Festina Lente

Chapter Thirty-Two: Back at Court

"Your Highness," Lady Mary whispered curtsying to her mother, she lowered her eyes and tried to ignore how nervous that she felt about seeing her mother again. 

Her heart pounded her chest and when she rose back to her feet, she stared at the woman before her unsure how to feel about seeing her again; the anger bubbled inside of her and a sense of loss at everything that she had endured. 

Their lives could have been different if Katherine had just accepted that the King needed to remarry so that he might have a legitimate child to rule after him something that Lady Mary was not.

"Allow me to introduce my intended, the Duke of Hertford," Lady Mary stated quickly turning away from her mother and turning to look at Ippolito most grateful for the distraction; she did not wish to dwell on the mistakes of the past. 

They were coming together for a joyful celebration and it would not do for her wedding day to be marred by her parents history; she was most relieved to find that she would not be an old maid. 

"Your Highness," Ippolito greeted offering a bow to his bride-to-be's mother, he had to admit that he hadn't been sure what to expect of the famed Katherine of Aragon who was now returning in disgrace. 

It seemed that her time away had humbled her and Ippolito had no doubts that the King's kind treatment had been the reason for this; she would be a fool to make an enemy of the King Henry when he had treated her better than she had deserved. 

Pursing her lips slightly as she eyed the bastard that Henry had selected as a suitable husband for their daughter; Katherine wondered just what her former husband had been thinking when the match had been agreed upon. 

Ippolito might have come from a family of great renown but they had little in the way of being a family in which the granddaughter of the great Isabel of Castile should marry. 

"Now that the introductions have been made, I am sure you would like to rest after your journey," King Henry ordered with a clap of his hands and getting to his feet, he offered his hand to Anne to help her as they moved from their thrones. 

There was still much to be done in preparation of the wedding and he wished to indulge his wife with a ride into the countryside before the day was done. 

Katherine stared at Anne, a feeling that she had never experience before clawed at her stomach and she found herself watching the King and Queen leave the greeting hall. 

She recalled when Henry used to look at her that way, when she'd been his Queen and he couldn't take his eyes off her as if she was the most beautiful creature that he had ever encountered. 

Now he barely looked her way and had replaced her with a woman that had given him what he had desired most; not that Katherine intended to allow the young prince to take the throne from her daughter.

It was God's wish to see her Mary on the throne, that Katherine was sure of especially since he'd taken away her brothers and sisters before her; she was destined to be a great Queen with a Spanish Prince that was a suitable match for her instead of an Italian bastard. 

Turning to look at her daughter, Katherine was disappointed to find that Mary had taken the hand of the Duke and was walking away from her with a smile on her face while she conversed with him. 

"Your Highness," the Imperial Ambassador greeted with a bow, he had been most pleased to hear that she would be in attendance of her daughter's wedding. 

It had been most kind of the King to invite her back to court, though her absence had not been missed nor had he dared bring her up in fear of losing what little favour he had at court.