December 1460
The boy looked up in wonder. The falcon he had been given for his last birthday soared high overhead. His valet coaxed the bird back down and it landed on a leather glove on his arm. Richard stroked the bird tenderly, feeling the soft feathers beneath his fingertips. He eyed the bird in awe; such a fearsome creature and a skilled predator, and here it was, allowing him to stroke its feathers! It was almost as placid as the kitten that his sister had adopted, although the kitten was much more temperamental. Richard laughed as the bird fluffed out its feathers and stretched its wings. The valet smiled down at the boy. He was eight years old.
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All adults seem to fall victim to the same curse; they all somehow labour under the misconception that an eight year old cannot, and will not, discover their whisperings. They all send the children to bed and believe that they are safe to voice their concerns away from the prying ears of youngsters.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbz4ON5dfFo
Richard found it hard not to giggle. He had snuck out of the bedchamber that he shared with brother George and sat positioned on the stairs in such a manner that he could hear all that was said on the floor down below, but in such a way that the shadows gave him their protection. He would not be found lest someone should trip over him on their way down.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi3AkO2xmLT
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“Are the children asleep?” He heard his father ask. His mother, Cecily, must have nodded, for his father continued.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA567CnK5w0
“Good. I wish not to worry them.”836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM4rhkz67R0
“Then worry them not! Stay here, Richard!” Cecily appealed to her husband. The younger Richard almost laughed. He had learned long ago that telling his father not to do something would only spur him on all the more. He was like George, that way, Richard thought. Always so stubborn. But still, he was his father and Richard was thrilled that his father was such a brave warrior. Why wasn’t Mama proud?836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2XyLByYUDi
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“It shall be an easy battle, my love. I shall be home and back to you and the children before the week is out.” Richard, duke of York promised. Although Richard could not see her from his spot on the stairs, he knew his mother would remain unconvinced. “And besides,” his father continued. “Edmund shall be with me. And Edward is not far, only in Wales. He shall return soon too, and your nest shall once more be full, my love.”836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZyPvbR618C
“I do wish you would stop taking my sons into battle.” Cecily said somewhat bitterly, but her husband noted her tone and realised quickly that she was jesting.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAgyXzCHm3C
“Your sons are fierce warriors, wife. They have inherited all their skill from their father.” York said with a grin. Richard remained on the stairs, listening to his parents conversation. It was not often that he was able to observe them like this, and he noted how much they were dragged down by protocol and what was, as his mother so often put it, ‘proper’. The duke of York could never speak to his wife so honestly and so openly in public.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLG7zs1f30a
“You shall inflate your own ego so much that it shall drag you down into the dirt!” Cecily said with a laugh. “Now! To bed with you! You are to be up early in the morning and if you must go into this battle I would have you do it with your wits about you, not half-asleep!” She commanded.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1SsIzePPHh
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Young Richard stood immediately and clambered somewhat quietly up the remaining stairs and into his bedchamber. He shut the door softly and jumped nimbly under his covers.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4VmyWmfFjY
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“Do you think he realised that we knew he was there?” The Duke asked his wife in a whisper once he had heard the soft thump of a door on the second floor of the castle. Cecily shook her head.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Iz8GkRjTT
“He had no idea. God bless him.”
