Virgin Widow (33 page)

‘By the Virgin!’ My veil had become detached. I snatched it off as I took in my surroundings. An impression of a richly panelled room hung with valuable tapestries. Lighted sconces warmed the polished wood, highlighted the rich scenes in deep reds and blues. There was a standing table, stools. A Court cupboard with silver cups and flagon. Logs hissed comfortingly in the hearth. This was not the dwelling of a poor man. Suspicions instantly crowded in. ‘Where am I? How dare you—!’

And as I turned on my abductor, my jaw dropped.

‘Francis…Francis Lovell! What are you doing?’ There was his handsome smiling face and tawny hair, his eyes alight with conspiracy, just as I had last seen him on his visit to Warwick well over a year ago. I might feel a lessening of tension in my chest, but my thoughts remained in chaos.

He grinned. Made me an elegant but mocking bow. ‘Kidnapping you, my vixen. What does it look like?’

‘And why would you need to do that?’

‘Following orders.’ He picked up the cloak and folded it over the nearest stool. He rubbed his hand. ‘You bit me!’

‘I’d have bitten harder if I’d known it was you. You frightened me! Whose orders?’ I frowned at him as my suspicions grew stronger. ‘Where am I?’

‘At Westminster.’

‘I only left Westminster a half-hour ago! Why kidnap me? What in God’s name am I doing here?’ The thought came to me with cold certainty. ‘It’s not your conspiracy, is it, Francis? Just who was it who told you to bring me here?’

‘I did.’

In my righteous fury I had not heard anyone enter the room, my attention wholly on Francis Lovell. But I recognised the voice, would have known it anywhere. I swung round in disbelief.

‘You are here because I ordered it,’ the Duke of Gloucester explained in the mildest of voices.

‘You! You kidnapped me!’

Richard closed the door at his back and advanced into the room, soft footed, a calculating look in his eye. I thought it might hide a circumspection, except that I did not think the Richard I was coming to know would have a need to be circumspect.

‘Kidnapped? Yes. I suppose I did.’

‘Why would it be necessary to do something so
outrageous?’ Anger sparked as I recalled the fear that he had stirred up. ‘I was terrified. If you wished to speak with me, I have been here all evening. As far as I am aware, you made every effort to avoid me.’

Richard, still dressed as was I for a Court occasion, in shimmering satin with the chain of office winking on his chest as he moved, ignored my observations on his unorthodox methods of setting up a conversation. ‘I want to speak with you now,’ he replied simply.

‘But do I wish to speak with you?’ I would not be pacified. ‘Am I to do your bidding when and where you choose? You waylay my escort and frighten me half to death. Not to mention using Francis here as your disreputable second. You didn’t even have the courage to abduct me yourself.’

‘It would have been…unwise.’

‘Exactly!’

‘Nothing disreputable about me, lady!’ Francis laughed, obviously fascinated by the exchange. ‘I can’t say the same for his Grace of Clarence.’

But Richard had stilled beneath my attack. I thought it might be anger that imprinted his face as he raised his hand, a quick glance of warning to Francis. ‘I am no coward, as you should know, lady. Your abduction was…let us say that it was necessary.’

‘It was beyond belief! I want to go home—now.’ I turned to Francis. ‘I don’t want to be here. Take me
back to Cold Harbour. Since you left my escort lying in the road,
you
can escort me.’

‘Ah…’ Francis slid a glance towards his coconspirator, leaving it to Richard to answer.

‘No. You will remain here until I decide that you will leave.’

A little
frisson
of—of what?—shivered along my skin, like the draught of cool evening air after a long hot day. Not fear. Perhaps of anticipation, a desire to measure what was in truth between us. Richard’s face was as implacable as his will. Edward might cloak his determination with charm and a winning smile. Richard did not bother. I thought I would test that will, as I was wont to do at Middleham, to see if I could break it. I put all the disdain I could into my voice.

‘You will simply follow his orders?’ I demanded of Francis.

‘By God, I will. I’ll leave you two to sort out your differences.’ And with a rueful smile, and a swift movement to press an encouraging kiss to my cheek, Francis was gone, leaving me to face Richard.

