Chapters (58)
The swan lies between them and the bull’s blood ruby on Richard’s finger is turning again. ‘You think she’d do that? Kill her husband? Whatever else he is, he’s an anointed king.’
‘Oh, Richard.’ She shakes her head in exasperation. ‘I think Marguerite’s fought with her back to the wall so long, there’s nothing she wouldn’t do to reach safe ground. She has a husband worse than useless to her, and a son who just might be her salvation. Think what you would do in her place. No, better, think what I would do.’
The smile he gives her is a thin ghost of his old teasing one. ‘I see I must strive ever to be useful to you.’
‘Do.’ The jest is a poor one and quickly dies. Perhaps she should tell him there’s a difference. That Marguerite never had the chance to study Henry, to know his heart and say of him, as I did of you: yes, I choose him.
But that’s not what matters most now, and there are more important things for him to hear. So, instead, she takes his hands in hers, kisses their knuckles and whispers that, in a world ruled by Marguerite, he would never be allowed to live.
He leans, in turn, to set his lips to her bowed head. ‘Oh, I think she has me marked already.’
He frees one hand to reach into his breast for another missive. ‘This came today.’ He pushes it towards her across the polished wood. ‘I am called to a Parliament at Leicester in November. Your brother and Warwick, too. I think, if we were to go, we would not leave it alive.’
‘Then we must act.’
She counts her heartbeat.
… seven … eight … nine …
Before he answers.
‘Yes.’
And so to Ludlow and a summer of preparation.
Salisbury and Warwick swear allegiance to Richard, second only to the King. They will muster men; Salisbury in the North, Richard in the West.
Warwick will come back from Calais. He will bring his garrison and draw up the men of Kent as he comes.
They will meet at Ludlow in the autumn and march upon the King’s party as it travels to Leicester for the Parliament. They will do as they did at St Albans. They will separate the King from those who control him. They will take control themselves.
And, this time, not let it go.
