Crown of Blood | The White Princess

The Pointy End

"Fuck this!" Ned huffed as the sails drooped once more "we can see bloody England yet the wind doesn't seem to want to obey us!"

Lisbet sighed and fanned herself with her hand, leaning back against the mast of the ship and tossing her cloak aside.
"Raging at the wind won't make it pick up again" she reasoned...but her younger brother wasn't in the mood for reason.

They had been stuck in the same position for three hours now, the entire fleet was caught in the channel halfway between France and England and the wind wasn't showing any signs of returning soon.

"My god the bastards will have spotted us by now!" Ed said as he gave a taut laugh and stepped up on deck to join his siblings, now divested of his armour and striding around in his shirt, trousers and boots, fiddling with his crown every so often. He sighed "so much for the element of surprise!"

"No matter" Lisbet said "there is no use complaining, we shall simply have to wait! Now let us go and see how mama is faring! We can plan our attack rout below deck"
"We've already..." Ned began but his sister shot him a look of warning and he stopped, following her into the lower deck of the ship with Edmund not far behind.

They walked into one of the largest cabins to find their mother pouring over an array of maps, her brow furrowing as she concentrated.
"This" she said to no one particular, only being aware that there were others in the room with her "is England...we shall land at Dover and..."
"And March upon London!" Edmund finished.
"Securing our position and conquering the kingdom" Ned added with a grin as Marian looked up and put out her arms to greet her sons and daughter.

"Ah, my dears!" She cooed, kissing each of them gently on the forehead "I take it that the wind has not graced us with it's mighty presence yet?"

Edmund sighed and shook his head, flopping down into a chair.
"Nay, mama! The weather is still being obstinate!"
"Perhaps my lady the King's mother is a witch?" Ned suggested.
"Or perhaps it is gods will?" His brother said with a grin and the Yorks burst out laughing.

"I tell you now!" Lisbet said "if the sky fell and London was set alight or even if her own little bastard of a son died she would tell the world it was 'God's will'!"
"God's will my arse" Ned replied, shaking his head "God does not listen to us, sister! As the lady full well knows! He may not even be real! In any case, God is neither just nor fair, he simply leaves us all to suffer"

Suddenly, all the joyous energy was snatched from the room and all eyes became trained on Ned who now appeared to be staring into another world, his face uncharacteristically serious. 
"Did you never wonder why I never attend mass?" He muttered and Lisbet nodded, thinking back to all the times where she had questioned why her brother missed prayer.
"Why?" She asked in a small voice.

"Dickon" was the answer she received "Dickon and Papa...I used to have faith in God...used to trust him as everyone on this forsaken earth seems to do...but then he took Dickon from me and I knew from the second that he died that if God was willing to rip my twin away from me, and then later our Papa, then I could not have faith in him...so here we are! I wonder what the English will make of their Godless Prince"