King Henry

Chapter 28 - Arthur's Confession

Arthur hung his head and let out an exhale, rubbing his hands over his face and then up through his hair, clasping them on top of his head as he paced the floor.

Finally he stopped pacing and turned to face Henry, dropping his arms.

"I don't know if you're aware, but growing up with a best friend that was the crown prince of England wasn't easy. You got all the attention and I was in your shadow no matter what I did. You were a better archer and jouster than me and you won every tournament. Any time women had a choice, they picked you over me. You always had everything I could never have. Your father was a great King and an amazing man that I really looked up to and respected. I used to imagine he was my father sometimes," he said quietly, looking down.

"Throughout the years I'd get jealous sometimes, but most of the time I just looked up to you and felt lucky to be the best friend of such a great man," Arthur said, finally looking back up at him. He let out a breath, shaking his head. "But not today. Today I was just jealous."

Henry looked at him, wondering where he was going with this. "Jealous of what?" he asked.

"You know I've never seen myself as the marrying type, but when you asked me to marry Eleanor as a favor to you, I agreed. Then as time went on I started to get used to the idea. I started picturing what my life with her would look like and sometimes I even caught myself actually looking forward to it," he said, hanging his head with a hint of a smile.

His smile slowly faded and he started pacing back and forth again as he said, "I didn't realize how I felt about her until I was sitting there in that boardroom, hearing you ask for the Council's approval to marry her."

Henry studied his face, thinking. "What are you trying to say Arthur?"

He took a deep breath in and let it out before looking into his eyes and saying quietly, "I'm in love with her."

Those words felt like a punch to Henry's stomach and he stood there stunned. He didn't know what to say. That was the last thing in the world he had ever expected to come out of Arthur's mouth.

He slowly sat down in the chair behind his desk, trying to process everything.

"How could I vote Yay and give my blessing for someone else to marry the woman l'm in love with? In that moment, I just couldn't do it," Arthur said, plopping down into the seat across from the desk, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees and cupping his head in his hands.

Henry thought it over before saying, "I'm sorry Arthur. You may love her, but so do I and she loves me too." He wasn't sure what else to say.

Arthur raised his head and scoffed, shaking his head. "Of course she does. For the same reason ALL the other women have always wanted you, because you're the King. You're the great and mighty King Henry!" he said sarcastically, throwing his hands out. "How could anyone else EVER compete with that?"

Henry scrunched his brow. "So you're angry at me for being the King, something I was born into and had no control over? That would be like me being angry with you for having blonde hair and blue eyes, even though you had no choice in the matter. Can't you see how ridiculous that is?"

Arthur shook his head. "I'm not angry at you for being the King, but you could have ANY woman in the entire world that you want. Why did you have to steal MY fiancé?"

Henry looked at him in disbelief. "YOUR fiancé? She was only YOUR fiancé because I thought being with her wasn't an option for me and I needed to save her from having to marry Thomas. You knew I was in love with her before you even met her!"

"Yes, but that was BEFORE!" Arthur said loudly. "Then I met her and knowing we were going to get married made feelings start to grow and I fell in love. If I had known you were going to just steal her back from me, I would have never let myself fall for her like I did. I didn't think you would do something like that. Especially not to me." Arthur looked at Henry thinking. "I guess you're more like your Mother than I realized."