‘My lord,’ she said coolly. ‘So you have returned to hunt here. I believe there are especially good bucks in Whittlebury.’

He laughed aloud and would have drawn her to him but with an imperious gesture she held him off.

‘I know not how fine the bucks in Whittlebury may be but I do know this: the fairest lady in the land lives here at Grafton.’

She inclined her head, again with a regal gesture.

‘Your friends are close by?’ she asked.

‘Let us not talk of them. I have come to see you. I want to talk of us ... Elizabeth.’

‘What could there be to say of the King and his humble subject?’

‘I am the King it is true, but you humble ... not you, Elizabeth! You are beautiful and well you know it and one with beauty such as yours could never be a humble subject. My dear lady, ever since I saw you under the oak-tree I have thought of nothing but you. I want to put my arms about you and tell you of the devotion you have inspired in me. I want us to be together. I am full deep in love with you.’

‘My lord, I do not see how that can be when you scarce know me.’

‘I know you well enough to know my feelings. Come, let me show you. Tonight we will rest here in your parents’ home and tomorrow you and I will go away together. You will join me. You shall have apartments of course. Ask anything and it shall be yours.’

She opened her eyes very wide and regarded him with a display of astonishment.

‘My lord, I do not understand your meaning.’

‘Have I not made myself clear? Have I not told you in a hundred ways that I love you?’

‘Then I am sorry,’ she answered. ‘For naught can come of that in view of our different stations. You must go from here, my lord ...’

‘Indeed I will not. I will not be cheated as I was last time I was here.’

‘Cheated, my lord?’ She retreated from him and opened her eyes very wide with reproach.

‘In what way, I beg you tell me, were you cheated?’

‘I came to your room. You were not there. I did not see you again.’

‘My lord, I think you are mistaken in me.’

‘No. You are the most desirable and beautiful woman I have ever met. There is no mistake about that.’

‘Even here in the country we hear rumours of one so prominent as the King,’ said Elizabeth coolly. ‘I know your customs, my lord. You have a deep interest in my sex. But allow me to assure you that we are not all alike. There are some of us who have a respect for morality and I am one of them. I do not enter into light amours.’

‘By God’s blood, this would be no light amour. I swear to you that never in my life have I been so affected.’

‘That is often the impression at early encounters, and if you do indeed feel strongly drawn towards me it could not be love you feel, since you do not know me. If you had, my lord, you would never have expected me to become your mistress on a first meeting.’

Edward saw a glimmer of hope. He had been too quick. Very well, he would be prepared to wait a little – but only a little – for such a prize.

Elizabeth realised what was in his mind.

She said quickly: ‘My lord, you should go away from here. Pursue your light o’ loves, if you must. I have been a virtuous wife to the noble Lord Grey of Groby. I am not of a nature to become any man’s mistress.’

The words were ominous if taken seriously. Edward had heard them once before. He did not wish to recall that time when he had been guilty of a certain indiscretion which was best forgotten. He hardly ever thought of Eleanor Butler nowadays. She had gone into a convent ... That matter was all over.

Now he was all impatience to become the lover of this woman.

‘Moreover,’ she went on, ‘I am several years older than you are.’

‘That is impossible.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I am five years your senior. I am the mother of two boys.’

‘I find these matters no obstacle to my devotion to you.’

‘My lord, do you not understand? My mother is of the House of Luxembourg. She has brought her children up to respect their honour and their virtue. My father is a baron, but he was not born to high station. My mother married him for love, but she married him, my lord. I beg you, put all thought of me from your head. I am not for you by nature of my upbringing and my convictions. Never will I become your mistress and no other relationship is possible between us.’

‘I will not accept this,’ he cried.

‘I fear you must; I shall forever remember you with gratitude. You have restored my estates and for that I give you my heartfelt thanks. Alas, my lord, it is all that I can give you. And now may I have your leave to retire.’

He caught her hand as she rose but she withdrew it gently.

‘Goodbye, my lord. It is the only way.’

