The King's Dogge (39 page)

‘I'm not looking for rewards. I'm just trying to help you as a friend.'

‘Then act like one! Catesby's good and I need clever people around me. I want you and Ratcliffe to work alongside him.'

I wanted nothing less and imagined that Ratcliffe would feel the same, but I had committed myself to Richard at Berwick and was therefore bound to serve him as he saw fit.

‘If you insist,' I said slowly. ‘We'll try to work with Catesby for your sake.'

He was pleased to have got his own way.

‘Excellent, Francis!' He smiled. ‘And when we reach York you may leave me so you can spend some time with your wife.'

It would be good to see Nan again, but I hesitated.

‘You will not require me at York?'

His smile was both open and honest.

‘I'm not saying that I won't need you, Francis, but with the revolt averted I can spare you for a while.'

This was not, however, to prove the case. I had only been with Nan for a few days when the summons arrived.

It was a grim-faced Ratcliffe who greeted me at Pontefract Castle. His manner was usually brusque, but today he was curt in the extreme. His own instructions, he advised me crisply, were simple. The moment I arrived I was to be brought straight to Anne Neville. There was no time to refresh myself or to change my clothing. She required me at once.

‘Is it rebellion or invasion?'

‘Worse!' he grunted, as we clattered up the stairs.

I stopped in amazement.

‘What is it then?'

‘She'll tell you herself. Come along.'

At the top of the stairs, he indicated the chamber.

‘In there,' he said sternly.

Ratcliffe drew his sword.

‘This will be one conversation that no one else will overhear.' He jerked his head towards the door. ‘Go on in, Francis.'

Mystified, I tapped softly on the chamber door.

Anne Neville sat motionless in one of her typically tall-carved chairs. She made no greeting as I bowed but gestured for me to be seated on the wooden seat opposite her. Her pale blue eyes rested only fleetingly on me; I guessed that her thoughts were elsewhere. Judging by the absence of attendants or any other people, I suspected that she had probably been brooding for no small amount of time.

‘I require a full account of my husband's visit to Minster Lovell.'

Her words, when they came, were clipped and precise.

‘From when we arrived, my lady?'

‘Of course,' she said testily.

I told her everything I could remember about our stay. When I had finished, she sighed deeply.

‘But you were certain there was no rebellion?'

‘I was.'

‘And you said that the next day my husband was much calmer?'

‘Certainly. He told me that due to his planning, the rebellion would not happen and forgave me for hitting Catesby.'

‘You should have killed Catesby!' she hissed.

I was shocked.

‘My lady?'

‘You should have killed him! You should have torn out that poisonous tongue of his and ripped out whatever manhood that effeminate fat fool possesses!'

‘But why?'

‘Why?' Her voice was incredulous. ‘I'll tell you why. That mincing self-server sought to use my husband to advance himself and the gullible idiot believed him.'

‘So there was no rebellion?'

I probably sounded slightly smug by now.

‘Of course there wasn't and stop grinning like that! How anyone can smile after the damage that Catesby has caused us is totally beyond me.'

She relapsed into brooding silence, but presently another thought must have struck her as she raised her head and demanded to know why I had not bothered to ask the king what his plan had been.

‘His plan?'

Her palm smacked the arm of her chair.

‘To end this and all future rebellions, you idiot! How many plans do you think he had?'

‘Your husband was not himself that night. He was worked up and wouldn't listen to reason, although I tried to counsel him. I think I was also angry that he had been so easily duped by Catesby and furious that he locked me up in my own home. So, the next day, since he seemed calmer, the last thing I wanted to do was to rekindle his anger.'

Anne Neville compressed her lips.

‘Would to God that I had been at Minster Lovell!'

Her finger pointed at me.

‘You're a coward, Lovell! If you'd been a proper man you would have braved my husband's anger and prevented this folly.'

‘Prevented what folly?'

She ignored me.

‘You could have ridden after Catesby and stopped him.'

‘Stopped him from doing what?' I cried in exasperation.

Anne Neville eyed me incredulously.

‘You mean even now, you haven't guessed what the plan was?'

Abruptly she gestured to a table where a pitcher of water stood. I filled a glass and handed it to her. For a few moments, she nursed the glass in silence. Then her mouth tightened.

‘You failed him and you know it!'

‘How can I have failed him when I had no knowledge of what the king was planning to do? Richard would not listen to me; he was determined to be guided by Catesby. I thought that they were both wrong.'

‘You failed completely!' Anne Neville snapped. ‘God knows all men fail ultimately, but you managed to bungle it at the very first opportunity. You knew that my husband requires firm guidance and you neglected to provide it.'

‘You're being totally unreasonable!' I burst out. ‘All right, Richard has presumably made a mistake. Maybe eventually you'll actually tell me what he's done, but don't start blaming everyone else!'

‘Oh why are men such fools?' she burst out in sudden fury. ‘God, why do you fashion men in your own image yet deny them even the smallest fraction of your all-knowing intelligence? And tell me, sweet Lord, why you provide them with pride instead of brains, so that in their vanity they are incapable of listening to those who are better assisted to guide them?'

She rose from her chair and gestured at me with her glass.

