Chapter 58
Queen Anna of Denmark, wife of King James VI of Scotland
Dunrobin Castle
ILOOK INTO YOUR FACE AND know we’ve done the right thing. Your cheeks are pink and round, your mouth a perfect pursed bloom as you sleep in my arms after another long feed at my breast.
We may have changed the course of history, we may even have denied you your birthright, as Margaret says, but it was no birthright to celebrate.
That poor boy, Kitty Muirhead’s son, is installed at Stirling with Mar and his mother.
Already titled the Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.
James has given him the name Henry – an appeal to the Queen of England, an admission of what the child really means to him, the role he is there to fulfil.
He is not my flesh and blood, but the memory of that poor baby’s face is seared into my mind. I will do whatever I can to ensure he is cared for properly, given some love and affection above what my husband knew in his childhood.
I would not have wished that on you, even if you were a boy child. And as a girl, your lot would’ve been even more wretched. I don’t know what your life will be, but I know I’ve saved you from the treachery of that court.
We’ve come to the Highlands. My husband won’t miss me.
If anything, he’ll be relieved at my absence, and I have no role in the heir’s life until the baptism, which won’t be until the summer.
The grandest show the King can manage, not for the benefit of his child, of course, but another show for the Queen of England so she’ll finally name him as her successor.
Meanwhile, we stay here, in quiet and in comfort. My family, my love. I will nurse you myself until I return to court. No one will think my absence strange; my anger with my husband is well-known, by him and by all. We’ll spend as much of our time apart as we can from this day forward.
I feel a pang of guilt about Mistress Balfour though.
I brought her here, forcing on her the separation from her children I could not bear to contemplate for myself.
My father was right about her skills, they are formidable indeed, but she is not a plaything for me to use as my own.
She will return to her homeland, and I will give her all the protection I can.
The King has granted me the temporalities of the bishopric in Orkney as I requested, so at least I have some formal powers and influence in the islands.
I think of Kitty Muirhead – I don’t want to, the shame of what we did to her is great, but I must. A woman I never met but used for my own ends.
Perhaps her fate was always going to be her fate, but I allowed it to happen.
Strangled and burnt on the Castle Hill. Powerless among these feuding nobles, a pawn in their games.
I know I’m no better though. I look at you and know I would’ve done anything to keep you.
Even now, knowing the cost, I wouldn’t change this path.
Because here you are, my elskling, safe in my arms by this fireside.
You’ll never be a princess but, to me, the whole world is in your face.