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Richard woke early to the sound of hooves in the courtyard. The household seemed to be ablaze and as he descended the stairs he saw his father being dressed in his armour. It was spectacular, bright enough to blind and strong enough, he was sure, that his father could endure a thousand arrows and come out unscathed. The Duke of York smiled at his youngest son warmly.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1O3QKR0BwR
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“Richard! Come and bid your father a good day!” He said. He knelt down to his son’s height - no small feat in the armour he currently wore - and looked his son in the eye. Grey blue met dark brown and the Duke ruffled the boys hair lightly.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTVnIBLaQeI
“When can I join you in battle like Edward and Edmund, father?” Richard asked. His father grinned.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ54l5NzF3xQ
“Oh, when you are old enough! There will be no shortage of battles for you, my son!”836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZNsXS3koQi
“And can I have my own sword? And my own horse?” Richard asked with all the hopefulness and innocence of a small child. The Duke of York felt his heart warm in his chest. That his son could possess such innocence in such a time of warfare was beyond him.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0C61d0Jf0o
“Aye son. You can have all the horses you want, and we’ll even get you a magnificent sword.”836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbYorOaTH81
“Better than Edward’s?” Richard asked, recalling his brother’s silver sword that glittered with gems at the hilt.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Y4Lx9swK9
“Oh yes, much better than Edward’s. But don’t tell him, mind.” The Duke whispered. Richard grinned.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ78aDHzyKIT
“Good luck, father!” He called as his father walked out into the courtyard.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQeLHn72GIe
“I don’t need luck, lad!” He said with a wink. He said his goodbyes to his daughters and his other son George, and finally to his wife. He kissed her softly before mounting his horse. Cecily moved to Edmund, her second son, and fretted over his armour for no shortage of moments. Edmund laughed, rolled his eyes and said his own goodbyes to his family.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHk3CLLCO3K
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“I shall be back soon, Mama. And Dickon,” He said, pausing before Richard. “Don’t forget to keep George in check!” He said with a wink.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6ChjWeNMn
George stuck his tongue out at his older brother, before being chastised by his mother. Richard disguised a laugh with a cough and waved as his father and brother rode off into battle.
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Edmund was seventeen, yet feared little the coming battle. He stood beside his father, surveyed the battle ground. The terrain was easy and Edmund was confident of their victory.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRkda2SHQcA
“Edward shall be jealous he missed this.” He said with a grin to his father. The Duke of York laughed a little at his son’s eagerness for battle and clapped him on the shoulder.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡebWcfNMkDi
“Aye lad, your brother shall envy us this victory!”836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbFoDpLYgtx
He had never felt more prepared in his life. His father had promised him victory, and not once did it occur to Edmund to doubt his father’s word.
Edmund stood on the battlefield, his sword bloodied and his armour muddied. He was sure he had a few broken bones and he was certain of a large number of flesh wounds. He had torn a muscle in his knee and had received a stab wound to the arm. And yet, he continued to fight with such vigour that one would be forgiven for believing him to be injury free.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrZR3mZ61Ur
The broken bodies of the enemy forces littered around him, and he noted with a grim sort of satisfaction that the soldiers of the opposite side were already giving him a wide berth.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmqBpinS6hQ
Edmund was secure in the belief that he was winning himself a victory, when he spied his tutor and friend, Robert Apsall.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfUZFaTmMTn
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Rob was in no better state than Edmund himself, although it looked like he had taken more injuries. Edmund froze upon noticing Rob’s expression.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡepAd0v0VoV
“Edmund, they have your father.” He said gravely. Edmund sighed.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ9VBl2EnPV
“What do they want? Money? A ransom?” He asked. He had sheathed his sword and was walking to the edge of the battlefield.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtVmqMwbRfD
“No, Ed. Your father is dead.” Rob said. His eyes were grave but his tone was urgent. Edmund was in disbelief. His father, the duke of York, killed? It could not be!836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfEXcHX5JHU
“Are you sure?” He asked. Rob nodded.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdSz2mt7ayN
“Edmund, you must leave. Seek safety; they will be coming for you now.”836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2DyYm5wyW
“I cannot leave our men! We shall lose!” Edmund said stubbornly. Rob had to shake his shoulders to get some sense into the boy.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6OuzjzCld7
“Don’t you see lad? We’ve already lost!” He said sharply. Finally feeling the loss of his father, Edmund nodded numbly836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlILNM3x7zF
