He took her face in his hands. ‘You really do not understand what you mean to me, do you? It eats my flesh away, cariad. My misery when I am without you is a shirt of thorns.’ Then he kissed her with everything that was in his heart.
It was distressing to her. He was surrendering so much of himself to her, and yet she was giving refuge to his would-be murderer, as well as his greatest Yorkist foe. Overwhelmed by her own duplicity, she had to pull away.
He allowed her to go from his arms, but she knew he was loath to break the contact.
She looked at him again. ‘Have you been injured?’
‘My dignity and pride are less than pristine.’ He found a rueful smile. ‘Fortunately, I had the foresight to put a dagger beneath my pillows and thus have the satisfaction of knowing I cut him before making a nimble, bare-arsed and very unheroic departure. Unfortunately, I was not able to raise the alarm before he managed to get away.’
‘Do you think he escaped completely? From the palace, I mean?’
‘I have no idea. I pray not, for I would dearly like to have him questioned.’
He looked at her. ‘I am sorry to send for you like this, in the middle of the night. Especially when my uncle is here, endeavouring to hunt down my assailant.’ He inhaled a little nervously. ‘Forgive me, I am more shaken than I realized.’ He went to the bed in the adjacent chamber, and sat on the edge of it. His robe was soft, clinging to the outline of his body, and it parted a little, allowing a glimpse of his virility. Not so virile now.
‘It would surely be strange if you were not shaken.’ She sat next to him.
His hand moved over hers. ‘You have been right about my health, cariad. I have not felt well for some days now, so it is not only tonight. Oh, it is something I have eaten, I am sure.’
‘Are you coughing more?’
He squeezed her fingers reassuringly. ‘It is not that. More a general malaise, not helped by tonight’s … episode.’ He was silent for a moment. ‘A king is supposed to confront everything.’
‘Eluding being murdered in your sleep is a little exceptional.’
‘Maybe.’
There was such incredible sadness in his strange eyes that he touched something in her heart. ‘What is it, Henry? There is something very wrong, is there not? Maybe I can help.’ Was it Roland? She felt such a Judas as she smiled sympathetically. A Yorkist Iscariot …
He smiled ruefully. ‘Help? Cariad, I fear you will one day do to me what I once did to someone else. The only help you can ever give to me is to be with me. Always.’
‘You refer to the lady you will not discuss?’ she ventured tentatively.
‘I did love her. At first. It was with her that I first entered a fleshly paradise—although not, I vow, as paradisial as the realm I have subsequently known with you.’ His tone became momentarily lighter. ‘You, lady, know parts of me I had no idea existed.’
She returned the smile. ‘You knew they existed, sir, you merely wish to flatter me into your bed again now.’
‘Well, I cannot deny all of that. But the fact remains that I had a carnal relationship with her, and … Roland de Vielleville is the result. Ah, I see by your eyes that you had already guessed. Or … perhaps my uncle told you?’ The question was added watchfully.
‘I did not need telling, because you gave yourself away at Friskney.’
‘So I did. I remember.’
‘Be honest, Henry. You cannot be unaware of the speculation about the boy. That he is your son is widely suspected. No doubt it is wagered upon.’
‘Well, I have confirmed it now, but only to you. No one else must know.’
‘Why?’
He hesitated, and then chose to be amusing. ‘Would you wish to acknowledge such an objectionable little prick?’
She could hardly probe further. ‘Jon already knows, I take it?’
‘Yes, I wished him to accompany me to Knole, of which I know you know. I will do my duty as the boy’s father, and satisfy my obligations to his mother, but obligation is the sum total of what I now feel for her. Do you understand? I did not love and lose her, I loved and then deliberately and cruelly cast her off. I was ignoble, Cicely.’ He met her eyes, his fingers tightening around hers. ‘Please tell me you knew nothing of what was to happen tonight.’
She was accustomed to his swift changes of topic, but sometimes he caught her unawares, as now. ‘No, Henry, I did not know anything.’ Liar, you did from the moment you arrived and realized Tal was here too.
