The sun sunk below the horizon subjecting the tower room to fill with dull orange light. The room was bare apart from a wooden bed in the corner and a wooden chair, table and chest. In the very corner pressed between the bed and wall sat Katherine. The cold bit through her gown to her legs as she sat on the chilling stone floor. But Katherine could not feel the cold, she could not even feel her salty tears as they rolled down her face. Everything she had ever feared has happened all at once. Katherine pushed herself up off the floor with great effort as she heard the last fall of the hammer. Slowly and carefully she moved across the room and rising to the balls of her feet peered through the window. Pressing her young face to the glass she glanced down at the grass courtyard below. Katherine gasped as she saw it. Standing tall and alone, looking quite harmless if you did not know its use.

Could this really be happening Katherine thought to herself? Could this really be real not just a nightmare a terrible nightmare? Unconsciously she stroked her pale slender neck with an equally pale slender hand. With slow realisation she looked down at her hand. What will it feel like laying your head on a smooth wooden block stained with other traitor’s blood and chipped by the axe of justice? To know that this was your last moment alive and knowing what was about to come. Knowing you were about to die, that the executioner was about to swing down that heavy bloodthirsty axe upon your own delicate neck and steal your young life just like that. Katherine broke down into further sobs as she saw the block being carried towards the scaffold.

I am too young, too young for this, I am innocent I was foolish oh Lord knows I was foolish. I am sorry, oh dear Lord forgive me, your daughter, your foolish young daughter. Do not let them do this to me, SAVE ME, Oh please SAVE ME. This cannot possibly be the end, IT CANNOT.

Henry’s face flashed in her mind, her dear Henry, her adoring monarch. How cruel she had been. She remembered it clearly each night laying her youthful beautiful bodydown next to his large decaying structure. Enduring his heavy failed love making attempt’s with suppressed giggles. Yes how cruel she was. Her real crime was much worse however, how she remembered whispering into her Thom’s ear, giggling with him over the Kings incompetence whilst comparing her lover’s taut godlike form to her husband’s ugly form she had to endure. Katherine sighed at the memories of when she had everything and more. She had been the Queen, a pretty girl who rose from noble poverty to become the Queen to an ageing King. Katherine gazed at the memory of her husbands face, his eyes turned from the soft and tender look she remembered from their marriage to the dark dangerous eyes that were now reserved for her. The eyes of the betrayed and humiliated.

I did love you Henry, I did I loved you, as you would lie on our bed running your fingers through my hair complementing me on my youthful beauty. I loved you as you pulled me onto your lap and whispered poems of love in my ear. Yes indeed my Lord I did love you. My Husband I was fond of you and I cared for you, but my real passion was for someone else Your Majesty, Thomas Culpepper Your Majesty a burning love so strong it would have killed me if I had suppressed it Your Majesty and my love has killed me. I was a fool who have bought death and destruction upon all those I care about. And my weakness to my hearts desire has killed me my husband, and I will die on your wish my husband. See finally I am being an obedient wife. I cry for Thomas and the other innocent men who have been killed for the sake of me. I only wish Henry you believe that I did love you despite everything. In a unique way for a unique man I loved you.

Katherine tore her eyes away from her scaffold resisting her morbid fascination with the wooden stage. Casting her eyes up to the sky she stared at the ebony night filled with its million stars. This would be the last time she saw a night’s sky tears once again filled her red rimmed eyes. Gazing at the dark blue night with wisp’s of clouds passing across the moon, she still could not comprehend the idea of being dead tomorrow. Part of her welcomed her end she deserved it she had betrayed the love of her King, she had caused the deaths of her previous girlish loves but above all she had killed her only true love. She could picture his handsome face surrounded in beautiful golden curls and she a witch, a whore had killed him because she was selfish she did not care she had wanted him and had him. And now, and now

Katherine wiped the thought from her mind, she was coward and she knew it but she still could not face the idea of him, her love

“gone”

Katherine heard the whisper echo through the icy room she imagined it echoing through the tower. Down the dark staircases, through the hundreds of cold cells, down to the dungeons of torture, down to the river escaping through traitors gate and echoing along the river. Travelling across the rippling tides of the Thames until it reached London Bridge to her Love and then up towards the sky.

