happyfalcon | [For Thomas] Surprising Developments

[For Thomas] Surprising Developments

It had been some weeks since Anne had spent the afternoon composing poetry with Mark and Thomas. But in that short amount of time, so much had happened that Anne could hardly believe that it was all real, that none of it was a dream...

Thomas finished the poem soon enough and one evening Anne had stood beside his sister Margaret, with Mark playing the violin beside them both, and sang for the court. It was beautiful, and the sight of Thomas, so happy and overjoyed, it had been overwhelming for Anne. She had longed to go to him that evening but it was not to be. Her father had taken her from the crowds in the hall and took her down to the catacombs. There George had brought a fine white gown which she had been commanded to change into.

For she was to marry the King that very night.

Anne had tried to protest but her father had forced her. George kept their father's rage in check as best he could, and under his breath advised his sister that she had best forget her secret lover and do as their father commanded. With no escape possible, Anne submitted, and married Henry VIII.

In the time after their wedding, Anne's headaches had grown worse. Mornings were the worst, and often she could not rouse herself from bed without first throwing up into her chamber pot. To make matters worse, her belly had begun to swell and her bleeding had stopped. Anne was horrified - she was pregnant, and she knew precisely who the father was.

Thomas Wyatt.

She had not been herself the past few days since she had figured out her condition. Anne still attended court and the festivities that evening brought. But one night she could contain it no longer. After a long night of refusing wine and avoiding the smells from the food table, Anne grabbed Mary by the hand and led her back to a more private chamber, unaware of any who might see them and follow after them.

She had to tell someone, and she couldn't bear to tell Thomas, not yet.

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It had been beautiful and Wyatt's smile couldn't have been wider. Both his sister and Anne did the poem justice. The crowd had cheered and Mark - for some reason - had winked at him while playing his violin.

But the happiness did not last long although Wyatt wasn't immediately worried when Thomas Boleyn took Anne away that night. It didn't please him but it was unavoidable. He tried not to let it get to him. On the next day however, came two annoucements that shook the court's balance.

The king had fallen ill. At first there was scarcely any knowledge distributed to the concerned citizens. People started to whisper how Henry had not looked very well recently though that had been blamed on the pressures of foreign politics. Now, apparently the king laid in his bed and felt miserable.

But if an indisposed king wasn't enough, the Boleyns and Cranmer made it known that Henry had secretly married Anne. She would be the queen as soon as a proper ceremony could be arranged. As for now, she could no to be seen either, for she too was ill.

Wyatt was beside himself at these news. His whole body was bursting with anguish and disbelief and sadness. He paced the corridors of the castle and imagined how angry Anne must have been at him again for not protecting her from this marriage. He had failed again. He had not taken her away soon enough.

She was married now, just like he had said she should be. Except that he did not want her to be married anymore. So Wyatt did the only thing he could think of, and which Anne would most likely disapprove. He escaped to Allington. He could not stay in London.

But eventually Henry got better and he ordered his courtiers to be present. Wyatt tried to find an excuse not to return but in the end, if reluctantly, he did his duty. He dreaded the moment he'd see Anne again.

Henry had been positively insatiable since he'd recovered from his illness. He seemed to constantly touch her and want her - each time she'd been able to playfully refuse or used her mouth to please him, as she was worried for the baby currently riding in her belly. Oh, how she wished she could have told Thomas herself that she'd married Henry, but the news had spread too quickly for her to catch him in time.

Thus she hadn't known how to talk to or approach him since.

So as Henry caroused and carried on with his friends at the other end of the hall, Anne tugged Mary off to a more secluded set of rooms. As they made their way through the courtiers, Anne glanced up and spotted Thomas among the other men, near George. Anne had to pause, staring at him a moment before tears came to her eyes and she had to keep moving.

"Nan? Nan! What's wrong?" Mary demanded even as Anne pulled her out of the great hall and into a smaller room where they could talk, unaware that the door had not been closed completely.

Wyatt had been trying to avoid George because he loathed hearing the young Boleyn triumphing over the excellent marriage that Anne had got herself into. Unfortunately he couldn't entirely choose his own company. He and his father were close friends of the Boleyns and it would have looked suspicious if he had kept a distance now. So Wyatt endured this gathering of courtiers with the help of a drink or two.

He saw Anne passing by with Mary and the pained look on her face made him almost choke in his wine. The laughter and noise in the great hall rang in his ears.

"Are you coming along?"

Henry Norris's question startled him. Wyatt had not paid attention to the topic at hand but nor was he interested in finding out what it was.

"Um... yes. I mean no. No. Excuse me," he replied bluntly and bowed to his friends in order to leave.

