"Where were you going?""I did not know. All I wanted was to put a distance between us and the Yorkist army. So into the forest we went. I told myself we would meet someone who would be loyal to us ... who would help us. But we had not gone far when we ran into a gang of thieves. They surrounded us. I shall never forget how their eyes glinted when they saw the jewels on our clothes. They proceeded to rob us. We had stepped from one danger to another."
I reached out and took her hand.
"Please do not speak of it. It distresses you."
She smiled sadly.
"It is over. I have suffered far worse than that encounter. I would rather be in that forest surrounded by robbers than here in this doleful prison. We had good fortune there, for while the robbers were quarrelling among themselves over our jewels, I saw the opportunity to escape. I took Edward's hand and we plunged into the forest. The trees were thick and close together and we were soon out of their view."
"You will escape from this place," I said.
"I know it. Your spirit is too strong to be suppressed. Was it not always so?"
"But now I am old I have no one to care for."
"You have your home ... your father. You love him. You would rejoice to see him again."
She nodded.
"Yes ... yes, that is true. And in the forest there was some good luck. We had not gone far when we came face to face with another robber. He was different from the others a tall man of rather noble countenance and somewhat courtly manners. He was an outlaw. I presented my son to him. I said, "This is the son of your king. Save him." I had taken a chance, and it was strange, for a change came over his countenance. He was touched, perhaps by my pleading, perhaps by Edward's beauty and dignity. He said, "Follow me," and he took us to a hut which he inhabited with his wife. They fed us and led us to safety."
"Who was he?"
"A Lancastrian gentleman who had lost his home and fortune in the wars and taken to the life of an outlaw in the forest."
"It is an inspiring story." I said.
"I am glad you told me. Does it not put new hope into you?"
"You comfort me," she said.
"Tell me. Why did they let you come to see a dangerous prisoner such as I?"
"Perhaps they do not think you are dangerous."
"As long as I live they will regard me as such."
"I think the Duke of Gloucester pleaded with his brother the king, because he knew how much I wanted to see you."
"I shall remember that," she said.
"It will help me through the days of darkness."
"Then I am doubly glad I came."
Still gripping my hand, she said: "Life is strange. Here are you, the daughter of the man whom for so long I regarded as my greatest enemy, and out of your compassion you are the only one who comes to cheer me."
"You were friendly with my father at one time."
"That was not friendship. For him it was vengeance on the man he had set up and who had defied him. He used me for that purpose. As for myself, I knew this. I merely wanted to use his revenge for my purpose. That is not friendship."
"How I wish it had never been."
"The tragedy is that that is the wish of most of us at some time in our lives."
"I must go," I said.
"My visit was to be only brief."
"I shall never forget that you came."
She took me into her arms.
"The pity of it," she said.
"You and I have known true friendship. In spite of ourselves, love sprang between us."
"I shall pray for you. I told her.
"And I for you. All happiness to you, my child ... who should have been my daughter."
"I always loved Richard of Gloucester." I said. She smiled at me sadly and the guard came to take me away.
When I returned to Warwick Court, Isabel was waiting for me. She listened, not very attentively, to my account of my visit to the Tower and then suddenly burst out: "George is displeased!"
I looked at her in astonishment.
"Why?" I asked.
"It is really about you and Richard. He does not think it is right."
"I do not understand."
"He says you are too young and inexperienced for marriage."
"What does he mean? Most people of my age would be married by now. I should have been married already if Edward had lived."
"George is against it, Anne."
"It is not his affair." "It is, because the king made him your guardian. I believe you cannot marry without his consent."
"This is nonsense. Richard had actually talked of our marriage with the king who has given his consent."
"George insists that the king has made him your guardian and your betrothal therefore is his responsibility."
"It is all a misunderstanding, I am sure."
"George is truly angry."
"If George is displeased by the match I am sorry, but that is not going to stop Richard and me doing what we want to."
"I think it could, Anne."
"I never heard anything like this."
"George says that Richard only wants to marry you because you are an heiress."
"I am sure Richard thought of no such thing."
"Don't be simple, Anne. Of course he thought of it. You know our father was the richest man in England. Our mother has a great deal, too. You and I have a large inheritance."
"I thought our father's estates would be confiscated, for according to the king, he died a traitor."
"I do not know about that. Many of his estates were brought to him by our mother and George says that because I am his wife they now belong to him and me."
"Shouldn't they belong to our mother?"
"We are not sure whether she is judged a traitor or not. She is really under restraint and cannot leave Beaulieu, so she is in a way a prisoner. I had not thought of these things, but George knows, of course."
"Is that why George married you?"
She flushed hotly.
"George and I were in love when we were at Middleham."
"So were Richard and I"
"Well, George is against it. He is going to the king to protest."
"Richard will also go the king, I am sure."
Then it will depend on which one wins with the king."
"It will be Richard, of course."
"Why?"
"Need you ask? Not so long ago, George was fighting with our father against the king. He wanted the throne for himself, and he married you because you were our father's daughter ... a great heiress. All that time Richard was faithful to his brother, the king. So I am sure that he will choose to be on Richard's side in a conflict like this."
"I do not believe that. He gave his word to George that he was to be your guardian."
The guardian of my fortune, do you mean?" I thought Isabel was going to strike me. She turned and walked deliberately away.
Later George made a point of seeing me. He was suave and his anger had evidently calmed a little: I just saw a gleam in his eyes which betrayed it.
"My dear Anne," he said.
"I wanted a word with you. I believe Isabel has spoken to you?"
"She told me that you do not approve of my proposed marriage."
The king has appointed me as your guardian, and your happiness is a matter of concern to me."
"It would not seem so my lord, for my happiness lies with Richard."
He smiled at me with a show of patient indulgence.
"My dear little Anne, you are young. You know nothing of the world. Why, but a short time ago you were betrothed to Henry's son."
"I was considered to be old enough by my father."
"A marriage of expediency that would have been."
"It would seem that many marriages are, and if one can make one for love, how fortunate that is!"