A tinkling, silvery laugh made Anne look up surprised. “I am not queen yet, Lady Anne,” an amused Elizabeth said as she raised the girl to her feet. The unusually sweet sound made besotted Edward take note, cutting short Warwick’s rhetoric. Following Edward’s gaze, Warwick stiffened. He watched the meeting between the queen and his daughter with barely concealed disdain, and annoyed he had lost Edward’s attention, he scowled and went to talk to George and Isabel. The moment was not lost on Richard, but his face lit up as Edward approached.

“My dear Richard,” Edward said, acknowledging Richard’s low bow. “I see you have become almost a man in the year since you left us. I must commend Warwick for shaping you into quite the handsome youth.”

Richard was so chagrined, he could not forestall a flush of pleasure. “’Tis good of you to say, Your Grace. I have been training hard.” He noticed he was now at eye level with Edward’s collar of gold “S’s”. I have grown, he thought pleased, I can remember when I only reached his waist. “And may I present the Lady Anne Neville, our cousin.”

“I see you have made my Bess’s acquaintance,” Edward said after accepting Anne’s reverence. He took his wife’s hand and kissed its upturned palm hungrily. “Is she not the most beautiful creature you have ever seen?”

Richard did not want to contradict his brother, as how could this older woman compare with the exquisite Isabel? “Indeed, Your Grace.”

“You were right, Edward,” Elizabeth remarked. “He is solemn.”

Seeing Richard’s discomfort, Edward hurriedly added: “Solemn and loyal, my dear. Warwick has just been singing his praises.”

“My lord father likes him very well,” Anne suddenly offered. “He thinks he will make a fine knight. He told me so.”

With so much approbation, Richard could hardly breathe. Then Edward, his huge hand easily enveloping Richard’s shoulder, joined his wife’s tinkling laugh with a delighted guffaw. The scene stopped the courtiers’ conversations as all observed the genuine affection between the king and his youngest brother. It was a moment of glory for Richard in a room filled with important people. And what was more delicious: George did not appreciate Richard’s easy intimacy with the king.

“What do you think of our new sister?” Richard asked Margaret a few days before the coronation. He had asked permission to stay in the Royal Wardrobe behind Baynard’s Castle, where Margaret was lodged when not at Greenwich.

Enjoying the late May sunshine in the manicured gardens, Richard was demonstrating a recently learned thrust-and-parry maneuver with a stake he had pulled out of the flower bed. Margaret’s shadow, a young dwarf named Fortunata, was teasing Richard by turning cartwheels just out of reach of his lunges.