by D. J. Holmes
* * *
After our talk with the King in the palace garden, I found the rest of the guards. “James, I need to talk to you,” I requested.
“Timothy, you and the other guards, please get everything ready, so that we can ride out to do our King’s bidding.”
“We’ll be ready shortly, Jon,” Timothy answered, as he walked toward the palace stables.
“James, did you know that the present Queen is a first cousin to Anne Boleyn?”
“Oh, yes, Jon. They’re both from the Howard family.”
“I didn’t know that. Anyway, do you remember, Mary?”
“How can I forget her, you’ve only talked about her every day since we left home.”
“…Every day?”
“Yes. You talk about her every day.”
“Well, she’s on my mind all the time. I can’t forget her. And bringing up, Anne Boleyn’s name, you see it’s just when that whole thing happened with the King and his wife. Anyway, it reminded me of when, Mary, and I played like we were the King and Queen, and she wanted to pretend that I, as the King wanted to have her beheaded. I couldn’t behead my beloved Mary, so I told her that rather than being the King that I would be the Knight that would save her.”
“Did you save her, Jon?”
“Yes, as Matthew I did. I saved her, James. And now we have been assigned the task of protecting our present Queen.”
“Well, let’s go protect her, Jon.”
“As soon as my father joins us, we will leave.”
