Cecily turned back to him. “You need to know that I do not believe the hideous rumor that you had Ned’s boys murdered. You have the courage to render justice, but it is not in your nature to callously execute innocent children, and your own nephews at that.” She shook her head. “Impossible. Whatever has become of them—and their demise is certainly one very real option—I can believe that ambitious Margaret Beaufort had a hand in it. Even my nemesis, the other Margaret, might have had she lived. Elizabeth Woodville, too, would stop at nothing to secure her family’s power…” She paused and chuckled. “Listen to me disparaging my own sex. In truth, we can be as ruthless as men when we feel our families are threatened.”

“Is that why you threatened me just now, Mother?” he asked with enough of a hint of sarcasm to flout his mother before he continued more seriously: “I swear to you on my wife’s grave, that I had nothing to do with the boys’ deaths…” he caught himself, but Cecily was too quick.

“So they are dead? Dear God!” she exclaimed and crossed herself. “How? Those poor boys.”

Richard lowered himself into his chair. “It was Buckingham. Even worse, he did the deed himself and came gleefully back to me expecting my gratitude. Gratitude? I almost ran him through there and then.” Richard began pacing, remembering the scene. “Instead, I sent him away, and…”

“…he turned against you and rebelled,” Cecily finished the sentence for him as the truth dawned. “You did right to execute him,” she said vehemently. “At least his crime died with him. But why did you not get a signed confession? And, more important, why did you not reveal his crime when you had the chance?”

“Because I thought no one would believe me,” Richard muttered, shamefaced. “I had elevated him so high, if he fell I was going to fall with him. I regret I did not have the courage or the wisdom to reveal the truth for the peace of England, and, selfishly, for the peace of my own soul. And now…now…”

“…it is too late and history will say you are guilty,” Cecily once again finished for him, fingering her ebony and pearl rosary.

“’Tis a curse to be born royal,” Richard said angrily. “There is always someone behind you ready to stab you in the back. I am trying to make amends by ruling justly, and I only hope history will record that fairly.”