"Thomas?"

But Wyatt didn't turn back. He hurried away but once in the corridor he had no way of knowing which way Anne and Mary had gone. Disappointed he paused in his steps-- and heard faint voices coming from a room nearby.

Wyatt hesitated. If it was Anne and Mary, he had no right to eavesdrop. Yet his legs moved him towards the door and stopped in the shadows.

“Nan, what in the world has gotten into you?” Very poor choice of words at that question – but Mary didn’t know, so Anne couldn’t fault her.

“Mary, I…” Anne’s voice cracked, she wouldn’t be able to fight it, not this time. “I’m in terrible trouble…”

“What’s happened? Has someone hurt you? Why isn’t George here!?” Mary demanded.

“No! No…George can’t know…” Anne's voice was full of terror at the prospect of George finding out about her condition.

“Know what? Anne…spit it out, for God's sake you’re scaring me.”

After a few deep breaths, Anne did manage to answer. “I am…I am with child,” Anne croaked, the very words nearly making her sick.

Mary, thinking this good news, gave a squeal of delight. “Nan!! That’s wonderful! Congratulations! Have you told his majesty? He’ll be overjoyed at the news, and so will Papa! Anne, don’t you see that this solidifies things? This secures your position in his life, you're carrying the King's son!” Mary grinned.

“The King would be a great many things if he knew, Mary – overjoyed is not one of them,” Anne shook her head, a little annoyed now at her sister’s jubilance. “Mary I'm not carrying the King's son.”

Mary’s face fell and her complexion paled. “Then…how…Anne. Whose child are you carrying?”

Anne tried to stay strong, tried to keep herself under control, but the tears were already pouring down her face when she finally replied. “Thomas Wyatt’s.”

Mary gasped and took a step backwards, nearly hitting the door.

“Anne how could you!? How could he?? He’s got a wife, at that, has he not? Oh Anne…what have you done…”

Anne burst into sobs, falling to her knees, prompting Mary to get down with her and wrap her arms around the younger Boleyn. Hysterically Anne sobbed into Mary’s shoulder for several minutes before she finally got her throat under control and began to settle. Though she was still crying.

“Does he know? Thomas Wyatt, does he know you’re with child?” Mary asked, stroking Anne’s dark waves of hair. Anne shook her head and mumbled something that sounded like ‘no.’

“All right, I’ll tell you exactly what you’re going to do,” Mary leaned back and put her hands on Anne’s shoulders to hold her steadily in front of her.

“First of all: You’re not going to tell Wyatt.”

“What!?” Anne shrieked. Mary clapped a hand over Anne’s mouth and gave her a stern look.

“Hush. Listen to me. You can’t tell him. And the first thing you’re going to do is go to bed with the King, and make sure it’s a night he remembers. You’re already pregnant, you can’t be doubly so, your body won’t allow it – but it will be clear enough to his majesty that the child is his. You’ll start showing and you’ll eventually deliver earlier than expected, but make up an excuse. Say it’s your slender frame making you show more than you are – say the baby came earlier. Doctors don’t know anything! They make mistakes all the time!”

The very suggestion of going to bed with Henry VIII while Thomas Wyatt’s child grew in her belly made Anne want to wretch. Slowly Mary removed her hand and Anne, though looking defeated, shook her head.

“I can’t, Mary, I just can’t…” Anne sobbed. “I cannot lie to him, I can’t hurt Thomas…”

Mary glared at Anne, so dark a glare the likes of which Anne had never seen on her sister’s loving face. “Anne. You’re known to the court as ‘The King’s Whore’. Just as I was. Just as I am. If you tell Wyatt that there’s no way on this earth that the child inside you is anyone else’s but his, why should he believe you? Everyone thinks you and the King have been going to bed together for some months now. I do not doubt you, sister. You have no advantage in lying to me. I know you speak the truth, please don’t think that I am accusing you of lying,” Mary gripped Anne’s shoulders a bit tighter. “It does Wyatt no good to acknowledge a child conceived out of wedlock by the King’s Mistress. You have no way of proving it, Nan.”

Utterly defeated, hopeless, Anne buried her face in her hands and wept bitterly. Mary drew her sister to her chest and held her tight. “You can’t tell Papa. Nor George. This stays between us, Nan, do you understand? Do as I say, and all will be well. The King will be none the wiser and you will bear a son of his blood.”

“I’m going to be sick, Mary…” Anne whimpered.

“Don’t be so dramatic, he’s not bad in bed Anne,” Mary scolded.

