The men salute in thanks, and Richard comes into the entrance hall, breaking the seal.

‘ “Greetings, well-beloved . . .” ’ he starts to read, and then breaks off. ‘It’s a standard letter, she has probably sent out hundreds. It’s a summons.’

‘To arms?’ I can taste my own fear.

‘Me and Anthony. We’re to go to York, she’s mustering there.’

‘Will you go?’ Almost, I want to ask him to refuse.

‘I have to. This may be the last chance for her.’ He is reading down the letter and he gives a long low whistle. ‘Good God! Her men have taken Richard Duke of York and killed him.’ He looks up at me, clenches the letter in his fist. ‘My God! Who would have thought it? The protector dead! She has won!’

‘How?’ I cannotbelieve this sudden leap to victory. ‘What are you saying?’

‘She just writes he rode out from his castle, that must be Sandal – why would he ever do that? You could hold that place for a month! And that they cut him down. Good God, I can’t believe it. Jacquetta, this is the end of the York campaign. This is the end of the Yorks. Richard of York dead! And his son alongside him.’

I gasp as if his death is a loss to me. ‘Not young Edward! Not Edward of March!’

‘No, his other son, Edmund. Edward of March is in Wales somewhere, but he can do nothing now his father is dead. They are finished. The Yorks are defeated.’ He turns the letter over. ‘Oh, look, she’s written a note at the end of the letter. She says, “Dear Sir Richard, come at once, the tide is turning for me. We have crowned Richard of York with a paper crown and set his head on a spike at the Micklegate. Soon we will put Warwick’s face up beside him, and everything will be as it should be again.” ’ He puts the letter into my hand. ‘This changes everything. Would you believe it? Our queen has won, our king is restored.’

‘Richard of York is dead?’ I read the letter for myself.

‘Now she can beat Warwick,’ he says. ‘Without the alliance with York he’s a dead man. He’s lost the regent and lord protector, it’s all over for them. They have no-one who can pretend to be heir to the throne. Nobody would ever have Warwick as lord protector, he has no claim to the throne at all. The king is the only man who can be king, once more. The House of York is finished, we have only the House of Lancaster. They have made a mistake which has cost them everything.’ He gives a whistle and takes the letter back. ‘Talk about fortune’s wheel: they are thrown down to nothing.’

I go to his side and look over his shoulder at the queen’s familiar scrawl on the clerk’s letter. In one corner she has written, Jacquetta, come to me at once.