1511
As if through a haze, she saw them searching for her.
It was spring, and the pollen was hanging thick in the air. A soft breeze was blowing and Anne was hiding in the trees. She was concealed behind the branches that had only recently regained their leaves, relishing as she watched them seeking her and failing. She suppressed a giggle as her brother ran straight past her as she hid. He carried on running, picking his way over fallen twigs and brambles until he came out at the other side of the patch of trees. Anne grinned under the shade of the leaves. Silently, she removed her shoes, wiggling her toes in the slightly damp grass. It was slightly prickly beneath her feet, but she didn’t mind. It was still wet, and it felt cool against her heels. 850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoTAshUycBj
Without making a sound, she turned from her hiding place behind the tree and headed further away from the castle, closer towards the river.
She reached the banks of the river Eden, and glancing behind her shoulder, she saw that she was quite alone. Neither George nor Thomas had witnessed her departure from her hiding place, and she imagined that both were still seeking her quite frantically. Looking up at the sky, she saw that their hour was almost up. The game would be over and Anne would have won. Again.
There was nothing she was better at than hide and seek. There was nothing she was better at than winning.
“Tom!! I’ve found her!!” George shouted.
He had seen her from far away, and Anne cursed under her breath as her brother ran up to her, triumphant. She knew she should have remained under cover of the trees for just a bit longer. Mentally she cursed herself for coming out into the open too early.
“I told you we’d find you this time!” He said breathlessly. “I said, didn’t I? I said you couldn’t win again.”
He had a stupid grin on his face, and Anne exhaled stubbornly. She folded her small arms across her chest and tilted her head to one side.
“I let you win, imbecile.” She said indignantly.
George scoffed as Tom joined them by the waterside. He too was breathless, his cheeks glowing red from both his exposure to the sun and his exercise.
“You know Anne hates to lose.” Tom said with a small grin. Anne stuck her tongue out at him and George laughed.
“I haven’t lost!!” She insisted. “I let you win. It doesn’t count.”
The boys shrugged, sitting down by the side of the river. Anne silently admitted defeat, and joined them, throwing herself down onto the grass. They spent the rest of the day like that, rolling around on the grass by the water, occasionally dipping their feet in the river and splashing one another.
Anne would later receive a telling-off from her mother - her feet were grass stained, her dress was muddy and the hood that covered her dark hair was lopsided. Not that she cared; she'd much rather have muddy knees and messy hair than be like Mary, who had to stay inside all day and study. Anne would protest as much, and she did so when her mother inevitably scolded her for her frivolity. Anne apologised, but it was void of any real meaning, and her mother, wishing to avoid one of Anne's tantrums, sighed heavily, handing the child back into the care of her governess. Anne saw Tom and George waving as she was taken inside, her sullen face the picture of unhappiness. She hated it when she didn't get her own way.
June 1540
Anne remembered that summer. It was the most vivid summer of her life; every day had been spent playing in the gardens with Thomas and George. At the time she could have sworn her childhood was going to last forever. All too soon it seemed to be over, and now things were so different that that summer seemed like a different world.
She remembered George. His dark hair and the eyes exactly the same as their mother's. His wit and sarcasm that would always earn him a clout round the ear from his tutors, and his carefree smile that always got him into trouble... 850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzkg6Dbwhx2
George always swore to stand by her side. He swore it, and she knew it to be true. She knew he would do anything to save her, should she need it. She never doubted it. He kept his promise at least. He went to the scaffold for her, in the end.
In the silence she found her mind always went back to George. Each night, even after four years, she woke up in a sweat. She saw the axe coming down over and over, reliving the pain of George's death every time she closed her eyes. Sometimes she relived the whole day, from the first man on the scaffold to the last, remembering each of them. Mostly though, it was George. If she could bring anyone in the world back, she lamented, it would be her brother.
It was the start of June when Anne saw Thomas Cromwell.
The sun outside was shining brightly, but the air of dignity and authority that usually surrounded the Lord Privy Seal had disappeared. His eyes were dull and tired and great bags hung underneath them, telling the tales of too many sleepless nights. Anne had never seem him so dishevelled.
“Do sit, Cromwell.” She said somewhat reluctantly. Her years in captivity must have softened her; all she felt for the man was pity.
“Anne, I feel I must come to apologise.”
Anne snorted.850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ92pivfTJ7v
“Apologise? It is a little late for that, don’t you think?” She said scornfully, pity fading quickly.
Cromwell looked into her eyes, seeing within them all of the pain he had caused her. He had lost her her throne, her husband, her power, her brother and her daughter. He shook his head sadly.
“I fear… I fear the king will arrest me any day now. He is sure to exile me as he has you.”850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFlhNECx7iu
“The wheel of fortune rises and falls, Cromwell. Didn’t your mother ever tell you that?” Anne said regally. The balance of power had been restored in her eyes; here he was, grovelling before her once again.
