The year is 1464.
The War of the Roses rages on; a great showdown between Lancaster and York.
Yet, asleep in her bed, fiery-haired Melissa Woodville dreams of splintered shields, broken swords, and the resounding screams of wounded men in the Battle...
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THE TALK WITH Richard,while calming at its core, did nothing to soothe Melissa's nerves. She felt sorry for Elizabeth's daughters, her nieces, guilty at how they suffered and what they were being made to go through, but she knew there was nothing to be done about it. She'd put her foot down when it came to her sister, had long since decided she'd not lodge under the same roof as the woman who'd hurt William, and there was no going back now. There could not be; not unless she wanted to appear weak in front of Edward, and the entirety of the English court.
After much debate and many discussions, she and her husband had agreed - it was best to let sleeping dogs lie where they are.
And anyway, with all the hatred she'd inspired in Westminster, Elizabeth's presence was better served at the Palace of Placentia, where she would have the best midwives and physicians caring for her, and the child that was yet unborn. Should she birth a boy, the prince would be taken straight to Ludlow Castle in Wales, where he would be raised and moulded into the future king that England needed. A girl would come to Westminster and live with her sisters under Duchess Cecily's care, as Lizzie, Mary, and Cis were right now.
As for the queen, her own fate was as of yet undetermined, but it was a widely known fact that the king's councilors were pushing for an annulment, should Elizabeth birth another girl. Edward himself was strangely leery about the subject, which they were taking as encouragement, but even George and Richard did not know their brother's mind in the days and weeks that followed his Woodville wife's exile. He did not seem very torn up about it, disenchanted as he was with all the grief that Elizabeth had caused him, but his mind was certainly preoccupied with something. Not even news of his sister, the Duchess of Burgundy's imminent return to England could pull him out of whatever slump he'd fallen into.
"I do not understand it." The eldest York sister, Anne, the Duchess of Exeter was heard complaining. "'Tis like I talk to him, but he does not really hear it. It goes in one ear, and out the other."
