John sat on the chest and pulled off his bemired boots, holding them out to the boy. ‘You can contemplate your many sins while you restore these boots to a state I would see fit to wear. By then I’ll have thought of something else to take your mind from pissing in my food. And be under no misapprehension. If you are caught doing it again, I’ll thrash you with my own hand.’

‘You have no right to treat me in this manner.’

‘I treat you no differently from my pages and squires, whose manners are far better than yours. I show them respect when they deserve it, which you do not. Get out of my sight.’

‘I’ll use hemlock next time!’ And Thomas FitzAlan stalked out with a clumsy attempt at dignity that was heartbreaking. In spite of his crude manners under severe provocation, it wrung my heart to imagine my own children in a similar position if Richard, in some fit of uncontrolled pique, decided to take issue with John and take our own heir as hostage.

Richard FitzAlan bowed awkwardly. ‘He cannot forgive. I don’t think he ever will.’

‘And what of you?’

He shook his head.

‘There are many things we cannot forgive but must live with,’ John lectured mildly. ‘It will be best if you teach your brother some sense of diplomacy along with the courtesy. You should instill in him a sense of rightness. Under my jurisdiction I will give you the education and training due to your noble blood. But such crass discourtesy I will not tolerate.’

‘Yes, my lord. No, my lord’

John watched him leave the chamber, then laughed harshly, swinging round to face me, still impressive in spite of his lack of boots. ‘I’m sorry to bring this into our house at a time like this. Perhaps I was too harsh with the boy.’

I wrinkled my nose at the revenge Thomas had seen fit to employ. ‘You were fair. But they’ll never forgive us.’

‘It will be better for all concerned if I send them down to the castle at Reigate and leave them in my Captain’s care. They can loose arrows at the butts as if it were my black heart. I should have done it before. They need physical duress to take their mind of their woes.’

‘They’ll not like it,’ I observed dryly. ‘Reigate was one of the Arundel properties.’

‘I can’t change that.’ John shrugged. ‘Where were we?’

‘Looking at the impossibility of treading an equable path between your brother and mine. We can’t reach Richard any more, can we? It is as if there is a web built around him, and he sits within it, a monstrous spider spinning some malicious undertaking.’

‘He’ll not attack you. Richard retains an element of chivalry towards women.’

‘I don’t fear him.’ I recalled Duchess Katherine’s warning which had lain like a stone on my heart. Should I tell him of my fears? I was weary of keeping them to myself. ‘If I am afraid, it is that our love cannot keep faith under such strains. How often do we seem to be on different sides?’

His glance was sharp, but he did not hesitate, reaching out to me to draw me close into a firm embrace. ‘It will remain steadfast. Do we not love each other, as we always have? Don’t let Richard stand between us.’ He kissed me and soothed me. ‘Henry will return and all will be well.’

‘And you will remain as Richard’s man?’

‘Yes. Is it not for the best?’

Perhaps it was. Was it just ambition, or was it his own fidelity to those of his blood? Duchess Katherine was in no doubt that ambition ruled John’s every move. I was not so sure. I could not think of distancing myself from my brother, so was it wrong of me to hope that John could abandon his? Perhaps it was. Perhaps I had been short-sighted to expect him to step away. All I could do was pray for Henry’s return and Richard’s acceptance of him as the new Duke of Lancaster. Which would heal all our wounds.

‘Don’t let this destroy us,’ John murmured against my temple as he kissed me into acceptance. ‘We always knew there might be difficulties.’

‘But not like this.’

‘You have trusted me in the past. Trust me now. Where is the strong-minded woman I wooed and wed? Where is the woman who made her way through war-torn Castile with enemies on every side?’

Where indeed? Sometimes I felt that she was a different woman in a different life, but there was only one answer I could make.

‘I will keep faith.’

‘My brave love. We will not let the world set us apart.’

In the privacy of our own chamber he removed my satin chaplet, then my robe. And all that was beneath.

Duchess Katherine was wrong. I was happy. And when John discovered, as he must, that I was breeding again, we celebrated anew.

18th March 1399, Windsor Castle

Another nagging premonition touched my thoughts. A flutter of storm-crow wings, where there should have been none. There Richard was, seated on his throne in the audience chamber, gloriously clad, golden circlet agleam. We, the esteemed members of his court, had been summoned for a pronouncement of importance.

