Выбрать главу

By the same author

History

The Women of the Cousins’ War:

The Duchess, The Queen and the King’s Mother

The Cousins’ War

The Lady of the Rivers

The White Queen

The Red Queen

The Kingmaker’s Daughter

The White Princess

The King’s Curse

The Tudor Court Novels

The Constant Princess

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Boleyn Inheritance

The Queen’s Fool

The Virgin’s Lover

The Other Queen

Order of Darkness Series

Changeling

Stormbringers

Fools’ Gold

The Wideacre Trilogy

Wideacre

The Favoured Child

Meridon

The Tradescant Series

Earthly Joys

Virgin Earth

Modern Novels

Alice Hartley’s Happiness

Perfectly Correct

The Little House

Zelda’s Cut

Short Stories

Bread and Chocolate

Other Historical Novels

The Wise Woman

Fallen Skies

A Respectable Trade

First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2015

A CBS COMPANY

Copyright © Philippa Gregory, 2015

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention

No reproduction without permission

® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

The right of Philippa Gregory to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

1st Floor

222 Gray’s Inn Road

London

WC1X 8HB

www.simonandschuster.co.uk

Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney

Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Hardback ISBN 978-1-47113-297-1

Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1-47113-298-8

eBook ISBN 978-1-47113-300-8

Typeset by M Rules

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd are committed to sourcing paper that is made from wood grown in sustainable forests and supports the Forest Stewardship Council, the leading international forest certification organisation. Our books displaying the FSC logo are printed on FSC certified paper

for

Maurice Hutt 1928–2013

Geoffrey Carnall 1927–2015

Contents

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, SPRING 1543

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, SUMMER 1543

OATLANDS PALACE, SURREY, SUMMER 1543

MANOR OF THE MORE, HERTFORDSHIRE, SUMMER 1543

AMPTHILL CASTLE, BEDFORDSHIRE, AUTUMN 1543

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, CHRISTMAS 1543

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, SPRING 1544

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, SUMMER 1544

SAINT JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON, SUMMER 1544

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, SUMMER 1544

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, SUMMER 1544

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, SUMMER 1544

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, SUMMER 1544

LEEDS CASTLE, KENT, AUTUMN 1544

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, AUTUMN 1544

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, SPRING 1545

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, SPRING 1545

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, EARLY SUMMER 1545

NONSUCH PALACE, SURREY, SUMMER 1545

SOUTHSEA CASTLE, PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR, SUMMER 1545

COWDRAY HOUSE, MIDHURST, SUSSEX, SUMMER 1545

GREENWICH PALACE, SUMMER 1545

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, AUTUMN 1545

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, WINTER 1545

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, CHRISTMAS 1545

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, WINTER 1546

GREENWICH PALACE, SPRING 1546

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, SPRING 1546

GREENWICH PALACE, SUMMER 1546

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, SUMMER 1546

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, SUMMER 1546

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, SUMMER 1546

WINDSOR CASTLE, AUTUMN 1546

WHITEHALL PALACE, LONDON, WINTER 1546

OATLANDS PALACE, SURREY, WINTER 1546

GREENWICH PALACE, WINTER 1546

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, WINTER 1547

HAMPTON COURT PALACE, SPRING 1543

He stands before me, as broad as an ancient oak, his face like a full moon caught high in the topmost branches, the rolls of creased flesh upturned with goodwill. He leans, and it is as if the tree might topple on me. I stand my ground but I think – surely he’s not going to kneel, as another man knelt at my feet, just yesterday, and covered my hands with kisses? But if this mountain of a man ever got down, he would have to be hauled up with ropes, like an ox stuck in a ditch; and besides, he kneels to no-one.

I think, he can’t kiss me on the mouth, not here in the long room with musicians at one end and everyone passing by. Surely that can’t happen in this mannered court, surely this big moon face will not come down on mine. I stare up at the man that my mother and all her friends once adored as the handsomest in England, the king that every girl dreamed of, and I whisper a prayer that he did not say the words he just said. Absurdly, I pray that I misheard him.

In confident silence, he waits for my assent.

I realise: this is how it will be from now until death us do part, he will wait for my assent or continue without it. I will have to marry this man who looms larger and stands higher than anyone else. He is above mortals, a heavenly body just below angels: the King of England.

‘I am so surprised by the honour,’ I stammer.

The pursed pout of his little mouth widens into a smile. I can see the yellowing teeth and smell his old-dog breath.

‘I don’t deserve it.’

‘I will show you how to deserve it,’ he assures me.

A coy smile on his wet lips reminds me, horribly, that he is a sensualist trapped in a rotting body and that I will be his wife in every sense of the word; he will bed me while I am aching for another man.

‘May I pray and think on this great proposal?’ I ask, stumbling for courtly words. ‘I’m taken aback, I really am. And so recently widowed . . .’

His sprouting sandy eyebrows twitch together; this displeases him. ‘You want time? Weren’t you hoping for this?’