“You are most welcome, and fortunate to find a bed spare, when the place is already full.”
“Yes, it is delightful to find friends unexpectedly.”
“Southey,” called Hugh, “send word to the kitchen to begin service as soon as possible. I am sure Suffolk is ravenous.”
“Ravenous indeed after that ride. I must fill up, sleep and be on my way. The king expects me.”
“How fares the king?” asked Sir Richard tentatively.
“Well enough, but impatient. Have you heard his latest scheme?” Charles Brandon turned his eyes upon Thomasin, but she shook her head.
“We have been absent from court since early June, when they left Greenwich.”
“Ah, I see. Of course. You saw Bishop Foxe return from Rome?”
Thomasin nodded at Ellen. “Yes, that was on one of our last days.”
Charles Brandon sat back in his seat. “It is a sorry tale. Truth be told, I wish it was over, as this business of the king’s marriage drags on and on to the detriment of everyone’s health.”
“Is the king still chasing after that woman?” Cecilia snapped, mindful of the cruelty she had experienced at court last autumn. Although she had erred, and paid the price for it, the king’s vivacious paramour, Anne Boleyn, had encouraged her to conduct a secret love affair, then mocked and blamed her for it once she was exposed.
“Yes,” said Brandon, raising his eyebrows. “You are direct, Mistress Marwood, and I recall the reasons why. Yes, Anne is back at court; she returned in late August, to the great woe of Queen Catherine and all those who love her.”
“She had the sweat, did she not?” asked Thomasin.
“And she recovered, yes, as did her father, and they are now at Durham House, as there is no space for them at Westminster. She seems bolder than ever, as if her survival has confirmed her position, as if she is destined to become queen.”
“Poor Catherine,” said Ellen.
“But the main news is the progress of the cardinal.” Brandon addressed himself to the room. “The Pope has granted Henry the right to hold a court in England, to rule on the validity of his marriage. Two cardinals are to preside over it; the king’s own favourite Thomas Wolsey, who will say whatever his master wishes, and Lorenzo Campeggio, who has departed from Rome but makes very slow progress due to his ailments.”
“Does Henry have hopes of him?” asked Sir Richard.
“High hopes, but he is also realistic. Campeggio has received his instructions from the Pope, and since the sack of Rome, the Pope is controlled by the emperor.”
Thomasin thought of the many times she had seen Catherine broken by grief, collapsed in private tears, then admirably pulling herself through it, with the conviction of her faith and her anointed queenship.
“The queen will fight this all the way.”
“As she should,” Brandon nodded, sadly, “but it will not get Henry an heir.”
“He already has an heir,” replied Thomasin, thinking of Catherine’s only surviving child, the twelve-year-old Princess Mary.
Brandon shook his head. “He will never accept a woman on the throne, nor a daughter of his married to some foreign prince. Mary is charming, and she is approaching marriageable age, but any husband she takes will end up ruling England. It would restart a civil war.”
“She was betrothed to the emperor once, was she not?”
“Indeed, but that was mere diplomacy. Without a son, the king fears the influence of whomever Mary might wed.”
“But what of his illegitimate son?” Sir Richard asked. “The boy Henry, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, is he not? Surely those titles signify some future intent?”
“There was a rumour last summer,” added Thomasin, “that the boy was to be wed to Mary.”
Cecilia gasped. “A half-brother and sister? Surely not?”
“That was the rumour.”
“Henry would not allow it,” Brandon said. “He fears a misshapen child more than a female heir. But the boy is young and strong. He has been hidden away in the countryside with his tutors this past year or so, but there is some talk of bringing him back to court, setting him up permanently in Eltham Palace or even sending him to Calais. It all depends upon the rulings of these cardinals. Anne has promised Henry a son.” He nodded in response to the shock in the room. “Yes, apparently she has, and Henry is determined to make her his wife. She plays perfectly upon his fears.”
