‘Abandoning our happy family gathering at Windsor, are you, little flower of Lancaster?’ He repeated the phrase as if he enjoyed it. I did not. I gritted my teeth.

‘I am going to Kenilworth.’

‘And the fortunate Earl of Pembroke will be there to enjoy your return, Countess. Are you come to wish the black sheep good fortune on his way to redemption under Richard’s brotherly love? I am for Castile where I’ll either make recompense for my sins or die in the attempt. Will you miss me if I shed my blood on foreign soil, Countess?’

So we were back to formality, and a raw cynicism that hurt with every syllable. There was no reply I could make.

‘And where is Henry? And your beautiful sister? Do they leave, too? But of course Henry is keeping his distance—he has no love for cousin Richard, does he?’ He smiled confidentially. ‘It is truly a wonder and marvel that I am reinstated, and how wrong you were. You would have advised me to run for my life.’ He gestured widely with one hand. ‘And here you see me, in favour with every man at court.’

‘Except Stafford.’

‘To the devil with Stafford.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘So you have you come to kiss me farewell, dear girl.’

As he moved his arm, the light hit on the chain hanging negligently around his shoulders, enough to catch my attention. It was Richard’s livery, the white hart gleaming against the dusty damask of his tunic. The livery he had cunningly worn the day of the charged interview with his furious brother. And then my eye moved to a similar gleam on the floor beside the cup. The chain of ‘S’s that marked my father’s livery, the links abandoned in a little heap of silver.

I found it hard not to sneer.

‘And which of those will you wear today, Sir John?’ Was he ever to be trusted? ‘To whom will you give you allegiance this morning?’

‘Which will I wear?’ He picked up the Lancaster collar, squinting at it as it swung in a glittering serpent-like string. ‘To whomever I consider will further my ambitions most,’ he said. ‘And today it is our superlative King. But who’s to say what I might do tomorrow.’

The bright glitter of his eyes, the supremely careful enunciation, the repetitions. My suspicions were becoming confirmed with every moment.

‘You disgust me.’ And my heart is breaking. This is not love …

‘But will you still be disgusted tomorrow, fair lady?’ And then, as I stood to leave: ‘Will you dance with me? If I can struggle to my feet. It may be the last time we will tread these steps.’

He made no effort to stir. His eyes touched on mine, then slid away.

‘We have no music.’

‘Do we need music? You can sing if necessary.’

In one movement, fluid and graceful, that denied all my suspicions, he leapt to his feet, seized my hand and pulled me into a few ragged steps. Which once again confirmed everything.

Forcing him to come to a standstill in the middle of the room, I faced him.

‘How long have you been celebrating?’

‘I have been celebrating—endlessly, my peerless maiden come to rescue her knight whose armour is definitely in want of shining—my return to royal favour. Richard is keen to show his love for me. By God, de Vere can drink!’

‘And you have joined the inner circle.’

‘What else?’ he leered. ‘Don’t tell me you disapprove.’

I released my hands from his now lax hold. ‘I’ll tell you no such thing.’ I could either leave him to wallow in his own self-imposed misery, or try to steer the conversation into more sensible channels. ‘Will you go with my father to Castile?’

‘It will be my joy and my delight. But then, have I a choice? It’s the only reason Richard saved my worthless neck. As he informed me. And he will keep his jaundiced eye on me until I am launched with the fleet. I go to fair Castile to reinstate my reputation. He’ll be pleased to see the back of me and the Duke. How much more comfortable life will be for him.’ He turned on me, a bright flare of anger no longer hidden. ‘You should not have been there, Countess.’

‘I had to speak for you. I had promised your mother. Would you wish me to break my promise to her, on her deathbed?’

‘I care not what she wanted.’

But now I knew enough about this difficult man to deny him. ‘You cared enough to spend the night beside your mother’s bier.’

For a moment he froze, lips tight pressed. Then: ‘So her busy steward found it necessary to gossip to you. I should have known.’

‘And I know why it was important for Joan to be buried next to your father. How old were you when your father died? I’ll tell you. I’ve been doing my own gossiping.’

It was as if a pail of cold water had been emptied over his head.

‘That is all in the past. Why would it concern me? You take too much on yourself …’

‘You were a seven-year-old boy,’ I continued, despite the ice that now coated his every word. ‘I know about the gossip and the scandal that coloured the Princess’s years with your father. It would have mattered to you. It would have mattered to anyone with even a speck of sensitivity on their soul, that she truly loved your father.’

