The Secret: A Novel of Anne Boleyn (Tudor Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  She didn’t know how long she had been sitting there, breathing in the heady scent of the roses while her thoughts chased each other round her head like caged birds, but suddenly she heard a commotion from the house, and the sound of many horses being ridden into the stable yard. Anne rose as several figures left the shade of the house and made their way towards her. In the lead was the tall, imposing figure of the King himself, jewels glittering so brightly in the sun that he looked to be on fire.

  ‘How now, Lady Anne?’ boomed Henry when he reached her. Anne swept into the deepest curtsey she could muster. With her emerald green gown pooled round her and her head bowed, Henry grasped her arms firmly and raised her up. ‘You didn’t like the gift, sweeting?’ he asked softly.

  ‘Your Majesty, it was too much,’ she stammered. ‘I cannot accept such generosity without compromising my reputation, and my father and uncle are trying to find a suitable match for me. Accepting your gift might jeopardise that.’

  ‘What if I told you that I didn’t want you to have a suitable match, Anne? If I told you that I wanted you for myself?’ Henry stopped walking and turned to her. His courtiers were waiting at a distance, out of earshot but not out of sight.

  Anne stood to face him, her insides trembling but knowing she had to make him understand that she wasn’t going to be taken on his whim like her sister.

  ‘Your Majesty, I am honoured by your regard, but I must make myself clear. I am an unmarried maid who needs to make a good match to ensure my family’s continued success. You are the King, and although you command the country, you do not command me. I cannot be your wife, and I will not be your mistress.’ Anne swept another deep curtsey, turned and walked further into the rose garden, round a bend in the path that would hide her from prying eyes and give her a chance to recover herself whilst she was trembling and trying to hold back her tears. Henry stalked back to his courtiers and called for his horse, anger and irritation in every movement.

  A few minutes later Anne heard soft footsteps on the gravel behind her. Turning slightly, she felt strong arms going round her waist and suddenly she was pulled into a powerful embrace. She smelled sandalwood and leather. Her sobs shook her slight frame as she burrowed her face into the velvet doublet.

  ‘You refused him then?’ he whispered

  ‘I don’t want to be with Henry,’ she sighed sadly, reaching up to cup his face between her hands and stroking her thumb down his jaw. ‘I have only ever wanted to be with you!’

  George bent his head and kissed her gently on the lips. The feel of his mouth on hers was strange – familiar but yet not. He had kissed her lips before of course, the quick peck of greeting or farewell, but nothing that had felt like this. Anne felt the pressure of his lips increase and she willingly returned it, feeling the slight flick of his tongue along the seam of her mouth. His arms tightened about her waist and she clung to his shoulders as her legs began to tremble at the rising tide of feeling she had building inside. Just as her lips began to part under the mounting pressure from George, she felt his back straighten and his grip on her loosen as he broke the kiss. She looked up in bewilderment and then heard what George had already been aware of – footsteps crunching on the gravel at the other side of the pathway, and a pageboy’s voice calling their names.

  Trembling, breathless, mind whirling in bewilderment and unexpected pleasure, Anne took a breath and answered the call of the page, stepping away from her brother and round the pathway hidden by the arbour of roses. The page bowed carefully towards her

  ‘My Lady. My Lord of Norfolk wishes you to attend him in the Hall’

  ‘Tell my Uncle that I will be there shortly, William.’ Anne smiled at the boy, who blinked owlishly at her before bowing again and hurrying towards the house. Anne didn’t dare turn round and speak to George before she went in to see her Uncle. She knew he was behind her; she could hear his footsteps and somehow she could feel a displacement in the air around her that she often felt when he was near. Anne smoothed her skirt and straightened her shoulders, calmly walking towards the steps up from the garden, closely followed by George, ready as always to protect her from insult or hurt.

  Chapter 8 - 1527

  nne tossed the parchment carelessly on top of all the others on her side table in her chamber.

  ‘Another message from Henry?’ George’s amused voice came from the direction of the bed, where he sprawled horizontally, feet firmly planted on the floor, his eyes closed and an arm across his brow.

