“And are you glad to be a very rich woman?” he asks me. “Am I kissing a great personage? Did you like the jewels? Did you bring them all with you?”

“I love them,” I assure him. “And I take such a pleasure in the wardrobe and the furs. You are very good to me.”

“I want to be good to you,” he says. He pushes a strand of hair away from my face and tucks it behind my ear. His touch is gentle, assured. “I want you to be happy, Kate. I married you to make you happy, not just for myself. I am not thinking just of myself, I am thinking of my children, I am thinking of my country, I am thinking of you.”

“Thank you,” I say quietly.

“Is there anything else you would like?” he asks. “If you command me, you command all of England. You can have samphire from the cliffs of Dover, you can have oysters from Whitstable. You can have gold from the Tower and cannonballs from the Minories. What would you like? Anything. You can have anything.”

I hesitate.

At once he takes my hand. “Don’t be afraid of me,” he says tenderly. “I imagine that people will have told you all sorts of things about me. You will think yourself a Saint Tryphine, married to a monster.”

I give a little choke as he names my dream.

He is watching me closely. “My love,” he says. “My last and only love. Please know this. What people will tell you about my marriages is completely wrong. I’ll tell you the truth. Only I know the truth, and I never speak of it. But I will tell you. I was married when I was a boy to a woman who was not free to marry me. I didn’t know it till God harrowed me with grief. Baby after baby was taken from us. It nearly killed her, it broke my heart. I had to let her go to spare her further pain. I had to release her from a marriage that was cursed. It was the hardest thing I ever did. But if I were to have a son for England I had to let her go. I sent Katherine of Aragon away, the finest princess that Spain ever raised, and it broke my heart to do so. But I had to do it.

“And then, God forgive me, I was seduced by a woman whose only desire was ambition. She was a poisoner, a witch, and a seductress. I should have known better, but I was a young man, longing for love. I learned my lesson late. Thank God I saved my children from her. She would have killed us all. I had to put a stop to her and I found the courage to do so.