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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

She nods again and looks at her hands.

‘I wish I had too,’ she says, ‘but I thought you might turn away from me, to leave me to fend for myself. And I cannot – I just cannot go on, not without your help. Look what happens when I try.’

She touches her ear again. He nods again, but his face has softened. His gaze travels across her, from her broken boots, up her baggy hose, across the jack that is too big for her, to her hat that hangs over her eyes, and she can see that he is consumed with the same tenderness he showed on the shoreline that day in Sangatte, and for a moment she wishes he would lean forward and put his arms around her as he had tried to do that day.

Instead he asks a question.

‘Do you remember that first day?’ he asks. ‘After the giant came after us and the boat sank?’

She does, but not exactly. A tear has found its way from her eye, and she wipes her nose with the back of her hand.

‘“Two are better than one . . .”’ he quotes. ‘“For if they fall—”’

‘“—the one will lift up his fellow,”’ she completes.

Katherine catches his hand in hers, and blinks away her tears. Thomas returns her grip. They let go at the same time.

‘So,’ he says. ‘If you will not go back, what will you do?’

She looks around. The pipe and tabor are playing a new tune now, a slower one, and the men around her have become introspective, and it is possible to imagine them thinking about absent loves, or missed opportunities, or past regrets.

‘I don’t know,’ she tells him. ‘I just don’t know. Whatever the Lord has in store for me is what the Lord has in store for me.’

18

IT IS PAST dusk and the rain is still beating on the canopy of leaves above their heads. Thomas huddles next to the tree, listening to Dafydd moaning in the dark.

‘I can’t believe this,’ Dafydd says. ‘We’ve been traipsing all over England for two weeks solid, in the pouring bloody rain, and now we’ve got here, we’ve got to stand picket?’

‘Just give it a rest, will you, Dafydd?’ Henry the new archer says. ‘You talk so much. I don’t know what you’re like quiet.’

Henry is from Kent. He joined them in London, just as they lost Simon the braggart, who slipped off unmissed in the night. Henry is broad-shouldered and a fine archer, but his mouth pulls down at each corner and he glowers at the world from under heavy brows.