The Forgotten Rose {COMPLETED}

Part I: Chapter Twelve - A Marriage To York

Anne's head was held high as she marched towards to altar. Barely a woman but already she was to be married for the second time in her short life.

It was only as she walked towards her betrothed that she thought of what would come after the wedding. She did not want that pain again, nor did she want to be widowed within months of the ceremony. She wanted to be married to this man until the day she died, not until he was slain in war. She did not want to be abandoned again. Not until she was an old woman at least with children to comfort her and remind her of him.

Her dress was not so fine as the one she had worn to wed Edward of Lancaster, it was not fine silk it was simple cloth of light blue, with fur stitched lightly along the cuffs and around neck. She was dressed in a shapely woman's gown but any fool could see that beneath the cloth and gems lay a little girl.

Anne did not cower as her eyes met Richard. She did not flee as she had feared she might. She walked proudly towards him her head was sill high and her steps were slow and steady. No fear was apparent, not to Richard. No he saw Anne for the woman he would love, not the child he was to wed.

"Anne." He greeted her, he did not rise from his knelt position before the altar but he shot a smile of joy in her direction. She smiled back, at least he would not harm yet. He couldn't, not until they were put to bed and that was hours away. If Anne remembered it was not to happen yet, it was in the future and not for hours. She was not to be harmed until then. She was safe, for the time being.

"Richard." She whispered as she knelt beside him, she saw a man and a woman. She presumed the woman to be Elizabeth, elder sister to Richard and perhaps the man was her husband but Anne did not care so much as to ask either of their names.

Anne continued to glance at Richard as the priest conducted his brief ceremony. He too had a rather childish grin from ear to ear. She often forgot that he was not really so mature himself, only twenty years of age. Four years her elder. He was not so ancient as she sometimes thought when he spoke of his politics and his books.

His face was most certainly that of a boy, his skin was smooth and pale. His eyes were bright as any Anne had seen, made more so by the darkness of the ebony hair upon his head, which fell to his shoulders and outlined his long slender face. He was handsome, in his own way. His eyes were forever calculating and his brow forever ridged, it did not relax, not even as he smiled. He was a strange man, in mind and in body. With one shoulder set higher than the other and a fascination with the wealth that came with victory.

As the priest ended the ceremony the couple rose in unison. Anne was a duchess, a royal duchess. She was equal to her sly sister, she would never have anyone look down upon her.

Richard took Anne's arm and the two walked gracefully from the small chapel. They walked together like their exit was a carefully choreographed dance. The two glanced at each other with childish grins as they walked down the final steps out of the abbey.

"Wife," Richard beamed, she was no a child now, no she was his. His own and nobody else's. He knelt before her and took her hand, "I would wish for you to attend dinner this evening with my brother, Edward, and I."

"Of course, Husband." Anne smiled back, she never thought she could be flattered by such a man as Richard, nor any man dislike him. She did not think she would ever fall ill to such things, but it appeared she was not so different from every other woman in England and Europe. Until she had it given to her she did not know she wanted it, at least with Richard she would not be short of it. That was what she had hoped.

"Good, we shall announce our marriage then. My brother can not speak against it, he married that whore in a private chapel without anyone in sight." Richard teased before looking at Anne in all seriousness, like he was about to scold her. "Please do not tell the queen I called her by that name."