I thought it was a marriage by proxy before Anne even got to England.

I thought it was a marriage by proxy before Anne even got to England.

It was. But the ceremony - the official state wedding party - would have gone on for some time, even though Henry said, no way am I shagging this one. And the wedding party - planned well in advance - would have included two things that led to the tragedy of the song: visits from afar (in this instance, some Scots or border country nobles, I'm thinking the Percys or close approximation), and hunting trips on the Isle of Dogs.

Oh, my. Must brush up on Tudors. I'm more familiar with them as an old Jacobean/Elizabethan drama and lit second-major than as a historian; they begin just after my particular era of expertise ends.

Le sigh. I suppose I can't put all the stories between 1066 and the Battle of Bosworth...

Sounds fascinating to me.

Susan, I just love the idea of some impoverished English noblewoman, being shunted off as companion to the discarded queen (she ended up at Hever Palace, I think, and Henry got into the habit of hanging out with her, once he discovered that he quite liked her personally), keeping these gossipy little notes on a murder, and all the behind the scenes stuff.

Seriously. Kind of an anti-Thomas More.

Tudors are fun.

Tudors are fun.

So I'm told, but I was never able to see it. Henry VII, dried-up stick and very probably the murderer of his nephews, the Princes in the Tower. Henry VIII, yes, well, we know what a syphillitic monastery-looting "I want nookie so I'm a-gonna found a new church!" wife-abandoning and -beheading freakazoid he was. Bloody Mary, um, no. Elizabeth was interesting, but really, Virgin Queen my ass.

What can I tell you, I'm a Plantagenet woman.

Tudors are fun.

Or, at least, they lived in interesting times, which they played a not-insignificant role in creating. And I like the clothes.

Since I don't seem to be sleeping, I drabbled.

Welcome to the addiction

“Giles is coming back? Yay!”

“Yep. He’ll be back for the rest of the season.”

“Too cool. What else?”

“You sure you want me to tell you?”

“Hell yeah. Or better yet, just tell me where you go for your spoilers, since now I need to know what is going to happen.”

“There are a lot of places, but I usually read the Buffistas on World Crossing.”

“I’ve never heard of them. I’ll have to look it up.”

“You may like them. It’s a fun site.”

And another:

“Sorry I’m late.”

I look up at the new arrival, and smile through the introductions before going back to my conversation, without paying much attention. We are all fairly unknown to one another, trying to get used to law school, new people, and a new city, so one more new face is nothing special.

One dinner sitting at opposite ends of a table for 6 doesn’t change that either. He’s average height, only a little more than average weight, and apart from one joke only he and I got, nothing about him catches my attention.

He just doesn’t stand out, and he certainly doesn’t look like he will be three years of my life.

I'm just loving Ringan - who resents the entire thing so much, and is always so scared for Penny's sake - being the vulnerable one

This. Now I want to know how Penny responds.