However Henry might have responded, the men in the room all turned to the door as the four Seal carriers entered behind the king, bearing the silver box that was their charge. All of them were panting from a long run through the royal palace with it, the hands of the Chaff-wax shaking as he placed it on the table.
‘Open it, Richard,’ Henry ordered. ‘Hand me my own image, my Seal.’
York took a deep breath, doing as he was told, though he could hardly believe it was the same man, giving commands so clearly. Where had the beardless boy gone, to have come back so hardened and angry? York opened the box to reveal the silk bag, with its chinking halves of silver within. He tugged at the drawstring and removed the metal pieces, passing them to the king’s hand.
‘You have my thanks, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. Now, you are dismissed from my presence until I call you again. Both of you. Leave me to rest. And if you would pray, pray that Lord Somerset is still hale and whole, in the Tower.’
York and Salisbury bowed deeply, side by side, holding themselves with whatever stiff dignity they could muster as they left the room. Earl Percy watched them go with enormous satisfaction written on his face.
‘This is a day I’ll long remember, Your Highness,’ Percy said. ‘The day you came home to rule, casting out snakes and villains.’
8
Margaret could hear the Westminster bell struck seven times as she approached the royal palace. The dawn sun was hidden somewhere behind a great bank of dark clouds across the city, barely more than a dim brightening. She had sat through nightfall in Windsor, in a castle suddenly emptied of all its life and Christmas bustle. Midnight had come and gone while she waited for news and then decided she would not wait any longer. Her husband had gone to London with his most loyal lords, but it was too easy to imagine Henry pushing himself too hard, collapsing or fainting or losing himself once again, while she sat safe by a warm fire, forcing the night to run through her fingers. Though she knew there was no sense in thinking it, it felt like a betrayal that Derry Brewer had gone with her husband. His place was at Henry’s side, she knew it, yet she had grown used to his companionship. Without his presence, she spun alone, in tightening loops.
She’d roused the servants from their beds to attend her, not just the ones who remained awake at night or walked the walls of the castle. The twelve days of Christmas were traditionally a time of truce. She had no regrets in stripping the castle further, taking two dozen guards to keep her safe from brigands on the road. The three men who had overseen Henry’s care in his illness were not slow in asking to accompany her. Without the king to tend, his doctors had nothing to occupy them and she could see Hatclyf, Fauceby and Scruton were delighted at the chance to observe Henry’s recovery more closely.
Her son, Edward, would be safe enough with the wet nurse in the warm, she told herself yet again. They had not spent a night apart since his birth and it was painful to think of him snuffling and looking around for his mother, then crying when she was not there. She thinned her lips against the stinging cold and the decision, wrapping a huge hooded cloak even more closely around herself, the folds long enough to drape the haunches of her horse.
The road had been too dark to ride hard and fast, but even a walking pace had eaten the miles, while her face had grown completely numb, her eyebrows bright with tiny crystals of snow or ice. She had ridden towards the dawn and yet she felt no weariness, not with the prospect of seeing Henry once again. That joy had not begun to pale. It filled her with every breath, an inner warmth to defeat the winter cold.
She felt resentment as well, much as she tried to deny it. For all the time her husband had been helpless, she had worked to keep his authority alive, yet the moment he woke, he was off with men like Buckingham and Percy, leaving her behind. It was a bruise in her mind, a painful spot she could not help prodding, returning to it over and over without relief.
The great hall of the Palace of Westminster resembled a barracks at her arrival, with horses brought inside to stand and whicker, where only lawyers and Parliament men walked by day. Lamps had been lit, so that she could see the gleam from outside. Margaret dismounted there and followed her guards as they led her horse into the vaulted building, with sparrows looping far above in the gloom. Her face felt like a board, as if it might crack apart if she smiled. Away from the wind, she took a moment to rub her cheeks with gloved hands, bringing a little colour and life back to the frozen flesh. The hall was quiet, but as well as the horses ambling or tied, dozens of men slept wherever they’d been able to find a spot, regardless of their rank. One of King Henry’s stewards saw her come in and rushed over, dropping awkwardly to one knee on the straw.
‘Where is my husband?’ Margaret whispered.
‘He sleeps, Your Highness. In the royal rooms. Please, follow me.’
