Chapter 7 #3
The work on the manor there requires your supervision whilst I am abroad…
Marris sighed sharply, dropping the letter in her lap.
It was not Will’s fault that she was sensitive on the subject of Winterhill Hall.
He was right that the building work there required oversight and, in his absence, she would be the appropriate person to provide it.
The fact that their house, their new home, was being built from the ruins of her previous life at the priory should not matter.
She had accepted that that life was over when she married.
So why did it rankle so much? She knew she should not let resentment poison her marriage.
With a muttered exclamation, Marris stood, thrusting the letter into a discarded book.
Of more immediate concern was Will’s reference to Cromwell’s disgrace and the implications for Anna’s future.
It was Cromwell who had arranged the Cleves match; his downfall felt as though it could presage only one thing – the King’s divorce.
It would be impossible to abandon Anna now, even if she wanted to leave court.
They were all on edge that evening, she thought.
There was no suggestion of celebrating the season with Midsummer revels, as was traditional.
The Queen was unable to pretend any longer that she was unaware of her danger.
She had moodily refused all entertainment or conversation whilst her ladies tiptoed around her barely daring to raise their voices above a whisper.
When one of them suggested lighting the candles to lift their mood as well as shed some light, Anna had snapped that she was accustomed to being kept in the dark.
It was almost a relief when a knock came at the door; they had been waiting for the blow to fall and now, surely, it had come.
‘Madam.’ Anna’s chamberlain, Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland, slid into the room and was bowing before the Queen. ‘I bring word from the King.’
Anna’s ladies drew around her in a closer circle, rather like an army shield wall, Marris thought. They could sense that this was not a happy moment.
‘I trust His Majesty is well,’ Anna said. ‘It is a number of days since I last saw him.’ She spoke calmly but Marris could see that her hands were shaking before she buried them in the folds of her skirt.
‘Indeed, His Majesty is in good health, but he is concerned for you, madam,’ Rutland said. He bowed again. ‘There is plague in the city of London and His Majesty is anxious to keep you from all danger. He therefore decrees that you should remove with your household to the Palace of Richmond.’
There was a thick silence. No one moved. Anna’s face was pale, frozen into a mask of immobility.
The earl appeared not to know what to do. He looked impatiently at his wife, who in turn looked rather helplessly at Marris.
‘Does Her Majesty understand?’ the earl demanded. ‘Translate for me!’
‘I understand very well.’ Anna stood up, a suddenly imposing figure. ‘The King wishes to remove me as Queen.’
There was a gasp from some of the ladies. Lady Rutland’s brows shot up; the Countess of Arundell gave Marris a covert smile to indicate that she too had recognised Anna’s apparent mistranslation of the King’s wishes as deliberate.
‘No, madam, that was not what I said,’ Rutland blustered. ‘His Majesty merely wishes for you to remove from Hampton Court. It is for the good of your health, to avoid the plague.’ He swung around on Marris again. ‘Explain to her. Tell her it is for her own good!’
‘I understand exactly what you are telling me,’ Anna said haughtily.
‘The King is all goodness to have such concern for me. Pray tell him I appreciate his kindness. Alas, I am sure he will not be prevailed upon to join me away from the noxious airs of this place. He is too dedicated to his… ah… what is the word I am looking for…’
‘Duty, ma’am,’ Marris said quickly. ‘He is most dedicated to his duty.’
‘Of course,’ Anna said, with the merest hint of a smile.
‘That was not the word I meant, but never mind, as you say.’ She turned to the earl.
‘You may go, Rutland. I am sure you have much to organise for my remove. Unless you have started packing already.’ She watched the guilty colour sting the chamberlain’s face and added: ‘I also hear you are occupied in petitioning the King for Lord Cromwell’s former estates.
You did not wait long to benefit from his downfall, did you?
’ She turned her back, dismissing him, and beckoned to Marris.
‘Come, Lady Sharington. I need your good counsel now more than ever.’
Rutland shot Marris a poisonous look but he bowed himself from the room, closing the door with exaggerated care. Once he was gone, Anna seemed to sag suddenly as though she were a puppet whose strings had been cut. Bravado had got her only so far. Now Marris saw the fear beneath.
‘I know this for the excuse it is,’ she said softly. ‘It is the beginning of the end.’
‘Majesty, no!’ Marris took Anna’s cold, shaking hands in her own. ‘Richmond is not far from London—’
‘Out of sight of the King,’ Anna said bitterly, ‘whilst he searches for excuses to end the marriage.’