‘You're no better than he is!' she said furiously. ‘You sit there so proud and uncaring. Doubtless you believe that we should fall on our knees daily to give thanks for our husbands, don't you? Well, you try giving thanks for a husband when all the time you're wondering why God has saddled you with an idiot! And you try to express gratitude for a man whose impulsiveness is such that it causes him to rush into a course of action without even thinking of the consequences.'

‘My lady, this is hardly fair or appropriate.'

‘Of course it is, you fool! It's time you heard the one question that all married women ask God at some stage – what sin have I committed to deserve such an idiot for a husband?'

There was sudden crash as her wine glass smashed against the wall behind me, and then the only sound was a violent sobbing as Anne Neville fell to the ground. I moved towards her and lifted her up. For a moment she struggled, then went limp as I carried her back to the chair. I fetched her more water and then moved to the window to allow her to compose herself. Gradually her crying subsided and she regarded me sullenly with reddened eyes as I sat down again.

‘You've no idea what's happened, have you?'

Her voice was cracked.

‘Perhaps if you could just tell me.'

Her hands fluttered wildly.

‘But your loyalty to Richard? Will it, that is, will you?'

I cut her off.

‘I gave my loyalty to your husband at Berwick, my lady. To my mind loyalty, once given, can never be retracted. Whatever Richard has done, I will always serve him. So, come now, tell me what has happened?'

Anne Neville dabbed her tears and took a deep breath.

‘In order to prevent what he wrongly believed to be a major revolt and stop future attempts to support the sons of King Edward, he had the two boys killed.'

My heart went out to the two young boys. What a terrible way for the young innocents to perish! What needless cruelty and waste!

‘Don't waste your tears on them! News of their deaths is already circulating. The reaction of people is so great that there will be a huge rebellion against us and we will all be swept away.'

She wrung her hands in frustration.

‘Now do you see where my husband's foolishness and impetuosity has landed us?'

I said nothing. I felt slightly sick.

‘But with your skill you can defeat the rebels,' she continued quickly. ‘Ratcliffe already has information to assist you to help you plan your campaign and we can easily muster support.'

She looked at me anxiously.

‘You will serve Richard, won't you, Francis? You'll stay faithful to him, despite what's happened.'

Loyalty is a heavy cross, but it has to be born.

‘I will, my lady; in spite of what has happened, I believe that the reasons to place your husband on the throne are as valid now as they were previously. Additionally, as I have said, I will always be loyal to Richard. But there is one aspect of your speech that has distressed me, my lady.'

She frowned momentarily but then, smiling wanly, she spread her hands.

‘It is possible that I was a trifle distraught, dear Francis. Perhaps I made some unfortunate remark that caused you pain? It was certainly not my intention to do so.'

‘No, it wasn't that.'

Anne Neville regarded me blankly.

‘Conceivably, I spoke too harshly of my husband. Now naturally he was foolish, but that is not to say…'

Dear God; was there not an ounce of humanity left in the women or had her lust for power destroyed it completely?

‘It wasn't that either,' I said wearily. ‘What upset me was that the only reason you regret the deaths of the princes is because of the threat that their murder poses to you and your husband.'

She looked at me enquiringly.

‘Well, what else is there? Naturally any death, even that of Woodville blood, is to be regretted, but…'

‘But their murders were not just any death! These were children, my lady, small defenceless children sleeping peaceably until they woke with a start at the sound of strange footsteps climbing the stairs towards them. Young boys, my lady, who would have clung terrified to one another in the gloom of the night, as slowly the door creaked open…'

She waved her hand feebly, but I continued.

‘They would have been petrified as their killers came out of the darkness into their room. They would have cried out in terror as they saw the pitiless looks on the faces of the two Brachers. But the children's pleas for mercy would have gone unheeded, wouldn't they, my lady? And their feeble attempts at resistance would have been to no avail. Two small lads would not have stood a chance against two grown men determined to earn their blood money.'

I looked down at her contemptuously and she lowered her eyes.

‘I don't suppose the two young princes were much older than your own son, my lady. Try to think of them when you next see him.'

She made no response as I turned to leave. I quietly cursed her, Richard and Catesby. Above all, though, I cursed the bind of my own loyalty.

C
HAPTER
17

R
atcliffe, it appeared, had known about the princes for three weeks. Having heard the rumours that had been circulating in York about the deaths of the boys, he had requested Richard to allow them to be paraded through London to suppress such malicious gossip.

‘But then she sent for me, told me what had happened and asked me how best we could deal with it.'

‘What did you recommend?'

‘Nothing. If it had been one boy, we could have blamed it on a fever – but two and at the same time? No, the best thing was to say nothing and let people believe that they had been secretly moved out of London.'

‘But if there are rumours of their deaths, it doesn't sound as if it worked.'

‘Agreed, but it was worth a try. Anyway she then told me to write to Catesby in London. She said that you would want as much information as possible to plan your campaign.' Ratcliffe smiled grimly. ‘Her language in relation to our dearly beloved colleague is quite colourful, isn't it? But she did point out that the only way he could hope to regain favour was if he helped to prevent the rebellion that he'd indirectly created. I've got his reports here; they arrived yesterday.'