by Anne Carsley
Katherine felt a momentary sadness for John Redgrove’s former sweetness toward his wife, but then her body began to throw off the dizziness. Clearly this woman enjoyed speaking of her power. If Katherine could hold her attention until the light came and the men-at-arms made rounds, she might have a chance for life.
“What danger could I be to the kingdom? Or my father?” She kept her words dull and slow.
Frances’ dark eyes glittered with satisfaction. “Proud fool! I had not known that you were also ignorant; but you should not die in curiosity.”
“Tell me then.”
“Your father knew a great secret which imperiled the throne itself. Others have died for less, yet he was allowed to live because of softness. Was even protected so that justice was never done. Now that knowledge is even more deadly and must be hidden at all costs. Because of it you will die.”
Katherine shivered in spite of herself, the maid’s control was leaving her. “I know of no secret. My father told me nothing.”
“Fool! You are to be silenced.” She began to laugh and run her fingers along the edges of the blade. “The message came with the one about the death of the King.”
Katherine saw that the light grew brighter in the east but Frances was oblivious; she was not totally in control. “You speak as if the death of the King was expected.”
“It was too soon. Master Rykos wishes to destroy you for that but the Queen has commanded, saying that the Master must be satisfied by greater sacrifice.” Cautiously Katherine slid her feet up under her and placed her hands flat on the floor so that she crouched but appeared to slump.
“Frances, I understand little of what you are saying but I do know that you are no ordinary woman. Confide in me. I can help you....”
The spell was broken. Frances glanced in consternation at the brightening sky, then jumped to her feet. John staggered; Katherine wondered if the drug was wearing off.
Frances said, “Arrogant bitch, now you shall die. I could not let you die without telling you something of the reason. Know this as well. I gave you a potion to make you miscarry and your food was treated so that you would not conceive. We’ve harried our game.” Her laugh rose high and hard. “Now, you will jump or I shall stab you and push you over. You well know what course I prefer.”
“My death will be investigated.” Katherine leaned forward as if in tears. She glanced quickly at John and saw that he was losing some of the dazed look he had had. But he was in league with Frances, she knew that they had practiced witchcraft together. Would he countenance murder? She could not know.
“Many believe you deranged already. Get up!” Frances brandished the dagger close to Katherine’s face. The girl saw that she was greatly enjoying herself.
There was a clatter from below. Katherine assumed it to be the watch and opened her mouth to scream. Frances was momentarily distracted and threw up her arm to slap her into silence. Katherine marshaled all her strength, caught the extended arm, twisted her body and slammed it against her would-be murderer. They fell to the floor in a heap but Katherine, weakened by the chill and the potion, could not struggle with the stronger woman. Frances lifted the knife and pushed it downward but Katherine rolled back and screamed with all her might as the weapon grazed the side of her arm.
“Frances, what are you doing?” The cry of horror was so stark that both women were stilled. John was fighting against the last effects of the potion, his hands and face twisting with the effort.
“As we have been commanded! As we have sworn before His altar!”
“Not murder. No! No!”
Katherine rose to her feet as they confronted each other. If she could slide by John and reach the stairs she would be that much closer to safety. He turned then and saw her. The warm eyes that had once been friendly and caring were now like stones. In them, as in those of Frances, she read her death.
John said slowly, “You see, Katherine, you have only to jump and then it will be your choice, not murder. We cannot have that stain on us, you see. You do see, don’t you? Jump, you must.”
The repetition of the phrases made Katherine’s head ring. There was no help from him. She had only herself. She nodded a little and retreated as they followed, Frances clutching the knife and John murmuring the same phrases over and over. She came closer to the wide space which opened only the gorge. This area was so little used that no barrier had ever been built. She hesitated there and drew back.
“No, I cannot, you must do it.” She stared straight at John who began to twist his hands even as the baffled anger began to rise in his face.
“Enough!” Frances advanced grimly, a fierce smile on her face, both hands outstretched. Katherine dodged at the last second and Frances fell out into space, leaving only her agonized screams behind. John gazed at Katherine for a second, then cried out as he lifted his staff.
“You killed her, my lovely Frances. Why did you not do as you were told? I will avenge her. She was right, it was ordained that you should die and so you shall.”
He walked slowly toward her as she retreated, screaming until the sound rang from the battlements. He caught her and clamped his hand over her mouth but she bit down hard. Oblivious of the pain, he lifted her in both arms and swung her toward the abyss. She clung to him with all her might but it was useless. She knew suddenly that he meant to jump with her in his arms. Death had never been so close and never had she wanted so fiercely to live. He teetered on the edge, swaying dangerously. Katherine heard the feet of the guards on the stair and knew that when they appeared and he became aware of them, he would jump to both their deaths. She raised her fist, held the thumb and finger straight, and drove them savagely into John’s eyes even as she threw her weight against his chest. She felt the moist softness of his eyeballs as he shrieked and fell back from the abyss. She screamed once and then the guards were upon them.