‘I believe you, cariad, I believe you.’
‘Who was she?’ she asked then.
‘Jesu, you are tenacious. It is of no consequence who she was. Do not think I am about to unburden my entire soul to you.’ He gave her a quick smile, but it was a warning.
She drew away a little. ‘Should … should we speak of something else? Something innocuous? Master Pasmer’s white sables, perhaps?’
Henry paused. ‘How do you know about that?’
She explained that she and Jon had met the skinner when she arrived.
‘Pasmer is to bring them first thing in the morning,’ he replied. ‘And I mean first thing, curse it, but there is so much else to attend to that I have to commence with the damned cockerels.’
‘I would like to make love with you on such fur,’ she teased.
‘Then we will. You have my word.’
She searched in her waist purse for the small comb she kept there. Her souvenirs had been left safely at Pasmer’s Place. Kneeling up beside him, she rested her cheek against his hair for a moment, for it was hard not to feel for the man he was now. Then she began to employ the comb.
His arms moved around her waist and he kissed the shadow between her breasts.
She continued to comb, talking lightly of this and that, including Jon’s forthcoming departure for Lincolnshire. He drew away a little. ‘Are you about to ask my permission to go with him?’
‘Would there be any point?’
‘No. I must have you near, even more so after tonight. There is to be no argument.’ He caught her hand suddenly. ‘I know that what I did at Huntingdon was wrong in every way. I gave up control to the monster within me, and struck out. There were seconds immediately afterwards when you had it in your power to bring me back to you, but you did not do it. One word, cariad, one soft glance, and I would have been rescued. I was trapped within my own miserable self, begging you to take me into your arms, to forgive and understand.’
‘It went too far that day. You hit me so hard, and treated me so badly, that I wished you gone. But it is in the past now.’ She put the comb aside.
‘Is it?’
‘Yes.’ She twisted around, and looped her hair up around her wrist. ‘Undress me, Harri Tudur,’ she said softly.
He unfastened the rich brocade, and then she rose from the bed to allow the gown to slip to the floor.
The candlelight moved softly over her skin, finding all the curves, shadows and planes, and gleaming on her nipples as she stood before him.
He embraced her, his cheek against the swelling of her breast. ‘You are so precious to me,’ he breathed. ‘Already it seems that what has happened tonight was merely a nightmare. If there is one certain way to drive away all demons, imagined and real, it is to be with you, knowing I am about to make love to you.’
‘So, Your Majesty, you have recovered enough for that?’
‘It would seem so,’ he murmured, leaning back a little to reveal just how ready he was.
‘My, I believe I am truly flattered.’
‘You are about to be more than flattered, cariad.’ He smiled.
Unable to resist, she pushed his loose robe from his shoulders and down his arms, and then undid the belt. She did not love him, but at this moment, his love transcended everything, and she wanted to share the joy he could impart.
He lay back on the bed and pulled her down on to him. The pleasure was immediate and intense, and she moved against him, her eyes closed for the sweetness of it. And so s
he made love with Henry Tudor, and was all he could have wished of her. She wished she was only acting now, but that was not so. Her emotion was real.
The palace was astir but not fully awake when Cicely returned to her own apartment. Snow fell again, thick flakes that wended through the still winter air, filling the thousands of footsteps from the disturbance of the night. Guards were still in evidence, but there was nowhere left to search. Impossibly, the king’s assailant had disappeared.
Mary was waiting at the top of the staircase as Cicely ascended. ‘My lady?’
‘Mary? You … have something to tell me?’
‘Yes, my lady, but it must be said out here.’
Cicely’s heart sank, because the maid’s face warned of something momentous to be divulged. They drew away from the stairs and spoke in whispers.
‘What did you hear?’ Cicely asked.
‘That his lordship and Tal knew each other when they met in your father’s household. Sir Jon was there almost permanently, but Tal was only there for a while, because his post was actually in Calais. They became friendly.’ Mary wrung her hands a little. ‘My lady … I do not want to tell you what they said, but know I must.’
