Forbidden Love (Tudors)

Chapter Nineteen

Bessie wished and hoped with all her heart that Edward would come after her as she walked away from the dancing couples. But alas, he did not, and she knew he could not, for it would have caused such a scene and scandal that may have even eclipsed the relationship between the King and Anne.

She tried with all her might to push past the crowd of courtiers; singing, dancing, and drunken chatter rang through her ears, and envy and jealousy coursed through her as the images of Edward and Anne Stanhope flashed through her mind. Her desire to leave grew tenfold, but the crowd almost seemed unmovable.

She had hardly made it past any courtiers and was still at the fringes of the floor of dancing couples when a steel grip suddenly clenched her arm.

"Is something the matter, daughter?" Bessie's father, the Duke of Norfolk, asked snidely. "Are you trying to purposely disgrace us by making a scene?"

Norfolk surveyed the room as if purposely trying to find the cause of Bessie's distress. Indeed, his eyes landed upon Edward and Anne Stanhope, and an expression of dark glee graced his countenance.

"Ah, I see," he said, and cruelly turned her to face the dancing pair. Other courtiers seemed oblivious to the scene between father and daughter.

Bessie tried to pull her arm from his grip as she watched her lover and another woman in a close environment, but Norfolk held strong.

"Young Seymour has finally found a more suitable match, one that better befits his station. Had you not heard, Elizabeth? It is becoming widely known that Anne Stanhope is to become his betrothed in the next few months," Norfolk said quietly in her ear.

"Please may I be excused, Father?" she replied neutrally, though on the inside she felt her heart aching.

He still would not relent.

"Perhaps you should go and offer your congratulations, Elizabeth?"

It was at that moment that Bessie knew she could no longer endure the constant torment and cruelty from her father. Thus, for the first time in her twenty-four years of life, Bessie Howard defied the Duke of Norfolk.

She wrenched her arm out of his grip and raised her eyes to his in a confident glare.

"No," she said. "If you wish to humiliate me, Lord Father, it will work no longer. Now, I am leaving, and if you do not want to cause a scene, you will tell people that I have a megrim and that I have had to retire."

And with that, she pushed past him and left the great hall, but not before witnessing the shocked expression that had arisen upon her father's face.

She knew a few onlookers had heard her conversation, and that her name would soon be on the lips of the gossip-hungry courtiers, but she was hurt, and standing up to her cruel father had left her with a temporary sense of freedom, albeit small.

She held the skirts of her gown as she rushed down the corridor to the gardens of the palace. Luckily it was deserted, for everyone was of course celebrating in the great hall.

She found a stone bench under the cover of an oak tree. The only light around her was that of the bright winter moon. She turned her face up to look at the stars and finally let the tears fall freely down her cheeks.

She felt stupid and overwhelmed by emotion. Was he going to be betrothed? Why had he not told her? After all they had spoken about and promised each other?

"Bessie? Are you well?" a voice suddenly rang out in the quiet darkness behind her. In her haste to the garden, and amidst the onset of her emotion, she had not registered that someone had followed her outside.