Violent Ends (Violent Delights Book 19)

Chapter 3: the Death according to Henry, King of England

Now I've prayed for everyone. I want to thank god for some happy times.
The day Edward took his first steps. Margret and I had him out underneath some trees. I was too ill to stand so Jasper's Harry had to carry me.
And we set Edward between us on a blanket. I held out my arms and he tried to balance on his chubby legs.
"Go on, go to your dad," she said, kissing his soft cheeks before pointing him at me. One foot in front of the other in his baby dress, he grinned the first step too, as we both cheered him on. Then another step and he giggled.
"Such a warrior," I said, letting him fall onto my chest happily.
That was a beautiful day. So was the day I took Margret to Ely Cathedral.
"Look, you're staring up to heaven," I said, holding her in my arms, "It's like the weight of ten thousand souls above you, watching you, Notre Dam was like this to but broader I think. I don't care. Look at the sky past the windows, and the way the vaults stretch out. You know we'll go on forever."
"It's beautiful Rex," Margret laughed, leaning against my chest.
"You think ceilings are boring it's fine, you don't have to love them," I said.
"I love you, and I love the way you smile when you stare up at your heavens. I want to keep that smile for all the world," she said, laying her hands firmly on my cheeks.
"Then why are you weeping?" I frowned.
"Because you're too beautiful for all the world," she said.
"I'm a man, like any other, looking up at infinity and wondering how he's going to make it," I said, cuddling her tightly.
"We'll make it," she said.
And we did.
I remember, the night that my Harry and I got up and bounced on the bed because he was always afraid of storms. We were only six years old then, of course we feared thunderstorms. So we bounced up and down and I wrapped him up in sheets. We laughed and kept getting tangled. The firelight glowed on his face as we leapt up and down on my cushy bed. We kept falling and laughing. Falling and laughing. Finally one of my servants woke up, a man named Green. But seeing two boys so tangled up in sheets he just laughed as well.
I remember the day that my mother did stay with me, all day. I was ill. I must have been only three or four years old. And I'd had a fever. So she stayed with me, holding me in her arms.
"Shh, you need to rest little one," she said, as I wriggled.
"I want to go look at my books," I mumbled.
"I'm sure you do, rest," she said, hair damp and sticking to her face, "You're only a Lancaster boy, you have to rest sometime."
"Can we play tomorrow?"
"Yes. Yes we'll play tomorrow."
The second or third summer I had my brothers. They were big enough to live at Windsor with me. And I took them down to the coast. They'd never seen the sea. They both took off running like a couple of untrained dogs. My Harry and I laughed, chasing them.
They were apparently chasing each other, and Jasper wrestled Edmund into the waves. Both boys freezing and soaked. Naturally Harry picked me up and followed them in.
"Don't drop me—Harry that's so cold," I laughed, as the boys lobbed sand at one another.
"God's blood—sorry brother—Jasper don't," Edmund laughed, as his little brother dropped sand down his back.
We fought with wet sand and laughed. Finally we dragged ourselves out of the rising tide, the English mist rolling in over the channel.
"I want to stay like this forever," Jasper said, laying over me like a cat, me with my hand tangled in my Harry's hair. Edmund using Jasper's legs as a pillow.
"We will," I said, looking at his damp face, gritty with sand.
He is still there. In my mind we all are. Forever laughing.
And as I kneel by the bed in this cold and lonely Tower. I know the truth in my heart. I know who will come through that door next.
I walk to the window as I hear footsteps in the hallway. And I look out at the sun, through the bars of this final prison.
The door opens slowly, I don't turn around.
"When I close my eyes I don't see heaven at all. When I was a boy, I used to look up at great ceilings, roofs of palaces, cathedrals. I was searching for some, hopeless infinity. But one day. One day for you as well. Perhaps you'll look past your eyes. And see the times of joy. There is so much light in the world. Hold onto it. Grasp it. A single moment of peace can last a lifetime if you try. You only have to try. To close your eyes and see the love around you. It ties us all together. No matter how far apart we are, separated by death, time, this terrible, cruel world. It's love for one another that keeps us all alive. And once you find it, in everyone, everything you meet. You no longer want the world. That eternity in a single smile, has become your ever after. Just open your eyes. And just like that," I snap my fingers, "You rule the world."
Something cracks the back of my head. I feel myself fall to the floor.

The End