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2ff7408
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I will stand up and speak in my own voice and no man will ever silence me again.
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Philippa Gregory |
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8af4e34
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She would not let it go. "I had thought to be Queen of England and see my son on the throne," she repeated."
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Philippa Gregory |
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009b416
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Every scholarly history that was written before 1920 was written by a man who had been taught by a man, whose thesis would be examined by a man, and whose book would be published by a male publisher and reviewed by a male critic. This could not change until women were admitted to universities and colleges. When women could train as historians in the universities, they could for the first time research, write, and publish scholarly history.
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Philippa Gregory |
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8f8130c
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It was a dance like no other, a dance of seduction. Henry did not take his blue eyes off my face, he danced toward me, stamped his foot and clapped his hands as if he would strip me naked then and there before the whole court. I banished the thought of the watching queen from my mind. I kept my head up and my eyes fixed on the king, and I danced toward him, the sly tripping steps, with a sway of my hips and a turn of my head. We faced one a..
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Philippa Gregory |
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477ce1e
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Every woman has to have something which singles her out, which catches the eye, which makes her the center of attention.
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Philippa Gregory |
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e3eeadc
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I knew that I was smiling her smile, that she was a dark mirror to me.
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Philippa Gregory |
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2f23819
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I shall be dark and French and fashionable and difficult and you shall be sweet and open and English and fair. What a pair we shall be.
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Philippa Gregory |
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9779996
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I prayed in silence that perhaps even now, the queen might have a son and might know joy like this, such a strange, unexpected joy- the happiness of caring for a child whose whole life was in my hands.
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Philippa Gregory |
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0ae7b4e
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The king smiled at Anne. She dropped him a curtsy straight down, like a bucket in a well, head up, and a small challenging smile on her lips. The king was not taken, he liked easy women, he liked smiling women. He did not like women who fixed him with a dark challenging gaze.
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Philippa Gregory |
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3650471
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We are making a new order," he said. "A new world. There is talk of the end of the authority of the Pope, the map of France and Spain is being redrawn. Everything is changing, and here we are, at the very front of the change."
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Philippa Gregory |
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35987d8
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If I refuse?" I asked, my voice very thin. He gave me his most cynical smile that left his eyes as cold as wet coals. "You don't," he said simply. "The world's not changed that much yet. Men still rule."
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Philippa Gregory |
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db8a88f
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I looked over to Anne. She was untying her mask and watching me with a long calculating look, the Boleyn look, the Howard look that says: what has happened here, and how may I turn it to my advantage? It was as if under her golden mask was another beautiful mask of skin, and only beneath that was the real woman.
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Philippa Gregory |
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f82edb1
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I saw his glance flick over me, like a horse trader assessing the value of a filly. Whenever I looked up the king's eyes were on me, whenever I looked away I was conscious of his stare still on my face. When
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Philippa Gregory |
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d396285
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I will try to remember this day, and you looking like a child, a little lost among all these clothes. I will try to remember that you were innocent of any plotting; that today at least, you were more a girl than a Boleyn." "
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Philippa Gregory |
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7fe6f2d
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We are joint heirs,' I said in a sharp undertone. 'The land will always be partly mine.' Richard smiled, a smile like midsummer skies. 'I shan't regard it.' He said sweetly. 'And you don't know the law, my clever little cousin. If they commit you to an asylum, you are disinherited at once. Did you not know that, my dear? If you go on with your seeings and your dreamings, you will lose everything.
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Philippa Gregory |
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4bab980
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Funny sky,' he said, squinting up at the thick-bellied white clouds and the sun shining so hot on them but not breaking through. 'It feels as if there should be a storm,' I said 'but it was like this at haymaking and the weather never properly broke then.' 'If I was at sea I should run for a port,' Ralph said. He was looking towards the horizon where there was a yellow tinge to the sky over the top of the downs.
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Philippa Gregory |
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32f6d93
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For who could resist a woman who could fall from being queen to commoner and yet still carry herself as if greatness was within?
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Philippa Gregory |
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bc8883f
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I could see the condemned man, accompanied by his priest, walk slowly from the Tower toward the green where the wooden platform was waiting, the block of wood placed center stage, the executioner dressed all ready for work in his shirtsleeves with a black hood over his head.
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Philippa Gregory |
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c602464
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We fell asleep wrapped in each other as if we could not bear to part, even in sleep we could not bear to let each other go.
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Philippa Gregory |
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c8595a4
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If I cannot be with my sister, then I don't want any bedfellow at all.
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the-kingmaker-s-daughter
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Philippa Gregory |
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37288ec
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I had a small looking glass on the wall and I stood before it and gazed at my own reflection.
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Philippa Gregory |
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c75cf5c
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Her beauty completely erased by jealousy.
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Philippa Gregory |
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83d23ea
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Half the court thinks I'm the most beautiful woman in the world. All of them know that I am the wittiest and the most stylish. The king cannot take his eyes off me. Sir Thomas Wyatt has gone to France to escape me. But my sister, a year younger than me, is married and has two children by the king himself. When is it going to be my turn? When am I to be wed? Who is going to be the match for me?
