“What have they done, my lord?” he cried, tears close. “I forbid you to detain them! Where are they? I want to see them. They told me not to trust you. They said you would lie to me.”

Harry spoke now. “Who? Who told you Duke Richard would lie?”

Richard held up his hand. “Enough, Harry. It is not important.”

“It is important,” Harry retorted. He turned to Edward. “It is your uncle Rivers who lied, Your Grace. He told us he had no good reason for evading our request to meet you at Northampton. The truth is he had no intention of meeting us, because your mother had instructed him to ignore your Uncle Richard’s request to rendezvous so you would get to London ahead of us. Do you see?”

“Easy, Harry,” Richard warned, seeing young Edward’s mulish expression; his cousin’s aggressive tone was not helping. He pulled up a stool to sit and face Edward. Richard wanted to be kind, but this was a time to be stern. “Now you know the full story, can you blame me for assuming Lord Rivers and your mother had plans to usurp my lawful position as your protector and take power for themselves? I promise you, protecting you is what your father wanted. I am simply abiding by his wishes. Do you understand?”

Harry exploded then. “By God, their action is tantamount to treason!”

Edward jumped to his feet. “How dare you!” he yelled, clenching his fists and moving towards Harry. “My uncle is no traitor.”

“Leave us, my lord!” Richard barked at Harry, angry at his cousin now. “You go too far.”

Harry slammed the door behind him in disgust. A short silence followed during which Richard went to sit on a stool to wait for Edward to compose himself.

“Certes, your uncle was acting on your mother’s orders, but until I am assured he was not plotting to take you to her without me, I must detain him—and your stepbrother,” Richard said, quietly. “It is clear that Sir Thomas, as your chamberlain and close confidante of Rivers, must have been party to it all, so he must be remanded too. They will be comfortably housed out of reach—but guarded. Once we are in London and I have talked to your mother, we shall see about releasing them.” He chose not to complicate matters by explaining he had separated the three conspirators to his three major castles—Sheriff Hutton, Middleham and Pontefract, which would make it more difficult for the queen to stage a rescue.