Visiting the tower wasn't where you had wanted to go to visit the woman you saw as your best friend. You had met Katherine many years ago, when you were both young girls and dreamed of the futures that you would both lead. Having come from relatively humble backgrounds, not that of peasants but nowhere of upper nobility. It had become a dream, almost a fantasy of you both that one of you would be queen one day and the other a lady with a lot of land, able to spend your days living in luxury.

Surprisingly your fates hadn't strayed too far from that at first. Katherine had married the King, granted as his fifth wife, in a loveless marriage, him desperate for a pretty young wife and Katherine fitting that bill. You had married a duke, a man whom similarly wanted a young wife to look good on his arm. That didn't last long though. Your husband died, no children to your marriage, leaving his fortune and a large amount of his estate to you, leaving you as one of the wealthiest women in the country, not caring what people would say if you stayed unmarried now, glad to just have your way to support yourself.

Katherine's happily ever after didn't last long either. She wasn't married much longer than a year before she was sent to the tower, her fate in death sealed. You had known the marriage was loveless, but you never thought she'd be adulterous.

She was forbidden visitors unless the King allowed them, but the guards were easily bought, allowing you to visit her.

"Oh Katherine," you sighed as you saw her solemn face.

She offered you a weak smile as you pulled her into a warm embrace. You questioned her on what had happened and she told you of the hope she held with Henry before quickly learning he would never love her and had several mistresses, only calling upon her if he wished for her to join him in bed. She had found company outside of her marriage, thinking that she had found a different man whom would love her but equally his interests were immoral, and her infidelity was soon learnt and now punished with the loss of her head.

"I always said your heart would be your downfall," you sighed, holding her head to your chest, letting her quickly sob.

"All I wanted was a happy ending," she whispered into the cloth of your gown. "No matter where I sought love, the only person who ever did love me, was you."

"And I shall always love you, my dear," you smiled softly. "I'm sorry that your heart was betrayed by so many men."

"Alas I should have settled in sin," she said, peering up at you. "Our love is the purest."

"That is is."

~*~
Written by Charlotte.