Chapter 34
Anne
The next few days were a mad rush. As soon as word came that Kat and Thomas had been taken to the Tower, the three queens packed up their suite at Hampton Court and decamped for Richmond Palace, another of Anna von Kleve’s residences twelve miles down the Thames from the Tower.
The brick-and-stone building was massive, with a dozen octagonal towers anchoring a space nearly large enough for all of the English court.
Even in winter, the grounds were impressive, with lawns frosted gray, private gardens, and a small orchard Anne remembered chasing Elizabeth in shortly after her daughter had learned to walk.
She was grateful the trees were not in bloom, for her heart couldn’t have borne another ache, not when she was crushed by the guilt of letting Henry get to Kat first.
Guilt that was tempered with annoyance, of course.
That Kat had been so reckless when they had been working so hard to save her…
suffice to say Anne had shattered several precious trinkets in her room at the palace when her frustration got the best of her.
She thanked her own dark stars that she was no longer a teenager, lost to a sea of hormones and impulses that could override even the most levelheaded young person. [*]
At Richmond Palace, Anna, as usual, kept a minimal staff.
She had left most of her retinue behind at Hampton Court to enjoy the last vestiges of the holiday festivities, claiming she needed time to pray and reflect to start off the New Year.
Although they were out from under the watchful eyes of England’s nobility, Anne refused to let her glamour drop unless she was fully alone.
The spell had become a weight around her neck and the bane of her knife-marked hands, but if it meant she could go where she wished without attracting notice, she could make her peace with the price.
Lina had demanded to be freed from the spell, and Anne had acquiesced, secretly relieved to see her friend’s true face staring back at her after weeks of looking at a lie.
The queens and Brigid gathered the first morning in the Richmond Palace chapel, not to speak to a god who didn’t hear them, but to think of ways to break Kat out of prison.
They sat side by side in the first pew, the chapel lit only by winter sunshine and a few half-melted candles.
Anne hid her shivers, tucking her arms deep inside her cloak as they talked.
“Can’t you just replicate what you did when you escaped?” Brigid asked Anne, her own teeth chattering. “Your plan worked so well.”
Anne was already shaking her head. “Even if Kat has inherited any magick, she does not know how to wield it. We’ll need to think of something else.”
“And we can’t simply smuggle her out?” Anna wanted to know.
“Not if she ever wants to be free of the king’s huntsmen,” Lina replied. “Disappearing will only make her a fugitive, and that makes our job of keeping her safe that much harder.”
Already, a proclamation had been issued that the queen had lost her titles, honors, and lands.
Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham had been accused of treason, and it was only a matter of time before Kat would face the same crimes.
It could be weeks or it could be days before the three of them were sentenced and killed, but either way, Anne knew there wasn’t a second to waste.
No one else was coming forward to help Kat—the Duke of Norfolk had left court when they had, and he had been heard loudly placing the blame on his niece’s shoulders.
One day, when Anne had more time, she would make him pay for that too.
Anne sighed sharply and pinched the bridge of her nose.
There had to be a way to get Kat out of the Tower.
What had Anne learned from her own escape?
A body double was wonderful, but impossible here.
Or…maybe not entirely impossible. Lina had done something similar with the nun back at Kimbolton, though that woman had given her life freely.
Could they find someone willing to die for the queen?
Perhaps they could.
“Thomas,” she said aloud. When the other women turned to her, puzzled, Anne stood and began walking the aisle, her steps echoing in the empty chapel. “He loves Kat. That’s what she told us. That he would do anything for her. What if we glamour him to look like Kat?”
Lina frowned. “Can you do that sort of magick?”
“Of course. It’s no more difficult than what I’ve done for the two of us.” That wasn’t entirely true—if indeed Thomas took the blade meant for Kat’s neck, Anne wasn’t sure how her glamour would extend to a corpse. But that was a problem for her future self to solve.
“So in the end, Thomas would go to the gallows in her place?” Anna asked.
Anne nodded, feeling a stab of guilt. She had promised Kat she would do whatever she could to protect her cousin’s lover, but he was beyond help now. The best she could do was to save Kat—she just wished it didn’t make her stomach turn and her conscience sting. Curse her wretched, soft heart.
