Read Online Dear Heart, How Like You This by Wendy J. Dunn - Free Book Online Page A

need, she is also young enough to be shaped to her husband’s requirements. I married your mother when she was close to Elizabeth’s years and I close to yours. I also felt not pleased at the prospect of becoming a husband. But, I tell you soothly, my son. My marriage was the best thing, Tom, to ever happen in my life. Furthermore, this girl shows much promise of becoming a very desirable woman. I believe you will not be disappointed in the wife I have chosen for you… I have given this matter a great deal of thought, my boy. Indeed, Thomas, I am very determined this marriage will take place as soon as possible.”
    I got up from my stool so I could be on the same level as my father.
    “But father, I have already decided on another.”
    My father stared at me from underneath bushy, dark brows. I thought, crazily, Why is his hair so silver yet his eyebrows so dark?
    “So, Tom, has she got a name? Or is she some trollop you have been making calf eyes at whilst you should have been busily studying your books?” he roared in irritation.
    I took a deep breath; my heart beat so fast that I feared my chest would burst.
    “I desire to marry the Mistress Anne Boleyn,” I blurted out.
    My father stared at me again, looking at me as if I had lost my senses, then erupted with laughter. Groping around, he found a stool to sit upon and put his knuckles to mouth. Glancing at me, his head shook slightly, as if he still did not quite believe what I had said.
    “Oh, Tom. I am sorry my boy, but I had to laugh. I always knew you were a romantic lad, as well as a dreamer, but even so I could never imagine that your head was so much up in the clouds you could even begin to believe Boleyn would agree to match either of his two daughters on you. Surely you must realise how high his ambitions for his offspring are?”
    Without waiting for an answer, my father leaned forward and began to speak even more earnestly. “Anne, I believe, Tom, is promised to the Butlers of Ireland. She is the only sure way Tom Boleyn has to gain what he sees as his rights in Ireland. Especially now that his elder girl has entirely ruined her reputation by jumping from a King’s bed to that of his groomsman… I hear the French King has even given your poor cousin Mary a new nickname; he calls her his ‘hackney.’ Broken in by the King only to give service to others in his court. I feel very sorry for the girl. ’Tis what I would have half-expected myself if I had sent such a young daughter away from her family to a licentious court—such which is found in the court of the French King. Not the best way, I would have thought, to ensure a respectable match. ’Tis a good thing too that your uncle decided to bring Mary home. I believe Boleyn’s fortunate both his girls’ reputations were not ruined. Aye, Tom, Boleyn is very fortuitous indeed. Anne was so young when she was first sent abroad, she was sent to Queen Claude’s court, which, I have been told by those who should know, is just as good as being sent to a strict nunnery.”
    “Yea, father. I realise all this already, but…”
    “Tom, I am not finished. I want you to listen and try hard to understand. I am sorry, my boy, but you must begin to face the truth. When Boleyn and I began our careers at court we were on a par, but I knew even then that his ambition would lead him far. Especially when I saw for myself how Boleyn encouraged his own new bride to play at love games with the King, when the King was a prince and no more than your age—nay, even younger. My son, his ambition has led him far. Much higher than my lack of ambition has led me. But I rest easy in my bed. I have a reputation with the King for being an honest man, Tom. There are not many men at court that can boast that, but I am afraid Boleyn wants more for his daughter than just a son of an honest man.
    “In any case, Anne has been in France for the last four years or more. I cannot understand you, Tom. How can you say that you desire