P.S. I hope that you can find a way to deliver the enclosed note.

I folded the second letter inside this one and inscribed Jane’s initials on the front. Writing its content brought tears to my tired eyes.

To the beloved and neglected lady of my heart,

This short message is a greeting, a farewell and a heartfelt apology. I left you to face my enemies alone and I cannot praise highly enough the bravery and steadfast loyalty you displayed in keeping faith with all your charges, risking your own life and freedom to accompany them into what you so accurately call the lion’s den. I dearly wish I could convey to you in person my deep love and profound admiration but my own duty to those I have sworn to serve now takes me even further away from you and for a length of time I cannot calculate. I assume that the lack of any communication from you means you have all remained together in the same restrictive custody and I will try to find some secret way to send and receive news. At the same time I will be working constantly towards restoring the true king to his rightful throne and our life and love to their proper course.

Until that comes to pass, I send you my solemn promise to find a way to visit you and our children before you forget an ardent friend and they a loving father.

I neither signed it nor used my signet ring but pressed my lips to the soft wax that sealed it, hoping their imprint would convey its own message.

PART FOUR

Two Crowned Kings

1467–1470

30

Jane

Raglan Castle

‘WHEN WILL THEY EVER come?’ Harri’s forlorn question was accompanied by a sigh. ‘I thought it would be today.’

I lowered my sewing to look across the room to where the boy was sitting cross-legged on a cushioned window seat. Diamond-paned glass gave him a rain-blurred view over the rolling hills to the southeast and the road that led up to Raglan Castle. He was anxiously awaiting an arrival of enormous importance to him, but clearly Maud Herbert had no patience with such preoccupation. She approached Harri with an exasperated expression on her pretty round face. ‘Why not stop staring out of the window and come and play ninepins with me?’ she suggested.

A steady downpour had put a stop to any of their normal outdoor afternoon activities, so the children were confined to an upper chamber of the Great Tower at Raglan Castle trying to entertain themselves, some with more success than others. The younger members of the household had been temporarily moved into the old moated tower because Lord and Lady Herbert were expecting important visitors, who would be occupying all the new apartments clustered around the recently completed Grand Court extension. It was these guests who were the object of Harri’s nervous anticipation.