“Then… then we shall go. We shall leave, quickly.” He said.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSUOBLTMe5y
Rob nodded and lead the way.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZZgq1sBArM
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They had gone quite a distance. The sounds of battle were long behind them, and both Edmund and Rob had begun to believe they were quite out of harms way.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5wXITsXULF
Yet Rob had slowed his pace, and Edmund, wondering why, turned back to his companion.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6QOm6StkAN
“Rob, what?” He asked. Rob nodded his head in the direction of the trees up ahead, and Edmund saw to his horror silhouettes concealed behind the branches. He glanced the glint of swords, the shine of armour.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf93SBtxLGn
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“By God, it appears we have come across the Earl of Rutland!” A voice said, emerging from the woods. Edmund recognised him as Lord Clifford - one of the very men he had spent the morning fighting against.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhDAqcCQGBo
“Edmund, is it not?” Clifford continued. Edmund nodded stiffly, his hand positioned firmly on the hilt of his sword. “Your father is dead, boy.” Clifford said with a sadistic sort of smile. Edmund took a deep, shaky breath and forced himself to remain composed. He remained silent.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBg7QBS0ysa
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Before either he or Rob had a chance to unsheathe their swords, they had been set upon by Clifford’s men; their hands were bound so swiftly that neither of them had any chance to resist. They were forced to their knees and disarmed as Clifford stood menacingly overhead.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡln45KIoVVd
“You will be seeing your father soon enough, boy.” Clifford said to Edmund. Beside him, Rob was openly appalled.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGFOCec5Do
“You cannot mean to harm the boy. He is the Earl of Rutland!”836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQNPwQH35s0
“And Richard was the Duke of York, and yet he lies cold and stiff on a bloody battlefield.” Clifford said with a cruel laugh. Rob struggled against his restraints until he needed to be contained by two of Clifford’s men.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkeX5U50Fc9
“He is seventeen.” Rob said quietly, fiercely. “He is fleeing the battle. There is no honour in this!” He snarled.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd391JJmJ2Y
Clifford looked coldly at Rob and unsheathed a silver dagger.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU1aWtGu6BX
“York was responsible for the death of my father. It would give me no greater pleasure than to be the bearer of death for his son.”
Edmund was cold. He tried his hardest not to shiver from the December chill, but his cold armour was pushing the ice down into his very bones. He could hardly bend his fingers, and even if his hands had been unbound, he doubted he would be able to defend himself. The thrill of the fight had long since left him and with it, all of his willpower to continue fighting.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GCQ5LIbXm
“Jesus, the boy can’t defend himself!” Rob protested harshly. Clifford paid no heed. Edmund looked Clifford straight in the eyes. Despite his wounds that were beginning now to give him great pain, despite the aching in all of his limbs and the cold worming its way into his veins and seeming to freeze his blood, Edmund was determined not to die a coward.
He felt the dagger enter his chest. He felt strange comfort in the warmth of the blood that was pooling around his ribs, and glanced over to Rob.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtWiweQ2iSz
Rob was staring in horror; the son of the heir to the throne of England, murdered in cold blood on the outskirts of the battlefield and denied the chance to defend himself.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT2YLscJjWX
The cold seemed to be numbing his pain, and as Edmund felt the last few strands of life he had left leaving him, he forced himself to remember the faces of his mother and his younger siblings. Little Richard and George; his sisters, Margaret and Anne and Elizabeth... 836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpO1d3EQ4rd
And, of course, Edward. Oh, how Edward would berate him now! They had always been incredibly close. It was more than mere blood that bound Edmund and Edward; it was sheer loyalty and love. There was no one Edmund cared for more than his brother.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhCFIiug1mN
Edward had always been better at combat than Edmund had, and oh, how he wished his brother were here with him now. Edward would have stopped this, Edward would have instructed him and... he would have saved him. 836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDWJ730K1bV
He felt almost nothing as life left him, and with every ounce of strength he had left, he managed to glance over to Rob and give him a small, thankful smile.
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“Coward.” Rob spat. Clifford waved a hand at the men restricting Rob.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdCxojZUDfa
Lifting him to his feet they carried him away. His last glance of Edmund was of Clifford’s men lifting his limp body and carrying it away towards the city.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEH8Oc40Sna
“Do not fret Rob!” Clifford called. “You shall see Edmund again. Do not forget to look up to the gates of York ere you next enter the city!” He shouted with a laugh.
Rob fainted.
