“Mary! Staff! I prayed you would come. Thank you, my lord, for bringing my Mary home.” She darted between Sanctuary and Eden. Her slender arms were tight about Mary, and the tears came flowing free from them both.
“You know, mother, you already know of Anne’s arrest,” was all Mary could manage as she pressed her cheek into her mother’s silvery hair. It began to snow tiny, random ice flakes, and Staff urged them both inside.
Semmonet stood bent and more crooked than ever, leaning on a carved staff at the entry, her face a mask of shocked agony. Mary embraced her tenderly then desperately, and the Boleyn women helped the old governess into the solar, as though she were one of the family, while Staff gave orders to his servants. The portrait of the king stared down unblinking on them all as they passed.
“Sit here, Semmonet. I am so pleased to see you on your feet. Mother had written that you keep much to your bed,” Mary said, amazed at her own small talk when all the eyes of the room were fastened hard on her.
“I only forced myself up today after the tragic message came from Lord Boleyn that the Queen was arrested yesterday. No one else was here who knows both our George and our dear Anne so well, and my Lady Elizabeth needed to talk.”
“Yes, of course, I see.” Mary sat on the arm of her mother’s chair and leaned into her with her arm around the fragile woman’s shoulders.
“You see, my children,” Elizabeth Boleyn began, holding up her hand for quiet as both Mary and Staff began to speak, “I have been awaiting some tragedy for years and years now, ever since I saw the king myself, and the king offered to make me his mistress—he was only Prince of Wales, then, you know—and when I refused because I was new wed and in love with my lord, the king was angry. Well, I could understand that, but when my Lord Thomas was even more angry with me...indeed, something inside me died, and I knew from then on the Bullens would live in danger. The king said so quietly, ‘I do not command, I only request,’ but I could see clearly what he meant and that to serve him was danger. But I never thought it could be this terrible. No, Staff, wait. I would say more.
“The Howards were never like the Boleyns have been, not in the old days at least. But soon I had the children here to love and raise—George first, then Mary, and baby Anne.” She dabbed at her wet cheeks and eyes and continued to sit erect and neither Mary nor Staff nor Semmonet dared to interrupt, even with attempted consolation. “All was golden in those years for me at Hever because my lord had only his own skills to barter and he was happy as he rose high and proud and tasted the possibilities of power. But then, he took Mary and used her far away in France and then back at the English court...and then Anne and George and...he, oh, dear God in heaven, he has ruined all his children’s joy and now will murder two of them, and I love him still!”
She sobbed gaspingly on Mary’s shoulder, and Mary’s own tears wet her mother’s head. Then, amazingly, Lady Elizabeth sat ramrod straight and said, as if to Staff alone, “You see, my lord, when Mary’s sister became the queen, I dreamed that perhaps, perhaps we would be safe now, for there was no higher place for my husband’s desires to climb. But I was wrong. Nothing stops this king—not love, not gratitude, not marriage—he just pulls them all down at his feet and tramples them.”
“A legal son is the only protection any woman or family shall have from him, lady,” Staff’s voice came almost breaking. “But I believe he may not be capable of a healthy son. If so, there stands your little namesake, the red-haired princess. Now, if you would listen, Mary has some things she wishes to tell you.” He nodded to Mary and she searched her mind for the words and phrases she had rehearsed on every jog of the road between Banstead and Hever.
“When I saw Anne the two days we were at Greenwich, mother, she was much changed, resigned, inwardly strong and not afraid. We must hold to that. And she was warm and kind to me, so kind. She has arranged for my oldest son to be my ward should...should the queen die...and that Staff and I may have him to Wivenhoe for visits, and I promise you he shall come here also if you would have him. And Catherine is to be raised with the Princess Elizabeth and to visit us whenever Elizabeth goes to court. Anne gave me some jewels for Catherine and Elizabeth to give to them...if...well, when they are old enough to understand. But, if the king takes his terrible revenge, who shall ever understand?”