A New Chance at Life

Chapter fourteen

Not long after that this occurred, Anne heard the sounds of a disturbance of some sort outside her chambers. She turned her head and as she did so she saw Charles rushing past one of her ladies, while saying, "I do not care that you say that she is retiring to bed. I need to speak to my fiancé and I will speak to her. And truly, I need not reciprocate this towards you, as you are neither my fiancé nor my King and lord who I am obligated to answer to. Now madam, I do not mean to act so cross towards you, since you neither deserve it nor are you the one who my anger is truly focused at. I humbly ask your pardon, but please. I need to see the Marquess, Lady Anne."

"Now, now, my lord. I do dearly like and care for my ladies and I would prefer for this to not happen again," I say with a slight smirk on my face, facing him, still sitting in my chair by the fireplace. "Now what is so dearly important that this could not wait till the morning?"

"My Lady Anne. I have just come from the Kings chambers an-. . ." he stopped once he saw the side of my face from the light of the fire. "Anne! What . . . who did this to you?" he asked as he knelt by my chair and examined the faint but visible mark forming on the side of my face.

"Charles, it is nothing for you to worry about." I said but was cut-off from continuing.

"My dear, I have a feeling this has something to do with the Queen. She rushed in, in the Kings chamber, while we were discussing documents and she was in a state of shock and near tears," he said as he looked me in the eyes.

"Please darling, tell me what happened. I need to know so if something comes of whatever the Queen may say, I am able to protect you. Although I know and have seen you execute your notorious temper, I know you would not execute it on anyone who did not deserve it or otherwise unless they did something to provoke you to protect yourself."

"Charles, really it is nothi-."

"Anne, tell me."

"Yes."

"Yes, what? That the Queen did this? Why did she do this heinous act?"

I stared back at him and gently lifted his hand from my cheek and lightly kissed it. "Because I took Henry away from his true wife and Queen. And now I am just receiving my dues for all the wrongs I have done to reach as high as I did. But for the reason of the Queen seeming in the state of shock was because I passed along a simple and very true statement. And that message was for her to stay in the Kings graces and provide him a son, and fast. As well as to keep an eye on the women around Henry because if she does not provide him a son and keep him satisfied, he will do the same thing he did to me and find a mistress. And I am starting to believe those words. Maybe I did deserve everything that happened. My children besides Elizabeth to never see the light of day. To never know the love of a mother."

"Stop, Anne, my darling. You deserved none of that to happen towards you. No woman does. And to what she said, none of it is true. Even if when it happened and we were not exact 'friends' and at one point I did not agree to everything that Henry was doing for you. I have grown to see the reasons that he did everything and your feelings were true. Now Anne, I am sure I will be told all about this in the morning by Henry. I want you, if need be, be ready to tell Henry yourself that you did not lay a hand on the Queen but it was she who did to you."

"Alright Charles. Now that you seem to have cooled down. Would you like to sit with me by the fire and relax? We can play some cards if you wish... I think I have improved from the last time I played. I think I will even beat you now, although, between you and me, I have beaten Henry multiple times before but have acted like I lost. So, I think I am relatively good, I just followed like everyone else and let him win to withhold his massive temper."

"My dear I will take you up on both. I have a great anticipation to test your skills."

"Charles?"

"Yes?"

"I have come to like your endearments to me. Calling me your dear and your darling. I feel you care for me and my feelings are also growing."

"Well, my dear, I hope our future together will be a happy one. And for as ever long as you allow me, I hope to continue to call you these terms. And once we are married, we can talk about what we wish to do for and as our newly joined family. If this pleases you, Anne"

"It pleases me very well Charles. I agree with you. We will talk more of our families once we are married. For now, I plan on beating you in a game of cards. It might even be fun to win some money off of you."

"My dear, we will see if you can. Let the game begin."