One jerked her free while another sought to seize John. It was useless. Blindly he ran into space and fell to his death without a cry. Katherine snatched up the cloak one offered her and held it against her near naked body as she shivered with the aftermath of terror. The hand she lifted to her face was covered with blood from John’s eyes. Nausea swung in her and she fought to calm herself.
“I am all right,” she sobbed. Her teeth chattered so that she could hardly speak as the guards ringed themselves around her. The morning light was clear and lucent now. The soft wind lifted her sweaty hair back from her braised face. Katherine stood at that scene of death and rejoiced in her own life which had twice now been given back to her. Words she had read to James came back to her as she breathed the air of life in the spring morning, “Thou art clearness, shine thou by thy brightness . . . thou thyself art beginning, path and goal.” She said them now while the soldiers stood respectfully silent, knowing that she prayed.
“Katherine, what a fearful thing!” Lady Sarah had come with the maidservants, ill able as she was to climb such heights. She mumbled endearments and expostulations all in the same breath, as if knowing the paralyzing fear that would not let the girl trust anyone at that moment. Then she was lifting the strong brandy to Katherine’s lips and pulling the cloak more closely around her. “There, love, there.”
Katherine forgot everything then except safety. She put her face down on Lady Sarah’s bent shoulder, sinking almost into a faint. Even in the moment of her deliverance she had remembered that Frances and the Queen had not known of her abduction by Alexis nor its results. The menace remained and this had only been circumvented for now.
Chapter 25
Roger of Amneston
Later that morning Katherine summoned those of the guard who had been at the castle during her previous stay; it seemed reasonable to trust them if any could be trusted, and acquainted them with the situation. Those who were new were to be watched. All requests for entrance to and departure from the castle were to be sent to her, even the smallest. Infractions would be severely punished.
Several days later a message was
brought to Katherine that one claiming to be a cousin to Lord James was at the gates with a troop of men.
“He demands entrance, Lady, and was most angry when informed of your orders.”
“Admit him only and bring him to the hall.”
She sat in the great chair of authority, surrounded by her trusted guards, a sharp dagger at her waist, when the young man was escorted in. He gave a scant bow, then glared at her.
“How is it, Madam, that I am now refused admission to my cousin’s castle, I who have entertained him many a time in mine? This is an insult!”
Katherine looked at the very fair features, the brilliant blue eyes and the elegant clothes. Then she recognized him as the young man who had accosted her at the inn almost a year ago.
“I am Roger of Amneston. As your escort there should well know.”
Katherine turned to one of them. “Fetch Lady Sarah.”
The old lady came soon, full of delight to see Roger and full also of annoyance at his long neglect of them. Katherine gave orders to admit his men, then, and ordered refreshments. Roger was soon soothed with a modified tale of her recent peril and the precautions she was forced to take.
Mollified, he said, “I must congratulate my cousin on his marriage when next I see him. I have been these months on my estates and only recently heard. Are you quite recovered from your recent ordeal?”
Katherine had let him think that the attack was by a serving maid who was crazed and simple. The darker secret she kept to herself. He looked her with curious eyes and she saw that he did not know her.
“Is there news, my lord?”
“Call me Roger as I shall call you Katherine.” He looked flirtatiously into the green eyes but his smile was pure and friendly. He was in his mid-twenties but he seemed younger than she. “The news from London is most exciting. First there is the official word. The King is to be crowned in late June and Parliament will be summoned. I have only just now received my message to come and came to see if James were preparing to go.”
Katherine was puzzled. “That is late for the coronation, is it not?”
Roger leaned forward, adjusting his velvet collar, happy to be the bearer of fascinating news. “Some of the word from London did not come officially. The Queen has taken the princesses and the younger prince into sanctuary and will not emerge. It is said there was an attempt to establish her as regent for her son, this plotted while the Protector and the young King were traveling to London.”
That was why Richard of Gloucester had called for those loyal to him, reflected Katherine. No wonder James had been surprised. Then excitement caught her. She would ride to London with Roger, there to assert herself as the lady of Hunsdale, high in the favor of the new regime.
Roger was continuing, “The Queen’s relatives are imprisoned or have fled abroad, her brother with some of the treasury. All is calm now but there was much unrest in the city earlier from those who do not know Gloucester as we do here in the North. He has taken firm hold but there was great danger.”
“What will happen to the Queen now?” Katherine was thinking that the plot, whatever it was, had failed and she need no longer fear the dangerous attention of the ambitious woman.
Roger shrugged, “Sanctuary will grow tiresome. She will emerge to find the Protector in command and will accept that.”
Katherine thought of the implacable eyes and the determination that had characterized most of Elizabeth Woodville’s life. So did fortune’s wheel turn. Now she said, “Roger, I would ride with you and avail myself of your escort. I wish to join James and see these great happenings for myself. I am sure that his message will arrive any day but I would like to surprise him.”
He lifted her hand to his lips, “Cousin, I am honored.”
