Between Two Kings Read Online Free Page B

living conditions even during pregnancy, she thought ironically.
    Anne spent the majority of time in bed, thinking of Henry and reading the books sent to her by Archbishop Cranmer. At times, she talked to her ladies about her past life at the French court and at Archduchess Margaret’s court in the Low Countries. The ladies liked talking to Anne as she was an intelligent female companion. They deeply sympathized with Anne, understanding that she was most likely innocent, as she had confessed to Cranmer.
    During those dreadful months at the Tower, as she waited for her death, Anne often remembered her love story with King Henry. Her great romance with Henry was always on her mind; their story began in heaven and ended in tatters as she had been thrown to hell, without any chance of going back. When she thought of Henry, which she did every hour, every second of her waking day, it was with a curious feeling of emptiness and hatred, like a painful, insatiable hunger for Henry’s blood, which she tried to satisfy by letting her mind dwell constantly on many moments when he had been cold, indifferent, and cruel to her and their daughter.
    Amazingly, Anne still couldn’t understand how Henry could have been so tender one moment and so cruel the next. Had cruelty always been hidden in his heart? Was it absolute power that had corrupted Henry and changed his character so much? Was it Anne’s fault that Henry became a heartless and cruel man even to the people who truly loved him?
    She knew that she had pushed Henry, directly and indirectly, to change England and their lives for her and her family; those innovations gave Henry a sweet taste of absolute power no King of England had ever had before. Absolute power transformed Henry from a caring, tender, and loving man to a cool-blooded, empty-hearted, and cruel tyrant. Undoubtedly, Anne was guilty of many horrible things and played a considerable role in her own demise; she’d brought her tragic demise on herself.
    Anne had many bright and dark memories of Henry. Her eyes filled with tears as the images of her happy moments with Henry flashed in her mind; the time of Henry’s love for her counted amongst her most cherished memories, although it seemed to her now to belong to another life. All the happy moments she had with Henry were taunted by his indifference and cruelty. Their recent past was tragic and tantalizing; it was too much to bear.
    At first, Anne hadn’t loved Henry. When her father, Thomas Boleyn, told her to attract the king’s attention, she set herself in the king’s path. It was a game of passion and seduction for Anne, whose French nature was tied to being a beautiful, enigmatic, passionate, and alluring seductress. Anne was astounded how quickly Henry fell for her and began to make clear hints that he had wanted her to become a royal mistress.
    But she wasn’t stupid; she didn’t want to be just his lover, understanding that she would surely be supplanted by another mistress as soon as the king was tired of her. Anne denied Henry what he wanted, and she fiercely repudiated his proposal to become his official  maîtresse en titre , the only woman in the king’s bed. While Anne denied him, she also hinted at what he could have, but never giving it to him. She played in her own game, but it was so only in the beginning.
    Her feelings for Henry started changing when he began to court her without trying to put her in his bed. He treated her like a woman he loved, not like a new mistress who only warmed his bed. They had a beautiful courtship; sensitive, romantic, and long. It was fair to say that their fairy-tale love story began not at the court, but rather at the Hever Castle, in Kent, where Anne was raised and spent her childhood with Mary and George. Hever was a romantic shrine for Anne and her love affair with Henry. Anne still remembered how many times the royal page came to Hever and brought to her numerous love letters in which Henry expressed his