Chapter 36
Anna von Kleve
“Kat is still unwell,” Anna said, having just returned from visiting the former queen’s room. “It is good that we’re leaving tomorrow.”
Brigid was reading on the sofa, and she set down her book and motioned for Anna to sit beside her. Anna did so gratefully, resting her head on Brigid’s shoulder with a heavy sigh.
Anna found it heartbreaking to see Kat—once a vibrant and bubbly young woman—reduced to the shell that she had become.
Ever since Thomas died, she had kept to her bed, refusing food more often than not and falling into prolonged fits of despair where she would neither speak nor listen to anyone who attended her.
“I can’t imagine what she has been through,” Brigid said, taking Anna’s hand.
“There are times I want to tell her that things will get better, that she is young and she will certainly have the opportunity to find love again. But then I think about how I would feel if I were in her shoes, if I had had to watch you die, and…I simply can’t fault her for her grief. ”
Brigid took a turn sitting with Kat every day, reading to her or telling stories from her childhood in Germany. Her gentle approach often yielded the best results with Kat—even Anna had trouble getting the heartbroken girl to open up.
Anna nodded knowingly. “We never meant for her to stay in England, and we couldn’t have expected her to be happy here. She needs this change of scenery.”
The two of them were taking Kat to Spain.
[*] There was a hospital there, Anna had been told, that was under the guidance of the Sisterhood, and its doctors would be able to put Kat to rights.
Anna had not been abroad since before her wedding to Henry, and despite the circumstances, she found herself rather excited for the journey.
She’d even treated herself to a new set of paints and canvases so she wouldn’t miss capturing a single detail if the impulse to paint struck her aboard the ship.
For the time being, Lina and Anne were staying behind, but they were sending her with enough letters and gifts that their presence would be felt among friends around the world.
Anna wasn’t sure why her friends weren’t going to Spain, especially when they spoke so fondly of Santa Cruz de Madrid, though she had her suspicions.
Cromwell was gone, Kat had been saved, and their mission was complete.
Did they want to stay closer to their daughters?
Or was there something else—someone else—tying them to England?
For all that they laughed at Anne’s dark humor when it came to Henry, there had always been an undercurrent of truth in the witch’s jokes, like she really would kill the king if Lina took her eyes off her for one second.
In truth, Anna wouldn’t have been surprised if Anne Boleyn had one more game she wanted to play, one final curse for Henry VIII.
Later that day, they all gathered for a farewell in Kat’s room.
She usually kept the curtains drawn and the candles low, but Anna had sent a servant ahead to clear out the room.
Now, a rare bit of sunlight filtered in through the windows, and a cheerful fire warded off the March chill.
Kat sat up in bed, her hair having been combed and her nightclothes exchanged for a simple blue dress.
She had developed a habit of scraping her nails along her hands and wrists, and the skin looked raw, just moments away from bleeding.
Anna couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Kat smile, let alone the last time she’d heard her laugh.
There was no joy in this room, even when it was clean and tidy for company.
Everyone in the household believed Kat to be a distant cousin of Anna’s who was recuperating from a long illness.
Anne—exhausted, guilt-ridden Anne—had kept up Kat’s glamour, though it would be removed before their journey, as the witch didn’t know how far her magick could extend.
Until they arrived in Spain, Kat would be disguised in the old-fashioned way, with unflattering clothes and dowdy head coverings to match Anna’s own public veneer.
Once they were safely ensconced in Madrid, Kat would take a new surname and start her new life.
Anne and Lina arrived at the same time, and they all gathered in a semicircle around Kat’s bed.
The only benefit to Kat’s convalescence was that she no longer shouted at her cousin, though Anne was still timid when they were together, afraid to set off a round of spiteful insults.
Even now, Anne sat the farthest distance away, her hands clasped tightly in her lap and her attention anywhere but on Kat.
The witch looked worn from weeks upon weeks of using her magick without a break, bruises under her eyes and the muscles tight in her jaw.
Anna’s sympathy went out to the both of them, and she prayed every night that they would find a way to reconnect before they had to say goodbye.
“How are you feeling today, Kat?” Brigid asked, reaching out and gently squeezing Kat’s hand. “That color is lovely on you.”
