- 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑟𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑛 -
It's the year 1464 and Eleanor Woodville lives at Grafton Manor as one of the younger daughters of Jacquetta and Sir Richard Woodville. At 11 years old, her worries are little and her joys great but her o...
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~My House's Victory, my Husband's Love~
October 1485, Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire....
Still bathing within the heavenly glow that being cheered through the streets brought them, Eleanor smiled as she caught Richard's eye in her dressing table mirror.
Ever since they had departed Middleham to begin their journey south, they had gone to bed each night with their ears ringing with their people's cheers and white rose petals entangled in their hair. Only the Lord knew where the people of England found the flowers so late in the year but they seemed to have them in abundance and they rained down upon the royal procession like small blessings from God!
The sun shone so brightly that some considered the Almighty to be smiling down upon England, glad to see the Tudor's vanquished! Golden rays bathed the land from Dover to Hadrian's Wall, illuminating the whole country with an angelic light that warmed the royal couple each new day, even though the season had turned to winter.
In each city they rode through, each town, each village, there was naught but white roses in sight, decorating doors, windows, the sleeves of gowns and doublets that were, more often than not, bright murrey and blue. No red roses were in England it seemed, as if they had all been gathered and burnt upon the Middleham battlefield, buried with the defeated leaders of the Lancastrian and Tudor cause.
Dead and gone they were, their blood red petals dried up and turned to brown while their enemies flourished under the care of their York sun.
Church bells rang from dawn till dusk, filling the air with merry chimes while choir boys sung on polished Cathedral steps and knelt humbly before the King and Queen when they came to take mass.
"Never have I seen such a show of love!" Eleanor had murmured when she and Richard visited York Minster, the relentless cheering of the people hardly muffled by the thick stone walls. In front of them knelt their son, George, who often rode between them during their journey south (his siblings behind), practically bouncing in his saddle with excitement as he waved and smiled.
"We are beloved by all, Mama!" He whispered with undeniable excitement, breaking his prayers for just a moment to throw a grin over his shoulder that was so like his Father's it made both of his parents collapse into laughter!
Now, as Eleanor smiled at her husband from her dressing table at Berkeley Castle, she once more thanked God for sparing her family, for sparing her. Richard removed his doublet before he came to her, flinching just a little when he shrugged the sumptuous material from his shoulders but it seemed to bother him little and he strode over to his wife, placing a delicate kiss to her hair.
