‘And King Richard spoke with him?’ Heloise asked softly, cradling her lord’s cheek against her own.
‘No. The king was gracious enough to grant him an audience but our guards found a dagger in Buckingham’s sleeve.’
‘What!’ Miles jerked his head round in disbelief.
‘God have mercy!’ Heloise exclaimed, gripping his arm. ‘Miles, Ned’s dagger! Remember? Benet took it and put it in his sleeve and then the duke disguised himself in Benet’s clothes.’
He closed his eyes painfully, his hand finding and locking with hers.
‘I doubt it would have made much difference,’ said Huddleston sympathetically. ‘He was beheaded next day on the Feast of All Souls.’
Miles tried not to think of the axe, of Harry’s life blood bursting out. ‘And … Ralph received his thirty pieces of silver?’ Bitterness timbred his voice.
‘The king permitted the wretch one of Buckingham’s holdings in Kent and right unwillingly too. The man was an utter Judas.’ Huddleston’s tone was scathing. ‘Loyalty is a precious commodity.’
‘Yes, it is,’ Looking upon his lady, Miles stroked his knuckles tenderly down her cheek. ‘Wait, Huddleston.’ Sir Richard had reached the door. ‘Which manor in Kent was given to Bannastre?’
‘Yalding. Is that significant?’ And not waiting for an answer, he left them alone.
Heloise slid onto Miles’s lap as the door closed. ‘Is it significant?’
‘Not any more,’ he sighed wryly. You stubborn fool, Harry, if only you had given Ralph Yalding.
‘Miles?’
‘Oh, Heloise, it will not be easy to throw a handful of earth on Harry’s memory and just walk away.’ But it must be done. ‘Changeling,’ he whispered, settling her head against his shoulder and bestowing a kiss upon the tip of her nose, ‘it was because of you that I was pardoned.’
‘Nonsense,’ she murmured, snuggling against him. ‘King Richard and Huddleston recognised your courage to do what your conscience told you was right. I fear me that if Buckingham had stood in the king’s shoes today, he would not have pardoned you.’
‘No.’ His cheek stroked against her silver hair, thankful her bright soul had become his anchor. ‘God forgive me,’ he whispered, shielding his eyes as if the deity could see his shame. ‘I am guilty of such arrogance, Heloise, believing I could mould Harry’s soul into greatness. Such a waste. He could have helped make Richard’s reign a golden age.’ But kind hands soothed his brow and peeled away his fingers. ‘Oh dear Christ, I hope Knyvett and Latimer will trust to the king’s mercy too.’
‘I am sure they will be forgiven, and you, in turn, must forgive de la Bere. He did what he believed was right and he protected Ned. Duty and honour are hard masters to serve.’
She let the silence heal, and, entwined, they sat staring into the flames, the only sound in the chamber the crackling of the logs.
At length she stirred, leaning back so she might see the glow of candlelight upon his face. ‘Miles, I-I had a dream last night, but I do not know what it signifies.’
‘Tell me, cariad.’ His acceptance warmed her more than the fire’s heat.
‘I was standing in Brecknock market looking up at St Mary’s, but it was quite different. There was a tower upon it. And someone I knew stood beside me. He had the look of Buckingham, and yet it was not he. Now why should I dream that?’
‘I do not know, love.’ It was comforting, nevertheless. He carried her fingers to his lips. ‘Thank you for all your understanding, Heloise. It took great courage and trust to stand by me these last weeks.’
‘Courage, no? You said to me once, remember, that I was happier hiding behind a mask. Well, that is over now. I am not afraid any more. Seeing you standing there facing death so bravely gave me strength, Miles, strength to believe in myself.’
In husbandly fashion, he tidied a lock of her damp hair back so he might see her face. ‘It was always there in you, Heloise.’
Their foreheads touched.
‘Oh, a murrain on this,’ she protested, laughter kindling within her. ‘I shall build a monument to you if you build one to me.’
‘You can have two, changeling.’
