"Isabella!" My best friend Mary Alice Brandon was running my way across the courtyard. We had not seen each other in more than a year. By the Queen's request, I had gone to serve the Spanish court. "Isabella, 'tis so great to see you. I have missed you so." She threw her arms around my waist and squeezed me tighter than the corset I wore ever could.
"Mary, I've missed you too. I really wish that Queen Catherine had sent you with me. Everyone there spoke in almost nothing but Spanish. I haven't spoken much since I left." Mary still hadn't let go of me. I realized that I had grown taller as I looked down at my friend's cap.
Releasing me from her strangle hold, she took my arm and began to escort me from the courtyard. "There is so much to tell you. The king has taken another mistress. The sister of a former mistress who mothered two of his bastard children. He has been seen openly with her. Her name is Anne Boleyn. The poor Queen is a mess."
"Hush, Mary" I looked around the courtyard carefully. "You must not speak of such things so openly. The Queen has been very good to us, and we mustn't publicly disgrace her so." I grasped the tops of Mary's arms firmly as I turned her so that I could look her in the eye as I scolded her. She was always so excited that she tended to forget herself.
She hooked her arm in mine and pulled me through an entryway of the castle, easily diverted. "Then we shall discuss other matters. Let's begin with your brother's engagement. I've met Lady Hale recently. She seems to be a lovely woman."
I scrunched my nose. Lady Hale did not much like me. On the few occasions that I had seen her, she had made it her duty to tell me how out of fashion my dress was or what a disgrace I was to my family that I was already sixteen and was not even trying to attract the attention of a suitor.
What she did not know, was how wrong she was. I had spent the last summer before I went to Spain trying to attract the attention of the Duke of Mason. Lord Cullen was the most amazing man that I had ever met. He was ten years my senior and one of my brother's closest acquaintances. I had never met a man who would make me go weak in the knees just by being in the same room.
I noticed the corridor which Mary was pulling me through. "Mary, where are you taking me? I'm supposed to visit with the Queen before I can go home to see my family. I have missed them so and do not wish to tarry any longer."
Mary kept pulling me in the same direction. "The Queen's chambers have been moved, Isabella. The King has moved our beloved Catherine into the tower away from the rest of the court."
I gasped,"If she is no longer in the Royal Chambers, then who is living in them?"
Mary shook her head sadly, "The king has moved the witch Boelyn into her old Chambers. The Queen has held her head high and bore the disgrace as only a Queen could. I fear for her health, though. She will be so glad to see that you've returned. You always could make her smile when you sang for her. No one else has been able to bring such happiness to her." As she spoke we reached the door to the stairwell that would take us to the Queen.
I nearly ran up the stairs to my Queen. I could not imagine what kind of health she was in. When I had been serving as her lady in waiting, she could only speak of her darling King Henry. There was no doubt that she loved him dearly. The betrayal of her husband would be the death of her. I stumbled through the door and looked up on my beloved Queen. She was sitting on her throne with a piece of needle work laid across her lap. I walked across the room and kneeled in front of her. "I have returned to you from Spain my Queen. I hope that my time away has not found you ill."
The Queen placed her hand upon my cap gingerly. "I am so glad to see you, dear Isabella. I have missed you dearly and am glad to have you among my ladies in waiting once more. I hope that we may soon talk about the home of my parents when you have seen your family." She took my hand and pulled me to my feet, "and I hope that you will grace me with your beautiful voice again very soon. There is no voice in all of England that can compare."
