The White Queen: A Novel Read online

  And it is not like Richard to ride away from work that needs doing. When he and his brothers decided that poor King Henry should die, the three of them met outside his door and went in together, their faces grim but their minds made up. These are York princes: they have no objection to wicked deeds; but they do not leave them to others, they do them firsthand. The risk of asking another to kill two innocent princes of the blood, bribing the guards, hiding the bodies, would be unbearable for Richard. I have seen how he kills: directly, without warning, but openly, without shame. The man who beheaded Sir William Hastings on a piece of builders’ timber would not wink at holding a pillow over the face of a young boy. If the thing was to be done, I would have sworn he would do it himself. At the very least he would give the order and watch that it was done.

  All this is to convince me that Sir John from Reigate is mistaken and my boy Edward is still alive. But again and again as I turn at the window and glance down at the river in darkness and mist, I wonder if I am mistaken, mistaken in everything, even in my trust in Melusina. Perhaps Richard managed to find someone who would kill the boys. Perhaps Edward is dead, and perhaps I have lost the Sight, and I just don’t know. Perhaps I know nothing anymore.

  By the early hours of the morning I cannot bear to be alone for another minute, and I send a messenger to fetch Dr. Lewis to me. I tell them to wake him and get him out of bed, for I am mortally ill. By the time he is admitted by the guards, my lie is becoming true, and I am running a fever from sheer agony of mind.

  “Your Grace?” he asks cautiously.

  I am haggard in the candlelight, my hair in a clumsy plait, my robe knotted around me. “You have to get your servants, trusted men, into the Tower to guard my son Edward, since we cannot get him out,” I say bluntly. “Lady Margaret must use her influence, she must use her husband’s name, to ensure my sons are well guarded. They are in danger. They are in terrible danger.”

  “You have news?”

  “There is a rumor spreading that my boys are dead,” I say.

  He shows no surprise. “God forbid it, Your Grace, but I fear that it is more than a rumor. It is as the Duke of Buckingham warned us. He said that this false king would kill his nephews to get the throne.”

  I recoil, very slightly, as if I had put out my hand and seen a snake sunning itself where I was about to touch.

  “Yes,” I say, suddenly wary. “That is what I have heard, and it was the Duke of Buckingham’s man who said it.”

  He crosses himself. “God spare us.”

  “But I hope that the deed is not yet done, and I hope to prevent it.”

  He nods. “Alas, I am afraid that we may be too late, and that they are already lost to us. Your Grace, I grieve with all my heart for you.”

  “I thank you for your sympathy,” I say steadily. My temples are throbbing, I cannot think. It is as if I am looking at the snake and it looks back at me.

  “Please God, this uprising destroys the uncle who could do such a thing. God will be on our side against such a Herod.”

  “If it was Richard.”

  He looks at me suddenly, as if this shocks him, though he seems well able to tolerate the idea of the murder of children. “Who else could do such a thing? Who else would benefit? Who killed Sir William Hastings, and your brother and your other son? Who is the murderer of your family and your worst enemy, Your Grace? You can suspect no one else!”

  I can feel myself tremble and the tears start to come; they are burning my eyes. “I don’t know,” I say unsteadily. “I just feel certain that my boy is not dead. I would know if he was killed. A mother would know that. Ask Lady Margaret: she would know if her Henry was dead. A mother knows. And anyway, my Richard at least is safe.”

  He takes the bait and I see his response—I see the flash of a spy looking from his melting eyes. “Oh, is he?” he asks invitingly.

  I have said enough. “They are both safe, please God,” I correct myself. “But tell me—why are you so certain that they are dead?”

  He puts his hand gently on mine. “I did not want to grieve you. But they have not been seen since the false king left London, and the duke and Lady Margaret both believe that he had them killed before he left. There was nothing any of us could do to save them. When we besieged the Tower, they were already dead.”

  I pull my hand away from his comforting grasp and put it to my aching forehead. I wish I could think clearly. I remember Lionel telling me that he heard the servants shouting to take the boys deeper into the Tower. I remember him telling me that he was just the distance of the door from Edward. But why would Dr. Lewis lie to me?

  “Would it not have been better for our cause if the duke had kept silent?” I ask. “My friends and family and allies are recruiting men to rescue the princes, but the duke is telling them that they are already dead. Why should my men turn out, if their prince is dead?”

  “As well they should know now as later,” he says smoothly, too smoothly.

  “Why? I say. “Why should they know now, before the battle?”

  “So that everyone knows it is the false king who gave the order,” he says. “So that Duke Richard has the blame. Your people will rise for revenge.”

  I cannot think, I cannot think why this matters. I can sense a lie in here somewhere, but I cannot put my finger on it. Something is wrong, I know it.

  “But who would doubt that it is King Richard who had them killed? As you say, the murderer of my kinsmen? Why would we declare our fears now, and confuse our people?”

  “Nobody would doubt it,” he assures me. “No one else but Richard would do such a thing. No one else would benefit from such a crime.”

  I jump to my feet in sudden impatience, and knock the table and overturn the candlestick.

  “I don’t understand!”

  He snatches at the candle and the flame bobs and throws a terrible shadow on his friendly face. For a moment he is as he was when I first saw him when Cecily came to tell me that Death was at the door. I gasp in fear and I step back from him as he puts the candle carefully back on the table and stands, as he should do, since I, the dowager queen, am standing.

  “You can go,” I say disjointedly. “Forgive me, I am distressed. I don’t know what to think. You can leave me.”

  “Shall I give you a draft to help you sleep? I am so sorry for your grief.”

  “No, I will sleep now. I thank you for your company.” I take a breath. I push back the hair from my face. “You have calmed me with your wisdom. I am at peace now.”

  He looks puzzled. “But I have said nothing.”

  I shake my head. I cannot wait for him to leave. “You have shared my worries, and that is the act of a friend.”

  “I shall see Lady Margaret first thing this morning and tell her of your fears. I shall ask her to put her men in the Tower to get news of your boys. If they are alive, we will find men to guard them. We will keep them safe.”

  “At least Richard is safe,” I remark incautiously.

  “Safer than his brother?”

  I smile like a woman with a secret. “Doctor, if you had two precious rare jewels and you feared thieves, would you put your two treasures in the same box?”

  “Richard was not in the Tower?” His voice is a breath, his blue eyes staring; he is all aquiver.

  I put my finger to my lips. “Hush.”

  “But two boys were killed in the bed…”

  Were they? Oh were they? How are you so very sure of this? I keep my face as still as marble as he turns from me, and bows and goes to the door.

  “Tell Lady Margaret I beg her to guard my son in the Tower as if he were her own,” I say.

  He bows again and is gone.

  When the children wake, I tell them I am ill and I keep to my chamber. Elizabeth I turn away at the door and tell her that I need to sleep. I don’t need sleep, I need to understand. I hold my head in my hands and walk up and down the room barefoot, so that they don’t hear that I am pacing, racking my brains. I am alone i