That comment alone made Anne lurch, both hands flying to her mouth for fear of being ill. Mary didn’t flinch away, but after a moment she leaned down to kiss Anne’s forehead. She continued to hold her little sister in her arms and rock her back and forth. Neither had any idea that their conversation had been overheard.

Edited 2015-05-25 01:08 (UTC)

The walls of the castle were thick and the doors made of sturdy oak; it was good for keeping secrets, bad for eavesdropping. But Anne and Mary had not closed the door properly. Wyatt's boots make only minimal noise as he stepped closer. He knew he would be seen as soon as someone walked by, and possibly also from inside the room if he weren't careful.

Having missed the very first part of the conversation Wyatt leaned on the wall and turned his ear towards the crack in the door. He felt extremely guilty for listening but Anne's distress was so clear now that he couldn't turn away.

Then he heard his own name mentioned, followed by a cry which made him freeze. What happened next he wasn't quite sure of. Somehow he understood that Mary was talking of a child, a baby to be born. Anne's baby... and his.

Wyatt's hands curled into fists as he stopped breathing. He tried to grasp what Mary was saying. That is wasn't his child but the King's. Could you be Henry's? Perhaps. He had been married to Anne for some time now.

No. No. They hadn't been married long enough. It was his child and Mary was advising Anne to keep quiet about it. Wyatt wanted to burst into the room to protest the very idea but-- what good would that do?

Wyatt slumped against the wall, his mind all muddled. He had made so many wrong turns when it came to Anne. What would be the right one this time? Silently he asked for divine help in the matter. God would know what to do, surely. But would God help a married man who had got an unmarried woman pregnant?

Mary held Anne in her arms for a little while longer. Then she leaned back and looked into Anne's eyes. "You know I love you?"

Anne nodded and gave a soft whimper of affirmation.

"You know I only want the best for you?" Mary questioned further and got another nod. Mary gave Anne a soft little kiss on the cheek before she stood up, pulling Anne up with her. "Wyatt won't help you, Nan. but I'll do all I can for you."

Anne didn't want to believe that. She remembered their promise. To stay together this time no matter what. She didn't want to doubt anymore. Mary gave Anne one final kiss on the cheek once she was certain the younger Boleyn had calmed down. Then she turned to leave the room.

Yet Anne remained, alone in the room. She lingered for a few moments, glancing down at her belly, trying to determine if she was imagining it, or if her belly had begun to swell. Then she too turned to leave and started the slow, sorrowful walk back to her own chambers. It was still early so the halls were pretty much empty.

Wyatt barely had a chance to duck into a dark corner before Mary came sailing out the room but thank goodness he heard the footsteps in time. Shaken by the news, he wasn't prepared to face Mary or to justify his worth to her. When he realized Anne stayed behind, Wyatt wanted to run to her and to make things right again, but he dwadled just long enough for Anne to slip away as well.

But he wasn't going to leave things as they were. He followed her at a discreet distance, grateful that she had decided to go to her own rooms and not anywhere else. Though she did take her time getting there which wore Wyatt's patience thin. When Anne finally placed her hand on the door knob, Wyatt took hasty steps to reach her.

"Anne." It was a bland statement. Not a question or a yell, but a simple recognizion of her. Wyatt turned her around and stared at her.

"Anne?" He pulled her into the chamber and shoved the door closed. Now this door was really closed. No one could eavesdrop them.

Edited 2015-05-26 21:46 (UTC)

She half-thought she was imagining things when she heard Thomas say her name. But it was only when he took hold of her and turned her towards him that she reacted to him. Anne's eyes were wide as he stood before her. How could he be here? Him, of all people.

What was she to do? She so badly wanted to tell him about the child, their child, growing inside her. But was Mary right? Should she pretend nothing was wrong or going on? She didn't have much time to think about it as he pulled her into her room. Her eyes were wide as she looked to him.

"Thomas, what is it? What're you doing here?" She wondered now why he was here. Something was obviously bothering him.

Not answering, Wyatt pulled Anne into an embrace. He acknowledged that perhaps she was determined to keep the child a secret from him. In that case... well, he wasn't going to let her do that. But how to bring up the subject?

Wyatt glanced around the room over her head. It was the same room she'd had for a while but there were more decorations now. No doubt gifts from Henry. Ornate candle holders, pretty tapestries, a fancy tray with a bowl of apples.

Apples. Indeed. Despite of the gravity of the situation, he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Apples, dear Anne?" he spoke to her hair while still holding her. "When were you going to tell me?"

He knew. Did he? He had only acknowledged the apples...

No, he knew. Anne leaned back and glanced up to him, nearly in tears, somewhere between joy and fear. "How...how did you know?"

But he didn't seem upset, that was a good sign wasn't it? He was chuckling even! No, Mary didn't know what she was talking about. Thomas would stay; he would not abandon her.

