carry the bouquets. The boy is filling out and looks like a bull garlanded for sacrifice. He wonders what they did with their sacrifices, the pagans and the Jews of the Old Testament; surely they would not waste fresh meat, but give it to the poor?
Anne is housed in the suite of rooms that were redecorated for her coronation. He himself had overseen the work, and watched as goddesses, with their soft and brilliant dark eyes, blossomed on the walls. They bask in sunlit groves, under cypress trees; a white doe peeps through foliage, while the hunters head off in another direction, and hounds lollop ahead of them, making their hound music.
Lady Kingston rises to greet him, and he says, ‘Sit down, dear madam…’ Where is Anne? Not here in her presence chamber.
‘She is praying,’ one of the Boleyn aunts says. ‘So we left her to it.’
‘She has been a while,’ the other aunt says. ‘Are we sure she hasn’t got a man in there?’
The aunts giggle; he does not join them; Lady Kingston gives them a hard look.
The queen emerges from the little oratory; she has heard his voice. Sunlight strikes her face. It is true what Lady Rochford says, she has begun to line. If you did not know she was a woman who had held a king’s heart in her hand, you would take her for a very ordinary person. He supposes there will always be a strained levity in her, a practised coyness. She will be one of those women who at fifty thinks she is still in the game: one of those tired old experts in innuendo, women who simper like maids and put their hand on your arm, who exchange glances with other women when a prospect like Tom Seymour heaves into view.
But of course, she will never be fifty. He wonders if this is the last time he will see her, before the courtroom. She sits down, in shadow, in the midst of the women. The Tower always feels damp from the river and even these new, bright rooms feel clammy. He asks if she would like furs brought in, and she says, ‘Yes. Ermine. Also, I do not want these women. I should like women of my own choosing, not yours.’
‘Lady Kingston attends you because –’
‘Because she is your spy.’
‘– because she is your hostess.’
‘Am I then her guest? A guest is free to leave.’
‘I thought you would like to have Mistress Orchard,’ he says, ‘as she is your old nurse. And I didn’t think you would object to your aunts.’
‘They have grudges against me, both of them. All I see and hear is sniggering and tutting.’
‘Jesus! Do you expect applause?’
This is the trouble with the Boleyns: they hate their own kin. ‘You will not speak in that way to me,’ Anne says, ‘when I am released.’
‘I apologise. I spoke without thinking.’
‘I do not know what the king means by holding me here. I suppose he does it to test me. It is some stratagem he has devised, yes?’
She does not really think that, so he does not answer.
‘I should like to see my brother,’ Anne says.
One aunt, Lady Shelton, looks up from her needlework. ‘That is a foolish demand, in the circumstances.’
‘Where is my father?’ Anne says. ‘I do not understand why he does not come to my aid.’
‘He is lucky to be at liberty,’ Lady Shelton says. ‘Expect no help there. Thomas Boleyn always looked after himself first, and I know it, for I am his sister.’
Anne ignores her. ‘And my bishops, where are they? I have nourished them, I have protected them, I have furthered the cause of religion, so why do they not go to the king for me?’
The other Boleyn aunt laughs. ‘You expect bishops to intervene, to make excuses for your adultery?’
It is evident that, in this court, Anne has already been tried. He says to her, ‘Help the king. Unless he is merciful your cause is lost, you can do nothing for yourself. But you may do something for your daughter Elizabeth. The more humbly you hold yourself, the more penitent you show yourself, the more patiently you bear with the process, the less bitterness will His Majesty feel when your name is raised hereafter.’
‘Ah, the process,’ Anne says, with a flash of her old sharpness. ‘And what is this process to be?’
‘The confessions of the gentlemen are now being compiled.’
‘The what?’ Anne says.
‘You heard,’ Lady Shelton says. ‘They will not lie for you.’
‘There may be other arrests, other charges, though by speaking out now, by being open with us, you could shorten the pain for all concerned. The gentlemen will come to trial together. For yourself and my lord your brother, since you are ennobled, you will be judged by your peers.’
‘They have no witnesses. They can make any accusation, and I can say no to it.’
‘That is true,’ he concedes. ‘Though it is not true about the witnesses. When you were at liberty, madam, your ladies were intimidated by you, forced to lie for you, but now they are emboldened.’
‘I am sure they are.’ She holds his gaze; her tone is scornful. ‘In the way Seymour is emboldened. Tell her from me, God sees her tricks.’
He stands to take his leave. She unnerves him, the wild distress she is keeping in check, holding back but only just. There seems no point in prolonging the business, but he says, ‘If the king begins a process to nullify your marriage, I may return, to take statements from you.’
‘What?’ she says. ‘That too? Is it necessary? Murder will not be enough?’