With a resigned sigh, Katherine pulled herself away from the window and prepared herself for her last nights sleep wrapping her blankets around her thin body against the bitter cold of the tower. Closing her eyes against the world and its cruelties, she dreamed of her time as Queen of England and her secret afternoons with Thomas.

Thomas leaned over Katherine as she lay across her great bed. Her hair still damp from her bath spread in a dark scented halo around her; she was only wearing a thin shift which clung to her damp skin highlighting the curves of her soft body. Katherine sighed and closed her eyes as Thomas’s hands slid up her thighs pushing her shift up to her waist. She felt his tender kisses on her neck and face. Katherine opened her eyes staring at Thom’s beautiful face above her. She rolled him over straddling him whilst giggling at his face of ecstasy. Suddenly Katherine recoiled as Thomas’s face retorted into the ugly face of pain. Katherine screamed and jumped from Thomas hitting the hard cold floor of the torture chamber. She watched in agony as her Love in terrible pain was stretched on the rack and then in a flash she was standing on the soft grass of the tower green. Katherine stared at the grass unable to look up for she knew what was up there. Soon against her will she was walking up the steps of the scaffold still only wearing her thin white shift, her feet bare as they stepped on the smooth wooden steps of the scaffold. She reached the platform of the scaffold and she saw him. He could not stand straight and stumbled as he knelt down by the block. Katherine suppressed a cry as the axe rose; she turned as the axe fell. Katherine turned back around the wind whipped around her forcing her hair to fly across her face. Through her dark hair, she saw the face of her love but soon it was decayed, the yellow skin pealing back to reveal the dirty bone underneath.

Katherine woke up freezing in her own sweat pushing back her covers she ran to the window and stared through the nights darkness at the scaffold below. Her heart sank when she saw it remained there. The smallest hope had remained, the hope that it was not real or that she would be forgiven, but Katherine knew that this was wishful thinking. It would be foolish to think that the King would forgive her now. He would look weak and Katherine knew that the government was behind her execution.

Katherine turned away from the window and moved down onto her bed. Wrapping herself in blanket’s she curled up her feet and lent back against the wall. Slowly and calmly, she started to think herself through the next day. Dressing in the morning, then walking down the stairwell from her tower to the tower green. Then she imagined walking across the tower green to where her scaffold waited for her. Katherine paused for a second as she faced her biggest fear she imagined herself walking calmly up the stairs and then to the block. But then Katherine had to stop she could not imagine laying her head on the block, her eyes covered in a thick cloth and waiting for the axe to fall. Her life to end.

Once again well-practised tears began to fall, Katherine angrily wiped away the tears. She must remain strong, She must.

Katherine felt a sense of doom set over her as the room filled with early morning sunlight. Her last Sunrise she thought to herself in heavy self pity. Suddenly her stomach bulked she tasted the bitter taste of her bile fill her mouth. Running to her chamber pot she vomited her last meal. Every inch of her body refused to corporate each part showing its fear in its own way. Her heart beats quickened, her lungs felt constricted, her throat dry and her entire body trembled with fear. Katherine sat back on the floor and tried to calm herself she wanted to appear brave and fearless. Not be the pathetic feeble girl who she really was.

Give me strength, Dear Lord if I am to be condemned to die give me the strength I need to stand tall on that scaffold. To prove myself worthy of the title Queen Katherine, so despite all my sinful actions I will at least be remembered for standing tall and brave on that scaffold. For it to be remembered that I lay my graceful neck on that block with dignity. To say I died a Lady not a girl, whore, slut or any other name that will be applied to me in the future. Dear Lord make me not disgrace the noble name of Howard any further.