  ‘A poem. One he wishes to set to music in my honour. “Alas my love, you do me wrong to cast me off discourteously”. Discourteously!’ Anne’s voice rose in indignation. ‘I wasn’t discourteous, George. I merely told him I wouldn’t be his mistress.’

  ‘Words he will never have heard in his life, sweet sister.’ He grunted softly as he sat up and looked at Anne, whose mouth was set in a mutinous line.

  Anne’s thoughts returned to the aftermath of the King’s visit to Hever.

  Fortunately for them, George’s kiss has been unobserved by any member of the court, who were all hurrying after Henry and trying to soothe his irritation at being so summarily dismissed. She and George had been summoned indoors and the page had asked them to meet their father and uncle in the great hall. Anne’s heart had jumped into her throat at that unpleasant prospect.

  ‘What did the King want?’ boomed Norfolk, as soon as Anne appeared nervously around the huge door.

  ‘My virtue, Uncle,’ she replied bravely ‘and I told him it belonged to my future husband.’ Anne didn’t think her knees would hold her much longer, and made her way to sink onto a stool near the fire. George stood behind her, with his hand on her shoulder. She covered it gratefully with her own.

  ‘To refuse the King, Anne,’ her father’s reedy voice began, ‘it is just not done! Think of the honours this family have received owing to your sister, err, being his companion.’ Anne’s father had just been created Lord Rochford by a grateful King. Anne snorted contemptuously.

  ‘Companion? Use the proper word, Father. Mistress? Doxy? Whore! That is what they call Mary. They shall not say that of me!’ Anne was becoming agitated and she felt George trying his best to soothe her with his touch. She knew he would want her to know she had his unwavering support, no matter what their uncle might say.

  Norfolk fixed her with his steely glare. ‘Hell’s teeth, girly. You will do your best for this family,’ his voice growing even louder, ‘or we will marry you off to someone so insignificant, you will never see any of us again! There are plenty of lordlings in Scotland looking for a bride. And we have plenty more Howard girls to put before His Majesty. At least eight of Edmund’s children are girls, and some are quite pretty.’

  Anne tried to remember Uncle Edmund, her mother’s impoverished youngest brother and his brood of fourteen children. The only one she could remember seeing was his youngest, a delicately pretty four year old, named Catherine for the Queen, but who called herself Kitty. She tried to bring her mind back to her uncle, who was growing more and more agitated, but all she could think of was George’s hand on her shoulder and the feel of his mouth on hers.

  ‘….back to court as soon as you’ve packed.’ continued Norfolk. ‘Keep yourself in front of the King whenever possible, but don’t hold yourself too cheaply. I’m sure there will be further honours for the family in the future. And when the King has finished his – pleasure,’ Norfolk’s gaze softened slightly, ‘I’m sure we will find a suitably compliant husband. We managed that for Mary, after all.’

  Anne’s thoughts came back to the present, and she looked at her brother, clothed in his usual black and silver, this time slashed with crimson, sitting on the bed and looking at her quizzically. They had still not spoken about what happened between them in the rose garden, and she
had begun to wonder if she had imagined it, in her agitation.

  ‘I am doing as I am bidden by Uncle Norfolk.’ Anne told him, ‘Keeping myself in the King’s vision as much as I can, but I am also trying to keep him at arm’s length. It would be easier if the Queen’s court would retire to Greenwich, so I could accompany her while the King remained here at Richmond.’

  ‘Then I wouldn’t see you either,’ said George quietly, rising and coming towards her as she sat at her table. ‘And that would never do’. He gently stroked her cheek with his knuckles, then let his hand fall to his side as the door opened and Madge Shelton catapulted herself breathlessly into the room.

  ‘Anne, Anne,’ she said excitedly, ‘the King is on his way to see you. Quickly, straighten your hood and smooth your dress.’ Anne stood and let Madge fuss round her, adjusting the folds of her sleeves and making sure her hair was tidy beneath her hood. George made his way to the door, so he could unobtrusively join the King’s entourage when it arrived.

