Royal Mistress by Anne Easter Smith

Author:Anne Easter Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Richard III, King Richard III, Shakespeare, Edward IV, King of England, historical, historical fiction, Jane Shore, Mistress, Princess in the tower, romance, historical romance, British, genre fiction, biographical
Publisher: Touchstone

It would be night soon, when all of Edward’s bad dreams would come alive in the shadows of the firelit room. Damn Will, he thought as he listened to the chamberers stoking the fire, taking away the half-finished platters of food and closing the shutters against the darkening sky. His chamberlain had kicked alive the embers of George’s execution with his question about the plight-troth and the bishop who had witnessed it.

It was time for Edward to face his demons, if he was to meet his Maker so soon.

What Edward had not told Will was that Robert Stillington had also been in peril of his life in February of ’78 when George’s pathetic note had been put in Edward’s hands. It had slipped Edward’s mind back then that as one of George’s confessors Stillington may have revealed the secret. And now Edward began to piece together that long-ago scene when he had received George’s missive:

Gracious king, beloved brother and companion of my youth, have mercy on me in this cold place. I beseech you to come and see how ill I am kept at the Tower. But if you come, be prepared to grant me a pardon for I have information that is of the utmost importance pertaining to you that you may not wish to be made public as long as you are king.

Edward recalled he had been puzzled at first, but then he remembered the rumor George had circulated about Edward’s bastardy: that their mother—their noble, upstanding mother—had taken to bed in Rouen an archer named Blaybourne when her husband, the duke of York, was campaigning at Pontoise. George must be desperate to resurrect such gossip, Edward remembered thinking then, and he had crumpled the parchment and launched it at the flames in the hearth.

The scene faded as Edward pondered that rumor about his mother, and fighting the sleeping draught de Serigo had given him, he redoubled his efforts to remember what happened next back in that fateful February of ’78. His heart constricted, as it did every time he thought about his brother’s death. He was certain that of all the sins he had committed, this one would keep him in purgatory the longest—if not in hell. Even more than violating his plight-troth with Eleanor, committing adultery a hundred times, condoning the violent death after Tewkesbury of Edouard, Prince of Wales, slaughtering countless thousands of Englishmen in the name of the house of York, or ordering the quiet death of King Henry to secure his throne, this sin against his brother would be the hardest for God to forgive.

In his anguish over his brother’s treason, Edward had visited George one night by barge from Westminster and been taken quietly to the Garden Tower. Edward was disgusted to find George slumped over the table, his chemise stained with wine, snoring in a plate of cold fish and boiled vegetables. A rat had joined him on the table and was feasting on the leftovers.

“My lord of Clarence,” the Constable Dudley had said, shaking George awake.

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