He sat staring after her as she went. Wild thoughts crowded into his mind. He could abduct her, force her ... Some of his acquaintances indulged in adventures like that. He never had. He had always jeered at them, explaining, ‘My friends, I have never yet had to force a woman.’

And Elizabeth Grey of all women. There was something aloof about her. She was cool. She did not respond as most women did, and yet at the same time she liked him. He was sure of that. There was a note of tenderness in her voice when she spoke of her dead husband. She had clearly been fond of him. She was a good mother, it seemed, to her boys; he had sensed that when he saw them together under the oak-tree. In fact the boys had added a little to the charm of the picture which was engraved on his mind and which he felt he would never forget.

It was maddening that she had these ridiculous notions of morality – although he admired them in a way. She was no light of love, that was clear enough. She had looked like a queen when she had drawn herself to her full height and stood there facing him.

He would have to go away and forget her.

It was hard to do that. It was the first time he had ever been refused. Oh no ... not quite the first. There had been Eleanor Butler. In a way this Elizabeth reminded him of her. That was why the Butler affair had been brought to his mind for the first time in several years.

Jacquetta came into the hall.

‘My lord, you are alone. What happened to my daughter? She cannot have left you thus ...’

‘Alas, she has wounded me deeply.’

Jacquetta looked alarmed. ‘Unwittingly I promise you,’ she said.

‘No, with intention.’ He looked at Jacquetta. A beauty herself, with quick warm eyes and understanding of human needs. There was about her an easy friendliness, the right amount of deference for a King and yet the implication that she herself was royal. She could feel completely at ease with him as he could with her.

‘Ah, you have been making suggestions to her.’

‘You have guessed.’

‘It did not need the powers of witchcraft to do that.’

He looked at her sharply. He had heard it whispered that Lady Rivers, who had been Duchess of Bedford, was some sort of sorceress. Was it true? he wondered. Many people were accused of that quite unreasonably.

‘My lady, are you mistress of such powers?’ he asked.

‘Nay, nay. I am just a wise woman – at least I think I am.’

‘I believe I would quickly share that view. So you know your daughter has refused me and made me utterly desolate.’

‘Oh my lord, you must not despair.’

He looked at her hopefully. She said quickly: ‘My daughter Elizabeth would never be any man’s mistress. I know that well. You must go and never let your hunting bring you near her again. There are many other forests in which to exercise your talents.’

He looked at her, liking her more each moment, and laughed. ‘Oh I do not give up as easily as that,’ he said.

‘Nor does Elizabeth,’ She leaned towards him confidentially. ‘She was the most strong-willed of my brood. Did you know that I had seven girls and seven boys? We are great breeders, you see. Ah, what a joy is a family. But it brings its sorrows. But knowing them, having them there in one’s life ... though they are scattered far and wide, that is a boon from heaven, as you will find, my lord, when you marry and settle down.’

‘I want your daughter,’ he said.

She signed. ‘I know it well. She is beautiful ... incomparably so. But perhaps I, as her mother, see her through loving eyes. I tell you this, my lord, she will never give in. For your own peace of mind leave her. To pursue her will mean nothing but frustration and disappointment. You are handsome, you are royal, and there are few women who would resist you. But Elizabeth is one of them. My dear lord, I feel as a mother to you. You have come here, and graced my home. I shall feel it honoured evermore. We were Lancastrians ... we shall be so no more. I shall not rest until my husband and every son of mine tears the red rose from his coat and his heart. From now on, the Rivers are for you, my lord. We shall stand for your cause. We shall be your good servants if you will allow us to be for I have in these few days seen a man who is indeed a king and the only one living in this realm whom I would accept as mine. My husband is away at this time. When he returns I will ask him to come to you. Will you receive him? He is a man who will be faithful to you if you will forget he once served Henry of Lancaster. He believed him to be the true King. You understand that, my lord?’

‘Indeed I understand. He was faithful to what he believed right. I respect that in men. Fidelity is what I look for in those around me.’

‘When I have talked to my husband, when I tell him what I have seen this day, I know he will understand. England needs a strong king and you are that, my lord. I promise you that the Rivers will serve you well.’