The Uncrowned Queen Read Online Free PDF Page A

Your Majesty.”
    There was an instant of stricken silence, then a low agitated tide of noise rose higher, and higher.
    â€œFive? That is impossible!” The queen was implacable.
    John Ascot turned to face the queen’s women. “It must be so. There is no room for more.” He caught the eye of the queen’s mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, with a pleading glance. Help me!
    The duchess, who had been supervising the queen’s women as they packed, was not the daughter of a great nobleman for nothing. She clapped her hands for silence, and was rewarded. Her, they respected. “Very well. You, you, and you. And you—and you, there, holding the green veil.” Jacquetta pointed around the room at individual women. “You five will accompany the queen and myself.” A bright glance stopped John Ascot, who had been about to protest.Jacquetta made six. “Hurry now, we must finish packing for the queen and leave immediately for sanctuary in the abbey.”
    The train of the duchess’s black velvet gown was encrusted with silver embroidery and very heavy; normally at least two ladies were required to hold it up as she walked. Now, she swept the material up in one hand, as if it had been silk sarcenet, and held out the other to the queen.
    â€œCome, my daughter. It is time. Let me help you; lean on my arm.”
    The queen exhaled a deep breath; the sigh became a sob between clenched teeth. “I can’t. I can’t stand.”
    â€œChamberlain?”
    One on each side of her, Elizabeth Wydeville’s bulky body was levered out of her Presence chair by her mother and John Ascot. As they helped her walk slowly from the bed chamber, past rows of kneeling, crying women, Elizabeth cast a glance back toward the massively carved chair. Who would sit in it next?
    And would she ever see the king, her husband, again?

CHAPTER FOUR
    â€œMaster Conyers, I thank you for the service you have given. But I am embarrassed. We left Lynn so quickly that I have no coin.”
    Edward looked at the small band of men clustered around him on the sturdy wharf at Alkmaar. The land still tipped and swung; it made no difference that the earth lay quietly beneath their feet. The king didn’t want to beg money from his friends; they’d need every groat, penny, and angel in the next little while.
    â€œWhich would you rather have? This?” Edward pulled a ring from his right hand, a heavy gold band set with a beveled jasper in which had been carved his crest, a rayed sun in splendor. “Or this?” The king swung his riding cloak from his shoulders. Cut from expensive broadcloth dyed a rare, lively blue, the garment was lined with winter marten, with the same fur forming a deep band at the hem. It was joined at the throat by a chain of silver gilt studded with emeralds.
    Will Conyers hadn’t wanted to come on this voyage, but what did a man say to a bunch of lords who stepped onto his boat one blustery autumn morning, slung around with weapons, and demanded, “Take us to the Low Countries”? Nothing, unless he was a fool.
    And now here they were and they couldn’t pay him; not properly. Yet gold was gold—that seal ring would be worth some sort of price to the Jews—and the king’s cloak was a very fine thing also.Certainly he could sell it, if he chose. And if he didn’t, what a fine sight he’d make at home on market day. If Nan, his wife, allowed him to keep it.
    He laughed suddenly and Edward, trying not to shiver in the brisk wind from the sea, laughed with him. “Well, master, which is it to be?” The captain of the Norwich Lass found himself bowing and was surprised. He’d never felt any real allegiance to this king in faraway London, even though the queen’s family had connections in Lynn. Maybe, in the end, that slender thread of affinity counted for something.
    â€œI’ll take the cloak, liege. I’ve a mind to dress