A Dangerous Inheritance

‘He likes you.’

‘Aye – I think he does. He told me I’d make a bo

‘He might ask for your hand.’ Delighted as she felt for her maid, Kate was envious. People of Mattie’s station in life never had to worry about marrying for policy – they could wed where they listed, and for love too.

‘It’s just a matter of time!’ Mattie giggled. ‘What did you want, mistress?’

‘Do you know anything about a courtier called Sir James Tyrell?’

‘Er, um … yes,’ Mattie muttered, her tone changing. ‘I was hoping you wouldn’t find out.’

‘What?’ Kate was puzzled.

‘I don’t just know ofhim – I knew him very well, the bastard.’

‘You mean, you – he …’

‘Yes,’ Mattie confessed. ‘It was last year, on the progress. I’m really sorry, mistress – I shouldn’t have done it, and you have every right to tell me off, but he cozened me with sweet words and cheap trinkets, and then I let him. I wish to God I hadn’t.’

‘But I knew nothing of this. What happened?’ Kate was stu

‘He went off south to London. Had to get stuff from the Royal Wardrobe for the poor Prince’s investiture in York. When he came back, he didn’t want to know. He’s one of those rats who lose interest once they’ve got what they wanted.’

‘I’m so sorry for you, Mattie. It’s lucky he didn’t leave you with child.’

‘I thank our Holy Mother for that. She must have had me under her protection that night. Oh Lord, I was a fool.’ She sighed. ‘Can I go to sleep now, mistress? I’m that tired.’

‘Of course,’ Kate said. ‘Goodnight.’

The next day she and Mattie looked for Sir James in the court. He noticed them staring at him and turned his head away. He was a handsome wight, Kate had to admit, but he looked vain with it, and too assured of his place in the world. She decided to ruffle his peacock feathers.

She did a daring and impulsive thing. She sent Mattie off on an errand, then went over to where Tyrell was standing. He leered at her.

‘My Lady Katherine,’ he said, bowing extravagantly.

‘I heard something rather disturbing yesterday, Sir James,’ she said. ‘It was about you.’

‘My lady?’ His expression was shifty now.

‘Yes. It seems you took advantage of my maid and then abandoned her.’ Kate was surprised at her own boldness, but reminded herself that she had every right, as Mattie’s mistress, to make a complaint.

‘Who said that, my lady?’

‘She told me herself when I asked about you.’

‘Oh?’ He looked nonplussed.

‘Someone had mentioned you in co

‘She was willing enough,’ Tyrell said sourly.

‘I dare say she was. But she was very young, and you, Sir, are a knight, and a man of years and experience. It did not become you to use her so.’

He was angry now.

Kate continued: ‘Unless you wish to be reported to the King my father, I would suggest you do not treat any other ladies in the same way. You know how strict he is where morality is concerned.’

‘Are you threatening me, my lady?’

‘Only if you conduct yourself dishonourably in future. I must respect the example my father sets. I’m sure you can appreciate that.’ She smiled sweetly.

‘What is all this about?’ Sir James puffed. ‘You say you’ve heard about me in co

Kate lowered her voice. ‘I heard your name mentioned in the market place yesterday. Someone said – and I only repeat it – that you were sent by the King to the Tower to murder his nephews.’

Tyrell gave nothing away. His face did not change. If there was a tightening around his lips, it could have been put down to indignation that people could accuse him of such things.

‘You should not pay heed to gossip, my lady,’ he growled.

‘I did not say I heeded it, Sir,’ she sparred.

Tyrell gave her a hard look, as if he guessed she was testing his reactions. ‘Well, thank you, my lady,’ he said grudgingly. Then he nodded his head in the briefest of bows and stalked off.

With the Prince dead and buried, and having no need now to remain at Middleham, the Earl of Huntingdon – Kate could not yet think of him as William – rode south to attend upon the King. Having established himself and his retinue at court, he took to calling upon Kate every day, often with gifts. He never stayed long, for her ma

As she lay wakeful in bed one night, after a stolen hour with John on the battlements, Kate made a disturbing co

After a sleepless night, she questioned Mattie after Mass, as they broke their fast over bread and ale.

‘I reprimanded Sir James Tyrell for his treatment of you,’ she said. ‘But I wondered … Did he say anything to you about that journey he made to London?’

‘He just said he had to go to the Tower to collect stuff from the Royal Wardrobe. I can’t recall him saying anything else – oh, he said it would be a fast ride: four days each way. I remember that because I was counting them on my fingers.’

The Tower. He had been to the Tower. The realisation sent shivers of ice down Kate’s spine. But again – where else would he have gone, with instructions to collect things from the Royal Wardrobe, which just happened to be housed in the Tower? His presence there did not mean that he had murdered the Princes.

This is becoming an obsession, Kate thought. Yet still there were so many unanswered questions, not the least of which was why her father had not shown the Princes to the people and given the lie to the rumours that were destroying his reputation.

Again she told herself that there would be an honest reason for his not having done so. What if the boys had died natural deaths? Disease was rife in London, especially in the hot summer months, and the elder Prince had not been well. Given the widespread rumours, if her father a

She was going round and round in circles with her arguments. Was she imagining a mystery where none existed? Did the Princes still live in the Tower, as John had insisted? She wanted desperately to believe it.

Fetching writing materials, she stayed in her chamber setting down everything she knew in note form. She wrote of the rumours that were damaging to the King; the likelihood that Buckingham had known the truth about the fate of the Princes, although he was dead and could not talk; that Bishop Russell had more or less said they lived yet; that Tyrell had been at the Tower, and more …

She recorded how both Brother Dominic and Bishop Russell had believed that her father had been determined to seize the throne from the first, although neither of them had actually accused him of murdering his nephews. She noted how the Bishop had dismissed the precontract story, yet said her father had chosen to believe it. But that did not make him a child-killer. And apart from the rumours, which could have been started by any of his enemies, and the fact that no one had seen the Princes since July, ten months ago, there was no evidence at all that he had destroyed his brother’s sons.