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Philippa Gregory |
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0020791
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I could not love this man, knowing that he would not listen to me, knowing that I was not allowed even to show him my sadness. He was the father of my children and yet he would have no interest in them until they were old enough for him to use as counters in the game of inheritance. He had been my lover for years and yet it had been my task to make sure that he never knew me.
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Philippa Gregory |
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0b89551
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Let's dance for the Queen of the May!" Henry said, and swept a girl into a set and they danced before me, and I, seated on the queen's throne, watching her husband dance, and flirt prettily with his partner, knew that I wore her tolerant mask-like smile on my own face. "
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Philippa Gregory |
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4599f36
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I stood beside the queen's chair and knew that any man looking from her to me would think that she was a fine woman, but old enough to be my mother, while I was a woman of only fourteen, a woman ready to fall in love, a woman ready to feel desire, a precocious woman, a flowering girl. The
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Philippa Gregory |
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adbd4c1
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When I rose up the queen was looking toward me, not as if I were a rival, but as if I were still her favorite little maid in waiting who might bring her some comfort. She looked at me as if for a moment she would seek someone who would understand the dreadful predicament of a woman, in this world ruled by men. George
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Philippa Gregory |
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d1ea51e
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Queen Katherine had been born a princess. From the moment she could talk she had been taught to guard her tongue. From the moment she could walk she had been taught to step carefully and speak kindly to both rich and poor, for you never knew when you might need both rich and poor. Queen Katherine had been a player in a highly competitive, highly wealthy court before Anne had even been born. Anne
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Philippa Gregory |
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5e33132
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the greater the noise the less the deeds. And grand announcements do not mean great doings. Let
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Philippa Gregory |
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285788d
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You have to keep him coming forward," she said. "Keep him coming forward but never let him think that you come forward yourself. He wants to feel that he is pursuing you, not that you are entrapping him. When he gives you the choice of coming forward or running away, like then--you must always run away." The"
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Philippa Gregory |
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e71583b
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But don't run too fast," my sister warned. "Remember he has to catch you."
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Philippa Gregory |
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5517b99
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I know I am a better woman than her. She's ice and ambition, and she would see you on the gallows before surrendering her ambition. And I know that in me he has a lover who loves him for himself. But Anne has dazzled him, and dazzled the court, and dazzled even you.
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Philippa Gregory |
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45fcb7c
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It's not magic. It's what any slut does if she has her wits about her.
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Philippa Gregory |
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2d4bb6e
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God has not given this false marriage his blessing. Every year he has turned his face from me and I should have seen it earlier. The queen is not my wife, she is Arthur's wife.
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Philippa Gregory |
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a7d03c4
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However much I might please Henry, he was still her boy--her lovely indulged spoilt golden boy. He might summon me or any other girl to his room, without disturbing the constant steady affection between them which had sprung from her ability, long ago, to love this man who was more foolish, more selfish, and less of a prince than she was a princess.
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Philippa Gregory |
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722e398
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He likes to think well of himself," I explained, watching the turn of Anne's head and hearing her ripple of low laughter. "He could not bring himself to turn off a woman just because she's become old. He has to find a way to see that it is God's will that he leaves her. He has to find a greater authority than his own desires."
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Philippa Gregory |
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a4bf9f7
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We all had parts to play, we all had costumes to wear, we all had to be as merry as we could be, for the king was always laughing this winter and the queen never stopped smiling. The
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Philippa Gregory |
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0fe0773
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we will put the Howards so high they can never fall.
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Philippa Gregory |
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c51136d
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I'm a lady. It's none of it mine. Look at you. You're doing well enough--is your wife a rich woman?" He chuckled sheepishly at that. "She's my wife. She does as well as I do. But she doesn't own anything of her own." "It's the same for me," I said. "I do as my father does, as my husband does. I dress as is proper for their wife or their daughter. But I don't own anything on my own account. In that sense I am as poor as your wife." "But you ..
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Philippa Gregory |
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c0985ca
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You've always been one of many," she said brutally. "There are dozens of us Howard girls, all with good breeding, all well taught, all pretty, all young, all fertile. They can throw one after another on the table and see if one is lucky. It's no real loss to them if one after another is taken up and then thrown aside. There's always another Howard girl conceived, there's always another whore in the nursery. You were one of many before you w..
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Philippa Gregory |
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8f39e56
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If it is to be done at all, it must be done with grace.
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Philippa Gregory |
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30bb71b
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There are many sorts of love," she counsels me. "And when you love a man who is less than you dreamed, you have to make allowances for the difference between a real man and a dream."
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Philippa Gregory |
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3dbc5f2
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I am a child of the true religion and you are an infidel,' she said, but with less conviction than she had ever felt before. 'We are both people of faith,' he said quietly. 'Our enemies should be the people who have no faith, neither in their God, nor in others, nor in themselves. The people who should face our crusade should be those who bring cruelty into the world for no reason but their own power. There is enough sin and wickedness to f..
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Philippa Gregory |
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2d8c058
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Makes no difference," he said, with his intuitive knowledge of my thoughts. "No difference at all how your first marriage was. This is my marriage, and I want my wife in my bed." I laughed aloud and snuggled back into his arms. "It's where I want to be," I confessed. "Why would I ever want to be anywhere else?"
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Philippa Gregory |