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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

They can but nod, and so it is agreed.

8

FOR THREE DAYS and nights the carrack Mary stands off the coast of Kent, pinned back by an unflinching wind that comes up the Narrow Sea. On the cliffs to the north they can make out the two towers of the shrine of Our Lady, but no amount of prayer brings a let-up in the weather and by the third day every man watches with a tinge of envy as the sailor whom Thomas wounded finally dies.

‘All right, Thomas,’ Walter says, ‘another notch on that axe of yours. Chuck him over and then help these others with the sail. And you! Girly! Clean all this up.’

At the sound of the word ‘Girly’ Katherine stiffens. She turns away, hiding her face in the loose folds of her hood, feeling her cheeks flush and her heart hammer. The fat man Geoffrey touches her arm.

‘Don’t mind him, Kit,’ he murmurs. ‘He’s got a vile tongue, but he’s kind at heart.’

She nods, grateful for the big man’s compassion, but she cannot meet his eye. She ducks away and begins sluicing seawater over the dead sailor’s blood, conscious of Walter’s boot caps as he stands watching her work. Afterwards she helps Geoffrey bring the sick men mugs of rainwater, just as the ship’s boy had done, until at last on the fourth day the wind backs around and releases them. The sailors reset the mainsail and the ship begins to forge across the heavy waters.

The fat man, Geoffrey, is, as far as she can tell, the one who makes sure the men are fed and clothed, the one who worries about where they will sleep the coming night. The other one, Walter, is the man who organises the fighting, who enforces the discipline. Old Sir John is happy to leave them to it, while his son Richard is more concerned with his own affairs, and says little. Unlike Geoffrey, who is disposed to talk, and speaks quickly and quietly; in this way she learns something about Sir John Fakenham and his company.

The story, as far as she is able to pick up and later relay to Thomas, is that Sir John has been to the wars in France. He’s fought at the siege of some town the name of which she forgets even before Geoffrey has finished telling her the tale, but while he was there, the army was ravaged by a sickness Geoffrey calls the bloody flux, which in the end took the King Henry, the fifth, too, and this seems to have marked a turning point in the fighting.