The Forgotten Rose {COMPLETED}

Part I: Chapter Thirty-One - Death Warrant

Across London, in the Kings chambers at Windsor Palace, the other two sons of York stood together. Anger consumed the pair of them.

"You will do it. I command you. I am your king." King Edward bellowed at Richard as his younger brother stood as tall as he could in front of him. Edward toward over Richard, almost a foot taller but Richard showed no fear. His teeth bared and brow straight. His eyes staring right into Edward's. "You must obey me, Richard, your King. I am your King. I am your brother."

Richard was weak. The runt. Edward was certain of it. But Edward was getting to be an old man and he didn't have quite the same authority he once had. His belly was large, his hair darkening to a light brown and his teeth rotting from the drink. He was no longer the charismatic young man who flattered his way to the throne.

"I have obeyed you enough." Richard argued all his crimes, all the times he had dirtied his hands with the blood of others was for Edward. They were younger then, there was need to save themselves and the Yorkist dynasty. It was war. It was necessary. This new crime, this sin, it was not for the York dynasty it was simply for Edward.

"You are a soldier, you follow your commands." Edward ordered his younger brother. He tried to stand taller, to dwarf Richard even more than he did naturally. In response Richard straightened his back a little more and tried not to strain his neck so much with looking up to Edward.

"I was a soldier. I was naïve once too. I was a soldier but this is not a battle or an army we are facing." Richard exclaimed he would refuse. He would not go to hell for such a sin, it was not one he could simply confess for god would curse him. Perhaps god had already cursed him for he only had one son. He could not face another curse, it may take that boy from him. "This is our own brother. The fool, our brother George."

"He is just as deadly." Edward said as he rested his hand on his stomach and for a moment remembered his youth. How he had once been so slender as Richard and how his three younger brothers: Edmund, George and Richard. They had all loved him. But that was when Richard was a child, George nor a man or child and Edmund the warrior their father loved. Edward was the eldest, the prince. His brothers respected him. He wished his father had done that. But even his father paid the price for the throne, for Edward.

Edmund had given his life for Edwards crown, George had tried to take his from him and Richard was Edwards little soldier. Richard was always ready to follow his next command. But now king Edward's waist had grown, he ate and he drank and he took more mistresses. George was a prisoner and Richard a scholar.

He was living a life of luxury, knowing George was suffering in the cold and damp, it always made him feel a little better.

"He is a viper." Edward hissed.

"He is not. He is mad. He is drunk and locked in a cell in the tower. He is no threat to you, nor is his son for I hear that child is so simple. That boy named Edward for you, he is three and cannot yet make a sound. That child, that infant is not a threat." Richard shouted. "A child. See what you fear now. A child."

"No I fear George. I cannot let him go I learnt that long ago, he returns to his old ways and rebels again and again. I give him forgiveness. I give him my love and he turns on me. Over and over and over and I cannot take it anymore." Edward screeched. "I want him gone."

"But I will not be the one to do that deed." Richard said quickly. "I will not kill my brother. No matter what his crimes."

"You killed mad King Henry." Edward reminded him and Richard saw the man lain in sheets of white, the man who he forced into an eternal sleep and towards god. He had not wanted to do that. He told himself he did, he called it vengeance but what does vengeance do if not bring more vengeance. An ever lasting string of killing and being killed, it would not end until someone said no. And it shamed Richard he was not brave enough to say no. But this time he was.

Richard wasn't that foolish boy anymore.

"I did, I did kill mad King Henry. A frail, acing man, that was following your orders. I will not do it again. I refuse. I have one life on my conscience already; and it haunts me every night. I will not have another."

"Another would not hurt you." Edward held the knife in front of Richard. He had to take it. He was obliged to take it, he was his brother he had to do as he was told. Richard stood back, he wouldn't touch the blade. If he took it or not it would be the blade to kill his brother. "Your third, we have all heard about you ending Lancaster's line, when you cut that boys throat. What for? His wife perhaps?"

Richard clenched his fist. He was in combat, in war and that boy came at him. That battle raged boy charged at him what else could he do. The battle was ended, no other man was fighting but that boy saw the white rose of York on the standard and charged. He had to Edward of Lancaster would have murdered him if he hadn't.

"It would. I would surely go to hell. And my own brother." Richard shouted. "If you are so keen to see him dead why are you not killing him yourself."

"I am a King. I have little brothers named Richard to do such deeds." Edward hissed his eyes narrowing and growing dark. "You forget that your dukedom of Gloucester can be taken away so quickly as it was given if you displease me."

"Then take it." Richard hurried. "I will not kill our brother, my own brother, to save a title that I can live without."

"I shall take your titles and I shall remember you as a coward."

"Because a coward is the one who says no. Says no to his King and his brother for what he thinks is right?" Richard questioned, surely that was bravery. "Am I a cowered? I who turned in his own brother for treason? I who have killed in cold blood? Who has led armies is that a coward? I think not! I am just tired, I am tired of that life I want to be at peace with my soul. I am not a coward and I would kill mad King Henry ten times over and his son too, just to show that to you, but George? He did not kill our father and our brother. All George is guilty of is suffering from jealousy and from an unloving elder brother."

"Unloving? Am I so unloving? I bestowed titles on him, gave him households without him having to ask." Edward said amazed at the words his brother was churning out. He had been the most loving of brothers as one could be to a disloyal pig like George.

"And when he asked to marry the woman he loved you said no. When he asked for that small pleasure you declined him that. You who married a commoner on the side of the road."

"He did not love Isabelle Neville, he loved her money and her lands and the promise her father would put him on the throne." Edward barked. "I said no and he did it anyway."

"But you..."

"Do not tell me I did try, that I left him. He had our mothers love if anything I am jealous of him. She adored him, she still does. She named me a bastard to try and give him the crown. Her own son." Edward tried to cool his rage. "He has even turned our mother against us."

"No you turned our mother against yourself when you took that woman to your bed and crowned her Queen of England." Richard said. "Our mother had loathed your existence since the day of the coronation."

"Be gone, Richard." Edward commanded his brother. "If you are here to anger me go. I shall have to find a better man who is not scared to wield a knife." With those words be signed the paper on the table: George Plantagenet's death warrant.

Richard rushed away and Edward glared down at the paper. His wife had edged him on for months. She had begged he sign it. She had told him it was for the best, it would cure all his wounds. But with the ink on the paper Edward felt sick. He was to kill his own brother.