Rivals for the Crown Read Online Free PDF Page B

haven somewhere."
    "But where would they go? They had to leave England!"
    "There is a world outside England. There are many places where a man like Jacob de Anjou could find a position."
    "I should ask Lady Dickleburough," Isabel said with a laugh. "If, as you say, she knows everything, she'll know where they are. Or know who knows."
    Mother did not answer but looked at her with a strange expression. Then she put her needle down and stared at Isabel's skirts. Isabel watched her uneasily.
    "It was a jest, Mother. I will not ask her about Rachel."
    "Isabel," Mother said, an odd note in her voice.
    "And I promise to stop talking about Rachel. I know it's not wise even to acknowledge that we were friends. I do love her, but I will stop talking of her."
    "Isabel." Mother did not look up from the hem. "There is something you need to know." She stood now and put a hand on Isabel's cheek, then sighed and walked across the room. "I would rather you never knew, but you need to know the truth, and I would have you hear it from me rather than from Lady Dickleburough, or someone else at court. They would never mention it in front of me, but now that you will be among them, someone is sure to tell you." She sighed again.
    "Mother, I know all about great-grandmother's.. .folly. I know that Grandmother is illegitimate. I've known that for years."
    Her mother shook her head. "It is not that, Isabel. I know you've known about that. But.. .there is more that you need to
    know. And I do not know how to tell you." She turned to the window, tracing a finger along the leaded glass.
    Isabel waited, her heart beginning to pound. What could it be? Was Grandmother ill? Was that why Mother wanted her to visit her more often? Another possibility occurred to her.
    "Are you ill, Mother? You look well, but are you...?"
    "No, no. It is not me, child. Or rather, it is. You see, your father.. .1..." Mother turned from the window, her chin raised. "I was very young, not much older than you are now. He was so handsome and charming, and I believed everything he told me, that I was beautiful and that he loved me and that he would always love me and always be with me. He won my heart. I thought he loved me. And so I.. .1 became his lover. And you came from that union."
    "But there is no shame in that, Mother! Men and women always declare their love and marry and have children. It is the way of the world."
    "The way of the world." Mother's laugh was unpleasant. "I should have known better, Isabel. I knew the stigma of being a bastard. I knew the things said about my grandmother, that she was a king's whore. I knew that my mother suffered for her mother's mistake and that her family disowned her. And still I learned nothing from knowing all that."
    "But, Mother—
    "Hush! You need to hear this, and if I do not tell you now, I may never tell you. I am throwing you into a pit of wolves and I have just realized how ill-prepared you are." She took a deep breath. "I have misled you. Your father is not dead. He is alive."
    TWO
    H is name is Lord Lonsby now," Mother said. "He was the son of
    a younger brother when I met him, but he inherited his uncle's title. He was never a clerk of the Wardrobe; that was a fabrication and I wish I'd never invented it, for it's made you far too fond of the Tower. He did not marry me. He was already married, long before we.. .before you were born. He did not die. I am sorry that I let you believe that all these years. He has a home and a wife and children in the north, in Northumbria, near the Scottish border."
    She paused, then continued, her hands pressed together at her waist.
    "You, Isabel, like your grandmother, are illegitimate. You must be wiser than I was. Do not trust the hunters. Never trust men."
    Her mother turned her face away. Isabel rushed to embrace her, assuring her it made no difference. But of course it did. She was hurt that the truth had been kept from her for so long, and excited to discover that her father was still