Mistress of Mourning: A Novel by Karen Harper

Author:Karen Harper [Harper, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction - Historical, 16th Century, England/Great Britain, Royalty
ISBN: 9781101586983
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2014-10-24T04:00:00+00:00

Queen Elizabeth of York

It was not often the king came to my quarters, but here he was, unannounced and alone. I turned away from gazing out the window at the blank gray sky over London, for we had returned to our capital. How I wished I could be one of the seagulls screeching and wheeling over the rushing Thames and fly to Ludlow. But I would have to let my emissaries, Nick and Varina, be my eyes and ears—and heart—there.

“My dear lord,” I blurted as he closed the door behind himself and strode into my presence chamber, “not more bad news?”

“In a way,” he said, glancing around the room, evidently to see whether I was alone. I was solitary often lately, for loneliness and melancholy suited me, despite how my ladies fussed when I dismissed them. By the Virgin’s veil, at least Henry had not come looking for me when I was with the sleeping images of my other lost children but two chambers away, for then he would have thought me demented indeed.

“Our son Henry is all right?” I asked.

“Yes, hale and hearty as ever and quite aware of his elevated circumstance. But I have come to give you news of your ‘great matter’ before you hear it from someone else,” he said, and drew me by the hand over to the table, where he seated me, then pulled another chair close. Elbows on his knees, he leaned forward and took my hands in his again.

“Hear it from someone else? You have told someone else that I want answers about my brothers’ murders?”

“Of course not. I meant you would hear of the fact that I have had to besiege our own castle in Calais against Tyrell. You were evidently right to suspect him,” he said, shaking his head, “at least of duplicity in his loyalty to us. And after all I’ve done for that man! I had ordered him home for questioning, but he refused, claiming he could not leave his command at the fortress Guisnes in Calais right now—and saying he had been to London so recently for the royal wedding.”

“He must have guessed he is suspect in the loss of my brothers. And if he has a guilty conscience…”

“I fear the base-hearted churl has no conscience. He has hoodwinked and defied me. I’ve received word on the best authority—my spies in France—that, though claiming and pretending to be loyal to our reign, over the years, even recently, he has housed and abetted various Yorkist rebels and sympathizers there—there, where I have entrusted him with that command!”

“I knew he did not deserve to be at Arthur’s wedding or the joust thereafter. He was even at my coronation years ago. When the throne was first yours, why did you not confiscate his lands or attaint him, as you did other Yorkists? Why did you pardon him!”

“Keep your voice down, Elizabeth; he had been in France during the Battle of Bosworth, so had not helped King Richard there. Besides, I

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