  ‘My dear Lady Anne!’ said Henry loudly from the doorway, large and sparkling with jewels as usual. Anne and Madge both curtseyed and bowed their heads. ‘Yes, yes,’ Henry waved his hand at them for them to rise. George had slipped round the door as Henry entered, and was busy joking with Harry Norris in the outer room.

  ‘Walk with me, my Lady,’ commanded Henry, ‘It will give Mistress Shelton and her helpers a chance to gather your things together.’

  ‘My things, Your Majesty? But I have only just returned from Hever into the Queen’s service.’ Anne was bewildered as to why she was being sent away so soon. The Queen’s confinement had resulted in yet another still-born baby, so Katharine was spending most of her time at prayer, praying for the soul of her baby and praying that next time, her pregnancy would result in an heir for the realm.

  ‘You are to move into different apartments, Lady Anne. Larger and more private, with room for your own attendants suitable for your station. I would not have you in these cramped quarters any longer.’ Henry looked almost abashed, as if shyly offering another gift he thought might be unwelcome.

  Anne swept another curtsey. ‘Why thank you, Your Majesty. I would like larger apartments. Might I choose my own attendants? At your pleasure, of course.’

  Henry looked at her, seemingly astonished that she had not argued with his plans. ‘Yes, of course, sweeting. You may take three of your choosing from the service of the Queen. And I will come and see you for a private supper tomorrow evening.’ He smiled down at her, kissed her hand and then left, taking the gentlemen of the court with him.

  Anne remained in her curtsey, her mind whirling at the new developments in her life. She knew her position at court relied not only on Henry’s pleasure but also her uncle’s. ‘Not mine, though,’ she whispered to herself, ‘my pleasure lies elsewhere!’

  She rose and walked back to the room she shared with Madge, who was whirling round, excitedly directing the maids to pack Anne’s things carefully.

  ‘Make sure they pack your things too, Madge,’ said Anne ‘I’ll need you in my new apartments even more than here. I’ll need every friend I have, if I am to survive this.’

  ***

  Anne had made her excuses to Madge regarding the packing, and crept quietly down the passage leading to the gentlemen’s quarters. She wanted to tell George what the King had said, and although she, an unmarried girl without a chaperone, knew she wasn’t supposed to be in this part of the palace, she couldn’t wait.

  She turned the corner swiftly and saw a flash of red fabric at the end of the next corridor – cardinal red. Anne slid quietly behind one of the hangings, gathering her skirts to her so she didn’t betray her hiding place, as Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell came out of the King’s presence chamber whispering together. The smell of the dusty hangings instantly transported her back to her childhood, hiding in the tapestries while George and Mary escaped their tutors to look for her. She quieted her breathing and listened hard.

  ‘I must leave for Rome immediately, Thomas,’ muttered Wolsey in his sibilant hiss of a voice, ‘If the King has decided he wants an annulment, His Holiness must be given every opportunity to consider the reasons.’

  ‘Which are?’ Cromwell’s direct question seemed to surprise the Cardinal, who began to stutter.

  ‘Well, the King has read the scripture, and it tells him that a man should not marry his brother’s widow, Thomas. The marriage is against God’s will and will not find favour in God’s eyes.’ Anne strained to hear Wolsey’s words as he lowered is voice even further. ‘The King feels that this is why he has no male heir, Thomas, and if he could marry again, he might be more successful. While I’m away, I want you to see if there are any foreign princesses young enough to start bearing him sons.’

  Thomas Cromwell snorted with laughter. ‘You know quite well, your Eminence, that the King doesn’t want a foreign princess. He wants Thomas Boleyn’s youngest, but she keeps saying ‘No’, and removing Harry Percy hasn’t made her any more willing.’

  Anne tried not to gasp. Although Cromwell had told her that was why Harry had been sent to the North, she hadn’t imagined that the King had thought of putting his wife aside and taking another. And that he planned that other to be her! Wolsey was speaking again, and Anne had to listen hard to hear his voice.

