Anna von Kleev Ch. 06: Aftermath

Our life at Richmond Palace was like being in the Garden of Eden with no serpent. We could watch the Thames flow past, we could ride out to the King's deer park, we could, in short, do as we like. The question of how to retain our privileged position never troubled Anna, but then she had no idea of how we had attained it; it was otherwise with me.

Norfolk had kept his word, I had kept mine, and with Cromwell dead, it was essential that I kept in touch with him and with the Court. Not long after Henry's wedding, with Norfolk happy at getting his way, he visited us at Richmond.

We had a pleasant lunch out overlooking the river, and Anna was, as ever, the most gracious hostess.

"She seems happy enough?" He said to me.

"She is, but I can see you are concerned about something."

"What makes you think that?"

"Are you telling me you had yourself rowed all the way down here for the pleasure of my company?"

He laughed.

"You are correct, Lady Philippa. I am concerned for the king's daughters. Young Edward is well cared for as heir, but Mary, who is now in her late twenties is not a happy woman. Cromwell had thought of her as a match for your brother, William, but religion divides them. Then there is little Bess, who lacking a mother, is also in need of care, as any ten-year-old girl is. My niece is not motherhood material, and I do not want her to get into disfavour with the king."

"So you were wondering whether, as the king's "sister," my lady might take a care for her nieces?"

"Not much slips past you, my lady. Can I count on you?"

"You can," I smiled.

It was good to have his favour, and I heard that the king himself had been pleased at Anna's offer to be an aunt to the motherless girls. Needless to say, Katherine Howard was overjoyed. It was only later that I realised why. So it was that the princesses came to be part of our lives.

They could not have been more different.

Mary loved Richmond Palace; it had been her home for part of her early life. One would not have guessed that she was Henry's daughter, except when that whim of iron revealed itself, as it was apt to from time to time. She was a beautiful young woman, but determined to marry none but a Catholic. Initially suspicious of us, she was won over, as everyone always was, by my lady's kindness and her open manner. It was not long before she referred to Anna as "aunt," and the two of them would talk away the days walking in the gardens. She would visit us at Richmond, and our other Palace at Bletchingley further down river, and before long the two, who were of an age, became more like sisters to each other. It did my heart good to see them together.

Young Elizabeth was quite the contrast. With her red hair and pale complexion and height, there was no doubting who her father was. Mary had the education given to most young Englishwomen (one reason Anna, who had never been educated, liked her so much), but Elizabeth (or Bess as we called her) was a phenomenon. Even at the age of seven she spoke as many languages. She devoured whole libraries of books, and her skill on the virginal was such that one could happily have listened to her all day. She was driven to excel. But she was hard to get to know. If Mary was with us, Bess, as we called her, would go silent. There was no love between the two half-sisters, though Mary, as a good Catholic, would protest that she loved her sister who could not be held responsible for the sins of her whore of a mother. This said in front of young Bess, helped explain the caution of the latter.

Where Anna and Mary would ride out together and walk in the parks, Bess preferred to keep to her chamber, demanding books, and music. She would watch me closely. I often wished she would open up to me, but it took another trauma caused by her father to cause that to happen.

One effect of the visits of the princesses was that our sex life cooled. I still enjoyed Anna, but with her, it was as though with the need to learn how to please Henry gone, so was the desire for sex. I was not altogether sure that she was not seeking solace with Princess Mary, they were of an age, and Anna's tendency to hero-worship seemed to have transferred itself to her. Life was what it was. I had done well by my lady, and much though I should have preferred to have continued our love life, I could understand why her ardour cooled.

I had arranged to see Norfolk at least once a quarter, and the opening of parliament at the beginning of November was an ideal opportunity to catch up with our patron. But no sooner had I arrived at his Palace than I was told that he could not see me. Kicking my heels, I left the Palace and headed to Lambeth to be taken home by river, but even as I went out of doors, I bumped into Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. He looked worried.

"My Lady Philippa, I am afraid my lord Norfolk has been called to court, he will not attend on you, or indeed anyone."

"What is wrong your Grace."

"You should know, and you should alert your Mistress, as well as your charges. The king has evidence that his wife is an adulteress. He has arrested Norfolk and some members of the family to find out more about her crimes. This is a bad business my lady and will end ill."

