“Play on!” the king commanded the musicians, free, too, from Katherine’s zeal and censure. “Something that will put us in a fine mood for a long night of dancing and revelry.”
As the music struck up the king led out Mary Boleyn Carey as his first partner, but he did not limit himself to her. Henry was a man who liked a table laden with an uncountable number of fine delicacies, so many that he could not possibly eat them all at one sitting. But he enjoyed sampling them each with his eyes at every meal, and when he took a fancy to a particular dish, it had better be set afore him to be enjoyed at his exclusive pleasure. I watched as his eyes roved across the crowd, alighting here and there. They settled on Anne for a moment longer than on any other. I exhaled as soon as his gaze moved on.
’Twas no surprise that Anne was a much-requested dance partner all evening long. And yet, several times I looked at her returning a warm smile to the longing gaze of Henry Percy and she danced with him more than the others.
“Have a care,” I warned her as we stood next to one another while the king danced a galliard. “He’s the Earl of Northumberland’s heir and roosts on a high perch.”
“Even high-flying birds must come down to hunt,” she responded, flushed and enjoying herself.
I grinned at her wit and banter. I enjoyed being young and in demand this evening too. We squeezed one another’s hands in friendship ere parting when the dance opened up again to all.
And yet I must admit to a certain uneasiness when, later, I saw Henry Percy secure one of the dates that had been thrown in the earlier mock battle in order to win the affections of the virtuous maidens. At a pause in the music, Lord Percy offered the sweet to Anne.
She took it from him and enfolded it in her hand.
The months at court passed quickly, and early in springtime of 1523 my father sent my brother Thomas to court to assist with the king’s finances. It was an attempt, which we were all sure would prove futile, to force verse out of Thomas’s head, thus leaving room within for figures. I was glad of his company, though, and told him so as we strolled together in the gardens.
“How goes it at Allington?” I asked. While I enjoyed the festivities at court and even in the queen’s household, such that they were, I missed home.
“Much the same.” He took my hand and rested it in the crook of his elbow. The narcissus were just forcing their way out of the ground and Thomas bent down and plucked one. “Edmund is, as always, sure of himself and Father grows increasingly sure of him too. I think, truth be known, Father would prefer him here at court rather than I. But I am the eldest, alas, so none of the three of us will get what we desire.” He held the flower to his nose and then held it out to me. “’Twould make a fine badge on Edmund’s coat of armor, wouldn’t it?”
“Indeed. I’m fairly certain that Narcissus is Edmund’s patron saint,” I replied. We giggled together and then sat down on a bench.
“Our mother?” I dared ask. Her letters had become further apart and shorter.
“Unwell,” Thomas said, and then said nothing more. There was no need. In the distance I saw Anne and Henry Percy strolling together, her hand also in the crook of his arm, but the meaning much different, of course, than when it was one’s brother.
As they approached Thomas stood and I remained seated.
“You look as beautiful as ever, Mistress Boleyn,” Thomas said.
Anne laughed and the gaze of both men held rapt upon her face. “Oh, Thomas, no need for formalities. Things go well for me, and, I hear, for you. A new appointment at court?”
“Yes.” Thomas appeared pleased to have his achievement recognized in front of Henry Percy. “And how are you, Lord Percy?”
Anyone with eyes could tell by looking upon Lord Percy’s countenance that he was very well indeed.
“Well, thank you,” he replied. No mention was made of his accomplishments. He needed none. He was rich and the heir of the Earl of Northumberland, ruler in all practicalities of the north. The look in his eye told me that he considered the distance between us Wyatts and himself an unbreachable gap. And it was, of course. But I counted it as a mark of weakness to have to intimate that to others by your manner. The king, after all, was known for his bonhomie. We discoursed for a time and then the two of them went on their way, a lady chaperone trailing discreetly behind. No one would mention the word “chaperone,” but that was indeed the role she played that hour.
Thomas rejoined me on the bench and nodded toward the backs of the couple as they retreated from us. “How long has that been under way?”
“Since last spring,” I said. No need to protest that nothing was under way. The court was the ultimate repository of open secrets.
“And his father?”
“Does not know, I am certain,” I replied. The Boleyns were held in high regard by the king—Sir Thomas was even now away on a diplomatic mission on the king’s behalf—but they were certainly not in the same drawer as the Percys.
Thomas sat on the bench, his poet’s hands holding his head in a glum pose.
“Come now, Thomas. You are married. They are not.”
He picked his head up. “Nor will they be,” he said. “Mark my word. Wolsey will not let it happen.”
“Who is Wolsey to say?” I asked.
“Wolsey is the king whilst the king plays,” Thomas replied. Left unsaid was that the king was often at play.
We began our walk back to the palace, to his duties and mine, and that conversation was forgotten until one evening several months hence when Anne burst into our chamber. The suddenness of her action and the atypical loss of her composure shook me.
“What is it?”
She pulled me close. “Cardinal Wolsey approached Henry Percy and asked him what his intentions were toward me. Henry declared his love for me and indicated that he intended to marry me.”
“And?”
“And Wolsey confronted Henry and told him that he would speak with him again and that he was not to see me for now. Also that he would get his father here anon to set things straight.”
My brother Thomas was at York Place working on the king’s figures with Thomas Cromwell when Cardinal Wolsey next spoke to Henry Percy. Thomas heard the cardinal call Anne a foolish girl and he marveled that Percy, heir to one of the noblest and most worthy earldoms on earth, would tangle himself with the likes of her.
Shortly after Thomas reported this to me I returned to my duties. After straightening and ordering the queen’s gowns I asked and was granted dismissal. I threw Anne a look so she’d know to follow me.
Dear me. Anne had brought me here to be her friend, and I had been so taken in with gladness that she had found love, and had so enjoyed late-night talks about him, that I had not advised her well. I needed to take off the cloak of a girlish friend and put on that of a womanly advisor. When she arrived, I recounted what Thomas had told me, but she already knew.
“Anne! What of Butler?” As far as I knew, her father was years into negotiations for a marriage between them.
She waved that away. “Who knows if that will come to pass? And my father would let go that proposal in a moment if he thought the Earl of Northumberland was in my reach.”
This, I knew, was true.
“I have…. corresponded with him.” Ah. So Sir Thomas had given a tacit approval to this match and was letting Anne wrangle to win.
“Anne, think. Wolsey is the most powerful man in our world and he is implacably against you.”
“Because he does not want to advance the Boleyns, see us reach too high beyond our grasp. Although why he, as a butcher’s son, should be the judge of that I know not. And he’s obsessively against my father’s interests in the reformers’ thoughts on faith. He removed my brother, George, from his position in the privy chamber, for example.”