But then it struck her that Mary might be bluffing. There may be no letter after all. Thomasin should not give herself away. She held out Lady Boleyn’s letter again.
“Would you be so kind as to hand this to your sister? I do not wish to leave it any later, in case the contents are significant.”
Mary Boleyn did not even look at the letter. Thomasin noticed that she had not asked after her mother.
“You were close to him, weren’t you?”
Thomasin looked away.
“There was some kind of understanding between you, I think? What did you expect would come of it? He was a married man.”
Thomasin held out the letter one more time.
“No,” said Mary Boleyn, finally, “pass on your letter yourself. Did you think I would run your errand for you?”
Cheeks burning, Thomasin stuffed the envelope back up her sleeve yet again, despairing of ever fulfilling her promise to deliver it.
“I hope there is nothing important in it. I am sorry for your mother.”
“Then do as she requested. Pass it to Anne yourself. Or are you simply a coward?”
The pressure of those words bore down upon Thomasin, giving rise to an unpleasant mix of guilt and shame. Tears threatened, so she turned on her heel and walked away with all the dignity she could muster.
“Did you sleep with him?” Mary Boleyn snapped after her. “Am I to endure Will’s bastard about the place?”
FIFTEEN
Queen Catherine’s chamber was brightly lit with candles, although there were still a few hours of daylight left. A table bore jugs of red and white wine, and dishes of spiced cakes and wafers. The chairs had been scattered with gold and purple cushions embroidered with the joint arms of England and Spain, a legacy from the happy days of the royal marriage.
Catherine had placed herself in a central chair, having changed into a blue and yellow dress with gold embroidery, her hair under a pearl headdress. Her emotions had been brought under control, and she offered the room an expression of queenly determination.
Thomasin, Ellen, Lady Mary and Maria Willoughby were placed behind her, standing to attend to her needs, but also because the chairs were taken by her visitors. Each had obeyed the queen’s summons, compelled by their loyalty.
Charles Brandon and Mary Tudor were by the hearth, with Lady Howard beside them, her face intent. Mountjoy stood by the doors, alert and ready to prevent any other admissions. Elsewhere, Bishop Mendoza and a group of other Spaniards were deep in conversation, whilst two new figures sat at the table: the white-haired Archbishop of Canterbury, William Warham, a trout-faced man well into his seventies, and the Bishop of London, Cuthbert Tunstall, a serious scholar in his fifties. Close by sat Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher, both well-known champions for the queen’s cause.
Catherine had already welcomed her guests and launched her appeal for their assistance.
“In addition to my letter from the emperor,” she was saying, “I have also heard from our good friend and scholar Juan Luis Vives, who is in Oxford, but considers my cause to be of the utmost urgency and will write to the king on my behalf.”
“I am in constant correspondence with the emperor,” said Mendoza, “and continue to press your case and beg for his Imperial assistance. He cannot allow this suffering to continue.”
“And I will write to Erasmus,” added More, “whom the king has long admired since childhood, and implore him to return to England, to guide him back to his senses.”
“At least Cardinal Campeggio is in England now,” Catherine continued. “Reports say that his progress is slow, and he suffers terribly from the gout and cannot put his feet in the stirrups or hold reins. Sir Francis Bryan is with him. A litter has been dispatched to carry him, and his arrival is anticipated shortly. It is slow, but it is progress, at least.”
“Now that the cardinal has finally arrived,” said Fisher, “it means that preparations can begin in earnest. No doubt Wolsey will keep the arrangements as secret as possible, but we must prepare ourselves to defend the royal marriage before the court — to build our arguments and write our speeches. Mine is almost complete. But we must go into this with hope, in the certainty that the queen’s cause is right and true. So much favours our cause.”
“We shall all be called as witnesses,” explained Tunstall, looking round at the room. “And the court will be all ears, listening out for any advantage. We should be discreet among ourselves, and not speak or declare ourselves in public, so that the king does not know how much support there is for the queen, right until the point that we each are called. Surely the numbers must be overwhelmingly on her side, as are the entire Catholic church, the Pope, the emperor, centuries of tradition and faith, almost three decades of habit, and our consciences before God.”
Fisher was nodding. “The king will not be surprised by my defence, nor that of More, but the rest of you have that advantage. The sheer numbers alone might make him rethink. In these coming days, we should sound out the opinions of our clergy, question untried men and resolve any concerns that may arise in them. Vives is now in Oxford, as he writes to me, and between us we are searching all the texts we can, to find precedents and earlier rulings that will go in our favour.”
“The king will have Cromwell and his team scouring the Bible,” said More, “but I left my Margaret at home with Leviticus, and I warrant she has more brains than all of them.”
Queen Catherine smiled gently. “This is a battle we can win. I am confident that God hears our prayers and that when the king, my husband, is faced with the legalities of the case, and the possible danger to his soul, he will see the error of his ways. But it will take preparation and care. You should definitely write your speeches now, those of you who will be called.”
“We must be wary of his servants, too,” added Mountjoy. “The king may be dissatisfied, but he wishes to do the right thing by the queen, and in the eyes of God. It is those ruthless men around him, Cromwell and Wolsey, who will talk him out of his duty. Men who have no scruples about barging their way in here, like the other day.”
Eyes turned to him in surprise.