I was shaken. Our whole position rested upon having a friend at Court, and with Norfolk gone and Katherine under arrest, the future was suddenly dark again. I looked at Cranmer.

"Is my lady in any danger?"

"Unless the king should hanker for a repeat of two years ago, no. But were I to advise you, it would be to take care."

As though I would not take care, I thought, before reflecting that Cranmer was probably as worried as the rest of us. He had, after all, presided over the marriages to my lady and Katherine Howard, so who knew whether Henry might turn his wrath on him next?

Back home I told my lady what had happened. Bess was with her, and the moment she heard the news her features went rigid with fear.

"He will do to her what he did to my mother. Will we be next?"

"No, my lady Bess, we shall not. I have not failed your aunt yet, and I do not intend to start now."

To my surprise, the usually far from tactile Bess threw herself into my arms and hugged me tight.

"Pippa, Pippa, I trust you, please do not let him chop our heads off."

She was trembling.

Poor mite, I thought, she had no memory of her mother, who had been executed when Bess was barely three years old. Since then she had been made illegitimate, brought back into the fold, but passed from pillar to post in terms of care. My heart went out to her. I realised then that the cold front she put up was just that, a persona designed to protect her from a world that had its harsh and cruel side.

"You will protect us, Pippa, won't you?" Anna was now all attention. I smiled inwardly. I saw the pattern at last.

That night we renewed our old intimacy. Vulnerability had an erotic effect on my lady.

"I have neglected you of late, Pippa."

I saw that old submissiveness in her gaze, and decided to prolong her teasing."

"Well, I am sure that the charms of Princess Mary have proved most distracting."

"No, no, Pippa, it is not like that. We are just like sisters. I miss Amalia."

That made sense, the two had been close.

"I think, Anna, that you have been a naughty girl these past months. Tell me," I smiled, "what happens to naughty girls?"

Her face went the colour that her bum would soon be going.

"They get spanked, Miss Pippa."

"Well, girl, I can't spank you over all those clothes, so let us get them off."

"All of them, Miss?"

"Every last stitch."

My eyes feasted on her as she undressed. When she finally stood there naked, I was overwhelmed with my desire for her. But I held back, wanting to prolong our pleasure, knowing how much she enjoyed being made to wait.

I circled her, gazing on her nakedness, and enjoying her obvious embarrassment.

"Hands on your head girl, legs apart and bend!"

Used as Anna had become to my wanting to see her naked, the idea of being "inspected" still, I knew, sent shivers through her.

Her buttocks taut, I could see both her tight asshole and her moist, furry pussy. Knowing she was expecting my touch, I made her wait for it. I could see her trembling.

"Good girl," I said, heightening the sexual tension. "But you have been a bad girl Anna, and what happens to bad girls?"

In a small, strangulated whisper she said: "The get punished Miss."

"They do, so prepared yourself."

With that, I took the wooden hairbrush and brought it down with a satisfying crack across the middle of both cheeks, watching her ass wobble and hearing a loud cry. The second one was aimed lower, striking her cheeks close to her pussy, which made her whine.

"Ohhh, Miss! That hurt!"

"That's the point, girl!"

So saying, I brought it down higher up, creating three large pink marks on her pale bum. Three more hard ones made her gasp and trembled, turning her arse a redder shade of pink. She shuffled uncomfortably as though to avoid the brush hitting her where she was already red, so I struck twice more.

"Now stand, girl, hands on your head!"

To see my Lady Anna standing obediently, her sexy bottom several shades of pink and red, made me conscious of my own growing excitement; that tell-tale tingling between my thighs reminded me of just how much treating her like this turned us both on.

"So what do we have here, girl? The former Queen of England, the king's sister, butt naked with her bum spanked like she was a naughty girl?"

"Yes, Miss Pippa," she gasped.

After caressing that arse and restraining myself, I walked to face her. We were just the perfect height for my face to be level with her tits. Not hesitating, I immediately licked her left nipple, before moving to the right one; I repeated this, eventually sucking both. Standing back, I could see how hard and flushed they were.

"Does my lady Anna need to touch herself?"

