Heart of a Knight (41 page)

Alice of Roxburgh wore
a gown of blue silk, dyed with indigo by the lady's own hands. The fabric swirled around her on currents of air that swept from some invisible source through the grand cathedral.

Where her son, born to her in a cottage so mean it had only dirt on the floors, knelt before the king of all England, who raised his sword and pronounced the grand words that would make him Sir Thomas of Roxburgh, soon to be husband of Lady Elizabeth.

As he rose, they cheered. Isobel and her Stephen, Tall Mary and John Tyler, even John Margrave, who bowed as Thomas passed.

And Alice discreetly wiped away a tear, and left at the foot of Mary, the mother of all women and their sons, the wooden cross she had worn all her life.

Then she went out into the grand sunlight of the bright autumn day to feast in celebration of a long journey, well ended.