Isabella: Braveheart of France by Colin Falconer

Author:Colin Falconer [Falconer, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Mysteries & Thrillers
Publisher: Cool Gus Publishing
Published: 2014-01-07T05:00:00+00:00

***

Edward does not come to her bed that night, or the next. When he finally draws back her cover, almost a week later, he is sulky, as if he expects she might demand something unreasonable from him. Tenderness perhaps. Affection.

He slips into bed. There is a cold windswept moor between them. He snuffs the candle. He would rather be in his own rooms, clearly.

“What has happened to you?” she says.

“I can tell by your sulky looks that you do not like me to be king. You rather I was still downtrodden and in your thrall?”

These sound like someone else’s words, not his.

“I have done all you have asked of me. I do not deserve your reproach.”

“I do not deserve yours. Why should you think that Lancaster was not deserving of his fate?”

“I did not say that, only that there has been enough blood-letting. People respect a merciful hand in equal measure to a stern one. Hereford is dead and Lancaster and Baddlesmere. Mortimer will be, soon enough. Is that not enough blood?”

“I shall not abide sleeping here if all you do is chide me!”

She rolls towards him, stretches a hand across the vast divide of the bed. She finds his hand, squeezes it. He does not respond.

“I have to ask you something.”

Still nothing.”

“Is Despenser sharing your pillow?”

He throws himself out of bed. She hears him raging down the passage, calling for his steward. Two of her maids whisper outside the door, unsure what to do.

One of them peeks in, holding a candle, and she snaps at her and the door closes again, leaving her alone in the dark.

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