Queen by Right Read Online Free PDF

Christmas sun crept over Keverstone Bank, it sparkled on the light covering of snow that had turned the frozen, furrowed fields into a completely new and tranquil landscape. After breaking their fast and attending Mass, the hunters hurried down the stairs from the different towers of the castle and converged on the marshalsea, where horses and dogs were snorting clouds of hot breath into the cold air.
    Cecily loved days like this. It was as though God wanted to cover the drabness of brown November by dazzling His people with an immaculate, magicalmantle in December. She was glad of her two pairs of stockings under her warmest gown today, and she called for a groom to help her onto Tansy’s back and keep her leather ankle boots from getting too wet. For once she was content to be riding sidesaddle along with the other ladies in the party, with her heavy woolen gown tucked cozily around her legs. Her hooded, fur-lined cloak warmed her upper body and head, so that when the group trotted through the gatehouse and north toward Cockfield, she forgot about the frigid air and instead reveled in the excitement of the hunt: the running hounds yelping in the distance, picking up the scent of their prey, and the colorful cavalcade of riders jostling for position to ride in hot pursuit.
    George called to her from a courser in the midst of his fellow henchmen, and she waved back gaily. Richard was there too, his chin jutting forward in concentration as he kept his mount in check. Cecily knew that she would have to hold back and ride like a lady today—a thought that chafed her—but when her mother chose to ride beside her, Cecily’s heart sang. ’Twas an honor indeed to hunt with the countess, she knew, and so she sat her horse proudly.
    There were more than forty riders that day, and some of the fewterers were having difficulty restraining their greyhound charges from slipping the leash. When a horn sounded in the middle of the forest ahead, Earl Ralph gave a whoop and a tally-ho and urged his horse into a fast canter. As she watched all the males in the group follow suit, it was all Cecily could do not to dig her heels into Tansy’s flanks and join them.
    Joan eyed her with amusement. “Good girl, Cecily,” she said, taking a hand from her fur muff, pushing a graying curl out of her eyes, and tucking it back under her felt chaperon. “You must learn when you may let down your hair and when you may not. ’Tis not easy being a lady, my dear, and I fear that you, of all my daughters, may have the most trouble with it. Kat was ungovernable when she was a child, but she grew out of it quickly. Your father, I am afraid, encourages you.” She watched her husband’s saffron cloak float out behind him as he entered the forest, and she smiled. “He is sixty-one, and yet still he rides like a young knight,” she said half to herself. “He swears ’tis the fresh, cold air of the north that keeps him healthy.” Seeing that Cecily was still listening, she added: “For my part, I prefer the warmer London air—though the smell of that city can be more than unpleasant, in truth.”
    “When shall I go to London, Mother?” Cecily asked, enjoying the unexpected intimacy with Joan. “I should dearly love to see London Bridge. Rob told me that there are houses and shops on it. Is it true?”
    “Aye, ’tis true. Your brother is a man of the cloth and so would not lie to you, Cecily,” Joan told her. “You will go to London all in good time, but first we must arrange your formal betrothal to York sometime in the summer before Anne goes away.”
    Cecily gasped. “Anne going away? Where? Why? She did not tell me,” she cried, slowing Tansy to a walk to keep pace with her mother’s plodding rouncy. She forgot her disappointment in not riding with the men, for this news was more important. Her life was about to change.
    “I have explained to you before, child,” Joan said, a little testily. She was tired these days, and after bearing