The Forgotten Rose {COMPLETED}

Part I: Chapter Twenty-Nine - Deathly Silence

Anne had bid her farewell to Richard two weeks earlier. But still no word came from him. She rode for the safety of Middleham and he returned to his brothers court, moving into apartments within his brothers palace. To his brother and away from her.

She wondered if it would have been better if he did not, for that meant George was not dead and his two poor children were not orphans. It's was a waiting game for Anne, there was nothing else she could do. Her fretting, that was constant. What if Edward turned on Richard, had him locked away in The Tower just as he had George. Then he would have no competition for the Yorkist throne. No little brothers to interfere. If Anne was truthful that was what she feared most. The death of Richard.

She loved him; with all her heart she loved him, but he was a killer. And a killer in cold blood. So why did she still love him? He would most likely be the one to kill George, if King Edward wished to dispose of his troublesome brother the same way he did Mad King Henry. Richard would kill another man in his sleep. A second life to his name.

Anne pushed it from her mind. He had done wrong, so had she. She had hated two children, Richards children because they were bastards. Innocent children who had done her no harm. When he returned she would tell him how she would accept then, not as her own but she would allow them to be with him at Middleham. Allow him to show them to the world if that be his wish. She wondered what the boy, John was like, was he like her son small and sickly or like his father bold and brave. And the girl, little Katherine, was she beautiful, more importantly was her mother.

Edward would like a brother and sister, and since Anne showed no hope of giving him one of either of the bastards were the only option. She just wished she could have had her own girl first.

"Lady mother," Edward chirped running into his mothers chambers and into her arms. He wrapped his legs around her waist and his arms around her neck and rested his head of dark hair upon her shoulder. He smiled, "is it true?"

"What, my sweet boy?" Anne smiled at her son.

"That Margaret and Ned are coming here, to be my brother and sister?" Edward asked his grey eyes wide with curiosity.

"It depends," Anne told him, "if their father comes back fit and well from London no, they shall not. But if something happens and he cannot leave London then yes, they shall come to us." She hoped they would, if the King and his devilish Queen would accept her offer to care for them. They had to. Who else would want the orphans of a traitor? And if they came she could claim there was no room for more children, although Richard would most certainly see straight through the lie. She could propose Richard's bastards move to Middleham, then she would tell Richard they couldn't cater for them. Say she was sorry and that would be the end of it.

"I hope that they come." Edward told his mother proudly. He should like to meet his cousins properly, he knew Margaret his mother said they had met once, as infants but the boy, who shared his name, he did not know. He wondered at first if it should be confusing but his father always spoke of his Uncle George's Edward as Ned and King Edwards son Edward as Teddy. It seemed only he still bore the true name. Of that the boy was rather proud.

Anne did not know quite what to say. Yes she wanted those two children with her, their mother was her sister as their aunt she was obliged to care for them. But if their father was set free then he would be caring for them and she would not. And although she longed to hold those children in her arms she would be relieved if they could be with their father. After all he had a greater right than her to care for them.

That afternoon Anne and her son rode out, she on a great chestnut hunter which had once belonged to her father and her son on his scraggy little pony. With short stumpy legs and a thick grey coat, almost of the consistency if wool. The mare her son rode was the sweetest, but her confirmation left much to be desired. Her eye was kind and whenever young Edward teetered out of the seat forward she would lift her short neck as a block to stop him from hitting the ground.