I steeled myself to show no trace of any emotion. I was every inch the Princess. ‘Perhaps you will do me the courtesy to explain.’

Richard waited until the door was closed at Francis’s back. ‘You want an explanation. Well, I will tell you. I want you to wed me.’

‘
Wed
you?’ It was the last thing I expected to hear.

‘Yes. And soon.’

‘That’s…that’s ridiculous…’

‘You don’t believe me.’

‘No.’

‘I cannot make it any plainer.’ There it was, the flash of temper I remembered when he was challenged. It came to me that, since becoming Constable of England, very few people dared to question the will of Richard of Gloucester. He did not take kindly to it. But in my present mood, I would defy him. It would give me the greatest of pleasure.

I thought carefully and planned my response. ‘You are very plain,’ I admitted. ‘Perhaps I don’t question your intent—although I can hardly believe it—but I certainly question your motive. I think it has something to do with Clarence. I don’t know what lies between you and your brother, but I will not be a part of it. I didn’t understand Francis’s reference, but if my marriage is part of some scheme between you, I won’t have it.’

‘Ah…Francis was indiscreet. You always were quick of understanding.’

‘It wasn’t difficult!’

Richard frowned at me, hardly lover-like. ‘My motives, as you put it, are of the best. My sentiments have not changed, Anne.’

‘Have they not?’

‘I remember when we parted in the chapel of
Warwick Castle, telling you that you had my love for all time. Have you forgotten? The words were not spoken lightly.’ The obsidian eyes glittered with frustration, but I was not of a mind to be gentle.

‘I have not forgotten. I believed you. But we are no longer children, driven by childish emotions.’ It was like throwing a gauntlet at his feet and I enjoyed seeing his eyes narrow. ‘We both know—who should know better?—that personal desires and politics do not always play out well together. That love can languish under the demands of honour and duty.’ I lifted my chin, a gesture guaranteed to stoke his anger higher. ‘I remember hearing that
you
would wed Mary of Burgundy.’

‘A marriage that never came to fruition. But
you
wed Edward of Lancaster.’ The implied criticism was harsh, his eyes dark with what I might in happier times have read as jealousy. Now I thought it was fury.

‘I did. It was not of my choosing.’

‘And I suppose any feelings you had for me died a sudden death when the future crown of England hovered over your pretty brow,’ he added bitterly.

I shook my head, horrified that he should so condemn me without a hearing. As a log fell in the hearth with a shower of sparks, I found my voice. ‘I have been at Court well nigh a month. If marriage is in your mind, why have you made no effort to engage my attention or my affections? I think I should tell you that it hurt me.’

Richard exhaled in a sigh, but still held my accusatory gaze. ‘I know. I knew that it must. I’m guilty as charged, without excuse. But if you think it was easy for me to see you hurt…’ His words faltered. ‘Before we get into that…Since you still doubt me, let me prove the honesty of my actions. Come with me.’

‘Where?’

‘Don’t argue. I see you still argue about everything. Did you argue with the Prince?’

I flushed. I would not tell him that often it had been too dangerous to argue with the Prince.

‘I see that you did.’ Richard opened the door and with a flourish waved me through before him. When I still hesitated he waited. His eyes caught mine, held them with their dark fire, daring me to refuse. If I did, I thought he might just grab my wrist and drag me with him. So, with head high, I walked through.

‘Where are we going?’ I tried again.

‘Wait and see.’

I gave up, knowing it was all I was going to get. It was proving to be an evening of surprises.

I
WALKED
with him along corridors and through reception rooms that I knew well, and then into those I did not. Quiet rooms, softly lit, with none of the usual bustle of courtiers and squires or self-important clerks with their documents and matters of business. Family rooms. We did not speak. Then Richard touched my arm by a closed door where he gave a light tap, opened it on the invitation from within and motioned for me to enter before him. I walked in, not knowing what to expect. If he thought he could persuade me by some subtle seduction in his own chambers, he was far from the truth of it…Startled, I halted, made a rapid curtsy. I had not expected to be shown into the private chamber of the King.