The sun now shone high in the sky without a doubt it was morning. Ignoring her body’s strong protests Katherine started preparing herself for her execution day. Recoiling slightly from the dooming colour she pulled out a black velvet dress from the chest. She pulled off her night gown shivering against the early morning cold. Tentatively Katherine started dressing pulling on her layers of underwear. White upon white petticoats, sitting down on the bed she waited for her servant to dress the rest of her. There was a knock on her door and to girls came in their head bowed. Silently they dressed Katherine lacing her into her bodice. Katherine relished each light touch of the servant girls knowing this was her last contact with her own sex. Tears fell silently down her face. The servant girls did not seem to notice the Katherine’s distress. Averting their eyes from the Queen they hastened with their task. Seating Katherine down her chair they began plaiting her thick brown hair up of fair neck. They then placed the black velvet hood on her head tying it with ribbons under her chin. Finally, Katherine placed her feet in thin black slippers. Knowing her face was red blotchy from her constant crying over the last day and night. She ordered the serving girls to fetch cold water. Carefully she splashed herself with the freezing water. She felt it cool her burning cheeks, washing away the evidence of her tears.

With a great deal of control Katherine calmly sat down on the chair and waited. With a realisation Katherine realised she was waiting for her death. She had nothing to do but wait for her death. Her life had already come to an end, her life had already lost all focus, all point. At that moment Katherine accepted her death.

Hours seemed to replace the next twenty minutes when finally there was a knock at the chambers door. Collecting up all the courage that one small girl can possess Katherine stood up to receive her visitor. She raised her head and looked straight into the eyes of the man who would lead her to her death.

“Please follow me my Lady”

were his only words as he turned around and exited out the chamber door. With one final glance around the room Katherine followed him down the stone spiral staircase running her hand along the rough stone work of the wall for support. Katherine felt her chest tighten at the sight of the door that would open onto the Tower Green. Trying to calm herself she tried taking in deep breaths slowly she felt the sense of panic decrease and marvelled at her own calmness as she walked through the door onto the Green. A crowd of public stood around the base of the scaffold jeering and shouting among themselves. A great cry rose as one by one the public noticed Katherine advance towards the scaffold

“Witch”

“Whore”

“Slut of a girl”

“Dared to betray our King now you’ll pay”

Katherine sadly accepted these insults knowing that they were true, but that the crowd would never really understand her or her actions.

They think I planned this. Not that I was lead by my heart, not that I was just a young girl used as a pawn for my families advancement. They think that I enjoyed it. Betraying my husband, having two lovers if only they knew my heart. My absolute love for my monarch that I dared not refuse him anything especially my love. But can they blame for wanting more than an ageing fat king. Can they blame me.

Katherine felt a weakness spread through her as she reached the scaffold her hands shook with the fear of this wooden stage. She felt a gentle hands grip her quivering hand and her waist to guide her smoothly up the wooden stairs. Katherine smiled weakly at the middle aged gentlemen as he bowed and turned from her, leaving her alone at the top of the scaffold.

Please My Lord give me the strength I need for this, please give me the strength I need to stand strong and tall for my final moment.

After this final silent prayer Katherine turned and faced the crowd of spectators. The crowd full of thirsty faces for her blood. What gruesome entertainment was all Katherine could think at these excited faces, what sad lives they must live.

Mustering all her courage Katherine made her final speech standing tall and proud.

“I die a Queen, but I would rather die the wife of Thomas Culpepper. God have mercy on my soul”

With this final dooming words Katherine turned around and let the executioner roughly tie the cloth over her eyes. She let him guide her to the wooden traitors block and laid her youthful slender self, which had only graced the earth for twenty years upon the block. As she lay there calmly and surrendering to the fall of the executioners axe. She pleaded silently.

I only wish Henry you believe that I did love you despite everything. In a unique way for a unique man I loved you.

This is my 1st ever story to be uploaded so any reviews would be greatly appreciated. I'm hoping to start entering writing competitions so please review and I'm a young writer so thank you.