Her face turned the colour of her backside.

"Well, girl?"

"Yes Miss."

"The slap your pussy, hard, three times!"

Watching her face as she obeyed made it even harder for me not just to push her back onto the bed and devour her, but I wanted to drive home the point that I was not happy with the recent neglect. I was not going to ask her about Princess Mary, that was her business, but I was going to make sure she got the message.

Anna looked at me, her face flushed, her eyes afire with passion.

"Now rub yourself you slut!"

For a moment it looked as though she was going to ask when we were going to make love, but she didn't, instead, putting her hand to her needy pussy.

As she masturbated herself, her tits jiggling, it took every ounce of self-control to stand and watch. As she got closer, I said:

"Permission is needed to orgasm, girl!"

"Oh heck, please, please can I cum, Miss?"

"On that bed now, slut!"

I had never seen her move so fast.

Stripping myself of my gown, I lay with her, parting her legs and positioning us where we could grind our pussies together.

She was so wet and desperate that she gripped my tight back side and pressed hard against me.

"Don't you dare cum, girl, until I am ready!"

"No Miss, oh, oh fuck, you are soaking."

"Of course I am you silly goose," I said, smiling, before gasping as our clits touched. "I want you too!"

Anna twisted and shifted, gripping me as she pressed hard, I did the same, our wetness joining us, our bushes matted with the juices leaking from us in our arousal. Leaning in as we pressed together, I sucked her right nipple. That was it. We both exploded into a wet ecstasy. I collapsed onto her, nuzzling against her, my senses still buzzing from the joint climax.

It felt like "we" were back as a couple. I came to understand that Anna's desires needed to be stoked by two things: a need to be punished and a need for protection. The two were more closely entwined than I had realised, but once this had dawned on me, I was able to ensure that our love life suffered no more desert months.

The following morning I notice Princess Elizabeth was still looking upset, so I hugged her. To my surprise she hugged me tight back.

"You will protect me won't you, Pippa?"

At ten, she was already nearly my height, so it was easy to hold her tight.

"I shall, always."

When news of the Queen's execution came, the whole household was quiet. The king then married Katherine Parr, and it was clear that any danger to us had passed. But from that time on, young Bess confided in me whenever she stayed with us, and wrote to me when we were apart. As Princess Mary confided in Anna, we had friends in both camps, but none where it seemed to matter - the household of the young heir, Edward.

Despite lacking any power at court, as Queen Katherine took care to keep her ailing husband away from his "sister," our lives continued quietly and prosperously. We moved between our palaces, occasionally seeing the king, and noting, each time, how much fatter and unhealthy he looked. It was no surprise when, on the morning of 27 January 1547 we received news that the king was seriously ill. As Princess Elizabeth was staying with us, I went with her at once to court. We thought it best that Anna stayed at Richmond. Queen Katherine had made her dislike of her plain enough, and this was not the time to provoke her.

The voyage down the Thames to the palace at Whitehall was a sombre one, made no easier by the rough weather. We arrived later afternoon, and it was clear that everyone was expecting the worst.

Prince Edward was already there. He greeted his half-sister as protocol demanded, but both children were warned by the Queen that they needed to prepare for their father's death. Henry died the next day. Edward became the sixth king to bear that name, and our fortunes took a turn for the worse as the Seymours became the power behind the throne.

It was with some surprise that I found myself summoned to see Queen Katherine about six months after Henry's death. There was no love lost between her and my lady, so I was intrigued to learn the cause - and horrified by what I learned.

"As you know, Lady Philippa, I have married again."

"Yes, Lord Seymour, the brother of the Regent, Lord Somerset. An advantageous match my lady."

"You might think so. You know that Princess Bess is staying with us at the moment?"

"I do, and she is due to stay with us next month. Is there a problem? Do you want us to have her sooner?"

"There is, and if you could. The other morning I found my husband in her bedroom, tickling her and slapping her backside."

I looked at her, horrified.

"It is my fault. I cannot satisfy him. I am with child, and she is pretty, of age and single. But I would be grateful if you could have Bess."

And so it was that Bess came to stay with us. She said nothing about Seymour until, in early September 1548 came the news that Katherine Parr had died in childbirth.

