Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All

by Candace Fleming

“Keep your chin up and smile, and no one will know you feel differently.”

Sometimes, silence best serves His purpose.

At once, we felt like brothers—but as with brothers, I wanted to push him down in the dirt and make him cry to me for mercy.

For if given the choice, people will believe the worst of you, not the best.”

Truth is boring, after all, compared to rumour and lechery.

I thought the roles of amour and wife were not so dissimilar, that a clever woman could be both at once.

I believe firmly that a woman’s mind is as capable as a man’s, but it must be cultivated lest it go fallow.

Beware the quiet ones, my mother always said. They are the greatest deceivers of all.”

But I wonder…does the hurt that comes from knowing one has been mistreated and betrayed ever heal?

Still, I must remember, it is wrong to judge what might be in the heart of another.

I wonder if he could actually feel as lonely as I do. Perhaps I can be his saviour from his loneliness? And he could be mine.

If the floor would swallow me in this instant, I would feel no regret.

“Plain girls can prosper. We can make our lives our own. We can go about our business without so many lewd words. Without so many slobberings and gropings and hands up our skirts.”

I love her and fear her. I can’t stand to leave her, but I can’t bear to stay. I can’t breathe without her, yet she suffocates me.

Life deals the cards, but it is up to us how we play them. The sooner you learn that, the better off you’ll be.”

How can the moments of a life last forever, while the years go by in a heartbeat?

Oh, how I prefer the honest violence of men, who will bash in another man’s skull and be done, to the thousand shallow cuts of women’s malice.

“Memory is a high palace containing many rooms. Some of the doors we rush to open; others we lock forever,”

“By changing a life, just one life, you can change the world. It is the only way anyone ever has.”

It’s impossible to tell what’s true and what’s not, and sometimes I think no one even cares so long as it’s exciting.

It’s rather thrilling to be the subject of so much attention, but at the same time, I don’t like the whispering, I always wonder what’s being said.

When someone says “You wouldn’t understand,” what they really mean is “We don’t want you to know.”

If the ground beneath my feet split—if there were suddenly an abyss beneath me, I wouldn’t be able to tear myself away from him. I’d fall to my death with my tongue seeking his.

Those I do not hate, I still can’t trust.