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Edward was frozen. He stood before the city gates, looking up at the dismembered heads of his beloved father and his even more beloved brother.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgPOmLQWSp4
Edward and Edmund had always been close. They were born less than one year apart. All of Edward’s childhood memories included Edmund in one way or another.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBic1UMj3Dx
Edward would always be the one to get the pair of them into trouble, but he never fretted, for he knew that Edmund would come up with a way to get them out. Edmund was the sensible one. The dependable one. The one that Edward had never doubted would be there, and now he noticed his brother’s absence with startling clarity. The air next to him felt empty; the space where Edmund would have ridden his horse beside him was cold and desolate and Edward was struggling to tear his eyes away from his brother’s face.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOqO23J7E74
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Beside Edmund, was the head of their father. No more ceremoniously shoved onto a spike than Edmund had been, the Duke of York was displayed on the gates to his city. Someone had made a crown crudely out of paper and placed it upon his father’s head. Edward, in his grief, was angered more by this act of disrespect than the death of his father itself.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkYQNXHQiQM
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He remained standing before the gates for some time, staring blankly upwards.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4LI8IvXRbd
“Why, Edmund?” He whispered. “Why did you run? Jesus, why did you only take Rob with you? Good lord, if you had only have had some of your men with you…”836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5h60831TFh
He looked into his brother’s face, willing it to answer and yet knowing it would not.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsGSJJzvviG
He was about to speak again when he felt a pressure at his side. A small tug on his sleeve made him look down, and he saw Richard, eight year old Richard, looking up to him.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyb2UlSYAb7
“Don’t look, Dickon.” Edward said softly. The boy before him sniffed.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIIfrpwudT8
“Why would they, Ned? Why…” Richard trailed off. His eyes found themselves landing on the heads of his father and brother, and he felt the air leave his lungs. Edward saw how grieved the boy was, and so put aside his own grief for the moment. He knelt down to Richard’s level and placed his hands on Richard’s shoulders.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8rmOJERURR
“War can be harsh.” Edward said simply. He gently wiped the tears that had begun to fall from Richard’s eyes.
“But I overhead Mama… she said Edmund was no longer fighting… she said they tied his hands and took his weapons.”836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIkIy4UaJsd
At this, Edward himself had to fight back his own tears. Richard was clever and perpetually curious. It was a dangerous combination in a child.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRIBNJCIr5L
“You should not have been eavesdropping, Dickon.” Edward said with a raised eyebrow. Richard shrugged. Edward furrowed his eyebrows and looked at his younger brother with all the sympathy he could muster.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBGkE00n43B
“We shall have to stick together now, do you hear?” He said softly. Richard nodded.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGwJ7kUFVN6
“What shall we do Ned? Without father?” Richard said, biting his lip. He was too young to worry about such things, about money and property, and yet worry he did. Edward was touched.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGmlQKM18z8
“As I said, we shall have to stick together. I shall be quite lost without Edmund by my side.” He said to his brother. Tears began to escape his eyes again, and once more Edward wiped them away.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHKRsC0GUGQ
“Promise you won’t leave too.” Richard said. Edward looked deep into his brothers eyes, and was about to say how he could never promise such a futile and unpredictable thing, but seeing how desperate the child was for reassurance, he nodded.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsIqWFa6iFy
“I promise, Dickon. And you know what else?” He said with a forced smile. Richard shook his head. “I’m going to take the throne and become King to honour father. I am going to fulfil his wishes, and when I do Dickon, I am going to need you by my side.”836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfdFv2e6Pk0
Richard’s eyes brightened at that, at the prospect of hope.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd37D8FgDSD
“I will, Ned. I will.” He said earnestly. Edward smiled. He patted his brother on the shoulder and told him to run along. Richard turned back and retreated from whichever way he had come.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxdFsINxfTx
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Edward glanced once more up at his father.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYAnqXHcY1w
“Goodbye father.” He said softly. And then, before turning away, he turned his attention to Edmund.836Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpAir5eT3XL
“Wait for me, brother. I swear I’ll see you again in time.”
A/N: The boy in this story is Richard, duke of Gloucester and later Richard III. He never saw the heads of his father and brother on the gates of York, and I don't think Edward did until after he was King and ordered them to be taken down either, but... creative licence!
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