“It’s good that you are looking well,” Henry remarks shortly as we go slowly through the wide open doors. He gives a little grimace as each step pains him. “It is not enough to be a queen, you have to look like one. When the people come out to see us, they want to see a couple set far above them, larger than life, grander than anything they have ever dreamed. They want to be awed. Seeing us should be like seeing beings far above them, like angels, like gods.”

“I understand.”

“I am the greatest man in the kingdom,” Henry says simply. “Perhaps the greatest in the world. People have to see that the minute that they see me.”

The whole court is waiting to greet us inside the great hall. I smile at my uncle, soon to be a peer of the realm, and my brother, who will be the Earl of Essex, thanks to me. All my friends and family, newly enriched by my patronage, are here for Christmas, and the greater lords of the realm, the Howards, the Seymours, the Dudleys; the rising men like Thomas Wriothesley, his friend and colleague Richard Rich, the other courtiers and the churchmen in their crimson and purple robes. Stephen Gardiner is here, smoothly untouched by Archbishop Cranmer’s inquiry. He bows to me and his smile is confident.

“I am going to teach you to be Queen of England,” Henry says quietly into my ear. “You shall look at these wealthy and powerful men and know that you command each and every one of them; I have set you above them. You are my wife and my helpmeet, Kateryn. I am going to make you into a great and powerful woman, a true wife to me, the greatest woman in England, as I am the greatest man.”

I don’t modestly disclaim, I meet the cold determination in his eyes. They may be loving words but his face is hard.

“I will be your wife in every way,” I promise. “This is what I have undertaken and I will keep my word. And I will be queen of this country and mother to your children.”

“I’ll make you regent,” he confirms. “You shall be their master. You shall command everyone that you see here. You will put your heel on their necks.”

“I will rule,” I promise him. “I will learn to rule as you do.”

* * *