailed, embracing Meg.
“Seems only those that lost some of their own truly understand the pain of another,” Meg declared, wiping tears from her own eyes.
“Yes, it does seem so.”
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comments are nice. :)