Page 76 of The Queen’s Witch

“Yes, Your Majesty. I am sorry. But there is news that I thought you should hear first from me.”

“Yes? Well, out with it!”

“Word from Kimbolton. The Dowager Princess Katherine is dead.”

Anne’s face lit up. “Dead? Now I am queen indeed! None can deny me!”

“No. But, Your Majesty, it would be well if . . .”

“If what? Are you presuming to instruct me, Lady Lee?”

“No, of course not,” Lady Lee said miserably. But of course she had been trying to do just that, to warn Anne not to exult too openly before the court, not to add to the rumors of poison, whispered everywhere except to Anne herself. No one dared.

Except for one person. George Boleyn burst into the nursery and frowned at Lady Lee.

“I see I have been forestalled with my news. You may go, Meg. Nurse, please take the princess.”

Was I meant to leave as well? I stood, but George Boleyn scowled at me and said, “You stay.”

I curtsied and sat again on my low stool. When we three were alone behind the closed door, he spoke to his sister. “Anne, you must be careful now. Very careful. Do not so much as mention Katherine’s death, especially not to Henry. There are rumors that she died of poison, and you the poisoner.”

“An absurd fancy! I have not left the palace in months!”

“No. But people are saying that witches can curse from afar.” He turned to me. “Is that true?”

“It is not, my lord. Curses must be placed within sight and even touch of the cursed one.”

“Did you travel to Kimbolton by some foul magick and curse the dowager princess with poison?”

“I did not.”

Anne said, “George, Katherine was ill a long time. Old and sick and used up. Everyone knows that. No one will say she died of witchcraft.”

“They are saying it. And of you. You may as well know all, Anne. Tavern talk is that you caused Katherine’s death, you caused the bad harvest, you caused the strife within the kingdom, you caused John Fisher and Thomas More to turn against His Majesty.”

“Tavern talk,” she said scathingly, but I saw the unease in her eyes. “No one of sense will believe such maunderings.”

“The king believes it. He is saying you bewitched him into unlawful marriage.”

Anne’s eyes widened. Her brother knelt by her chair and took her shoulders in his hands. “Listen to me, Anne. You must say nothing to Henry, or anyone else, about Katherine. Nothing. You must not quarrel with the king, you must not appear to notice any of his behavior that you dislike, you must do nothing out of the ordinary for a dignified queen of England. Until you are delivered of a prince, you are in danger, and so are all of us. And you, Elyn—I would banish you if I could, but that might look suspicious as well. Would that you had never returned to court. Be silent, go unnoticed, and if you in any way become responsible for foul acts that attach to the queen, I will kill you myself.”

“Yes, my lord.” He looked as if it would give him great pleasure right in this moment to plunge his sword into my chest.

He turned back to his sister. “Anne, I must go to the king now. Oh, and wear yellow tonight. It is the color of royal mourning in Spain. Or so says Henry.”

After he left, Anne sat silent a long time. When words did come, they were not, as I feared, a condemnation of me. “This is Katherine’s fault, all of it. Had she recognized the sinfulness of her marriage to the king, had she agreed to have her unlawful marriage set aside and to retire to a convent, the king would not have had so much dissent piled upon him. Nor would I!”

I nodded, saying nothing.

“Entirely Katherine’s fault,” Anne repeated, even more vehemently. “She was always full of foul ambition for both herself and that stubborn daughter of hers. Elyn, stay close to me. I cannot know when I will need your services.”

“Yes, Your Grace. I will.”

The words unsaid hung between us: And the price will be that Your Grace will give one more service to me. There was no need to say them aloud. Anne and I understood each other very well.

26

Greenwich Palace