Bess went pale at the news.

Anna put it down to her affection for her stepmother, but I had a better idea of its cause and took her aside.

"Bess, if Seymour tries to marry you, I shall so all I can to prevent it!"

She looked at me, her pale face red in the cheeks where she blushed. But her eyes were adamantine in their look of defiance.

"That man will not be my husband. I should kill him first."

There followed a protracted attempt by Seymour to get Bess to go back to love with him, but fortunately, Lord Cecil, one of the king's councillors, had taken a liking to the way I had dealt with the annulment and Anna's affairs, and agreed with me to keep Bess safe at his house at Hatfield.

I said naught of this to Anna, who was content with my plans to retrench our affairs now that we had lost the generous allowance Henry had given to her. As the last surviving Queen, Anna's position was unassailable, and her relationship with Princess Mary, the heir to the throne, gave us some added protection. But we were far from the centres of power; not a bad place to be given the instability of the times.

In January 1549, Bess's fears about Seymour were removed, when he was. Cecil had picked up intelligence that he was intending to marry Lady Jane Grey, his cousin, to Edward VI, and marry Bess himself. He reported this to Somerset, who had no hesitation in having his brother arrested, tried, and executed on charges of treason. There was a bad moment when Somerset's men interrogated Bess, but not only was she innocent of all charges, she threatened to make public the fact that Seymour had been conspiring against his brother for some years. No more was heard of charges against her.

Anna was delighted that we saw more of Bess. She was probably the only woman in the land to whom both girls looked for emotional support and advice. Our lives went on uneventfully until the summer of 1553 when Edward, who had been ailing for a while, died. To our shock and surprise, his will disinherited both his half-sisters and left the throne to his Lady Jane Grey, who had a tenuous claim via her great grandfather, Henry VII. Her real claim was that she was a Protestant and would keep Mary off the throne. But her sponsors underestimated Henry's daughters.

Mary was staying with us when the news came, and immediately decamped to Suffolk where her strongest support lay, and from thence, with Elizabeth by her side, she went to London to claim the crown that was hers by right. Poor Lady Jane, who was the tool of her Protestant supporters, paid with her life, as did they. But Mary's reign was not what Anna and I had hoped it might be.

Mary's devotion to her religion would have been admirable in an individual, but in a Queen of England, it became something more sinister. Archbishop Cranmer and other Anglican leaders were burned for adhering to their church with the same steadfastness as Mary (well, Cranmer did retract, but then retracted his retraction). It created a poisonous atmosphere, and if Mary really wanted to know why there were plots to remove her, she really ought to have looked at the number of Protestants she burned in the fires of Smithfield.

Elizabeth, as Bess insisted on being know, spent time with us, and with Cecil at Hatfield. Anna's conversion to the Catholic faith secured our safety, and Queen Mary was always kind to us. She liked the fact that her half-sister stayed with us, hoping she would follow Anna's example. When it became apparent that Elizabeth would do no such thing, she was confined to our house.

In July 1554 we attended, in great ceremony, the marriage of Queen Mary to Philip II of Spain. The Queen told my lady that she was looking forward to becoming a mother. In September it was announced that she was pregnant.

"What becomes of me now?" Elizabeth asked me.

"Let us see what happens, my lady. Her mother was pregnant many times and yet gave birth to only one child who survived, so let us not despair yet."

That winter was a hard one. King Philip pressed Mary to marry off Elizabeth to his cousin, the Duke of Savoy, but despite once more being confined to house arrest, Elizabeth refused to consider the matter.

"I feel, at times, like a prize in a contest, Pippa. Seymour, the Dauphin of France, the Duke of Savoy, but I like them not; indeed I like the idea not at all."

She cast me a look, to which I could not but help respond.

"And why is that my lady?"

"Perhaps I had rather do as you and my step-mama Anna do?"

"What do you mean?" I said, feigning ignorance.

"Now Pippa, do not take me for a fool. I have heard the noises of love coming from your joint chamber, and your own bed is seldom slept in. What is it like?"

"Making love with another woman?"

Her dark brown eyes seemed to bore into my very soul.

"Yes. I would have you show me, unless you think my step-mama would object."