‘I asked you to listen and then tell me, Mary. I will not be angry. So, what did you hear?’
‘It … concerns your father, my lady. Lord Welles and Tal both have their own reasons to hate your father, and took revenge by poisoning him to his death.’
‘No!’ Cicely recoiled, but knew there had always been rumours about her father’s sudden death, and Jon had been secretive when she asked about it. ‘Lord Lincoln did not know, did he?’ She knew the answer, having seen Jack’s puzzlement over what could have happened in 1483.
‘No, my lady. He was greatly shocked.’ Mary was agitated. ‘I heard them speak of it, my lady. I had to listen very hard, but my hearing is still good. There was a battle called Losecoat Field, and Lord Welles’s half-brother and nephew were killed by your father. Tal’s grievance was that your father ruined his sister. So they worked together, and both administered draughts to the king when he was ill. One phial contained poison and the other did not, so neither of them knows who actually killed him.’
Cicely leaned weakly against the wall. Jon had already told her he set out for Losecoat in March 1470 to avenge the deaths of his half-brother and nephew, but failed and was almost captured. His life had been saved by the father of the two Talby witches who, each in turn, became his mistress. Losecoat had caused many cruel deaths. Thirty thousand ragged, ill-equipped peasants against the full force and artillery of Edward IV’s disciplined army. It had been a bloody massacre, and all these years later the House of York was still loathed in those parts.
‘What do you wish of me now, my lady?’ the maid asked anxiously.
‘Only that you pretend to know nothing of all this. Nothing, is that clear?’
‘Yes, my lady.’
‘You must mean it, Mary Kymbe, because if you speak unwisely to anyone, it will mean the execution of my husband and my friend for regicide. You and I will be in danger too, for concealing Tal and Lord Lincoln. Do you understand?’
The maid’s eyes widened. ‘Yes, my lady.’
‘Is Lord Welles still here?’
‘He has gone to see Master Pasmer, and Tal has accompanied him.’
Cicely’s eyes widened. ‘In daylight?’
‘Tal wore a hood, but Lord Welles did not. He said that no one would suspect anyone who walked with the king’s uncle. And the falling snow would offer some protection as well, he said. I looked from the window and saw them reach the lodgings opposite in safety. Lord Lincoln is still in your rooms. Lord Welles did not wish to risk taking them both. He said that once a plan has been agreed with Master Pasmer, he will come back to escort Lord Lincoln as well.’
Cicely took off her cloak and put it around the maid’s shoulders. ‘Perhaps the servants’ hall would be advisable for an hour or so. It is best I speak to Lord Lincoln alone.’
The maid bobbed another curtsey and then hurried down the stairs, leaving Cicely to continue to her apartment. Not knowing what would await her, she entered anxiously, to see Jack rising hastily from the fireside chair. His shoulder had clearly been newly attended to, and he was not using the sling. He had freshened a little too, and his dark curls shone in the winter daylight.
‘Sweetheart?’
She paused, and then closed the door slowly before turning to face him again, feeling that he would somehow see how warm she was from Henry’s bed. From Henry’s so-beautiful lovemaking. For that was what it had been.
Beautiful.
Jack read her face as if she had voiced her thoughts, and came to hold her. ‘Oh, my poor sweetheart …’
‘I deserve your censure, Jack, because I enjoyed him. I feel so unfaithful to everyone, but now, especially to you.’
He put a hand to her chin and raised her lips to give them a fiercely loving kiss. ‘I will never blame you, because I know you love me. Richard alone can challenge me for your heart, and I have inherited more than his claim to the throne: I have inherited you.’ He smiled, and kissed the tip of her nose.
She managed to return the smile. ‘I only hope that I will be able to be as understanding if you find pleasure with someone else. No, do not tell me, for I do not wish to know.’
‘Then I will not say a word.’
‘Jon said many words.’
‘Well, he has always found it difficult, and now, my return is a difficulty too many. I cannot blame him for that, but he will come around, sweetheart.’
‘I hope so, Jack, because I do want him back. I could not have found a finer man. He stood by me when I needed him. But last night he … was so cold and hard.’
