The King's Sister. Anne O'Brien
seeks me out because he enjoys my company.’
‘Do you think so? I think you are unaware of the turbulence in this particular stream.’ He paused, chin raised, listening to an outburst of laughter from beyond the window that overlooked the inner courtyard. ‘Come. Let me show you something.’ He offered his hand, tucking mine through his arm, and led me to the window. ‘I am not angry with you.’ He smiled. ‘I was, but I know this marriage has its difficulties for a high-spirited woman. But you are quite old enough—and intelligent enough if you will put your mind to it—to understand. Look down there. It is a lesson in alliance-making that you will not find in the books of your childhood. Who do you see?’
Obediently, intrigued, pleased to be forgiven, I looked down to the source of the laughter and raised voices. It was Richard surrounded by a group of courtiers. Some were standing, some sitting. A page was handing round drinking cups. A minstrel strummed on the strings of his lute, but no one was listening. All attention was centred on Richard.
‘Who do you see?’ the Duke repeated.
‘My cousin the King. Dressed like a peacock for a feast. I swear he wears cloth of gold and rubies in bed …’
‘Never mind that. And who is with him?’
Presented as I was with a strange foreshortened view, it was difficult to see. ‘A group of courtiers. Richard’s friends, I expect.’
‘True. Then who is not there?’
I glanced up at him, sensing for the first time where this might be leading. My education was coming on in leaps and bounds.
‘The Queen.’
‘Exactly. And?’
‘Apart from the Queen? I don’t see any of his uncles. Not Gloucester, nor York—nor you of course. But then, they are all young men down there. More likely to be Richard’s friends.’
‘Well done. Look again, Elizabeth.’
I did, as well as I was able. ‘His brothers are not there. The Hollands.’
‘That is so.’
And then I realised. ‘Nor Henry.’
‘Excellent. Not Henry. This is a gathering of Richard’s own choosing. And it’s all a matter of political manoeuvrings, Elizabeth, of making alliances, of forming groups and interests at court with those of use to you. Richard, as he grows, is feeling his way to making connections that please him.’ The Duke’s voice acquired a brittle quality that had nothing to do with my sins. ‘Nor is he keen to take advice over who might be the best men to choose to stand at his shoulder.’
I watched the group, the friendly intermingling. Richard was at ease, as he never was with my father. Laughter rang out. More wine was poured, the sun glinting on Richard’s rings as he clipped one of the men on the shoulder in easy camaraderie.
I frowned a little at the scene.
‘I see that it’s Richard and the friends of his choosing, but I don’t see what effect it has on me.’
‘In a year,’ my father said, ‘Richard will achieve his majority and will take up the reins of power. He will insist on it, although some would say he is not yet strong enough or sufficiently wise to manage policy. But Richard will assume the mantle of kingship and make his own decisions, shrugging off his advisers who have led him so far. Including myself.’ He turned from the window as if the scene pained him, returning to his seat by the fire. ‘My own influence hangs by a thread, but I’ll work hard to keep it from being completely severed. Richard, I hope, will still give me an ear, even though he resents my advice as interference. Certainly he has little time for his other uncles who would lecture him rather than persuade. My days are numbered but he values my diplomatic skills in making treaties with foreign powers if nothing else. I hope to hold his loyalty.’
Never had I been in receipt of such weighty matters. From the window where I remained, I studied my father’s austere profile, at the lines that had crept there when I had not noticed.
‘Would Richard cast you off?’ I asked, aghast at the thought. Had my father not guided and protected my cousin since his father’s death, the most loyal of uncles? Surely Richard would not be so ungrateful. And yet had not Princess Joan hinted at such an eventuality?
‘One day he will. I see it on the near horizon, and then where will Richard look for his new counsellors? Where will he give promotion? To whom will he hand titles and gifts and royal preferment? To those young men you see around him, out there in the courtyard. It is youth that cleaves to youth. In the future there is no role for me. Nor for Sir John Holland who may not be of my generation, but is not young enough to appeal to our new King.’
I watched the little scene unfolding below, where Richard was laughing, accepting a hawk onto his fist—obviously a gift from one of his companions who leaned to whisper in the royal ear.
‘Who is the dark-haired lad with the velvet tunic and the feathers?’ Perhaps a few years older than I, his hair was iridescently black in the sun, his features, what I could see of them, vividly attractive. ‘There.’ I pointed as the Duke returned to my side.
‘Robert De Vere.’
We watched them for a moment.
‘He’s trying hard to win Richard’s attention.’
‘And not without success,’ the Duke agreed dryly.
‘Henry is not one of them. That’s important, isn’t it?’ I was beginning to see, all too clearly.
‘Richard and Henry do not see eye to eye. They never have.’
‘Will de Vere and the rest make good advisers?’
‘Who’s to say? I trust that the Queen might have enough influence to steer Richard onto a sensible path.’ He shook his head, his shoulder lifting with unease. ‘But as for Holland … Where does he see his future? He cannot stand alone. He would be the first to admit that he is a man of ambition, and without the King’s patronage his hopes could well be destroyed. So if Richard will not help him to power as a royal counsellor, he needs to look for new allies. He looks to Lancaster. Do you understand?’
‘Oh! …’ I was beginning to see very well, but my father left nothing to chance.
‘You have spent your whole life surrounded by treaties, alliances, affairs of state, Elizabeth. Have you remained ignorant of what goes on between the high-blooded families of the realm?’
‘I am well aware. My own marriage was such an alliance.’
‘But you did not see yourself as a means to an end in Holland’s planning.’
‘He would not be so unscrupulous!’ Oh, but the doubts were already swarming.
‘Why would he not? When are any man’s motives innocent, in the friendships he makes, the connections he weaves together? A man of ambition will use every means he can to strengthen his position with one faction or another. If de Vere seduces Richard’s affection, then Holland’s days are numbered unless he has important friends. Do you see?’
‘Yes I do.’ I pursed my lips. I had always known that my marriage would be one of family alliances. What young woman of my situation did not? But to find myself singled out, wooed in fact, to further a man’s career, because I was a daughter of Lancaster … all my joy of the previous day was suddenly buried under a blanket of dismay.
‘Richard is thinking of sending him to Ireland, as Lord Lieutenant’, the Duke explained. ‘It may be that Holland has no wish to go, but would rather enhance his connection with the English court. With me. To be sent to Ireland could be death to a man who seeks power.’
Dismay was fast becoming transposed into horror.
‘I have not been very wise, have I?’
Was that all there was in John Holland’s fine words and finer gestures? Is