Hazel eyes chastised him and then they grew more mischievous. ‘Shall I tell you a secret? De la Bere is going to marry Bess. Shall I tell you another secret, y Cysgod? There is still a place in this fickle world for an honest friend like you. Light a candle for Harry’s soul and then turn to the sunlight.’ Her arms clasped him firmly. ‘Will you walk hand in hand with me into the future?’
‘Yes, cariad.’ His arms enfolded her. ‘With all my heart!’
List of Characters
(NB: only those persons marked with an asterisk are fictional)
The Household of the Duke of Gloucester at Middleham, Yorkshire
HELOISE BALLASTER* eldest daughter of the merchant, Sir Dudley Ballaster, and maid of honour to the Duchess of Gloucester
LADY MARGERY HUDDLESTON half-sister to Anne, Duchess of Gloucester, and bastard daughter of Warwick the Kingmaker
SIR RICHARD HUDDLESTON knight banneret, brother-in-law to the Duchess of Gloucester, and husband of Lady Margery Huddleston
WILL* jester to the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester
RICHARD PLANTAGENET, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER youngest brother of the Yorkist king, Edward IV; later Lord Protector for his nephews. Future King Richard III
ANNE, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER wife to Duke Richard of Gloucester and daughter of Warwick the Kingmaker
EDWARD son to Gloucester
DR JOHN DOKETT chaplain to the Duke of Gloucester
FRANCIS, LORD LOVELL chamberlain to the Duke of Gloucester
SIR RICHARD RATCLIFFE} retainers of the Duke of Gloucester
SIR PIERS HARRINGTON}*
The Household of the Duke of Buckingham at Brecknock, Wales
SIR MILES RUSHDEN*
(Y Cysgod) son and heir to Phillip, Lord Rushden, and friend of the Duke of Buckingham
HARRY STAFFORD,
DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM brother-in-law to the queen and cousin to Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Descended from King Edward III
SIR WILLIAM KNYVETT acting constable of Brecknock Castle and friend of the Duke of Buckingham
SIR RICHARD DE LA BERE retainer of the Duke of Buckingham
SIR NICHOLAS LATIMER chamberlain to the Duke of Buckingham
SIR THOMAS LIMERICK steward to the Duke of Buckingham
PERSHALL}
RALPH BANNASTRE} servants of the Duke of Buckingham
CATHERINE (CAT) WOODVILLE,
DUCHESS OF BUCKINGHAM wife to Harry Stafford, and sister of the queen, Elizabeth Woodville
EDWARD (NED), LORD STAFFORD son and heir of the Duke of Buckingham
BESS his nursemaid
BENET* Ned’s servant
BRIAN* archer at Brecknock castle
EMRYS* Welsh harpist
RHYS AP THOMAS Welsh lord
LADY MYFANNWY* maid of honour to the Duchess of Buckingham and ward of Rhys ap Thomas
THOMAS NANDIK Cambridge scholar and astrologer, formerly in Lord Hastings’s employ
TRAVELLER* Sir Miles Rushden’s beloved horse
DAFYDD* a superlative mouser
At Bramley
PHILLIP, LORD RUSHDEN* Sir Miles Rushden’s father
DOBBE* servant to Miles Rushden
SIR DUDLEY BALLASTER* a merchant who has married into the lesser nobility, knighted by King Edward IV for supporting the House of York
DIONYSIA*}
CLIO*}
LUCRETIA*} Sir Dudley’s younger daughters, sisters of Heloise Ballaster
MATILLIS* second wife of Sir Dudley Ballaster
SIR HUBERT* retainer of Sir Dudley Ballaster
MARTIN* groom to Sir Dudley Ballaster
CLOUD* Heloise Ballaster’s dun mare
The Prince of Wales’s entourage at Stony Stratford
EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES
(KING EDWARD V) elder son of King Edward IV and
Queen Elizabeth Woodville
ANTHONY WOODVILLE,
LORD RIVERS eldest brother of the queen, and uncle to Edward V. In charge of the prince’s household at Ludlow
SIR RICHARD GREY half-brother of Edward V, and younger son of the queen, Elizabeth Woodville, by her first marriage
JOHN ALCOCK, BISHOP OF WORCESTER controller of the prince’s household and a supporter of the Woodvilles
ROBERT STILLINGTON, BATH AND WELLS a former chancellor of England, now in Alcock, Bishop of Worcester’s custody
Others
HOEL* a Monmouth man (and guide, if paid sufficiently)