Marris was silent. She knew of the rumours; they all did.
Yet confined within the Queen’s court it was difficult, if not impossible, to separate truth from gossip.
Even Bridget, whom she had questioned closely the last time they had met, had denied that Catherine Howard, light-hearted, sweet-natured Catherine, had any intention of replacing the Queen.
Bridget had been furious and defensive on behalf of her friend.
‘It would be no surprise if the King does prefer Cat to that glum beanpole,’ she had retorted. ‘His Majesty loves music and dance and merriment, not long faces and misery.’
‘Your head has been turned—’ Marris started to say, but Bridget had flounced away, leaving her with more concerns than she had started with. Now those fears seemed about to be realised.
Anna led Marris into the inner chamber and shut the door firmly behind them, excluding Lady Rutland and Lady Arundell.
‘I know not whom to trust any more,’ she said heavily.
‘If I was ever able to trust them in the first place. I will call Dr Harst,’ she added, referring to the Duchy of Cleves ambassador.
‘He will surely help me. My brother the duke will never permit the King to put me aside. When that nonsense about my pre-contract was raised, Dr Harst soon gave these English fools the right about!’
‘A very good idea, madam,’ Marris agreed.
Anna would need all the allies that she could get if this was, as they suspected, the start of Henry’s campaign to rid himself of his wife.
However, she also suspected that the benign Harst would not be able to stop the King.
She doubted anyone could. Oh, the process would take a while and there would be all sorts of slippery promises made along the way, but already the outcome felt inevitable.
‘Majesty.’ Marris drew Anna away from the door to the farthest end of the room where they were less likely to be overheard. ‘If I might speak?’
Anna’s panicked grey gaze fixed on her face and she seemed to calm down. ‘Of course, Lady Sharington,’ she said. ‘I value your wisdom, as you know.’
Marris nodded. ‘Then let us be quite open and honest,’ she said. ‘It may well be that this move to Richmond is indeed a precursor to the King looking to annul the marriage,’ she said. ‘We must acknowledge that fact.’
Anna made an instinctive gesture of repudiation. ‘I shall fight it with all my strength. Such an insult to me and to the Duchy of Cleves! The King must be made to see his mistake.’
Marris managed not to say that Katherine of Aragon had thought the same thing, and it had not ended well for her. Anna already knew that for herself. At the moment, understandably, it was her pride that was speaking.
‘It is natural that you should feel this way, madam,’ she said, ‘and indeed His Majesty will expect you to resist any attempt to put you aside. He would no doubt be offended were you to accede too quickly to the suggestion of an annulment.’
‘Because he is conceited and vain.’ Anna clenched her fists.
Marris quickly checked that the door was closed fast. ‘Because he is the King,’ she said.
‘And he believes himself irresistible for many reasons. However—’ She paused and noted that Anna was now listening intently, her grey gaze suddenly sharp.
‘However,’ she repeated, choosing her words with great care, ‘I would ask you to consider, madam, whether you really wish to be married to him? Put aside your pride for a moment, and what you feel you owe to your brother and your homeland… What do you, Princess Anna, want for yourself?’ She squeezed Anna’s hands.
‘You do not need to answer straight away, madam. It is a question few women get the opportunity to consider and it takes much thought—’
But Anna had a quick mind and she interrupted her. ‘I want to stay alive,’ she said dryly. ‘Surely the best way to achieve that is to give the King what he wants? And I do not want to moulder away in some shabby mansion like Queen Katherine,’ she added with feeling.
Marris nodded. ‘It is a good start, but may I suggest it is a bare minimum? You are not without power in this situation, madam. If the King does request an annulment, it is right to show an entirely seemly reluctance at first, of course. Eventually, however, a mutually agreeable arrangement might be made that could give you an income and freedoms of your own.’
Anna’s hand came up to grasp her sleeve. Here eyes were huge. ‘Can this be true? Might I have a proper establishment of my own, do you think? Some freedom to follow my own life? It seems impossible.’
Marris gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. ‘It is a hypothetical question at present, of course, Your Majesty, but it is worth remembering that the King can be an exceptionally generous man when matters go his own way.’
‘Oh…’ Anna let out her breath on a long sigh. ‘You have given me much to think about, Lady Sharington.’
Marris smiled. ‘Very good, Your Majesty. Shall we summon your other ladies now, and start to prepare for our move to Richmond Palace?’
Anna’s chin came up. There was a new, determined spark in her eyes. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘Let the game commence.’