Anne's fingers ran instinctively over her belly, as if she could feel their child already moving within her womb.

As Anne leaned back, Wyatt rubbed her shoulders, not willing to let go of her completely.

"I heard you and Mary," he confessed. "I am sorry. I know I shouldn't have." His eyes turned to her belly as well.

"Not sorry. Anne, if it's mine... Are you sure it's mine? Are you sure you're pregnant at all? Maybe you're just stressed. I mean, if you are, this is a right mess but do not doubt for a moment that I wouldn't want to if I'm the father."

Mary's words echoed in Anne's mind. Why should Thomas believe the child is his and not Henry's? Her word alone? She prayed it was good enough.

"I'm sure. I've not been with the King, not as I've been with you, until our wedding night," it had been her obligation after all. "But I've felt strange since before that, and I've missed my bleeding, which if the child were his, it'd be too soon for that."

Her dark eyes were wide and glassy, suddenly overwhelmed with fear thanks to Mary's words. "You believe me, don't you Thomas?"

God he hated thinking and hearing about Anne and Henry in bed together. It made his skin crawl. But more than that he hated seeing her with such sad face. He touched her cheek.

"Don't cry, my love. I... believe you." There was nothing else he could say without upsetting her but Wyatt knew that admitting the fact meant serious things. He shook his head.

"This is bad. Really bad. Damn that night! Why did we-? Why? I should have stopped. We're done for now."

He pressed Anne against his chest again. "What are we going to do?"

Anne was indeed terrified, but in a way she was happy too. She was carrying the child of the man she loved. That was a good thing, wasn't it? But no, they were not married. Er, they were, just not to each other. But Anne was not equipped to handle that question.

"I...I don't know..." She leaned into his chest and buried her face against his neck. "You heard Mary...should I pretend it's the King's child?"

What was their alternative? They could run, she supposed. But where would they go?

"Is it so wrong that I want the baby?" that she wanted to be a mother? Could they have a future if she gave him a son?

Wyatt stroked Anne's hair silently and then turned her face upwards to meet his gaze. He was quiet still, mulling over the words which touched him deeply.

"You want this child?" he asked like it was the most outlandish notion to want a baby to be born in this awful situation.

"You want my child..." Wyatt's mouth turned into a faint smile though it didn't stay for long. He dropped his hands and stepped back, stretching himself tall and looking a bit defiant and a bit sorrowful.

"If you stay with Henry, the baby must be his. Of that Mary was right about. If you don't... I promised to take you away." That promise felt extremely heavy now for she was married to the King of all people.

"I will honour my promise if there is no other way." He didn't know how he'd do it but he needed to be a man of his word.

At first she thought he shared her happiness. That all would be well, they could keep the baby and be happy together. Yet he stepped away. Anne just looked at him for a long moment. She reached out after a long pause and brushed her fingers over his cheek, savoring the feeling of his coarse beard under her fingers.

"How am I to hold you to a promise that makes you so sad?" Anne knew how Thomas loved England. How he loved his son.

She could not take him away from what he loved.

Even if she wanted to run, to be with him, and raise their child together somewhere far away where Henry could not touch them. Even when that meant leaving a crown and throne behind. She was to be queen. But she would give it up to be with Thomas.

"I will not ask anything of you, my love," she said sorrowfully as she brought her hand down. So yes, the child had to be Henry's. They had to pretend.

"It doesn't make me sad. It makes me worried. Your safety, and the safety of this baby depends on what we do. God, Anne, there's more at stake here than just you and me now. We can't make rash decisions."

Unwilling to let her go, Wyatt took her hands in his. "Don't turn away from me. Don't lose hope. We both promised to listen and to talk things through."

He led her across the room to the chair in front of the fireplace. He sat down and pulled her to sit sideways on his lap.

"Now, what do you want? What were your plans before I found out?"

It was difficult for Anne to think of things beyond the two of them. Thomas was already a father, Anne was not yet a mother. But she knew he was right. She followed, wrapping her fingers around his hands as she settled into his lap. It took Anne a long moment to consider his question.

"Truth of the matter is...I had none," she replied. "I knew only that I had to tell you, thus when Mary said not to tell you...I couldn't even think on it."

Anne leaned into him, resting her head against the crook of his shoulder. His scent comforted her. "I want to be happy; I want to be safe; I want to be the mother of your child..." these were all the things she wanted. Just as he had asked. But she didn't know how to accomplish all these things. If they even could.

"I don't want to be Queen..." jewels, fame, fortune - none of that mattered. Not to her.