“No. She believed it was a medieval and dated concept.” He said with a sniff.850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJiPV3VAENM
Anne shrugged.
“But it applies, does it not? I was once at the top of the wheel, and you at the bottom. You brought me down to raise yourself, and now as the wheel turns…” She said, making the shape of a turning wheel in the air with her finger. “…You fall, and I rise.”
“I did not come here to talk of fate and philosophy.” He said bluntly.
“Then why are you here?” Anne asked, matching his tone. She was growing quite tired of him expecting her sympathy. He was no martyr, and yet here he sat, wanting absolution.
“I must confess something to you.”
“Speak.”
“For many years now I have been plagued by my guilt. My… part… in the accusations placed against you.” He said softly. Anne exploded.
“Your part?! You invented the accusations against me!” She spat. He raised his hands palms forward in surrender.
“Anne, please.” He spoke. “Allow me to finish.”
She exhaled heavily through her nostrils and nodded for him to continue.
“Soon after the council passed the sentence against you, I felt uneasy. No matter what you think, I invented nothing. It seems..." He paused. "It seems that rumours were taken for evidence and the king and I and the council believed them. We took Smeaton's confession as the only evidence we needed." 850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF5OKq6tTDL
Anne narrowed her eyes.850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1GhCpPMG6H
"Several things since that day convinced me of your innocence. I swear to you Anne, I believed you guilty. My actions were undertaken in a genuine pursuit of justice, not malice."850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY226q1vdTL
Anne bit back a laugh.850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNMxCcvQUpl
"This is your apology?" She asked bitterly. Cromwell held up his hands again.850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHidfQLJOH6
"Afterwards, I persuaded the king to commute your sentence. I couldn't save the others, but I saved you from the block, Anne." He paused again, and looked down at his hands. "Afterwards... with Elizabeth taken away..." He met her searching eyes and when he spoke, it almost sounded like a lump had formed in his throat. "I know what is is like to lose a child. I lost my daughter and my wife to the sweating sickness. I know the pain of living without your child… I could not bear it. I decided I must help you.”
Anne was intrigued now, her curiosity increasing.850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFT2CiI4HRm
“Go on.” She said suspiciously.
“For the past few years I have been giving Mary part of my own income in order to support Elizabeth, since the king refused to give her anything. I ensured Elizabeth would have at least a half-decent upbringing. And when the king ordered your pension and household reduced, it was I that removed his eyes and ears from your home. It was I that told Mary it was safe to bring Elizabeth to you and it was I that made sure the king ignored you.” He blurted. His words were running into one another, his voice rising, his tone growing agitated.
Anne remained silent, unsure of how to react. When she was able to speak, all she could ask was: “Why?”
Cromwell shrugged and with a sigh, his shoulders dropped and he spoke again.
“I am getting older, Anne. The morality of my actions began to sit uncomfortably with me, and since I feel within my heart that I shall not live to see the next decade, I must right my wrongs before my judgement. I do not wish to spend eternity in Hell burning for the pain I have caused on this earth.”
“I… Thank you.” She said softly. She could not quite bring herself to thank him in the way that she should, the way that he wanted to be thanked. “You have enabled me to see my daughter and for that I am grateful.” She said regally. She thought Cromwell’s supposition that he should not see the next decade was wrong. Anne believed he would not even live to see the next year, and so what was the harm in forgiving a dying man?
He cleared his throat and rose to leave, but after saying his goodbyes, he paused for a moment at the door.
“Anne, when you mentioned the wheel of fortune… You said you are beginning to rise. Forgive me, but I do not at all see how.” He said curiously, motioning to the empty room around him.
Anne raised her eyebrows and leaned back in her high-backed chair.
“Elizabeth is rising, and all I care for in the world is my daughter. When she rises, so do I.” She said simply.
Cromwell blinked, and without saying a word, he departed.
The very next week Anne received news from Thomas that Cromwell had been arrested. Not even his son Gregory, brother-in-law to the the dead Jane Seymour, had been able to save him. Anne would have thought that Gregory’s connection to Henry’s “one true wife” would have been enough to save his father. But just as in everything else when it came to the king, Anne had long since lost the ability to predict his actions.
Anne thought of Cromwell in the tower, accused of treason, no less. She had been right, she thought to herself. He would not live to see the year out. Henry had accused him of treason and there was not a chance that Cromwell was making it out of the Tower alive.850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJiWK9MeSvO
She thought of him in there, languishing inside the stone walls. Cromwell was never good with enclosed spaces. It must be driving him mad.
Despite her resentment for the man, she could not help but feel sorrow at the cruelty of the world and the harshness of the wheel of fortune.850Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmDPBjpkNHp
Many that had reached the top of the wheel had already fallen, and Cromwell was simply the latest in a long list of fallen fortunes.
