The Other Henry VIII

The Mask of a Queen

11 February 1524
The first thing that Leia saw when she opened her eyes was the empty pillow beside her head. Then came the snowy white bed-sheets. Then the melted candle on the bedside cabinet, the dressing-table, the stool, and the stack of books and silver-backed hand-mirror on the polished wooden surface. Everything was as she had left it the night before.

Leia rolled onto her back, facing the ceiling of the four-poster bed. Her mouth was as dry as a cave, her eyes sore, but did not feel like sending for a goblet of water. The chamber was still relatively dark, since the shy February sun had yet to show its face from behind the stubborn clouds, but she did not feel like lighting a new candle. Instead, she just lay there, playing the different outcomes in her mind, though she knew it would not assist her decision in any way.

She could accept her infertility. Of course, that would involve stepping aside as Queen Consort and admitting defeat. The Pope would allow Henry to annul the marriage and he could take another wife who could provide him with the sons that he desired. Perhaps he loved Leia enough to keep her as his mistress, otherwise she would be abandoned back at her childhood home. Dashwood Castle would house her for the remainder of her isolated, spinster life.

She could continue as usual, waiting for her husband to visit her bed and praying every morning for God to send her a child. It had only been nine months and a half since their wedding night and she was not even twenty-two years old. There was plenty of time for her to conceive. Marianne's bastard could die young, as so many others did. Not all women were as delightfully fertile as Henry's first two wives.
But Leia was not a woman who would sit meekly and wait for good fortune to choose her. The anxiety was eating her alive, and something had to be done about it.

There was woman living a few miles away, Verity had informed her, known as Old Margery. Rumours told that she made remedies and draughts to help problems of the people in her village, from mysterious ailments to missing children. One of her potions had apparently given twin boys to a barren woman in her late forties; people whispered that they were sired by the Devil himself.
Henry planned to hunt today. Not a soul would notice if she slipped away with Verity and rode on horseback to visit the crone with the miracle elixirs. She would have a prince in her arms by the end of the year and this corroding uncertainty and dread would vaporise. It all seemed so simple now.

Just as that thought flitted into Leia's mind, a wave of nausea engulfed her body. She sat up immediately and leapt out of bed, the icy hands of the bare floorboards taking hold of her feet, and sprinted to the garderobe. She reached out her hands to steady herself on the platform, scarcely in time for the bile to launch itself from her throat, straight into the hole. Groaning, Leia felt knees buckled beneath her and she collapsed onto the floor with a heavy thud. There must have been something wrong with the food at the feast last night.

And then, it hit her. Leia's weary eyes shifted from the bare walls to the the dark hole beside her. It could not be. Not now, when everyone had lost hope. A gasp of astonishment escaped her lips as she forced her trembling legs to support her weight. Perhaps Henry had not left for hunting quite yet.

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Laced into a royal-blue and gold gown and hair braided into a bun beneath a circlet of diamonds, Leia strode briskly through the corridors of the palace. She was still not used to everyone bowing and curtsying to her, much less being addressed 'Your Majesty'. When she reached the main staircase, the herald was obviously nearby because he announced in a clear, resounding voice, "Her Majesty, the Queen!" Leia swept her gaze over the surrounding courtiers, each one bent lower, smiling impatiently but not stopping. A moment passed before they all returned to their business, allowing her enough time to catch sight of the Princess, who was making her way towards the two Cavill brothers.