The Queen, Elizabeth, was with him. It was an unexpected sight, to touch the heart and the senses, since they were spending a few precious hours together, alone. Edward lounged in a high-backed chair before
the fire, a sumptuous robe cast, open, over shirt and hose. A cup of wine was at his hand, a hound sighed in the warmth, its head resting on his crossed ankles. Elizabeth curled at his knee, leaning against his leg, her hair, all the lovely silver gilt of it unbound and free, drifting on to her shoulders and across his thigh. A cosy domestic scene, entirely private, of man and wife enjoying the quiet at the end of a day, with more than a little hint of sexual satisfaction in the way the king’s hand stroked that silken hair. Uncomfortable as an interloper in this intimate moment, I found myself taking a step, then another, in retreat, until Richard’s hands clasped firmly on my shoulders, holding me in place.

It was the profoundest sensation. How could I be standing here in the presence of the King and Queen, yet all my attention be drawn to the man behind me? Of being conscious of nothing but the warmth and support of his hands. I felt the strength of his clasp and of his body at my back, the whisper of his breath against my neck. Then it was over. His hands slid away and I stood alone.

‘Do we disturb you, Edward?’ Richard asked.

‘Yes!’ Edward turned his head with a lazy smile. ‘But now that you are here you’d better come in. An unexpected visit—but a pleasure. Come and sit.’ Dislodging the hound, he pushed a stool towards me with a casual toe.

Still guilty at encroaching on their privacy, and
ridiculously moved, I was suddenly transported back to just such intimate moments at Middleham with the Earl and Countess. But now my family could never be reunited. Destroyed, blighted with treachery…Shocked, I found myself struggling against tears of self-pity, fighting to resurrect my previous anger with Richard, with Edward, with the world at large.

‘Do sit,’ Elizabeth invited with a soft laugh, edged with mockery. ‘You look tired, Anne. And, if I might say, a little the worse for wear. What happened?’

I realised I still clutched the creased remnants of my veiling. I could not imagine what sort of picture I presented. ‘It’s a long story!’ I sighed, suddenly very weary.

‘Then tell us,’ Edward invited.

Silently, I raised my brows at Richard.

‘I see!’ Edward laughed. ‘What’s afoot, Dickon?’

I sat, leaving Richard to prowl restlessly and tell the tale. Typically, he lost no time in coming to the point. ‘I want to wed her.’

Edward immediately glanced at me, then fixed his stare as he sensed my hostility. ‘Ah! But does the lady wish to wed you?’

‘She is…reluctant. She doubts my sincerity.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ Elizabeth remarked. ‘You’ve hardly played the role of interested suitor these past days. No lady cares to be ignored as if she did not exist.’

I felt like some strange creature, newly discovered under a stone, with three pairs of eyes picking at my
thoughts. And I felt the heat glow in my cheeks. Richard hitched a shoulder, the nearest he came to admitting his fault, but I saw the tinge of equally disconcerting colour mirror mine. It delighted me that he was as embarrassed as I.

‘There were reasons…’ he stated. ‘But now I need to convince her. Do you have any objection to the match, Edward?’

Reasons? What possible reason could there be? But Edward was answering.

‘None in essence. An excellent match, despite everything.’ His smiling eyes became sly. ‘But I know one who will object, from here to the gates of hell and back!’

‘Since when do I need to take Clarence’s ambitions into consideration? And particularly in the matter of whom I marry?’

Clarence?
It reminded me. Without thinking of the company, spurred by earlier events of the evening, I interrupted. ‘Where’s Clarence now?’

‘I don’t know. Should I?’ Edward looked from me to Richard and back.

‘He was summoned, urgently, by a squire in royal livery, to attend on the King,’ I explained. ‘Which, I now presume, was a ruse.’

Richard’s careful composure immediately cracked into a smile that lit his whole countenance. ‘My brother is, I trust, engaged in a lengthy and entirely
tedious discussion on some trivial point of trade with Burgundy. I hope it will last at least another hour.’

‘You set it up!’ I glared at him.

‘I did. I got Clarence out of the way,’ he explained to Edward, ‘with a royal summons.’