“No.” Lina shook her head. “It’s too difficult. And besides, even if we were to succeed, how would we swap Thomas and Kat?”
Anna cleared her throat. “I may have a solution there. I know one of the guards.”
Anne stopped short, and all eyes swiveled to rest on Anna.
“There was someone who worked for me during my time as queen,” Anna began.
“Morgan was a maid in the kitchens, as tall and strong as a man. Her parents knew they could never marry off a daughter who could carry a bag of flour the way most women would hold a baby, so they sent her to court to work. She was teased mercilessly for her masculine ways, though of course I didn’t ever see any of that.
It wasn’t until I found her standing on the edge of my balcony—one of the highest parts of the palace—that I knew she existed at all.
It was only a few weeks after I had married Henry, and something in my heart reached out, recognizing another soul in pain. ”
Not for the first time, Anne marveled at how foolish Henry had been to underestimate and dismiss Anna von Kleve. A queen like Anna could very well have changed the world.
“I stopped her from jumping, and we spoke,” Anna went on.
“It was clear Morgan was miserable in her job, in her body—everything. So, once all my ladies went to bed, I helped Morgan cut her hair. She snuck down to the washerwomen’s rooms and stole a clean set of palace livery.
And I wrote a letter recommending Mr. Morgan Chilton as a man-at-arms to Henry’s military adviser and gave Morgan a purse to start the journey.
I received a letter this summer and learned that Morgan had taken a post at the Tower of London, and while the work was sometimes gruesome, he was being trained as a soldier with hopes to serve in the next campaign. ”
The chapel remained silent for several long moments.
“You never told me that,” Brigid finally said, sounding proud. “That is no small gift.”
Anna shrugged off the compliment. “I was kind. It was the least I could do.”
Anne’s mind was already racing ahead, wondering if Morgan Chilton could be the missing piece of her plan.
If they had someone on the inside, someone loyal, then her idea was possible.
The picture began to come into focus. A daring prison break for Thomas, or at least the appearance of one.
Freedom for Kat. All she needed was a bit of blood and magick and three very specific outfits.
As the morning passed and the details were finalized, Anne’s eagerness to put the plan into motion was tempered by the realization that this would forever ruin her relationship with her cousin.
Kat would hate her for this, even though Thomas was destined to die no matter what they did.
But Kat would live, and that was what mattered.
She just hoped Thomas would feel the same way.
Three weeks later, Morgan let Anne inside the Tower of London. Anne had refused to let the others go with her, for her plan was just as likely to fail as it was to succeed. If anyone would be putting their life on the line for Kat, it would be her.
She was dressed in two sets of guard’s uniforms, courtesy of her friend Mistress Leighton.
Between the layers she had bunched up skirts and petticoats, giving herself a potbellied look.
Her hair was braided tightly and tucked into a leather cap.
She had used a glamour to rearrange her appearance once more, this time with the rough complexion of a man who had spent his years outdoors.
She even added a little mustache for extra flair.
Anna had shrieked in surprise at the sight, and even Lina had done a double take.
“Thank you for helping us,” Anne said to Morgan as he led her to Thomas Culpeper’s cell. “I know we are putting your job and your life in jeopardy.”
Morgan’s smile was small but genuine. “I owe my lady a great debt,” he said, his voice a soft tenor. “While I will never be able to repay it, I am always glad to help her.”
“I’ll be a few minutes,” Anne said when they stopped outside Thomas’s cell. “Quarter of an hour at most.”
Morgan unlocked the door and opened it just wide enough for Anne to step inside. The room was dim, lit only by a few candles, and had a musty, forgotten feeling to it. It was smaller than the cell Anne had stayed in, with a window that offered a chilling view of the Tower Green below.
Across the room, tucked into a too-small chair, a shadowy figure unfolded long limbs.
When Thomas stood and stepped into the candlelight, Anne was glad she had been generous with the length of the skirts she had commissioned from Mistress Leighton.
Kat was on the tall side, but Thomas had her by several inches, a fact Anne hoped the executioner would not notice.
“Have you come to take me away?” he asked, his voice cracking but his posture ramrod straight. “Is it time?”