“Aye, you have my heartfelt sympathy for them, Elizabeth,” Anne broke in not unkindly. Best not to travel that path, she thought. “but you must look to your daughters now.” She could not blame Elizabeth for wanting what was best for her children. Would she not do the same for Ned? She softened her tone. “As I said, I am sorry for you, but I am here to tell you that Bess and Cecily are welcome at our court, and Richard has promised me that he will find suitable matches for them—and your other daughters when they are of age, if you will allow him to help you.” She looked across the refectory where the two older girls sat quietly sewing and pitied the boredom they must have endured shut in a cloister for almost a year. “I must commend you, they are exquisite.”

Elizabeth inclined her head at the compliment. She knew this was not a suggestion from Richard but a command. Richard would need to keep Bess close in case Henry Tudor spirited her away, married her, and used her to shore up Yorkist support.

Elizabeth rose. “Pray tell the king I will consider his kind request,” she said. “If that is all, then I shall wish you a good morning.” She made to leave, but seeing Anne’s raised eyebrow, she asked, “I beg your pardon, did you have anything else to say?”

“Only that one does not usually rise before the queen and dismiss her,” Anne said evenly. The quick flush of embarrassment on Elizabeth’s face gave Anne immense satisfaction.

But Elizabeth’s bravado only lasted long enough for her to concede that Richard’s offer to protect her daughters was both generous and a relief. The dreary life in sanctuary was grinding her resolve down, and once accepting that there was no chance her boys would suddenly reappear, she gave her girls permission to leave. She grunted her reluctant admiration as she read a transcript of Richard’s oath taken in front of the lords: I, Richard….promise and swear that if the daughters of Elizabeth Grey, late calling herself queen of England… She paused to mutter before moving on, “but I was anointed queen,” …will come to me out of the sanctuary and be guided, ruled and conduct themselves after me, then I shall see that they shall be in surety of their lives, have them honestly and courteously treated…and to have all things requisite and necessary for their exhibitions and findings as my kinswomen…. The next sentence finally broke Elizabeth’s reserve: I shall arrange marriage for them to gentlemen well born, and give every one lands and tenements… Elizabeth sighed. “Where would I now, as disgraced Dame Grey, look to find husbands for my beautiful girls,” she moaned to her last faithful lady. “As innocents, they deserve nothing less than what Richard offers.”