Love and Power

By Kat Lehto

Queen Katherine Parr finds herself alone after her husband, King Henry VIII, died. The Queen, along with her step daughter Margret Neville, longs for an affair with Sir Thomas Seymour. Marmon Cooper, a charming man who conned his way into the castle, is bent on revenge after his father was falsely imprisoned in the Tower because of his affair with the Queen. With passion and murder in the air, who will come out alive?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365622243

Book preview

turmoil.

Chapter 1-Katherine Parr

I'm worried about my future here in the castle Kat explained to her driver, at Saint George's Chapel shortly after her late husband's funeral. Her driver was a short taunt man who barely tolerated her. But he was the only one she trusted with her grievances since the castle seemed to be overrun with spies speculating not only the king's death but when Henry's son, Edward, would be coroneted. Her driver had served her farther, and after she secured Henry as her own, her farther insisted she bring him with her. 'You will have many enemies at court' he warned 'and you will need someone loyal to our family, the Parr bloodline, if you hope to survive.'

The carriage bounced and bowed on the soggy dirt road on its way back to the castle after Henry's funeral. The bumping carriage combined with what Kat only hoped to be morning sickness caused her stomach to toss and turn. As the carriage was almost approaching the gates Kat expelled the contents of her stomach. She wiped her mouth worrying about her future.

Nothing to worry about your magnificent. The castle and your life will be exactly how it was yesterday, just without the king assured the driver. He tilted his little blue cap with red trim, the royal colors of England, holding the door open for her. Kat reluctantly got out of the carriage unassisted, something that would never have been tolerated if Henry were alive. It seemed everyone was forgetting her status. She was still the head of the house until a new king, Henry's first born son Edward, will be appointed. Her long dark velvet back dress was already soaked from the rain and now stained with mud from the floor. She hiked up her skirt as high as she dared and glared at the driver. She wished she had power to punish him for such an act but she didn't, she must tread carefully for now. She walked the long corridor to her room only to find it empty. All of her furniture and belongings were gone as if she was never there. All the favors she granted, all the people she moved up in status, even the three books she wrote seemed to be for naught. She called out to one of the king's guards.

Good sir Kat put on her best smile and puffed out her chest showing her ample bosom. Where have my personal belongs gone? He merely shook his head and walked away. Where on earth could the devil hide her precious gifts from the king? Had the world gone mad, she was still in charge, she was still a lady, she was still... Kat pursed her lips. She knew the king was fresh in the grave but she also knew that she needed to secure her future if she expected to rule. And rule she shall.

Chapter 2-Marmon Cooper

Marmon was walking down a small English road just a day's ride from the city in England where the king was laid to rest. Good riddance he thought as he pushed his cart of wood up a steep hill to his lord's farm. Marmon's dad used to work for the freshly decomposing king and was sent to the tower officially for treason but it was wildly rumored it was for some illicit affair with a lady in waiting, Margaret Neville, which was rubbish because his dad was a good Catholic and Catholics didn't cheat. Marmon expected his dad was unjustly accused and punished because the king was losing control of his subjects and was just looking for excuses to regain said control. Marmon thought back to when he was just a young lad watching his farther go off for months at a time to serve the once beloved king, in 1534.

The king is a great man his father said one morning, when Marmon was eight or nine, we are lucky to have such an excellent ruler. He remembered the pride his dad took telling everyone in town how he had the king's ear and was a great influential person. None of this was true of course but everyone believed him because they wanted to. The fishermen, whom drank the night away, chassed loose women and whom woke up before sunrise to do their back breaking jobs of carry cargo or fish down at the docks, wanted to know someone who knew the king personally. They soaked