Without a word, the two royal physicians and the serjeant-surgeon fell in behind her, carrying their black leather bags. Margaret felt like a ghost as she stepped around the sleeping men as quietly as she could, smiling as they grumbled and twitched in their sleep. Those men had come to that place for King Henry and she felt affection for them all.
She knew the way well enough, but her husband’s steward seemed pleased to lead her little group through the corridors and up two flights of stairs to the king’s rooms. The men there were more alert, including two guards at the doors who stood ready with drawn swords at the approaching footsteps until they recognized the young queen.
Margaret could hear a muted conversation as she entered the outer drawing room, breaking off as the door opened. Buckingham and Earl Percy both rose in silence, then bowed deeply. Margaret saw Henry Percy’s face was mottled with broken veins and he seemed irritated at the interruption, saying nothing as Buckingham came forward to her.
‘Your Highness, I did not expect to see you today. You must have ridden all night, and in this cold! Earl Percy and I were considering a cup of hot mead to take the chill from our old bones. Will you join us?’ Buckingham ignored the doctors at her back. For their part, they stood with their heads bowed.
Margaret shook her head, sensing that she was an interloper in that room and resenting Earl Percy’s sullen expression as he regarded her.
‘Where is my husband, Humphrey?’ she said, touching him on the arm.
‘Asleep beyond that door, but sleeping well, Your Highness. Sheer will kept him in the saddle and he is exhausted.’ His tone eased slightly, becoming gentler. ‘If it is your wish, I shall have him woken, but Margaret, I think the king needs to rest. Can these men not wait to bleed and poke at him?’
Margaret turned to the doctors, still standing with their bags clutched in front of them and their heads dipped like children being punished.
‘Wait outside, gentlemen. I will have you called when the king wakes.’
They trooped out, closing the door behind them without a sound and leaving Margaret alone with the two older men. With studied dignity, she took a seat on a padded chair, settling her skirts and showing no sign of the aches in her legs, still sore from riding.
‘Sit, please, both of you. If Henry is asleep, there is no urgency. Is Master Brewer abed?’
‘He was worn out, my lady,’ Buckingham replied. ‘He’s been like a dog with two tails ever since your husband dismissed York and Salisbury. He’ll be somewhere close by, if you’d like me to have him brought to you.’
Margaret opened her mouth to agree, then changed her mind, determined not to show the two men any trace of weakness.
‘No, I don’t think so. Let him sleep. You can tell me all that has happened – then perhaps we can consider our choices.’
Buckingham smiled to himself as he took a seat on an ornate oak bench along the side of the room. Earl Percy remained on his feet, his overlarge eyebrows and great blade of a nose seeming to make a glower his permanent expression. Under Buckingham’s quizzical stare, the earl made a sound deep in his throat and lowered himself into a chair across from them both, three points of a triangle with the crackling fire behind Margaret.
Buckingham repeated the king’s actions since his arrival at Westminster the night before, a short list of orders given, though Margaret made him repeat every detail of York’s dismissal along with Salisbury’s. Earl Percy shifted in his seat while Buckingham spoke, failing to hide his impatience. Under such provocation, Margaret was tempted to have Humphrey go through it all again, not least for the joy of hearing her husband’s firm orders. Yet she allowed the duke to fall silent. Buckingham leaned over his knees and stared amiably into the fire as she considered his words.
‘I have waited so very long to hear such things,’ Margaret said softly. ‘To know that York and Salisbury were forced to leave and lick their wounds, far from here. To know my husband’s spirit has returned to him. I pray that Earl Somerset can be brought safely out of the Tower, that he has not been broken by his confinement. His loyalty has been a touchstone, where others fell away. I trust him, Humphrey. I do not doubt Somerset will play a part in what must come.’
‘In what must come, Your Highness?’ Buckingham said softly.
‘It is not enough for Henry to change his rooms! What does the country know of my husband’s return to health, beyond those few who saw him ride here? No, he must be seen! In London of course, but right across the country as well. They must see the king and his noblemen, to know that York has power no longer, that the true Protector and Defender of the Realm is once again King Henry of Lancaster.’
Buckingham would have replied, but Earl Percy spoke first, his voice the high wheeze of an old man, a sound that made Margaret’s skin creep.
