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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 flings her arms around him and presses her face into his neck. He is awkward, but his arms come around her at last, though there is little succour in his embrace, not as she has experienced before.

‘Are you all right?’ he asks.

‘Thomas,’ she says. ‘I’ve missed you. Where’ve you been?’

‘I have been busy,’ he says. ‘Getting provisions.’

She sees he has a new bow and a sheaf of arrows and that there are stout leather panniers on his saddle.

‘We are going to ride to Marton,’ he says. ‘To see how it is. To see if – if they still live.’

‘What about Hastings?’ she asks. ‘Has he let you go?’

Thomas evades her gaze.

‘I have come to an arrangement with him,’ he says.

She sees he wants her to ask no more.

PART SIX

To Marton Hall, County of
Lincoln, February 1461

32

THOMAS AND KATHERINE leave the White Hart at dawn the next day and are at the city’s east gate before daybell. Thomas bribes the Watch to let them through and Katherine laughs.

‘How we’ve changed,’ she says.

Thomas says nothing and they ride out through the common land deserted at this time of day save for pigs and goats among the wringing posts and tenter frames, and they follow the road that will take them to the east, to the city of Worcester. As the morning wears on they pass men and carts coming the other way, bringing barrels and sacks, and stacks of new bows and sheaves of arrows to Hereford, to provision the new Duke of York’s army, and Katherine tries to make conversation.

‘It is good to travel so warmly,’ she tries, gesturing at his new travelling cloak. She too is wearing a new one, dark red with a fur collar and a deep hood and Thomas can see that she looks beautiful: her sharp features framed by the trim, the cold reddening her cheek and lending a spark to her eyes. Even her cracked lips do not detract. Men stare at her as they pass, some opening their mouths to greet her with a suggestive remark, perhaps, but the joke always dies on their tongues when they see Thomas’s expression.

‘And will we find an inn in this town Worcester?’ she asks. ‘There seem to be so many on the road.’

He grunts. He cannot stop looking at her, though God knows he does not want to. He knows he is doing the proper thing in taking her to Marton Hall, taking her to Richard Fakenham, but he can do no more than that. He cannot be as he has always been, because she is no longer as she was. She has left him, taken a different path, and, try as he might, he cannot force his features into his accustomed smile and cheer to see her go.

Even this bare minimum is hard.