By now inquisitive servants had entered the hall. What with the tolling bells, the unrest in the north, and the absence of their lord, the household was more than curious: they were on edge. Aye, all of Baynard’s wanted to know Warwick’s news.

Cecily was helped to a bench, and the earl dismissed the others with an autocratic stare and a jerk of the head towards the door. Meggie pulled her reluctant siblings to the private staircase Cecily had just descended.

“But I want to hear…” Dickon protested, resisting her. His instincts told him Warwick did not bring good news, and he felt frightened.

Meg’s instinct, however, told her to protect her two young brothers from any bad tidings that their mother alone should hear from Warwick. Shushing Dickon, she pushed him up the staircase in front of her.

A whole day went by, and the mood in the castle turned somber as the reason for the tolling bells and the duchess’s collapse filtered along the long passageways, into the kitchens, and through the stables and to the castle’s garrison. But although the whisperings had permeated the servants’ quarters, the news failed to crawl its cruel way up into the children’s apartments, where they resided separately from their parents. After the three children had left the hall and Meg had bullied the boys into their chambers, only Nurse Anne and Beatrice were left to see to their needs. Gresilde and Cecily’s other ladies tended to their mistress, and no one thought to inform the children of the tragedy at Wakefield.

“We shall stay here until Mother tells us otherwise,” Meg instructed her brothers sternly. “So refrain from squabbling, and let us wait for her peaceably.”

“What do you think is the matter?” Dickon asked. “Our cousin of Warwick did not look normal.”

Meg shrugged, although she, too, had a knot in her stomach.

“You should have let us stay to listen,” George complained, and Dickon heartily concurred.

“Sweet Jesu, don’t you think I wish I had, too?” Meg snapped back. “Do not blame me—you saw my lord Warwick’s glare. I was not about to gainsay it. I have never seen him look so forbidding.” Dickon had no response to that truth and continued marshaling his toy soldiers. George went to his sister and hugged her. “You are right; you had to obey him. I wish I knew where Mother was though.”