He flung away from me. ‘This is some myth that you are concocting …’

‘Then why,’ I addressed his damask-clad back, ‘did you let me think that you were rustling through her papers because all you cared about was her money?’

I saw rather than heard the sigh. ‘Leave it, Elizabeth.’

‘I will, but this I will say.’ I followed him, took hold of his sleeve, gripping it tight. ‘Go to Castile with my father. You can rebuild your ruined reputation …’

‘Or die in the attempt. Oh, I will go. Never fear.’ He wrenched his sleeve out of my hand, strode back to the oriel where he picked up the cup and drained it dry. Only then did he turn his head to look at me over his shoulder, all the pent-up emotion clear in his measured tones. What must it have cost him?

‘Do you think I enjoyed it? To beg from a King who sways like a reed in storm at the whim of de Vere and Mowbray and every other toadying sycophant? Do you think I felt no disgust, confessing my sins in full public eye, with you and the Duke as an interested audience? Yes, I killed Ralph Stafford, but it was not murder, I swear. It was a careless blow, full of passion, on a dark road.’ He drew in a breath, but his attack was not mellowed. ‘Should I thank you for your clever words of wisdom on my behalf, your heartfelt plea for clemency? I haven’t thanked you, have it? So if it matters to you, you have my undying gratitude. And I am committed to a foreign campaign, whether I wish it or not.’

It hurt, how it hurt, but I would not show it. ‘It is only pride that makes you seek to wound me,’ I observed as dispassionately as I was able. ‘Why should the opinion of de Vere matter to you? Why would you not wish to go to Castile and win military glory?’

‘Yes. Pride is all I have,’ he retaliated smartly. ‘Before God, Elizabeth, it’s not the sneers of de Vere and Mowbray that get under my skin. What man wishes to be seen on his knees, begging for his life, by the woman he adores and wants more than life itself? How is it possible for him to put himself right in her eyes, when she has been privy to his degradation? I love you, Elizabeth Plantagenet. Don’t you realise that yet?’

It was as if the words slammed me back against the stone wall, robbing me of the power to reply. Not lust, not desire. He had said he loved me. How he must have felt the shame of it.

‘I did not know,’ I said.

‘Well you do now! I think, God help me, I loved you from the moment you turned on me, all filth and fury and ravaged clothes and ordered me to take my hands off you for you would bow to no lawless rabble.’ He stopped abruptly. ‘And by God, my head throbs like a blacksmith’s anvil!’

In a fast, controlled movement he flung over to embrasure set in the wall, where stood a silver pitcher and basin, a soft length of linen at the side. He poured water, then hands cupped, splashed it liberally over his face, his hair.

‘God’s Blood!’

With the linen he scrubbed his face dry, running his fingers through his hair, scattering droplets.

‘That should make me see the future more clearly, although I might regret it.’

Before I could think of a biting reply—that it was a pity he hadn’t seen the future clearly from the beginning of our conversation—he was there, and in what could only be described as a pounce, gripping my shoulders with a little shake.

‘Look at me. I did not intend to say that. See how you have the power to undermine all my good intentions and destroy my self-control. I want you, Elizabeth. I have always wanted you. And now that death has come close to me, I’m in a mood to take what I want. In vino veritas indeed, and since you are foolishly here without a chaperone …’

So the cold water had not remedied the wine swimming in his brain. Was this what I wanted? My heart leapt into my throat at the image his few words had painted for me. His kisses I knew. The touch of his hands, the power of his arms around me. The strength of his shoulder where I might rest my head. But here he was in a mood to take more, much more.

‘I thought the water would have brought you to your senses.’

‘It will take more than that! I want you, drunk or sober!’

His mouth on mine, neither gentle nor seductive, tasted of wine and despair.

‘I cannot …’ All my confidence was subverted by the hunger in those expressive eyes.

‘Cannot what? Take a lover? Of course you can. I’m in no mood to be tolerant. We should celebrate my escape from Richard’s revenge. I am in a mood to celebrate.’ Another kiss, his mouth hard against mine. ‘Don’t tell me that you don’t want me as much as I want you.’

‘Not like this …! I won’t be party to a drunken display of self-pity!’ And, a little panic fluttering around the edges of my reason, I was pushing against his shoulders, uncertain that he would comply. But he set me aside, with a sigh that seemed to come from his soul. It was he who stepped back.