  ‘The people of England won’t let him marry a goggle-eyed whore, Thomas. They will expect royalty. If the King is reading Leviticus to cast off the Queen, then it is up to us to make sure he has a royal alternative. His Holiness won’t countenance an annulment for anything less than royalty.’ Wolsey swept off down the corridor, leaving Thomas Cromwell in his wake.

  ‘A Medici Pope won’t countenance an annulment for anything less than 3,000 ducats,’ he whispered, ‘and the King will marry where he chooses, and it is up to me to make sure he gets what he wants. I will make sure that Lady Anne is wooed into this marriage, if that is what Henry wants.’

  Cromwell followed his master down the corridor, and Anne was able to slide out of her hiding place, trying to control her breathing and her heart. All she could think of was getting to George’s room and talking over what she had heard. The King obviously had a secret too!

  ***

  Madge helped Anne dress in her best gown of burgundy damask, with a matching hood and sleeves. The hood and neckline were trimmed with seed pearls and jet, to match the black and white under gown and sleeve linings. Anne wanted to look her best for the supper that Henry had suggested. Looking her best might settle the trepidation she felt knotting her stomach at the thought of being alone with the King.

  ‘Thank you, Madge.’ Anne dodged away from Madge’s fussing hands, smoothing and pleating.

  ‘You look lovely, Anne. I’m sure the King will be pleased.’ Madge regarded Anne through smiling eyes, excited for her cousin.

  ‘And we must please the King,’ Anne whispered to no-one in particular.

  ‘Oh, Anne.’ Madge sighed, shaking her head at her cousin’s seeming reluctance. ‘You know Uncle Norfolk wants all us Howard girls to please the King. Your sister pleased him, and look how high your father has risen. And I myself, I…..,’ her voice trailed away at the scandalised look Anne gave her.

  ‘You too, Madge?’ Anne whispered. ‘Why would you? Surely you want a good marriage? An honourable husband?’

  ‘The King will find me an honourable husband!’ Madge’s tone was sharp, ‘And I hope it will be Harry Norris.’

  Anne put her hand on Madge’s arm soothingly. She knew what influence Norfolk had over the family, and if Madge had been ordered to ‘please’ the King, then that is what she’d had to do. Anne’s chin rose and she squared her shoulders. Anne would please the King on her own terms, not Norfolk’s. A commotion in the corridor prevented an
y more conversation between the cousins, as the door was thrust open and Henry burst in. Anne felt a vague irritation that Henry didn’t even think to knock before bursting into her chamber.

  ‘How now, sweeting,’ boomed Henry, currently surrounded by all his gentlemen. Anne sank to the floor in a curtsey, keeping her eyes lowered.

  ‘Good evening, Your Majesty,’ she said softly. ‘Supper will be served shortly,’ she looked around wide-eyed at all the people accompanying the King, ‘but I hadn’t thought to order enough food for everyone, Sire?’ Her lips tilted up in her secret smile. Henry looked at her in astonishment, then realised his whole entourage had entered the apartments with him.

  ‘Out, out, all of you.’ He turned to his attendants, flapping his hands. Anne thought he looked like someone who was trying to scare crows away from a crop. His gentlemen all bowed, and turned to leave. George shot Anne a glance, which she met with equanimity. After the servants had laid out platters of meat and bread, and they were alone with jugs of wine and ale, Henry took Anne’s hand and led her to sit at the table. Henry ate heartily from the food available, while Anne tried to swallow some plain bread to calm her stomach.

  ‘Well, Lady Anne. How do you like your new accommodations, eh?’ He sounded almost nervous, thought Anne as she watched him take a gulp of wine.

  ‘They are lovely, Sire. I had not thought to have such wonderful apartments.’ She again looked down, and Henry put his fingers under her chin and raised her eyes to meet his own, small, piercing and very, very blue.

  ‘We would have you where we could visit you privately, Anne,’ he said softly.

  ‘But Sire, my opinions haven’t changed since Hever,’ Anne replied bravely, inwardly quaking. They were quite alone, the servants gone, and if Henry wanted to use force, she would have no escape. ‘I cannot be your wife.’ Anne swallowed hard, and waited for Henry’s response.