BooksBarbecue
Back Winter Pilgrims Save as PDF
Chapters (55)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Book
  3. About the Author
  4. Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims
  5. Dedication
  6. Though the Lancastrian Claim comes from Edward III’s THIRD son, it relies on a) possession and b) that the crown can not pass through a woman – Philippa Mormer – so must fall to the next male in line. The Yorkist Claim relies on their descent from Edward III’s SECOND son, and says it can pass through Philippa. The Tudor Claim ignores the fact of passing through a woman – Lady Margaret Beaufort – or that John, Earl of Somerset, was born illegimate.
  7. Factions in the Wars of the Roses
  8. Prologue
  9. PART ONE
  10. 1
  11. 2
  12. 3
  13. 4
  14. PART TWO
  15. 5
  16. 6
  17. 7
  18. 8
  19. 9
  20. 10
  21. 11
  22. 12
  23. 13
  24. PART THREE
  25. 14
  26. 15
  27. 16
  28. 17
  29. 18
  30. 19
  31. PART FOUR
  32. 20
  33. 21
  34. 22
  35. 23
  36. PART FIVE
  37. 24
  38. 25
  39. 26
  40. 27
  41. 28
  42. 29
  43. 30
  44. 31
  45. PART SIX
  46. 32
  47. 33
  48. PART SEVEN
  49. 34
  50. 35
  51. 36
  52. 37
  53. 38
  54. 39
  55. Acknowledgements

‘No,’ she says. ‘No. It is a good thing.’

He pauses.

‘How can that be? Do you not want to go back to the priory?’

She places her hand on the bandage over her ear.

He feels a fool. Of course she does not want to go back the priory.

‘But what will you do?’

‘It seems I have no choice,’ she tells him. ‘Even if I had anywhere else to go, the Earl of Warwick wants me to stay.’

She smiles again. He smiles too and is silent for a while. She closes her eyes as pain grips her. She relaxes when it has passed.

‘So you will stay?’ he asks.

She opens her eyes.

‘If you do, yes.’

A great weight is lifted.

‘The wheel of fortune.’ He laughs. ‘Just when you think you are down, you are up.’

She opens her eyes and looks at him for a long moment.

‘Yes,’ she says, ‘but then again, just when you think you are up, you are down.’

He grips her hand. She smiles once more, then turns over on to her side, her back to him, and goes to sleep.

The tears course down his face, and he wipes them with the back of his wrist.

‘Bloody hell, Kit,’ he says, ‘bloody hell.’

17

THE NEXT MORNING they break camp and cross the water meadows and enter Canterbury through the gatehouse. The bells are ringing and people call out to them as they pass, wishing them luck in the name of St James. Thomas walks with Katherine. She takes short shuffling steps, gingerly, and leans against him now and then. She’s pulled her hood up to cover her ear and face, and walks looking down at her feet rather than up at the cathedral. In the suddenly cramped confines of the town they are hemmed in by friars of every hue.

‘I would like to go to Mass again,’ she admits, her gaze rising quickly to the cathedral windows. ‘I have not made my confession since we left the priory.’

Thomas hangs his head.

‘And we have much to confess,’ he says.

Katherine says nothing. They walk on.

‘Will you confess to apostasy?’ he asks.

‘I have thought about it,’ she says, ‘and the truth is that I will not.’

‘Then you will die unshriven? You’d be damned for eternal life.’

Katherine shakes her head.

‘I don’t believe leaving the priory was a sin. The Prioress used to beat me with a hawthorn broom. She used to starve me. She chained me to a log and stretched me for a night and the Lord knows what she had in mind for me had I stayed. Have you ever heard of a sister from a place in the north called Watton?’

Thomas is staring at her.