In a late May morning Katherine, Roger, his men-at-arms and her own, along with several excited maids, rode toward York and London. All the loveliness of spring shone on the travelers. Flowers bloomed, the wind was soft, the countryside coming into full green beauty, the budding trees lacework against the crags. They were in a festive mood and the air rang with laughter and song as they journeyed. Roger treated Katherine as if she were a delicate lady who must not be shattered and he pretended to be horrified by her challenges to gallop or race. She was intoxicated by freedom, the relief from fear and the renewal of life. Frances had indeed prevailed; she was not to have a child. All that James had inflicted on her was to do again. She would not allow herself to think that this time it might be different and that they might meet in love. With Richard of Gloucester as Protector, it might be that James could obtain a divorce if he wanted one. Certainly the pressure on him to be wed would be lifted. Gloucester was not one to interfere in the lives of others. Katherine sighed, she would not allow herself to think ill thoughts in this time that was hers alone.
Roger rode close to her on their second morning out, breaking off the song he was chanting about a lady and her knight who swooned quite away for love of her. It was their first time alone and his face was flushed but earnest. Katherine thought she knew what he would say.
“Lady Katherine, why did you not tell me earlier? I vow, I would not have known you. I must belatedly ask your pardon. I meant no harm. I was flown with wine.”
She did not try to misunderstand or make much of his discomfiture, but laughed instead. “I know, Roger. Let it be forgotten. You could not have known the future.”
“Is it well between you two? I saw the fire between you even when I thought you but a country wench.” She looked at him soberly and the bright day seemed to dim. She needed a friend and had not had one in a very long time. He was of James’s own blood and had known him all his life. She said, “Kinsman,” and the word was good in her mouth, “it is as good a marriage as any. He did not seek it but we made a bargain.”
Roger nodded wisely. He thought of his own sickly wife who rested even now in their ancestral castle on the moors. Soon she would bear their first child. He had never looked on her face until the marriage day and it was accounted a good match for them both, though Roger did acknowledge that he had an eye for the ladies.
“I will admit that I was quite surprised when news of the marriage came. James once vowed to me that he would never care again for a woman but would use them as they were meant to be used.” He blushed as he spoke and cursed himself for it. “Forgive me, Lady Katherine, I did not mean to speak in such an unseemly fashion. I forget myself.”
She smiled at his earnestness. “We are kin now, are we not? My name is Katherine and what we say is surely between ourselves.”
“You are kind.”
“Only truthful. James has kept his vow,” she said dryly. “I know about Margaret, you need not try to hide these things from me.”
The young man sighed with relief. “He must love you well to share such things with a new bride. He loved her passionately, you know, men of his nature seem to. While I . . .” He had borne as much seriousness as he could and was ready for laughter. “I love all the fair.”
“Do you know the ballad about the fair maid who came to London town from the west to seek her fortune?” She began to hum the melody that Antony had often crooned as he sat before the fire in their hut. And they had many a merry chorus as the golden afternoon drifted around them. Katherine’s voice had sometimes been the despair of castle and convent but the effort had been made for all maidens must sing, it was part of their education. Now it was sometimes lusty and sometimes reedy but they laughed over it and continued.
Katherine felt a pang of longing. It should have been her husband laughing and confiding beside her as they rode down the land toward the coronation of the boy king; the sharing should have been theirs and the anticipation of being high in the favor of the Protector. Happiness had been a rare quality of late; however, it must not be questioned now that she had it for a time.
In his turn, Roger was taking covert glances at the vitality of this woman who had changed so greatly since he first saw her. Then she was a pale chit of
a young girl. Now a woman’s beauty was upon her and there was depth as well as fire there. James might well count himself a lucky man.
They stopped for the night at an inn which had been alerted that one high in favor of the Protector was passing by. The company was merry over meat and ale, then it turned to gossip over the recent great events. Generally, people were angered by the Queen’s attempt to rule in her son’s name when all plainly knew that Edward on his deathbed had chosen Richard of Gloucester to guard his son and his realm.
Katherine and Roger sat apart in one corner until it grew late and even the weary innkeeper, delighted at more custom than he saw in a year, had yawned his way to bed. They had drunk deep of the wine laid in for just such an occasion and Katherine felt the warmth spiral up to her head.
Roger poured himself another cupful and leaned back comfortably. “This might be the very inn where we all met not so long ago. Who could have known then of the bonds that would unite us, that would make us kin?”
Katherine laughed and the bitterness caught at her. It was the wine that made her say, “There is much that you do not know, Roger.”
He touched her hand. “For your own sake, keep whatever bargain you have made with James and do not trifle or give him reason to fear that his trust is misplaced. He is the worthiest of men but he is capable of great cruelty in his sorrowing.”
“I am aware of that for I have had experience of it.”
“I thought you might have.” His earnest blue eyes shone into hers and Katherine wanted to giggle for she realized that he had gone from youthful desire for her body into seeing her as the unattainable lady fair of the songs of courtly love, the damsel for whom great deeds were wrought for the price of a smile.