‘It was the shock of seeing you with me. A ghost making love to his wife.’
‘And now, here I am, reeking of cloves.’
‘Take heart from the fact that Tudor does not suspect you. Have you learned anything?’
‘Nothing you do not know already.’ It was true. ‘Jack, what is this about Jon and Tal having poisoned my father?’
He looked at her with a mixture of surprise and dismay. ‘I wish you did not know of that, sweetheart. I take it that small maids have large ears?’
‘All that matters is that I know.’
‘Well, I have only just learned as well. What will you do with your new knowledge?’
She exhaled slowly. ‘What can I do? It is done, and I feel nothing.’
‘It is the reason for the atmosphere between Jon and Tal. They would rather avoid each other now, than be together.’
The door opened and Jon entered. Fresh snowflakes clung to his shoulders and boots. Cicely’s heart sank a little as she saw how coolly he glanced from Jack to her, and then back to Jack.
Chapter Fifteen
Jon’s face might have been carved of stone as he swung off his cloak and draped it over a chair before going to the window and standing with his back to them.
‘Jack, I have settled upon a way to get you and Tal away from here. It is more or less Tal’s original plan, which was to be smuggled on board Pasmer’s barge, hidden among the furs and fells, and then borne away safely, back to London. Now it will mean smuggling you both.’
‘At great danger to you,’ Jack said.
Jon turned. ‘If it will rid me of the pair of you, then I am almost eager to take the risk.’
Jack met his gaze, but said nothing more.
‘Bitter as I am with you, I am not such a cur as to not warn you about your brother.’
‘Edmund?’
‘Yes. I do not profess to know what he is up to, except that he has something dangerous in mind. All in the name of the House of York, but probably solely to the benefit of Edmund de la Pole. And how do I know? Because Roland de Vielleville did not guard his tongue as he should. He is as thick with Edmund as he is with Thomas Howard. Edmund is malignant, and I have instructed Roland to stay away from him, but you know how alluring the beautiful
and dangerous can be.’ Jon glanced at Cicely.
‘If you should learn more—’
Jon cut into Jack’s words. ‘I may warn you. But do not count upon it, because the way I feel about you at the moment tempts me to let perdition fall about you and your House.’
‘Jon, I—’
He was ignored. ‘One of my most trusted men resembles Tal’s build quite accurately, and now waits in secret aboard Pasmer’s barge, as does a second man who, when cloaked and hooded as you will be, could be taken for you. Pasmer has taken the sables to Henry, and is with him at present. When he leaves, the fact that he has been with Henry will be known by the guards. I cannot think that much notice will be taken of him or those with him. Tal will be watching, and will come from the lodgings to join him immediately. The same goes for you and me. No one will question the king’s uncle, and as the snow is now very heavy, it will afford considerable concealment anyway.’
He glanced at Cicely again, his face expressionless, and then continued to address Jack. ‘We will be loud and friendly, and as natural a group as possible. Then we will all go to the barge, talking about examining Pasmer’s furs with a view to purchase. Once you two are safely stowed away, your “doubles” will disembark with me, carrying several furs each. The barge will shove off, and—with God’s grace—you will be conveyed away from your self-inflicted danger.’
‘I cannot thank you enough, Jon,’ Jack replied honestly.
‘That is very true, Jack de la Pole, but do not ever expect my support again. I accept your reason for coming here, to protect Tal from himself, but I do not accept Tal’s vengeance for a crime that was actually committed by Edward IV, not Henry VII. Nor do I accept that you are once again with my wife, is that clear? I am no longer prepared to hold my tongue, or turn a blind eye, so if I find you anywhere near Cicely from now on, I will tell Henry everything that I know. I do not care about my wife, and I will publicly abjure her.’
Cicely was stricken. ‘No, Jon! Please!’
Jack was appalled too. ‘For the love of God, man—’
‘Enough! My mind is made up. I will not be made a fool of ad infinitum, as you both are pleased to expect of me.’
Cicely's Sovereign Secret Page 16
