Page 40 of Six Wild Crowns

“It would make my love for Boleyn very apparent.”

“Is that bad?”

“Have you heard? What my people are saying about her?”

Seymour has heard a little. She caught murmurings from the servants, from lesser courtiers. And of course, Clarice has told her,with a chin jut that says they hold the originators of the gossip in highest contempt, even as they spread the gossip.

“She doesn’t deserve to be so maligned,” is all she says.

“We have done a lot for her people, and this is how they repay us,” he says.Us?Seymour thinks.The only thing you did was give your wife money.

“So you will ally with Capetia to prove your love for her?”

The king smiles sadly. Some might say, nobly.

“I wish I could. Boleyn possesses the most brilliant mind. But these rumours have made it impossible for me to follow her schemes. It would be seen as further proof that she has bewitched me.”

“I cannot think that anyone can believe that,” Seymour says truthfully. No one who has been in the king’s presence, who has seen the aura of the divine magic surrounding him, could ever believe that sorcery would work on him.

“Do you know my people better than me, madam?” he says. He’s still smiling, toying with her the way Boleyn does.

“Of course not.” They continue walking.

“I am certain that you will find the right way. You must have many other ideas, so much better than anything anyone else could have imagined,” she says.

He laughs again. “Please don’t try to compliment me again, Lady Seymour. You’re clumsy when you’re not being honest.”

“I’m clumsy all the time,” Seymour says. “I find it overwhelming to be surrounded by all these quick wits at Brynd.”

“Well, if everyone was as clever as the Boleyn family, the world would be a tempestuous place,” he says. His smile fades. She hazards a guess at the cause – something that will make him feel good about himself, even if she is wrong.

“Are you thinking of Queen Blount?”

He nods.

“How long were you married?”

“Nigh on a decade. She was a wonderful woman. Very quiet, but she had the most incredible strength. She used to make this adorable face when she was reading. Like this.”

He screws up his face and bites his lower lip. Seymour laughs,even though she thinks how strange it is to be courted by a man with descriptions of his recently deceased wife. Stranger still that it makes him more attractive.

“You and she endured much together.” She’s referring to their son, the boy who would have been Elben’s heir. He survived longer than Queen Aragon’s sons, passing away from consumption as a boy.

Henry nods, pats her hand as though he’s the one comforting her. “She’ll be with him now, at least. Maybe that’s what hastened her illness. Maybe she wanted to see him again.”

He seems to be reassuring himself. Emboldened by this intimacy, Seymour says, “What do you think she would want you to do now, if she could speak to you from the heavens?”

“I think… I think she would understand that everything that I have done has been for Elben. She would understand.”

They continue their walk in silence. His hand is, once again, cocooning hers.

She becomes aware of two burly men approaching along a different path.

“These are your guards, now, Lady Seymour,” the king says.

“Guards?”

“You’ve placed yourself in great danger through your loyalty to me and mine. Now allow me to show my loyalty to you.”

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