I decided instead of posting Chapter 1…. I would post the Preface, which I just finished (rough draft, still needs polishing but you'll get the idea). So here it is and we're off! I hope you like it!

I was born for greatness. I am a male of the Howard line. I have everything to play for and I am well equipped for this

 game. I will achieve glorious things in my tragically short life. I will rise in power and prestige. I will be given position

 and title. I will run in the very highest of inner circles. I am devilishly handsome, bright and charismatic. I am the 

consummate courtier. Perhaps they are these very traits that also brought about my downfall. 

I was born into a great family, the Howard family. We shall prove to be one of the most powerful and ruthless families

 in England, much to my pride and chagrin. We Howards play the long game. We play hard, we play smart, we play

 to the finish, we play to win. We are players in the Greatest Show on Earth....The Tudor Court. A place where people

 come from far and wide just to watch us dine. We costume ourselves in finery, we dance, we flirt, we turn a pretty 

phrase. Just another act in this traveling English show. A show that includes Seymours and Culpeppers and Nevilles. 

Each family performing their own piece of the show, while grabbing for the brass ring. We are just puppets, pretty 

puppets and I, I am a pretty Howard puppet. Mark me well, there is only one puppet master in the Howard family. 

That master is my Uncle, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. He moves us about the court as if it were a giant chess 

board and we, his family, were pawns. As a male pawn, I know I am being groomed to eventually be a puppet master

 myself. But I know, deep within me, that I cannot. Not because I am lacking some essential trait required to rule this

 family. No, it is because I have something extra. Something that will prevent me from doing the things that must be 

done to catapult us forward. That extra something is a heart. 


Don’t get me wrong, onward and upward is a motto I can get behind. It is the over and on top of I have trouble with.

 The relentless and ruthless crushing of anyone and everyone who gets in our way that gives me pause. But most of

 all, it is the basic nonsensical belief of most men in these times that women are to be used as a stepping stone for the

 men to further their own aims. Not to be loved, cherished or treasured. But to be used as currency, brood mares and

 bargaining chips. Admittedly I was raised with this idea and perhaps I have not always dealt kindly with those who

 have gotten in my way, but I dearly loved my sisters Anne and Mary. While I could swallow the idea of them being

 pushed onto the stage with me, to dance the dance of the Howards, I could not bear the thought of them being 

pushed off stage and into the breech when the music was done. 

And then, there was Francesca. 

But I digress. I play my part and I do it well. Better than well. I am stunningly good at what I do. What do I do you 

may wonder? Why I am a courtier, in the court of Henry VIII. I am loved by many. By kings and queens, men and 

women, children and animals. As I said, I am beautiful, I am witty, I am charming. I am, in short, a Boleyn.

Kimberly

Thank you. This is a VERY rough draft. I will change the wording at least 10 times before my editor gets a hold of it. However I wanted to get the basic persona of George down on paper as it were for the preface. Plus there were certain lines, especially in the first and last paragraphs that came to me that I definitely wanted to use and needed to get them down so i wouldn't lose them. But overall, considering the migraine I was battling yesterday, not a bad start.

Kimberly