THE ITALIAN ROSE 🌹 KING HENRY VIII

3: A Lady's Sadness

Port of Liverpool
Lady Julianna Borgia

"Lady Julianna it's a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Charles Brandon the duke of Suffolk. I am here to meet at the request of his majesty." I bow to him as he offers me his hand to aide me in stepping off the ship.

"Your grace it is a pleasure to finally be on english soil. I have been waiting to meet his majesty...is he here?" I question him while watching Cesare as he directed men on where to load our luggage.

"Unfortunately no my lady he is not. Court matters occupy his time although the sends his warm regards." He smiles, although I know the Duke means well his smile says one thing, but his eyes another. I am a catholic and he is a protestant, he separated from my father's church so that he might wed his second wife Anne Boleyn.

I was to be his third wife and just like his first wife I was a catholic. Before I left only one month ago I was handed a letter by my mother from my father. It stated that I was to help heal the rift between the church and the kingdom of England. Whatever means I needed to do it would be at my disposal, my father's words still burn in my mind.

God may forgive disappointments my dear daughter but I assure you that I do not.

If she did not find some way to heal old wounds then her father would use his vast resources to find a way to deal with her and her failure.
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It was on the road to London that the Duke of Suffolk began to question me about myself, my personality, and my beliefs.

"What do you know of the king and his family my lady?"

"I know that his majesty has two daughters your grace. One by his first wife the princess Mary by Queen Catherine of Aragon and Princess Elizabeth by Queen Anne Boleyn." I replied using their official birth titles instead of the new titles as ladies and bastards their father had given them.

He nodded and looked as if he were hesitant to ask his next question.

"What do you know of Anne Boleyn? Do you believe that she is innocent?" Now it becomes my turn to pause.

"Truly it is not my place to say...his majesty decided Queen Anne's fate and that is final. However I believe that the the Queen made her choices and that the King made his." Shrugging I turn my head to look out the window out onto the passing country side.

The Duke of Suffolk nods and smiles, hoping that I was making a good impression, the two of us continue chatting on down the road until it was time to stop for the night.

But it was that night I learned just how far my father would go to make sure I went through with the marriage to the king.
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Knock Knock

The soft knock at the door rouses me from a light sleep. I'd fallen asleep writing a letter to send back home, but when I opened the door it was Cesare his expression was that of sadness. He couldn't even meet my eyes as he handed me two letters both with broken seals.

"I am so sorry to have kept this from you sweet sister. But since you are to marry the king within a fortnight I felt that you deserved to know the truth...." He says, but still he cannot meet my eyes, fear swells within me as he refers to the letters and what it might hold. Silently yet quickly he exits my room and shuts the door behind him.

Slowly I cross the room and sit back at my desk chair to read whatever grave news my brother has brought me.

My dearest Julianna,

It is with my deepest regret that I write to you. When I left you that day it was because your words rung true, your father would have never allowed me to marry you. But I was determined to try anyway and it was then your father informed me of your betrothal to the English King. He would not even let me see you before you set sail for England . But I know you will do wonders as a queen, and I love you regardless. If there is any way that I might come into your service and or perhaps see you one last time in the hopes of soaking your mercy and forgiveness.

My father once knew the young king, I believe he is a good man and will make a good husband to you. Just as I wish that I could have been to you.

Forever your loyal friend,
Andres St. Claire

The letter brings tears to my eyes. He had tried to marry me, he had tried to see me, and my father kept him from me. But just as the sadness had appeared it quickly vanished as an anger surged within me. He wants me only now that I am to wed the king?! The very thought darkened my mood, I crumple the paper immediately and angrily throw it into the fire. The letter quickly blackens along with a small bit of love and respect I possess for my father. My father would regret his choice, I refuse to be a pawn in one of my father's political games. I may have loved Andres once but now it has become my mission to love and produce a son to a man I have never met and may never even love.
Those who have doubted me will come to regret that choice. I am stronger than any mere man, I may have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and the stomach of a king....

I will prove them all wrong and become the best queen England has ever seen.