Grace FitzRoy and Cecily Neville were two sides of one deal. On Loveday in the year 1458, when York and Lancaster came together ceremonially to reconcile their two warring factions, the Duke of York and King of England struck a deal. A daughter for...
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LOVE DAY
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March, 1458
It took Grace FitzRoy exactly two days to understand how she felt. It wasn't one specific sensation, like when one would cry because they scraped their knee or laugh when they saw something funny. It was a mixture of things, of disbelief and anger and the slightest tinge of betrayal. But there was also resignation, because even at the age of eight she understood that she couldn't escape this. The Duke of York was already waiting in the courtyard to take her away. A peace offering, Grace's father had said, though she was not sure how a bastard daughter could be a compromise. She was not fit to marry any of the Duke's sons, and even through her noble blood, the 'unholy' union of her mother and father would always taint her. A bastard was a sin, a mistake, but for some reason the Duke had accepted her as his ward.
Grace wished he hadn't.
She stood still, staring into the mirror as her mother tied up the laces of her gown. She used harsh tugs, perhaps one last way of displaying her anger before she had to put on a mask and pretend she was perfectly fine with this. Grace's body jolted forward with each and every one, but she bit her tongue instead of saying anything and braced herself for the force of the next one.
Katherine Howard was normally a gentle and kind woman. She could take any amount of insults and betrayals thrown her way with the grace of a swan and not show the slightest amount of anger. But this she could not take. Grace was her only daughter. Her only child that had lived. From a total of six pregnancies, only one had lasted long enough for the babe inside of her womb to survive childbirth. Four miscarriages and one stillbirth was what the other five pregnancies had given her.
Her only child, and her only family. Katherine's father had been quick to discard her when he learned of her affair with the King, perhaps one of the only men in the entire realm that would not use that to his advantage. Perhaps because there was not much to take advantage of. Not with Henry's constant manic and depressive episodes where he could not rule and power fell to his wife, Margaret of Anjou, instead. That woman could not be so easily manipulated, and besides, Katherine's father had hoped to marry her off to a foreign duke to gain power for himself.
Her mother was long dead, succumbed to the horrors of childbirth and her siblings had been too young to make up their own mind – Katherine being the eldest of the four of them. That had left her completely alone, but it had not mattered much when she had been able to enjoy moments with Henry. The moments where he had not been out of his own mind. And when he was in those episodes, Margaret of Anjou had not hesitated to take Katherine in. For what reason, Katherine would never understand, but she was grateful.
Now she would be alone once more. Her daughter dragged off to Ludlow Castle where the Duke of York currently resided. The reality of the situation was all too real. Grace would not truly be a ward. She'd be a prisoner.
