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  1. The Lady of the Rivers
  2. CASTLE OF BEAUREVOIR, NEAR ARRAS, FRANCE,
  3. ROUEN, FRANCE,
  4. CASTLE OF ST POL, ARTOIS,
  5. PARIS, FRANCE,
  6. CASTLE OF CALAIS, FRANCE,
  7. WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON,
  8. PENSHURST,
  9. PARIS, FRANCE,
  10. GISORS, FRANCE,
  11. ROUEN, FRANCE,
  12. ENGLAND,
  13. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  14. WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON,
  15. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  16. LONDON,
  17. WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON,
  18. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  19. NANCY, FRANCE,
  20. TITCHFIELD ABBEY, HAMPSHIRE,
  21. LONDON,
  22. WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON,
  23. WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON,
  24. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  25. LONDON,
  26. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  27. PLYMOUTH,
  28. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  29. LONDON,
  30. THE WEST OF ENGLAND,
  31. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  32. PALACE OF PLACENTIA, GREENWICH, LONDON,
  33. THE TOWER OF LONDON,
  34. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  35. CLARENDON PALACE, WILTSHIRE,
  36. WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON,
  37. WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON,
  38. WINDSOR CASTLE,
  39. WINDSOR CASTLE,
  40. THE PALACE OF PLACENTIA, GREENWICH, LONDON,
  41. HERTFORD CASTLE,
  42. GROBY HALL, LEICESTERSHIRE,
  43. HERTFORD CASTLE,
  44. WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON,
  45. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  46. KENILWORTH CASTLE, WARWICKSHIRE,
  47. ROCHESTER CASTLE, KENT,
  48. WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON,
  49. WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON,
  50. ON CAMPAIGN,
  51. SANDWICH, KENT, AND CALAIS,
  52. COVENTRY,
  53. NORTHAMPTON,
  54. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  55. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  56. ON THE MARCH,
  57. ST ALBANS,
  58. YORK,
  59. GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,
  60. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  61. BIBLIOGRAPHY

‘He’s the son of Marguerite the Daisy,’ I say. ‘He can be the flower that we rejoice to see in springtime, whose coming means spring.’

‘Yes,’ she says.‘A wild flower that comes from who knows where?’

GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,

SUMMER 1453

I keep my word to the queen and don’t puzzle over this long-delayed conception, and she keeps her word to me and speaks to Edmund, Duke of Somerset, and he sends my husband home to me, as I go into confinement at Grafton. I have a boy and we call him Lionel. My daughter Elizabeth, a married lady, comes and attends me in my confinement, very serious and very helpful, and I find her hanging over the cradle and cooing to the baby.

‘You will have your own soon,’ I promise her.

‘I hope so. He is so perfect, he is so beautiful.’

‘He is,’ I say with quiet pride. ‘Another son for the House of Rivers.’

* * *

As soon as I am strong enough to return to court I get a message from the queen asking me to join them on progress. Richard has to return to the garrison of Calais and it is painfully hard for us to part again.

‘Let me come to Calais,’ I beg him. ‘I can’t bear to be without you.’

‘All right,’ he says. ‘Next month. You can come and bring all the younger children; I can’t bear to be without you and them either.’

He kisses my mouth, he kisses both of my hands, and then he mounts his horse and rides away.

CLARENDON PALACE, WILTSHIRE,

SUMMER 1453

The court itself is merry, travelling around the western counties and seeking out traitors and rabble-rousers. The Duke of Somerset has chosen the route and says that gradually the people are coming to learn that they cannot speak evil of the king, that there is no future in their demands and – more important than anything else – that Richard, Duke of York, will never be a power in the kingdom and so allying with him, or calling on his name, is a waste of time.

Edmund Beaufort is especially attentive to the king this summer, urging him on to be more and more severe in his judgements and rigorous in his sentencing. He strengthens his mind by applauding his decisions, and encourages him to speak out. The duke accompanies the king to chapel and brings him to the queen’s rooms before dinner where the three of them sit and talk, and the duke makes them laugh with his account of the day, sometimes mocking the ignorant people who have been before him.

The queen cannot ride in her condition, and Edmund Beaufort has trained a beautiful set of matched mules to carry her litter. He himself rides beside her, keeping his great horse reined back to the slow speed of the mules, watching her for any sign of fatigue. He consults me almost every day to make sure that I am happy with the queen’s health, with her diet, with her exercise. Every day I assure him that she is well, that her belly is growing as it should, that I am certain that the baby is strong.