He was still shaken by the news. If only Anne had discovered the pregnancy before her marriage, their lives would be much easier. Not exactly easy, but more so than with a baby on the way.

"I'm glad you were going to tell me. I deserved to know, even if Mary thought otherwise. She had a point, though. Everyone would believe the baby is Henry's." There was some irony in that statement. Rumours circulated at court that Henry, not William Carey, was the father of Mary's children.

Wyatt placed his hand over the pointy end of Anne's bodice that covered her belly. "You can hide it from most of us for weeks but you can't hide it from Henry for long."

So what could they do? "If we flee England... we'll be in the mercy of other people's goodwill. But if Henry wants you back with offers of a reward for your return, that goodwill hard to come by."

Anne nodded, agreeing completely. He was the father of her child, he deserved to know that. Even if they decided that he could not play father in the traditional sense, he deserved to know that the child she carried was indeed his. Anne glanced down when Thomas placed his hand over her belly. Over their growing child. She couldn't help smiling softly, feeling sentimental and resting her free hand atop his.

"I know...I know you're right. We might find some place where Henry is disliked - those places are not so few. But still, it would be difficult..." and she wasn't sure she could force a newborn infant to endure life like that. Because of her. "If we stay in England, I will have to do as Mary said. The King must think the child is his. Then there's after the baby's born to consider..."

Anne wasn't blind, she saw how Thomas reacted to seeing her with the King. She tipped her head to catch his gaze. "Can you live with that? Seeing not only me with the King, but seeing him raise our child every day?"

"I would have to live with that whether I like it or not. I suppose... Henry might send the baby to be raised in the countryside. You know that often happens with royal children. Princess Mary has been sent away several times."

Wyatt tilted his head to kiss Anne's forehead. "Should I have to choose between not being able to see my child at all or seeing him here with you and Henry, I'd choose the latter." He knew it would be very suspicious for him to visit this child in a country manor out of London.

"I would endure it if it meant seeing him grow up." Wyatt sighed and shook his head. "Can you believe it? If we stay here, my child could one day become the king of England. Or the queen. I'm not sure I'd want such burden for them."

((ooc: The first sentence of my previous tag should have ended: Not exactly easy, but more so than with her now married.

I shouldn't be writing tags so late at night.))

"My child's place is wherever I am. I will not have my child sent somewhere far from here like Mary," Anne was bound and determined not to let Henry send her child away to be raised in her absence. But, if necessary, Anne would make sure to find a way for Thomas to accompany her amongst her encourage when she would go to visit their child.

Anne smiled softly as his lips brushed over her forehead. She chuckled softly at his musing over their baby being the next ruler of England. Her fingers rubbed over her lower belly. She felt so much better now that Thomas knew. She wasn't aline anymore.

They'd get through this together.

"Perhaps I could arrange it so that you could teach him," she offered. Anne figured it would be a way for Thomas to see and spend time with their child daily without arousing suspicion. "How to read and write and about literature - if you like?"

Wyatt ran a hand slowly through his hair and stared at the fireplace. Anne seemed calm and rational which made him happy but he was not happy about the lack of decent options.

"I don't like this. Why can't I see a solution that is a good one?" He didn't want his child to live in poverty in exile, but nor did he want Anne to continue a life with Henry.

Wyatt forced a smile on his face, though. "Yes. I could teach him perhaps." It would be diffcult but he'd have a chance to instill good values on the child. As he considered that, Wyatt realized something important.

"I wish it's a girl. A beautiful baby girl. It's not what Henry wants and he would lament about it but he he would also be less strict about the upbringing."

Anne smiled weakly at his question. "When has a good solution ever been present for us?" She teased him lightly. Ever since the beginning they'd been faced with adversity, and many times Anne had even wondered if God did not want them together.

But damn God and all the saints - Anne would be with Thomas Wyatt.

She considered his wish for a long moment, weighing the option in her head. It would bring hardship upon her and ridicule from her father if she did not produce a son. But Thomas was right. A daughter would be unnoticed, even ignored, by the King, and it would be easier for her to sneak a daughter away for mother-daughter time. Time that they could share with Thomas.

"I agree," her fingers rolled over her belly. "I too wish to have a daughter - our daughter."

"Our daughter. She will be loved so much." Wyatt placed his hand over hers. The moments he shared with her often had a combination of happiness and sadness.

"Is that it, then? Is our decision to stay in London and not run away? To have our child be raised as Henry's?"

Wyatt sighed. "I know you don't want to stay. I know and yet here I am asking you something that I have no right to ask... Can you forgive me for not wanting to leave England? God knows I love you above all things and I ought to put your wants before mine. I'm ashamed of myself, truly."

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