The Concubine by Norah Lofts

This is a novel based on the life of Anne Boleyn, by Norah Lofts, who wrote numerous historical novels. Her style was more earthy than some writers, and she brought in a lot of social history. The main character in the novel is a poor servant woman, Emma Arnett, who is from Norfolk. When Anne is dimissed from court after her love affair with Henry Percy, the queen asks one of her ladies to send one of her serving women to escort Anne back home. Emma is rather resentful of how she can be ordered around but she starts to like Anne on the journey, and stays in her service after she is returned to her family home. Lofts does get a few things wrong historically, one of them being that Anne's mother is dead and her father's second wife is a woman from a farming family, who is kind to her three step children but who is ill at ease in court situations. Lady Boleyn is shocked that her elder step Daughter Mary has been the kings mistress and that soon after Anne's return home, Henry comes to Hever to see Sir Thomas Boleyn, and Anne refuses to join the family for dinner, because she is angry with the King for separating her from the man she loved. M/F