Richard glowered. Despite the studied glamour of his accoutrements, the banners, the loyal subjects bowing the knee before him, Richard’s mind was not in good frame.

As I rose from my deep curtsy, the deepest possible for only such was acceptable without a reprimand from our King, I looked across at John who stood a step behind Richard’s right shoulder, and raised my brows. John managed a wry twist of his mouth, the faintest shake of his head. He had no more idea than I what this was about.

Richard surveyed us, eyes travelling smoothly over every face, observing and noting, until he deigned to speak.

‘It is my wish, as your Anointed King, that you, my loyal subjects, will in future address me as Majesty.’ His voice, gentle, light-timbred, stroked over us. ‘I deem it most fitting.’

Such majestic arrogance. I recalled addressing him as Wily Dickon in our youth when he schemed and cheated to win at games. Even on one occasion as Daft Dickon when he sulked and whined—for which I was duly chastised by Dame Katherine, as she was then. But so it must be, sour taste on my tongue or no.

‘Your Majesty,’ we murmured. And once again made the required obeisance.

‘It is my wish that my closest friends,’ he smiled as his gaze travelled over our august ranks once more, ‘be addressed as Magnificence.’

My glance slid to John who preserved a stern expression, giving nothing away. His Grace, the Magnificent Duke of Exeter indeed.

‘My very best of all friends,’ Richard was continuing, ‘the most noble Edward, now Duke of Aumale, my own dear cousin, shall henceforth be addressed by all here-present as my brother.’

I sighed surreptitiously. Had Richard summoned us all here simply to learn the new nomenclature of his royal court? I hoped that Cousin Edward was honoured by his adoption as royal brother. Of course he was. How he preened. How self-satisfied the smile that had more in common with a smirk. He reminded me more of his lady mother, the lascivious Isabella, now departed from our midst to heavenly realms, than he had ever done.

I returned the smile, for it would be foolish not to do so, but any inclination towards pleasure had vanished as the implications of what was happening here struck home. If Richard was adopting Edward as his brother, what did this presage about the future? Richard had no son, but nor he had a brother. Who might therefore step into the royal shoes if Richard failed to find a fertile wife in Queen Isabella as she grew to maturity? Edward as next King of England?

If Edward of Aumale was to be raised up, what was in store for Henry? There was no place in the succession for Edward, his father being a younger son of King Edward the Third. While Henry lived, Edward should not even have appeared on Richard’s horizon as his heir. So what was it that Richard had in mind for my brother?

That, as I realised with a sinking heart, was why we were here.

‘It is my wish to reward my friends. Just as I will call down my wrath on those who prove to be my enemies.’ Richard showed his teeth in just the sort of crafty smile I had recalled. ‘It saddens me to say, but in light of the treason committed against my sacred person by the house of Lancaster …’

My throat tightened,

‘… I have deemed that the inheritance of that house be confiscated. I reward my friends well. The Lancaster inheritance is mine to make those rewards of value.’

By now every sense in my body was frozen in disbelief. This was Henry’s birthright. Made forfeit to the Crown. Richard had no right …

‘I had placed a limit on the banishment of our cousin Henry of Derby from this land. Ten years, which I foolishly allowed myself to be persuaded, out of pity for my dear uncle of Lancaster now deceased, to a mere six, for his plotting against my person. Now I revoke that decision. Henry of Derby is banished from England for the rest of his life.’

Silence fell, heavy as a crack of doom. And with it a shiver that could be tasted.

This was extreme.

This was unwarranted.

I dared not look at John. Had he known of this? But then I did. His expression was guarded, his eyes deliberately not meeting mine.

Yet was I entirely unaware? There had been rumours. I had wiped them from my mind, refusing to believe that Richard would take so unprincipled an action.

Richard’s smile grew to encompass us all, as if not one of us would sense the implied threat to any man who fell from the King’s high regard. ‘It is my wish to bring glory to England. I am about to embark on an invasion of Ireland to bring the rebellious Irish Lords to book. What glory it will bring us as we grind them under England’s heel.’

He raised his hands as if to welcome our acclamation.

‘I have invited two young men to become part of my household, as if they were my own children, during these auspicious days,’ and he beckoned to one of his attendants, who promptly ushered in those chosen for the honour.