Catherine raised her face to the sky. A flock of geese honked as they flew over the castle, taking my misplaced thoughts of the executioner with them.
Only those of us on the first few rows heard Catherine’s final words. “Life is so very beautiful.”
Silence covered everyone in attendance like a shroud as the Queen of England lowered her head onto the block. I squeezed my eyes shut as the executioner drew back his blade, and the sickening thump that followed made me jump.
“Come ladies.” The courtier with the white plume in his hat stepped in front of us. Behind him, Catherine’s lifeless body oozed blood onto the straw. I tried not to look for her head. Luckily, I didn’t see it when I pushed up onto my tiptoes.
“Ladies?”
I lowered myself back down slowly as several men dragged the headless corpse of the child queen from the scaffold.
“Ladies!” The courtier clapped. “Come now,” he chirped, his face and voice much too bright given the occasion. “Let us prepare for the noon meal. You all must change in your given chambers, then appear in the dining hall in one hour’s time.” He waved his hands as though ushering cattle to slaughter. “Come come ladies! Much to be done!”
I felt eyes on me, burning, as I let myself be pushed along with the retreating crowd. Careful to keep a tight grip on Elizabeth’s hand, I dared a glance over my shoulder. There on the scaffold stood the masked executioner, the deadly double-headed axe at his side. Scarlet liquid coated the edge and dripped from the sharp tip. Drop after drop fell dramatically into the straw below.
I was powerless to break away from his piercing stare and could only return it. His haunting image burned into my mind like a portrait. My stomach turned up in knots as the space between us widened. What is so captivating about this ruthless, hooded headsman?
King Henry VIII’s Castle
His Majesty’s Royal Dining Hall
I
touched the embroidered napkin to the side of my mouth. Every fiber of my being wanted to spit the bite of roasted peacock into it, but I couldn’t. Though His Majesty wasn’t dining with us, I knew he was near.
Watching.
Calculating.
Judging.
As I glanced about, the gilded beak of the shiny blue bird in the center of the table caught my eye once again. Beyond it, Elizabeth laughed her musical laugh with the twins, a pair of tow-headed girls brought in from Dorset. Everything about those twins reminded me of summertime on the coast.
“Do you suppose it is real gold?” The wide-eyed girl from Surrey leaned closer to me. The edge of her scalloped collar dipped into her soup bowl. Her pinched mouth sat slightly off center of her thin chin. “On the beak, I mean.”
With my back impossibly straight, I forced an awkward smile and offered her a small nod. My eyes watered as I let the bite of gamey bird slide down my throat. A hint of turkey haunted my palate as I felt for my cup of wine. All the while, I took care to keep the smile pasted on, on pain of vomiting up the royal dinner.
“I suppose it is,” I managed to the girl from Surrey after I’d drained the last of my wine. “Here, take my napkin. For your lapel.”
She accepted it. Her neck and cheeks flushed to rose red. “Oh! Thank you, really.”
From nowhere, a servant appeared and refilled my mug. English wine rose to the brim, fuller and deeper scarlet than before.
I brushed a cocoa brown tendril of hair over my shoulder. “Thank you, sir.”
He leaned close to my ear. “Compliments of the King.”
My heart slapped the inside of my chest and my breath came faster.
Perhaps he is sending drinks around to all the girls.
Careful not to call too much attention to myself, I turned slightly. The redheaded girl from Surrey still mopped at her front and her large, gray eyes watered just a bit. Sure enough, her mug was dry.
Elizabeth, lost in conversation with one of the twins from Dorset, picked up her mug. Her familiar voice rang out across the table like a beacon in my ears. “Do you suppose His Majesty would think me impolite if I were to ask for a refill?” Obviously already feeling the effects of the first helping, Elizabeth sniggered. “That wine is the best to have ever passed my lips!”
King Henry is watching.
My heartbeat, loud before, quickened to a pulsing gallop in my ears. The world spun around me and melted the dining hall into a fresco of colors, faces, and gold-beaked peacocks, still wearing their iridescent feathers. I squeezed shut my eyes and gripped the side of my chair. Mother Mary, please intercede before I become ill.
Someone clapped sharp and quick and sent a hush of quiet over my giggling tablemates. The courtier with the plume strode into the dining hall. His shoes, shiny black, clipped like horse hooves on a cobblestone street.
“Ladies.” He bowed a deep bow. “Once again, it is so good of you all to have accepted the King’s invitation and come to Court.”
I nodded as the fictitious and all-too-familiar speech of thanks rolled off his tongue. Again. In my mind, I mouthed the words along with him. The man never strayed from a syllable.
You are the most desirable women in the whole of England. We are humbled to have shared the company of women such as yourselves.
His plump lips smacked together as he spoke, like two pigs wallowing in the mud and bumping their rears together. “You are the most desirable women in the whole of England.”
A few women fanned themselves proudly.
“We are humbled to have shared the company of women such as yourselves.”
Next, he will say, ‘The King is greatly appreciative and eternally grateful’.
“The King is greatly appreciative and eternally grateful.”
In all his puffed out, done up splendor, the courtier hiccupped and let his drunken stare meet all of ours.