‘King Henry has the noble heads of families to advise him when he wakes, Your Highness. The manner and detail of his return to public life is better left till then. You must not fear for your husband. His Highness has loyal Englishmen all around, with no love of York, or the Neville, Salisbury. We will walk the path that needs to be walked. We will cut the bad crop, if that is to be the way of it.’
Margaret felt colour come to her cheeks. For a year and a half, she had been isolated, forgotten in Windsor with her dreaming husband. Earl Percy had not visited her once in that time. His meaning was clear enough, but in the firelight, she felt a vast resentment towards the crow in his hunched furs, willing enough to fly back to her husband’s side now there was flesh on his bones. She closed her mouth on her first response, then spoke slowly, measuring every word.
‘I have been my husband’s voice when he had none, my lord. This loyalty you mention – it is a thing men love, is it not? I have heard them use the word many times since Henry was struck down by his illness. Perhaps they prefer it more in the ideal than the reality, when it calls for hard work and pain.’
Earl Percy scratched the side of his nose as he looked back at her.
‘I see I have somehow given offence, Your Highness. I meant none. King Henry –’
‘Must be seen, Earl Percy,’ Margaret interrupted. She was rewarded by a deepening flush beneath the purple web of veins across his cheeks and nose. ‘How fortunate that some of us have planned what must be done when Henry returned. I did not doubt, Earl Percy. I had faith and my prayers have been answered, every one.’
‘As you say, Your Highness,’ Earl Percy replied, his mouth puckering.
Margaret nodded briskly.
‘When the king rises, I will begin arrangements for a Judicial Progress. I passed through Westminster Hall an hour ago, my lord. I saw half the lawyers’ stalls under dusty cloth, unused for too long. It is over a year since the judges of the King’s Bench travelled the country, hearing cases in law and making judgements. What better way to be seen, than by dispensing justice to the people of England? To hear their complaints and let them see justice done – and criminals punished? A great Royal Progress, with two dozen judges, the county sheriffs, a thousand men-at-arms, all the noble houses in attendance on the king! From the highest to the lowest, they will know Lancaster has returned to rule. A house with an heir and the support of the king’s most powerful lords.
That
is the path my husband must walk now, no other.’
Earl Percy turned his head to look at the dawn light, gleaming beyond the windows. Buckingham watched him in a sideways glance that contained more than a little amusement. In his months at Windsor, Buckingham had grown used to Margaret’s French accent, a delight to the ear that could only be a contrast to the force of her words. Earl Percy was discovering the young queen’s determination all at once, a meal perhaps too finely spiced for him to enjoy.
‘Your Highness seeks to bring peace by royal command,’ Earl Percy said at last. His knuckles paled as he tightened his hands in his furs, despite the warmth of the fire. ‘Does Your Highness believe a man like York will come meekly to heel? A man like Salisbury? Will Your Highness have them follow behind the king in measured pace?’ The old man hesitated as a thought struck him, looking more closely at the dark-haired young woman sitting so neatly in her chair, her head cocked to listen. ‘Or is it that Your Highness does not believe they will answer that call, making them oath-breakers who could then be taken as traitors? That … would be a path I’d walk, my lady.’
Margaret regarded him in turn, feeling again an instinctive dislike of the old man before her. His eyes were cruel, she thought, but he was on her husband’s side, regardless of his reasons. That was what mattered most.
‘If my husband called those lords and they did not come, it would mean a war to tear England apart. No, I do not believe these wounds can be bound and forgotten. If we misstep, they will rot and spoil all the good flesh.’ She spoke with calm certainty, the words spilling out of her to hold the two men still. ‘My lords, I had no intention of inviting York, or Salisbury or Warwick to accompany my husband. Let those men bite their nails and worry, while the king of England gathers his most ardent supporters around him. Let York see the strength that would be arrayed against him if he dares to raise a single banner.’ Margaret leaned forward, her eyes unblinking. ‘I do not doubt York remains a threat, my lord. Such men who have tasted power will always long for it again. I saw it in my own father and all the crowns he claimed and failed to win. Yet my husband is but a day from waking. He must show his strength and ride under the three lions. He must be seen, well and vital, before we turn our hands to the threat of York and Salisbury. Warwick may yet be saved, I do not know. Do you comprehend? Do you follow me, my lord?’