“You must go to him.”
“I know,” the earl answered her. “I will take thirty men with me and leave you twenty, lovey.” He stood up from his chair by the hearth where they were sitting. “Ihave to go and find Dark Walter. I’ll want to leave before the sunrise on the morrow.”
Adair nodded, but she was suddenly afraid for the first time in a long while. She pushed the feeling back.
Stanton was to be in her hands once more, and she had to be prepared for the worst. What if the Scots came raiding? Their section of the border had been relatively quiet of late, but she knew that once news of a civil war filtered through into Scotland, their borderers would take the opportunity to come raiding. They knew that with the throne in difficulty the local English authorities would be at sixes and sevens. And many of the small castles and halls would be lightly defended.
“Damn!”she swore under her breath. They finally had Stanton prosperous, and now the Lancastrians were causing trouble again. She silently wished them all to hell and gone. But had Bess not written they would have never known the king needed their help. Adair hoped that this time her uncle would banish the bloody traitors for good and all.
Andrew came to bed late, but Adair was waiting for him. He wanted nothing more than to sleep. “I’ll get precious little sleep in the next few weeks,” he told her.
“We will make us a fine son when I get back, lovey.”
Then he kissed her, rolled over, and was soon snoring.
Adair lay awake for some time, finally falling asleep in the hour before dawn. But when he departed their bed she was instantly awake. They dressed together and descended into the hall, where the men were already at the trestles eating porridge from their trenchers. Andrew ate quickly, and then, with a shuffling of benches and a stamping of boots, everyone went out into the courtyard, where the horses were saddled and waiting.
He bent down from his mount and pulled her up to him, kissing her hungrily.
“Be good, lovey, and keep Stanton safe for my return,” he told her. Then Andrew lowered Adair back to the ground. Raising his gloved hand, he signaled histroop of men forward. Dark Walter was by his side as they rode off.
Adair watched as the cloud of dust stirred up by the animals thickened and then thinned with their passage until the Earl of Stanton and his party could no longer be seen. Turning, she walked slowly back into the house.
How long would he be gone? She already missed him.
But she had a duty to do, and she would do it. She had never in all her life failed Stanton or its people. She would not fail them now.
Two weeks went by, and then one afternoon a young boy on an obviously exhausted horse arrived at Stanton Hall asking to see the lady. Adair received him in the hall, and immediately recognized him as a page in the service first of the Duke of Gloucester, and later the king. Seeing her, he knelt.
“Lady, I beg shelter and sanctuary of you,” he said.
“I know you,” Adair answered him. “But I do not remember your name.”
“I am Anthony Tolliver,” the boy answered.
“You were at Middleham, were you not?” Adairinquired.
“I was. When my master became king he gave me the responsibility of serving his two nephews, Prince Edward and Prince Richard,” Anthony Tolliver replied. “I remained at Middleham.”
“Then my brothers are alive and safe!” Adairexclaimed.
“No longer, my lady,” was the terrible answer, and the lad began to weep. “What could I do, my lady? I was one, and I was afraid.”
Adair signaled to Albert. “Bring wine,” she said, and led Anthony Tolliver to a chair by the fire. “Sit,” she commanded him, and she sat opposite him in her own chair. “Tell me everything. Do not leave out any detail.”
The boy took the goblet that Albert handed him, anddrank deeply of it. Then, drawing a long breath, he began. “Several days ago one of the king’s men returned to the castle to tell us that King Richard and his forces had been defeated at Market Bosworth. The king could have escaped, but he would not go. ‘I will not budge a foot; I will die king of England,’ is what they say he said.
He was finally unhorsed and killed. They took his body, stripped it of its armor, and carried him to Leicester, where they buried him in the Grey Friars Abbey. When the crown fell from his helmet it is said Lord Stanley picked it up and placed it on the head of Henry Tudor, who is now declared king of England.”
“Lord Stanley is Lady Margaret Beaufort’s husband,” Adair told her servants, who were gathered about listening to Anthony Tolliver. “Henry Tudor is his stepson. Go on.”
“The battle was but two hours, but many were slain, and those lords who were not were gathered up and executed on the spot,” Anthony Tolliver said.
Adair felt a cold chill sweep over her, and she heard the soft gasp of her companions, for they all knew without doubt that the earl was among the dead.
“King Henry immediately ordered the arrest of his chief rival, Clarence’s son, the Earl of Warwick. Henry is proceeding to London, where he will be anointed and crowned. After the messenger had delivered his news many of the servants at Middleham fled. But others remained. Several nights ago, as I slept in my masters’
chamber, the door opened stealthily. There were two men, and they wore the badges of the Earl of Pembroke. I saw them quite clearly when they turned to depart. The room was dark but for the light from the antechamber. They came purposefully forward, and together they smothered the princes in their bedclothes.