‘And then he got Francis Lovell to set a trap with drunken riff-raff from the Golden Lion to abduct me!’ I added, still ruffled by the abduction.

A roar of laughter filled the room. ‘Did he now!’ Then became serious again, his mind focused. ‘So, as we were saying, if Lady Anne agrees—but we are still not certain of that, are we?’

I opened my mouth to reply, furious when Richard answered for me.

‘Yes, she will. She must.’

‘I have not said so!’

‘But you will!’

‘I dislike…’
I dislike your masterful arrogance!

Edward intervened. ‘Enough! Let’s presume that you can persuade her and win her compliance, Dickon, though I wouldn’t wager on it. There’ll be a need for a dispensation. You’re too closely tied as cousins to wed without.’

‘I don’t see a difficulty there. Warwick got his papal dispensation for Clarence and Isabel. Where there’s enough gold…’ Disturbingly Richard was staring at me, weighing up some internal debate, before he turned back to his brother. ‘That’s not the problem.
But I have to ask…will there be difficulties with her inheritance?’

‘Difficulties?’ Edward pushed himself to his feet to stand face to face with his brother…or was it
against
him? For a moment I was unsure and there was no longer humour in his reply. The atmosphere in the little room had switched instantly, acquiring a bite. ‘Too gentle a word by half. It’s a good match, as I said. I can see strong advantages in it, for you and for the security of the realm, to have Warwick’s daughter close tied, but there’ll be an explosion over it. You know it as well as I. We’ll just have to juggle the consequences and contain the damage. But hear me, Richard—I’ll do whatever it takes to stop a return to war and conflict in England. Even if it displeases you in the process.’

I could not follow the drift of this. I could feel apprehension building tight in my chest as Richard’s grim expression and reply matched his brother’s. ‘And you hear me, Edward, King or no. I’ll fight Clarence every inch of the way. Whatever the cost.’

‘I know you will,’ Edward retorted, temper now showing its teeth. ‘And you don’t give a damn over the dangerous position it could put me in!’

‘No, I don’t. I want her and I won’t let him stop me.’ Edward’s quick spark of anger was again reflected in Richard, fierce as wolves claiming their prey. Until Richard’s aggression dissipated with equal speed. ‘No,
Edward…that’s not true. I don’t wish danger on you or to the hard-won peace. Too much blood has already soaked the land. But I’ll not allow Clarence to dictate the terms on this. Anne will not be robbed of what is rightfully her claim on the Countess’s possessions. And I want her as my wife.’

‘And as I said, I’ll support you as much as I can,’ Edward agreed.

Whilst I was left on the periphery to try to untangle the issues. My inheritance. My status, with my sister, as my mother’s heiress. I looked across at Elizabeth. Her expression was beautifully guarded, but she too knew the implications here. Why was my inheritance such a crucial matter of debate?

I stood because I was too anxious to sit. I took a step towards Richard, forcing him to look at me, away from the King.

‘You say you want me as your wife, Richard. And then you talk about inheritance. Is that all there is between us from the past? The wealth and land that will come to me at my mother’s death? Do you, after all, only wish to wed me for the value it will bring you?’

Perhaps I was naive to ask it. Was I wrong to expect more at Richard’s hands? Had I not been led to believe that there was more between us in those heady days before our exile? Foolishly I had expected, longed for, love from Richard because he held my heart in his hands. Now it seemed to me that he had
dug a grave and buried that love, covering it over with a common lust for a wealthy and well-born wife. Hearing the plea, the tremor of despair in my voice, I flushed with ripe embarrassment, but pursued the point. ‘Are you so insistent on my compliance because of the Beauchamp inheritance that will come to me?’

I had not realised what mud I was stirring up.

There was no compassion in Richard’s answer, only a stark realism that struck home, as it was intended. His explanation was brutal.

