The White Queen -The White Queen

Abbot's Apartments at Westminster Abbey, London, England, Winter 1470-1471

As November passes and winter sets and everything is depressing. The abbey is cold and we are forced to light a fire by building our own. We managed to gather enough rocks from the outside world to create a small space in the center of the room where the floor is made of stone and set a small fire. It can never be too big or else the smoke will take up the entire apartment, however, it is better than freezing to death.

We are sitting around the spire one day when the doors to the apartments open up and to our great surprise Jacquetta appears. Elizabeth, Jackie, and I go rushing toward her. For the first time in quite a while we hug.

"I am safe," she tells us. "He didn't hurt me. He didn't put me to question. He held me only for a few days."

"Why did he let you go?" Elizabeth asks her.

"Margaret of Anjou," she answers with a wry smile. 

"Of all the woman in the world!" I declare as everyone laughs.

"She commanded him to release me as soon as she heard he had arrested me," Jacquetta recounts. "We were good friends once, and we are kinswomen still. She remembered my service at her court, and she ordered Warwick to release me, or face her extreme displeasure."

"She commanded him to release you, and he obeyed?" Jackie says incredulously.

"She is his daughter's mother-in-law now, as well as his queen," she points out. "And he is a sworn ally and counting on her army to support him as he captures the country. And I was her companion when she came to England as a bride, and her friend all through the years of her queenship. I was the house of Lancaster then, as we all were, until you married Edward," she teased me.

"It was good of her to save you," I concede.

"This is a cousins war, indeed," Lulu shakes her head.

"We all have those we love on the other side," Margaret Beaufort reminds us. She knows well. All of her Beaufort kinsman are now up in arms for Lancaster except for Lita's family. "We have to face killing our own family. Sometimes we can be merciful. God knows, Margaret of Anjou is not a merciful woman, but she was merciful to Jacquetta, and right now that's all that matters."

There are several pregnant women in our company. Elizabeth is 7 months along, Lulu is 4, and Jackie is 4 moths gone. I however, I am heavily pregnant as December rolls in. Margaret of Anjou, a woman I thought hated me in her heart of hearts, is surprisingly merciful. She sends a midwife, Lady Scorpe, to attend me during my confinement. 

It is not a royal confinement where the whole court sees me to my chambers and I do not come out of the Royal Apartments until the baby is born. There is no loving husband waiting to see me every evening to tell me how the kingdom is running and I find that my confinement now is me being told to stay in one dark and dingy room.

Jacquetta dismisses my concerns about a proper confinement telling me, "Nonsense! You retired from daylight itself, didn't you? Confinement? I should think no queen has ever been so confined. Who has ever been so confined to sanctuary before?"

But still it is not a proper one like I would've had at Westminster Palace with three midwives and two wet nurses, and rockers and Noble godmothers and Mistresses of the nursery standing by, and ambassador's waiting with a rich gifts. Lady Scorpe is a nice woman and she gives me all that I would need. It is a gracious gesture I think for my two greatest enemies: Margaret of Anjou and Warwick.

When my boy is born on we name him EdmundJust like his father and I planned. Margaret of Anjou, with her invasion fleet held in Port by storms, send me a message that I am to name my son John. She does not want another Edward, Richard, Edmund, or George threatening her realm. I ignore her as though they were words from a nobody. It is nice of her to give me basic necessities for life, but I will not allow her to decide on The names of my children. That is the one luxury she can leave me.