The Sun in Splendour - Plaidy Jean (электронную книгу бесплатно без регистрации .txt) 📗

'Our troubles are over/ he said. 'We have made an agreement—my brothers and I. George will put nothing in the way of our marriage. He has taken most of yours and your sister's inheritance, but I think we have enough in each other.'

'I care nothing for the lands,' said Anne.

'I thought not. I wish Clarence joy of them. And now we are only waiting for the Pope. But I will tell you this, Anne, I do not intend to wait longer for His Holiness. Do we need ceremonies? Do we need a grand wedding? I believe you are in agreement with me when I say we do not.'

'I am in complete agreement.'

'Well then, tomorrow we shall be married. And Anne almost at once we are going to leave for Middleham. Does that make you happy?'

'Very happy,' she said.

'Yet you are a little downcast?'

'I was thinking about Isabel . . . who has grown so weak . . . and my mother. I think of her often. She must be very lonely.'

Richard nodded.

He said he would return for her the next day when they would be quietly married.

And so they were; and they made immediate preparations to leave for the North.

Edward was amused. 'So you decided to flout His Holiness then?'

'There is only one man whose command I have ever obeyed.'

Edward looked at him affectionately.

'I know it and I am grateful. Richard, let us take a brotherly oath and swear that it shall always be so.'-

'There is no need for swearing,' said Richard. 'You know my motto. I will serve my King while there is life in my body.'

Edward embraced him.

'We shall see little of each other from now on. You will be in the North but know that my thoughts are with you and that I shall

sleep more soundly in my bed at nights for knowing you control the North. It has always been a source of anxiety to me, Richard. But it will be so no more. The one 1 trust beyond all others will guard it forme.'

'With my life/ said Richard. 'And my lord, there is one request I would ask of you before 1 go.'

'1 promise you before you ask it that if it be in my power to give it, it is yours.'

'It is the Countess of Warwick. She is alone at Beaulieu. Anne grieves for her. I ask your permission to take her out of Sanctuary at Beaulieu that she may live with us at Middleham.'

'How like you, Richard, to make such a request. I grant it with pleasure. God bless you, brother. I wish you all the happiness you deserve. And there is one thing I would ask. From time to time you must tear yourself away from Middleham and come to see me. I shall send for you and I know you will not dare to disobey your King's commands.'

Once more they embraced and the next day Anne and Richard set out for Middleham. They were happy for they were in love. They were young—Richard but twenty, Anne sixteen—and they had their whole lives before them.

So they came to Middleham. It was springtime and the country at its most beautiful. Anne was overcome with emotion when she saw the castle on its high eminence with the moat surrounding it filled with water which came from the spring on high ground which she and Isabel used to ride to, when they were children.

Here she could forget the dirty kitchens, the greasy smell, the terrible fear that after all she might be as mad as they had made her out to be.

And she had Richard too. This was how they both imagined it in those early days. They were together now as they had been then. Her mighty father was dead; her sad mother was coming to them for the King had promised it, though the Duke of Clarence was trying to put obstacles in the way.

But she would be with them soon.

During that first year Richard had to go south to attend Parliament but he did not stay long and was back by Christmas which they celebrated with the old traditions in the great castle hall.

By that time Anne had discovered that she was pregnant so there was very special rejoicing and how delighted she was when during the following year her child was bom.

Richard wanted to call him Edward after her brother whom he so admired and Anne was eager to agree.

In due course the Countess of Warwick arrived at Middleham and Anne felt that she needed nothing more to complete her happiness.

All that had happened before was worth while since it had brought her to this.

HASTINGS IN DANGER

The Queen had watched the controversy over Anne Neville with a certain cynical amusement. She could well appreciate Clarence's point of view. Naturally he would want the whole of the Warwick estates if he could get them and the manner in which he had concealed Anne was to say the least ingenious. She and her mother laughed over it.

Jacquetta had been with her a great deal since her last confinement which had been slightly less successful than usual, for the child, a little girl, was less robust than her brothers and sisters. Because of her concern for the child she had sent for Jacquetta who had come with all speed and together they concerned themselves with the welfare of the little girl who had been christened Margaret.

The child seemed to be getting stronger but Elizabeth noticed with apprehension that Jacquetta was looking tired and seemed to have lost a little of that bounding energy which had been one of her main characteristics. When she asked tentative questions about her mother's health Jacquetta waved them aside and said that her recent confinement had made her fanciful but Elizabeth continued to be faintly uneasy. She had relied so much on Jacquetta. It was her mother who had first suggested that she plead to the King for the restoration of her estates and that had started her amazing prosperity. Sometimes she wondered if the rumours about Jacquetta's special powers were true. Was her mother a witch? No, that was absurd. Did she have communication with supernatural powers? No. She was just a wise woman and being devoted to her family she planned all the time for their advancement.

There was one subject which Elizabeth wished to discuss with

her mother and that was the Captaincy of Calais. Warwick had held that post with such flair and it was in fact his daring exploits there which had begun his startling career; but now he was dead and this most important and lucrative of posts had to be filled.

Jacquetta listened intently while Elizabeth put her plan before her. She wanted the post for her brother Anthony who had become Earl Rivers on their father's death.

'Anthony will do well there. I shall hint to the King . . . /

Jacquetta nodded. 'Be careful,' she said.

'Be careful? What do you mean?'

Jacquetta hesitated for a moment. Then she said: 'Well, my dear, I believe the King is very much taken with the wife of a merchant.'

'Dear Mother, he is constantly being very much taken with the wives of merchants.'

'But this one I believe a little more so than usual.'

'I have always found that the best way of dealing with Edward's adventures is to ignore them.'

'Heaven alone knows how many mistresses he has,' said Jacquetta.

'Then Heaven may keep the information to itself. I do not want to know. Dear Mother, I have kept my hold on the King by never reproaching him, never refusing him when he comes back to me, being an understanding wife and mother of his children. That is why he stays enamoured of his wife however many mistresses he has.'

'I have heard that she is a woman of exceptional charms and that Hastings has aspirations with this woman but Edward claimed her first.'

'Well, he cannot marry her.'

'No, not even if she says "Your mistress I cannot be and I am unfit to be your Queen." '

'Of which you already have one.'

'Elizabeth you treat this matter lightly. Perhaps you are right.'

'Who is the woman?'

'Her name is Jane Shore. She is said to have great physical beauty and a merry wit and to be quite unlike most merchants' wives. She has left her goldsmith husband and settled into apartments the King has found for her.'