THE VAUGHAN FAMILY an English family, based at Tretwr, with a dislike of any authority, especially Buckingham’s
LEWIS GLYN COTHI Welsh bard
WILLIAM, LORD HASTINGS Lord Chamberlain to Kings Edward IV and Edward V
SIR WILLIAM CATESBY retainer of Lord Hastings
CECILY, DUCHESS OF YORK mother of Richard of Gloucester. Residing at Baynards Castle, London
JOHN MORTON, BISHOP OF ELY royal councillor, previously a supporter of the House of Lancaster
JOHN, LORD HOWARD (LATER DUKE OF NORFOLK) supporter of Richard III
LADY RUSHDEN* mother of Sir Miles Rushden
THOMAS, LORD STANLEY royal councillor. Third husband of Margaret Beaufort and stepfather of Henry Tudor
MARGARET BEAUFORT,
COUNTESS OF RICHMOND mother of Henry Tudor, a claimant to the throne, wife of Lord Stanley
Mentioned but not appearing
KING EDWARD IV Yorkist king of England since 1461, older brother of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, husband of Elizabeth Woodville, and father of Edward, Prince of Wales and Prince Richard
ELIZABETH WOODVILLE,
QUEEN OF ENGLAND queen to King Edward IV, and mother of young Edward V and Prince Richard. She also has daughters by King Edward IV and two sons from an earlier marriage: the Marquis of Dorset and Sir Richard Grey
THOMAS GREY, MARQUIS OF DORSET eldest son of the queen by her first marriage
HENRY TUDOR an exile in Brittany. Son of Margaret Beaufort, descended from a bastard grandson of King Edward III
DR ARGENTINE physician to Edward V
DR LEWIS physician to the Countess of Richmond
GEORGE, DUKE OF CLARENCE late brother to King Edward IV and Richard of Duke of Gloucester. Executed by Edward IV
SIR HUMPHREY STAFFORD Welsh Marches supporter of Richard III
TYLWYTH TEG (*?)
Faeries and friends to Heloise Ballaster
History Note
Since most of the people in this story actually lived, I can tell you that de la Bere did indeed marry Bess, and Sir William Knyvett was granted a pardon, wed one of Buckingham’s aunts and later became the Steward of Margaret Beaufort’s household. Nandik was arrested for treason and sorcery, but reprieved in 1485. Thomas Vaughan became steward of Brec knock. Catherine Woodville married twice after Harry’s death.
Buckingham’s treachery had immense repercussions. With his most powerful supporter gone, King Richard only reigned for two more years. Because of the mystery surrounding the disap pearance of the Princes in the Tower, Richard became the most controversial ruler in British history. At least the Richard III Society exists to remind the general public that Shakespeare’s version is Hollywood Tudor style – great theatre but hardly accur ate, and there is no contemporary evidence of either a hump, limp or withered arm. The bail system and the College of Heralds, both introduced by Richard, are still with us.
Margaret Beaufort, a successful organiser, saw her son crowned as King Henry VII, and became the most influential woman in England. Bishop Stillington assisted at the coronation of Henry VII. Morton, though later a cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury, is mainly remembered by posterity for his taxation policy – ‘Morton’s Fork’.
Ned, Third Duke of Buckingham, was executed by King 438Henry VIII in 1521 – the year after his tower on St Mary’s Church in Brecknock was completed. He always kept a spare set of accounts with him – an emotional legacy from the sack of Brecknock?
Sir Richard Huddleston became Constable of Beaumaris Castle and Chief Forester of Snowdonia. Richard and Margery’s son was abducted by his future mother-in-law, so Miles’s abduction is not just a fictional invention. The story of Richard and Margery Huddleston’s romance is told in The Maiden and the Unicorn.
I owe an apology to the late John Dokett, Gloucester’s chap lain, for making him a fire-and-brimstone churchman rather than the quiet scholar he probably was, and I have to admit that the building of Athelhampton might have been still in its earliest stages in 1483.