‘You speak of the Beauchamp inheritance that will be yours.’ His voice was raw but without hesitation. ‘Don’t misunderstand me, Anne. Without me as your husband, to fight as your champion before the law, you are unlikely to get an inheritance of any description! You will be a pauper, destitute, dependent on whoever might be prepared to offer charity until the day you die. Or forced into an unpalatable marriage with some hanger-on of Clarence who, for a considerable bribe, might be prepared to take on a penniless daughter of a dead traitor. Without me as your husband, that will be your future. A cold and bitter one.’

I felt the hot blood drain, to leave me white and shivering with cold. ‘I don’t believe you…’

‘Forgive me. It was cruel of me to beat you with the truth.’ Richard’s brows became a black bar, his eyes dark with anger.

‘She doesn’t know?’ Edward asked. ‘Well, I suppose
there’s no reason why she should. Clarence will hardly have broadcast his plans and I doubt Isabel would speak out of turn. That lady will see where her best interests lie—to have it all arranged and the knots tied tight. And if
you
haven’t broached the subject, Dickon…’

‘What
don’t I know?’ I could feel my temper flare again, fuelled by sick fear. ‘I wish someone would be plain with me! Ever since I joined Clarence’s household I have felt an undercurrent of
something.
Isabel suggests and persuades and speaks in riddles. And now you do the same.’ I forgot that I spoke with the King and the Constable of England. Or I deliberately ignored it. They were just two infuriating men who discussed the matter over my head as if I were witless, a woman to be manoeuvred round and managed for her own good.

‘Tell her,’ Edward stated simply.

So Richard spelled out my family’s treachery. ‘Clarence has ambitions. He wants the whole Beauchamp-Despenser inheritance of the Countess for himself. He wants the titles, the lands and income—everything. He can’t have the whole Neville inheritance because I hold the northern estates as a gift from Edward. But the Countess’s lands, the Despenser inheritance, for which you are joint heiress…Clarence intends to claim the whole in Isabel’s name as Warwick’s elder daughter, thus disinheriting you.’ His eyes held mine as if he willed me to accept this terrible truth. Willed me not to disintegrate beneath the blow.

‘But that cannot be. It’s my right…My mother’s inheritance will be divided equally between us. I have always known it…’ How could this be true? ‘No! Isabel wouldn’t!’ I rejected the thought. ‘I don’t believe my sister would be so callous.’

It would make me nothing but a destitute widow. I had nothing from my brief and fatal marriage to the Prince. So if Isabel took everything, what would become of me? It was suddenly clear as day. If I consented to become Lady Prioress in Isabel’s planned foundation, it would be the ideal solution for everyone. I would be shut away from the world, robbed of a voice and power to object, whilst Isabel’s conscience would be absolved from guilt, in that she had provided for me. If she had a conscience at all.

‘Don’t be under any illusions! You will find that she would,’ Richard spoke. ‘Think, Anne. Use your good sense. Think of what you know of her. Isabel will not stand with you against Clarence, and you know it.’ His words were harsh, provocative, refusing to allow me to fall into dismay.

‘But if it is the law—it surely can’t be done.’

‘By law, the inheritance is undoubtedly yours,’ Richard admitted. ‘But Clarence plays a clever card. He’ll argue before the Courts if necessary that as the widow of the Prince of Lancaster, your property is forfeit. You are as much a traitor as Warwick and the Countess, so the whole of your inheritance should go,
in total, to Isabel who has proved herself a loyal subject of the King. And thus into Clarence’s hands. Who changed sides from traitor to loyal subject at the most apposite moment.’

‘But my marriage was not of my making.’

‘Clarence can make the argument and many would listen.’ Now there was the shadow of compassion in Richard’s eyes that wrung my heart. ‘You are a woman with unfortunate connections, and powerless in comparison with the influence of the Duke of Clarence.’

‘No…! I am a Neville!’

‘What will that matter if he persuades—or forces—you to enter a convent? Or if he arranges for you to wed some self-seeking lord who will do exactly as he is told by Clarence in return for a Neville bride? With no one to stand for you, what chance do you have? Only I have the authority to stand for you and thwart Clarence. I am the only man who can defeat him for you.’

I was beyond speech. This was not arrogance in Richard’s claims, but blatant truth. Then my mind begin to race. I turned on Edward, casting all caution and respect to the winds.