The Royal Seamstress | ONC2020

Chapter 1: Stories of the Past

England 1536

I stitched the next golden tread onto the fabric. I was making the last decorations on the gown for the Queen's ball. King Henry had decided to throw a ball in honor of his new wife, Jane Seymour. I had only meet her once, when I had taken the measures for the dress. She was very beautiful indeed and seemed kind. She was said to be a catholic. That piece of information had made me very happy. I had often been afraid to be around the former Queen. Anna Boleyn had belonged to the reformists. Those, who defied the Holy Father. Often, I had had the urge to confront her, but people like me wasn't allowed to think for themselves. Thinking was for people of higher status, and it was for men only.

"How's the dress coming along?" asked Margaret Spencer, one of my sewing girls. She was fairly new at court and I had tried my best to teach her the ways of correct etiquette and behaving. Her young age made her desirable for all men to make approaches of a very inappropriate nature and the approaches wasn't scarce.

"I'm about to make the last details." I smiled at her, kindly. Giving her an encouragement to join me at the table. She sat timid beside me. Her head down. Almost hid behind her curly hair. "Is something the matter, Margaret?"

"Something happened just a few minutes ago," she whispered in a voice so low I could barely hear her. "The Duke of Norfolk has asked me to lie with him. He said if I didn't do it, he would make sure my time at court was at an end before I could blink with my eyes even once."

I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath. Not so long ago he had done the same approaches towards one of my other maids. She hadn't told anyone about it, and now she was lying cold in the ground. Head decapitated from the body. Margaret shouldn't suffer the same destiny as her predecessor.

"You must tell him no," I said with a firm and steady voice. "You need to let him know; he can't have you. Lie to him. Tell you're promised to another man."

"But he would find out. I can't lie to a man of his status."

"Margaret, have you heard what happened to the last maid, who lied with him?"

She shook her head. Her young eyes following my every movement. At some point she was like a little child. It was clear she hadn't had much experience with the world outside her parents' house before she came to court. She couldn't read or write when I had first meet her. Her parents were very poor and had a lot of children and couldn't afford any education for their children.

"She was executed. A girl of only sixteen."

She put her hands to her mouth. Shock was painted all over her face.

"How awful!" Her exclamation was shrill and too loud, as the matron came into the room.

"What's that noise?" she said. She was a strict woman. "You two had better get to work than sharing gossip."

"I was just telling Margaret, what had happened to poor Anne," I answered. The matron arched a brow. Like she was calculating the truth in my words. Weighing them on her inner scales.

"Poor Anne," she said. "It was a sad ending for her. Considering she did what the Lord Norfolk ordered."

"Did she actually lie with him?" Margaret asked, as she hadn't heard my words just before.

"Yes, she did."

The young girl was startled. She had probably thought, Anne had refused Lord Norfolk. I felt the anger rise inside. Flushing through my veins. Lord Norfolk had one time tried to approach me too but luckily for me his wife came in just in time to save me. I had come too early for my appointment with Lady Norfolk. She had wanted me to look at some of her dresses which she wished for to be altered. As I had stepped into the room, I had made eye contact with the man, who had just killed one of my friends. He had taken it as an invitation and had started the walk towards me. I had almost run out the room, but Lady Norfolk had come in with some of her maids, who carried her dresses. Lord Norfolk had left the room almost immediately.