Chapters (58)
She throws up her hands, sits back in her chair. ‘Oh, Richard, it’s family. It’s always family. John is Beaufort and we … we are York.’
‘The chance to lead an army into the mess of France is hardly a prize I would covet for my family! God knows, my own service here is thankless enough. What does Beaufort expect to gain from it?’
‘Ah. On that point I pressed the messenger a little further. It seems the terms of Beaufort’s coming into France are …’ How to describe it? ‘Unusual.’
‘Indeed. How so?’
She wills her voice to steadiness as she tells him. ‘Whatever spoils he wins are to be his own, not the Crown’s. And he is no longer Earl of Somerset but Duke.’ Richard’s look is disbelieving. Now even she must look away. ‘My uncle made it a condition of the loan.’
Richard nets his hands, taps his thumbs against his teeth. ‘Let me understand. He is richly funded, with money that should be mine, to impose on my jurisdiction. And he keeps all the profit?’
‘It’s best you know it all. I’ve taken counsel with Talbot, and he with his captains. There’s no evidence of a renewed offensive, things are much as they have been—’
‘Of course there’s not! This is nothing more than an excuse for a raiding party that lets John Beaufort slake his resentment and line his pockets at our expense.’ His voice lowers. ‘And it puts at risk everything we’ve strived for these two years.’
‘I know.’
He lays his hands, palms down, on the table. ‘I’m going to England.’
She lays her own atop them. ‘That you should not do.’
‘You’ve always said that to influence the King you need to be near the King. So, well and good, I will go to the King.’
‘And leave your post? And give John Beaufort the excuse he needs to walk into Normandy too? No. We should send Talbot. In any case, if the council is for war again, better an old soldier tells them it’s madness than the Duke of York. We must stay here and deal with whatever nonsense Beaufort brings. And Richard,’ she binds her fingers with his, tight. ‘I am sorry, but now I must be about the business of making this child.’
He nods, lowers his head on to their joined hands, and sighs.
