Kindred Spirits

Meeting Friends And Family

"Louis, this is Jane Seymour," Anne said. "In life we were bitter rivals, but since her death, we've become the best of friends."

"Pleased to meet you, madame," Louis said to Jane, who smiled and curtseyed.

"Jane was Henry's third wife, and he married her only eleven days after my death," Anne added.

Louis gasped, shocked and dismayed.

"It's all right, Louis," Anne said. "She joined me here only fifteen months later."

"I died from complications in childbirth," Jane said.

"Jane was able to give Henry the son I never could," Anne said sadly.

"And doing so cost you your own life," Louis commented.

Jane nodded. "My son was only king for six years. He died of consumption when he was only fifteen years old."

"I'm so sorry," Louis managed to stammer. His head was still reeling from all this new information.

"It's all right. He's perfectly healthy now. His name is Edward. You will meet him soon."

Louis began walking with the two women. Anne's arm was linked with Louis' arm on one side and Jane's on the other.

"Wasn't meeting again quite awkward for both of you?" Louis asked.

"It was very awkward for me. I thought that she must really hate me and dreaded facing her anger," Jane told him.

"As soon as I saw her, alone and grief-stricken, I knew that I could never hate her," Anne said. "She was a victim as well, only in a different way."

"If the babe I had borne had been a daughter rather than a son, and if I had lived but been unable to bear more children, I'm sure that my fate would have eventually been the same as Anne's," Jane added. "In that respect I feel that we are truly sisters."

"Is Henry here as well?" Louis was suddenly very curious.

Both women burst out laughing. Louis was puzzled.

"Oh, he's here, all right. He doesn't have the most pleasant of occupations, however. He has to spend eternity cleaning manure out of the heavenly stables. Do you remember that verse in the Bible about reaping what you sow? Well, in Henry's case, it became quite literal," Anne told him.

Louis laughed out loud. He couldn't help it. "I find it hard to believe that such a thing as manure even exists in such a place as this."

"Where there's horses, there's manure. They do eat, after all, and what they eat has to go somewhere. And heaven wouldn't be the same without horses, would it?"

"You've got a point there," Louis admitted. "I've always loved horses."

They were approaching a park. A boy of about eleven and a girl of about six saw them coming and raced toward them, excited.

"Father!" they shouted. They both ran to Louis, who showered them with hugs and kisses.

"Meet my son Joseph and my daughter Sophie," Louis said. "Joseph arrived here at age seven, Sophie at eleven months."

"They are such beautiful children," Anne said.

"It broke my heart to lose each of them," Louis said sadly. "I can't tell you how happy I am to see them again."

"I know," Anne said sympathetically. "I lost three of mine before they were old enough to survive outside the womb. It was such joy to be reunited with them here. It took some of the sting away from being forced to leave Elizabeth at such a tender age."

"Will you push me on the swing, Father?" asked Sophie.

"I'd love to, sweetheart," Louis told her.

Anne watched the little girl's dark brown hair fly in the breeze as her father pushed her on the swing and thought that it was the most picturesque scene she had witnessed in a very long time.