She did look nice, even wearing a stranger’s face. This was the first time Anna had seen Kat out of her nightclothes in a while, and she took that as a good sign.
Kat’s gaze flickered to Brigid for a moment, then away. These days, her eyes never seemed to alight on anything for more than a few seconds before wandering somewhere else. “Thank you. I am feeling well.”
It was a lie, but no one challenged her on it.
Lina cleared her throat, ready as always to attend to business. “You are packed?”
Anna nodded. “The carriages are being loaded now.”
It felt a bit obscene, taking so much with them, but if Kat were to start a new life in Europe, she needed more than just a few outfits for a holiday. Anna had used a portion of her considerable wealth to purchase everything Kat would require.
“I can remove the glamour, if you’d like,” Anne said to Kat. She sounded hesitant, a woman reaching out a hand to a wild animal who would either lean in for love or snap her fingers right off. “No one else will see you between now and tomorrow morning.”
Kat nodded stiffly but said nothing.
When Anne finished pulling the glamour away, Anna had to hold back a gasp, struck by how different Kat looked since she had last seen the girl’s true self.
Her skin was pale and dry, her cheekbones jutting up sharply from her face and painted with shadows instead of the rosy blush of youth.
The brightest spot of color came from the pink-and-white scar Henry had left behind from his ring.
Kat had lost weight from her already slim frame, and Anna’s first thought was to call for the cook and make every dish that could be created from the stores at Richmond Palace.
Even Kat’s hair, once a lustrous auburn that reminded Anna of Anne’s, had gone dull.
If Anna had captured her portrait right now, Kat would have been nearly unrecognizable from the woman she’d been at Christmas.
Perhaps she wouldn’t need a disguise at all.
“It’s that bad, is it?” Kat asked, something approaching humor in her voice.
“You’ve been unwell,” Anna managed to say.
“You need to start taking better care of yourself,” Lina added. Unlike Anna, she didn’t mince words. “If you don’t, it will all have been for nothing.”
That made Kat swallow hard and blink back tears. Anna wished there was something she could do, something she could say that would give Kat a measure of comfort. But if she hadn’t found the words in the last fortnight or two, she wasn’t going to find them now.
The women talked over the details of the journey one final time, and when the fire was waning, they finally said their farewells.
Lina gave both Anna and Brigid brusque but tight hugs, and she whispered something to Kat that had the young woman nodding along.
Anne’s goodbye was warmer, and she kept her hands on Anna’s shoulders after they had embraced.
“You don’t believe the things people say about you, do you?
” she asked, searching Anna’s face. “Because I’ve never met anyone who has been so wrongly understood by the world.
I know it’s all intentional to protect yourself, but I also know that those whispers can sting.
That’s why I need to tell you that you are one of the kindest, smartest, and most beautiful people I’ve ever met, and I’m proud to know you. ”
Anna was struck dumb for several seconds. All she could do was smile and offer a meager “Thank you” in response.
Anne winked, then hugged Brigid and thanked her for everything she’d done and for her infinite patience with the meddling of two old queens.
They thought they had escaped Henry and a life at court after the annulment, but after only a few short weeks they had been embroiled in the Sisterhood’s plans.
Brigid had taken every surprise in stride, even when it meant the future the two of them had dreamed had to be put on hold.
If it was possible, Anna loved her even more now than she had six months ago.
She adored how kind and steady Brigid had been through all of this, and she could scarcely believe she was so lucky to be the woman who held her heart.
When Anne stepped over to speak to Kat, both Anna and Brigid moved away to give them a bit of privacy. Whatever was said was over quickly, but Anna turned around in time to see the two of them share a look of understanding.
As Anna lay awake later that night, wrapped in the arms of the woman she loved and with a new adventure waiting at dawn, she hoped that whatever had passed between Anne and Kat would help heal both their wounds.
Skip Notes
* The curse of having an ocean between us was that in all the time Anne and Lina had been in England, we had only been able to exchange a handful of letters.
We were prepared for Kat’s arrival, even when the news came that Henry VIII had beheaded his young wife.
Though it wasn’t until Kat stood on the convent’s doorstep that I could be certain my friends had succeeded.