So: I am to go to court for the Christmas feast. He holds true to his word that I shall be second only to little Kitty Howard (I must learn to say Queen Katherine before I get there). I have a letter from the Lord Chamberlain today, bidding my attendance and telling me I will be housed in the queen’s rooms. No doubt I shall have one of the best bedrooms and the Princess Mary another, and I shall learn to see Kitty Howard (Queen Katherine) go to bed in my bed, and change her clothes in my rooms and receive my visitors in my chair.
If I am to do this at all, it has to be done gracefully. And I have no choice but to do this.
I can be sure that Kitty Howard will play her part. She will be rehearsing now, if I know her. She likes to practise her moves and her smiles. I imagine she will have a new, gracious smile prepared for my reception, and I must be gracious too.
I must buy gifts. The king loves gifts and of course little Kitty Howard (Queen Katherine) is an utter magpie. If I take some very fine things I will be able to attend with some confidence. I so need confidence. I have been a duchess and the Queen of England and now I am some sort of princess. I must learn courage to be myself, Anne of Cleves, and enter the court, and my new position in it, with grace. It will be Christmas. My first Christmas in England. I could laugh to think that I had thought that I would be merry, with a merry court, at the Christmas feast. I had thought I would be queen of that court; but, as it turns out, I shall only be a favoured guest. So it goes. So it goes in a woman’s life. I am quite without fault and yet I am not in the position that I was called to. I am quite without fault and yet I am thrown down. What I must see if I can do, is to be a good Princess of England where once I planned to be a good queen.