White Boar and the Red Dragon, The Read Online Free Page B

if she had slapped him hard in the face, and her icy tone seemed to confirm what he suspected about her present attitude to him. He was now just a liability, to be dealt with as best as may be. He turned his head away and stared morosely into the flames.
    ‘I am glad of that, as Earl Neville has told me you may resume your knightly training after the New Year.’
    ‘Good! And I shall work even harder to catch up and prove to you that I am no cripple, nor deformed!
    Everyone else believes in me and cares what happens to me. Why is it that you, my own mother, has no faith in me? Once you laid a great task on my head at Micklegate Bar! Do you not remember? Because I do and am determined to carry it out one day. Avenge my father and brother, you said. That I will do! When, I cannot be sure, but I made a vow!’
    Cecily’s eyebrows rose somewhat at his words, and her mouth pursed a little. Then she turned abruptly away.
    ‘I will instruct your pages to pack your things. We leave at dawn!’ And she was gone.
    Against his will, Richard felt his eyes prickling with tears and hastily shook them away. She would not make him cry, she would not! He would show her. He would show them all!
    Pembroke Castle, South Wales, 30 September 1462
    The young Henry Tudor, now almost six years old, looked up from his primer in a state of excited animation at the sound of horses’ hoofs in the castle courtyard below. He turned to Lady Anne Devereux, his face all lit up in a way she had never seen before. He looked almost happy for once!
    ‘It’s Uncle Jasper. It must be! He’s come back at last!’
    Avoiding the restraining arm of his tutor, he ran to the window and gazed down. But what he saw there made him draw back, uncertain and afraid.
    A troop of mounted and armed soldiers had surged through the open portcullis, headed by a large, bearded figure in full armour, who was covered in dust and mud, as indeed the whole party were. Henry could almost smell the sweat from the hot, tired men and the lathered, winded horses. He backed away from the window and ran back to Lady Anne.
    ‘‘Tis the Yorkists come to take me away! Perhaps they have caught Uncle Jasper and now they want me! He said they would not hurt me, but I have heard such terrible tales about what they do… !’ he trailed off, shaking.
    ‘What tales are these, boy? Who has been frightening you?’
    ‘Why, the castle servants tell me. Nurse Bethan said—’
    ‘Whatever she said, she had no right to! She is here to protect you, not to terrify you! I will speak to her shortly!’
    ‘No, my lady, please don’t be angry with her. She is kind and good and looks after me well. Who are these men, then? They look as if they have just ridden fast from a battleground!’
    ‘Which indeed they may have! Though I see no blood upon them. It is my lord husband, Lord Herbert! It is so long since you met him you have forgotten what he looks like! The king has granted him The Lordship of Pembroke for his outstanding services to the Crown and for fighting so well in the Battle of Towton last year! He is lord now, not only of this castle, but of all the lands and towns of Pembroke, and everyone must be loyal to him and swear their allegiance—!’
    ‘No, that cannot be!’
    She was cut off in mid-sentence by a desperate cry from Henry, who jumped away from her in great distress.
    ‘No, it is not possible! Uncle Jasper is lord here! He is Lord of Pembroke! He will come back soon, when the fighting is over, to claim his rights and to look after me again! I don’t understand!’
    He dissolved into tears, shaking his head as he rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands. He was always being told that boys must be brave and never cry, but it was hard not to sometimes, very hard. Lady Herbert drew him to her and wiped his eyes with her kerchief. ‘There now, little one. None of us understands this terrible war which has gone on for so long and torn our countries and its peoples apart!
    How