"I'm sorry milady," you sighed, wishing you could offer her some condolence in the situation.

"It is not the end of the world," she said with a stoic expression. "I shall be wed regardless of my lack of love."

Catherine folded over the piece of parchment, clutching it tight to her chest, doing her best to not allow her emotions to take over as they desperately wanted to. With a life of lost love and heartache, she had come to terms with containing how she truly felt, you just wished that you could help her get out of such a cycle. She had already had to mourn two husbands, two men that she had loved but who had faced untimely deaths. You had seen her struggle over the fact, leading to her state today where she wished to keep her heart locked up, knowing heartbreak was inevitable. As she believed it was. She had met a nice man, Thomas Seymour whom she had quickly fallen in love with and had planned to marry but that's when the king decided he needed another wife after he had beheaded the last.

Although she wished to still marry Thomas, having no feelings for Henry, and knowing the fates of his previous wives, it wasn't surprising that she didn't want to marry him. Sadly, she had no choice. The king wanted her hand and her hand would have to be given to him. You had seen the last of her hope die in her eyes as she wrote a letter to the man she loved, claiming that her heart couldn't be his.

You wished you could have helped her out and stopped her from having to lose the man she was meant to marry but whatever the king wanted, he would get. Catherine would just have to put up with whatever that may be and now it had to be marrying the king of England.

Catherine raised the piece of parchment up to her lips, pressing a kiss to it, hoping all of her love could be passed to him, where it should go.

"Please make sure this gets to Thomas," she whispered, handing you the parchment. "I can only hope my words are enough to explain why I cannot marry him."

"Anything you need milady," you stated. "It cannot be too bad I am sure."

She sighed shaking her head. "He has married five women, annulled two of those marriages, killed two and the other died of natural causes, God bless her soul. I can only imagine what my fate shall be."

You offered her a sympathetic smile. "We can just hope he annuls the marriage or changes his mind before the day."

"I hope so."

~*~

Written by Charlotte.