Tarnish (46 page)

Most of the poetry quoted is attributed to the real Thomas Wyatt, though they have been transcribed from the originals to be easier on the modern reader and some have been abridged to suit the context. In the Tudor court, poetry was often spoken rather than written down thus making it more fluid and adaptable to circumstances. I like to think of Wyatt revising and adding to each one as suited him best.

Wyatt dated none of his written works, so placement of them in time is difficult. It is generally believed that the poem that begins “Whoso list to hunt” was written after his ambassadorial trip to Italy in 1527, when he would have become much better acquainted with Petrarch’s sonnet on which it is based. But I chose to move it up a few years—call it poetic license. There is no record of him creating a play about Atalanta, but a poet and a romantic such as Wyatt could easily have done so.

The poem that James Butler quotes about a man who dreams a girl comes to his bed, “content to do him pleasure,” is unattributed, but is known to have circulated the court around this time.

Poetry was extremely useful at court—for saying things that one wouldn’t necessarily say out loud in other circumstances. I owe much of my knowledge of Wyatt’s poetry to Nicola Shulman and her excellent book—
Graven with Diamonds—
about Thomas Wyatt and his literary canon. However, all allusions and intentions I attribute to the poetry come from my own imagination.

So what happened next?

A simplistic (and not entirely accurate) account is that Henry changed religion—and the Western world—in an effort to terminate his marriage to Katherine because Anne always refused to be his mistress. She finally married him when he succeeded in having his marriage to Katherine annulled—eight years after the events in this book. Again, I leave the comprehensive explanation of this complicated issue to the experts.

George Boleyn rose quickly in the king’s service, acquiring appointments, stewardships, and manor holdings—perhaps due to Anne’s influence? His story certainly continued to be irretrievably linked with Anne’s. Not much is known about his marriage to Jane, and though many assume it was unhappy, the evidence to support that interpretation has been called into question.

Thomas Boleyn became Earl of Ormond in 1529, though the title fell back to James Butler after Boleyn’s death in 1539. He became Earl of Wiltshire the same year, allowing George to become Viscount Rochford. Mary’s husband, William Carey, died of the sweating sickness in 1528. Six years later, she married her second husband, William Stafford, secretly. For love.

Thomas Wyatt went on his first ambassadorial mission to France in 1526—one for which he volunteered. Some say he was heartbroken and had to get away. He spent a great deal of time abroad during the next few years (including a short stay in a Bolognese prison). But at court, he was a favorite of both Anne and the king, and followed them everywhere.

And Anne? Most people know what happens to her. I prefer not to include it here, because in this book, at least, she is alive and optimistic, on the verge of love. About to face the biggest adventure of her life.

Acknowledgments

There seems to be an accepted sequence to these things but in the spirit of my main character, I’m going to defy convention and start by thanking my family. My husband, Gary, and my two sons, Freddie and Charlie, have learned and graciously accepted much about living with a writer. I want to thank them for their support and their enthusiasm, and for the boys’ weekends without me that turned into boys’
weeks
as I became more and more determined to do Anne justice.

Unlike Anne, in all my life, I can’t remember my father being disappointed in me or my mother being absent. I want to thank them both for supporting all my decisions and crazy schemes, even when I made what was obviously an unsuitable choice.

Because we choose our families as well as being born into one, I must thank my friends. The ones who helped define my childhood—Mona Doughterty, Wilathi Weaver, Carrie Ferguson, Abe Crow, Kelly and Karen Moore, the drama geeks and scholarship nerds. And my friends today who form The Village—Brenda Seyk, Eva Bush, Maureen Ladd, Trina Camping, Julia Smith, Jenn Henderson, Amber Robinson-Burmester and their husbands and kids—for their help and support in times of celebration as well as in times of need.

My family of writers made sure I stayed true to my story, did the right thing by my characters, and didn’t succumb to the crazy. Thank you. To Bret Ballou, for well-timed texts and e-mails and for being the closer. To Donna Cooner for seeing the point and offering distraction. To Veronica Rossi for a fabulous title and late-night chats, and for saying you love my “wicked words.” To Talia Vance for loving Thomas Wyatt as much as I did, even before there were kissing scenes. And to the rest of my honored and trusted confederacy of beta readers: Jackie Garlick, Kristen Held, and Beth Hull. And thank you to the Class of 2k12 for picking me up when I fell down and for creative curse words that made me wish I wrote contemporary novels so I could use them in my work.

Like people, every book has a family.
Tarnish
wouldn’t exist without my agent, Catherine Drayton, who asked if I could write more than one novel set in the court of Henry VIII and then made it happen. Thank you, as well, to Lyndsey Blessing, for taking my books abroad and to Lizzy Kremer for being their advocate in the UK.

From day one, the team at Viking and Penguin Young Readers have been enthusiastic champions of my work. Special thanks go to Joanna Cardenas for perceptive comments at a crucial time, to Theresa Evangelista for a stunning cover and Kate Renner for an equally gorgeous interior. I must thank Janet Pascal and Kathryn Hinds a thousand times for checking my continuity and accuracy and for correcting my punctuation—a vexatious job, I’m sure, but I am ever so grateful. And to Marisa Russell and all of the Penguin marketing and publicity family, thank you for holding
Tarnish
up to catch the light.

Writing a book is a solitary endeavor, but revising it is a team effort. You can’t always see how a sibling helps shape your life, but I can see on every page of this book how my editor’s gentle touch and keen eye added structure, emotion, and depth. Thank you, Kendra Levin, for everything.

And finally—but most importantly—thank
you
. A novel needs a family of readers to have life, so thank you for being a part of Anne’s.