The Northamptonshire tale of ‘Skulking Dudley’, whose daughter put on armour to defend her father’s honour, provided me with the inspiration for Heloise.
Traveller, though fictional, became acclaimed for his snowy coat and was in great demand for his procreational abilities. Dafydd moved to Bramley where he terrified generations of local vermin, until he passed away peacefully beneath a rose bush at the age of thirteen.
Brecknock [Brecon] Castle is in ruins but you can stand beneath the wall of the great hall and stare out over Brecon. A wall and tower in the grounds of the Castle Hotel are accessible to the general public and there is a picture in the hotel which shows some of the fortress’s former glory. The hall of Crosby Place was moved, stone by stone, to Chelsea and is now privately owned. Athelhampton Hall is open to the public on certain days. The paper with the practice signature of Edward V and his two uncles may be seen at the British Museum.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the following: my writers’ group, especially my good friends and fellow writers Elizabeth Lhuede and Chris Stinson for their wise and useful comments and Delamere Usher who took me to the races in search of a horse like Traveller and helped me with the final draft; Joan Kollins for keeping me on track with Heloise’s clairvoyant ability; Michael Spencer for his help with the heraldry; Drs Stephanie Aplin and Peter Davies for their medical expertise; John Sidebotham for advice on the roads and rivers of the Welsh Marches; and Geraint Rees of Y Gronfa, the Welsh Cultural Foundation of Australia, for checking my Welsh, diolch, Geraint!
Thank you to those who offered advice while I was researching in Wales, especially the friendly staff of the museum at Brecknock and Geraint Hughes, Dean of St John the Evangelist Cathedral, Brecon. I am grateful to Elwyn John, Archdeacon of Brecon for providing information on St Mary’s.
In England, thanks to: Felicity and Don Head of Milton Keynes for research on Stony Stratford; my honorary aunt, Denise Lyon-Williams, for a useful discussion on the Welsh; Ralph Dean and Mr and Mrs R.W.A. Langton of Lacon Hall, Wem, for information on Ralph Bannastre; Pam Chant and Sally Martyn; and my father for suggesting Athelhampton.
Much deserved thanks to Cate Paterson, Sarina Rowell and the team at Pan Macmillan Australia, and my gratitude to the organisations of Romance Writers in America and Australia for their perennial support and encouragement.
And not to be forgotten: Stefan (Perth and Nice) and Sasha (Zurich) who were the right age to be an inspiration for Ned; and a thank-you purr to Cagney Coe, a feline of San Rafael in California, who absolutely insisted in appearing in the story as Dafydd.
The Powys poetry extract is adapted from ‘Elegy for Gruffudd ab Adda’ by Dafydd ap Gwilym in Medieval Welsh Poems, translation and commentary by Richard Loomis and Dafydd Johnston (Pegas Paperbacks, New York 1992). The latter also contains a more scholarly version of Dafydd ap Gwilym’s poem ‘May and January’.
The extract from Lewis Glyn Cothi’s poem The Sword is adapted from Medieval Welsh Lyrics translated by Joseph P. Clancy (Macmillan, New York, 1965).
Isolde Martyn
Sydney, Australia
About Isolde Martyn
Maybe it was a visit to the Tower of London as a child but by the time she was a teenager, Isolde wanted to write historicals. That meant a history honours degree and a specialisation in the Wars of the Roses, her favouri
te era. Having enjoyed a career in academia and book editing, she is now the author of seven published novels, mostly about real historical figures.
Her first novel won the Rita Award for 'Best First Novel' in the USA and her first two books won the 'Romantic Book of the Year Award' in Australia. Having met a rather nice geologist at a bus stop many years ago, she now lives in Sydney. As co-founder and Vice-Chairperson of the Plantagenet Society of Australia and a former Chairperson of the New South Wales Branch of the Richard III Society, she continues to enjoy promoting her great love of history.
Also by Isolde Martyn
The Maiden and the Unicorn
The Knight and the Rose
Fleur-de-lis
First published by Macmillan Australia in 2002
The Silver Bride Page 47