The Forgotten Rose {COMPLETED}

Part I: Chapter Twenty-six - Dark Magic

"Brother, Richard. Lady Anne." George welcomed his guests. He marched out of Warwick castle, passed the guards who stood in full armour, like they were ready for attack. Ready for war. "How glad I am to see you." He did not remark about Anne's simple dress, nor the dark blue of the cloth, he just looked her up and down before smiling. "Fit for a Queen." He said to Anne. Anne curtsied to him, with all the grace she would a king. That would please George.

"Brother, George, I am sorry for your loss." Richard bowed to George before he knelt before him, like he would a king. That was what George wanted. He always wanted to be king and for the time Richard was with him, he would be trusted thus. "I pray she is well and safe now, and the boy too."

"Yes." George's voice did not waver at all, it was a monotone. Saddened, lost to his heart which clung to a love he had lost. He hoped that he would one morning awake with her in his arms, three weeks he had dreamt of her and three weeks she failed to come to him. "I pray too." He said.

"May I see my sisters children." Anne asked. "They must be saddened by their loss." She thought of the two children, sat in their nursery asking for their mother, and they would not know quite where she had got too.

"Yes, of course. I shall have someone take you there. Brother, you shall come with me. I have urgent business to attend too." George huffed as one of the maids took Anne away from him and his brother. He tried to smile a little as she walked away, to comfort her. But he couldn't. She was too like Isabelle, she would bring him too many memories if he spoke too closely with her.

He walked fast, too fast for thought. He had begun to fear his own mind. Plans for murder were all that inhabited it. The murder of whomever had poisoned his Isabelle.

Richard followed his brother, he wanted Anne at his side. They were barely on good terms, not after the confession that dark night. With the grief which had struck her a second time at the death of the infant Richard, he had hardly had time to rekindle her love for him. Yet he was to try rekindle a love that had burnt out a decade before with his brother.

Even if not for want of simply her company, but for need of help with George. George's mind was fragile at the best of times, with grief sickening him he would most likely be more monstrous than ever. He reluctantly went into George's own private chambers, not fearing more wondering what he would find.

Goblets, tankards, barrels, cask and bottles.

Any method of containing ales or wines were in his brothers chambers. Richard knew that George enjoyed to drink, any man did, but not so much. It would sicken him. But he did not protest or make any comment, fearing what his brothers response would have been. To strike out with a hand perhaps, or with the dagger over which his free hand had hovered.

"So, you plot against our brother once more." Richard questioned as he looked at the papers on George's death, summons to lords who may have followed him into battle. Those corrupt enough to turn if enough was offered in return for their loyalty.

"It is only befitting." George tried to keep his cool. Edward had his Queen send her poisoner to take his Isabel and their boy, he could not even do it himself. He had to have a woman use a woman's weapon. What kind of a King had his Queen kill his enemies for him? And babes in their beds? That kind of King should never rule. "He has been a disloyal brother, to the both of us."

"He has not." Richard said. "He has been loyal to me."

"You were a child, you were moulded to his standard, you are blinded by it but I did not conform. My wife died. My son too." George wanted to weep. "I have lost my heart because I did not do as my brother deemed true."

"You waged war against him, brother. You cannot say he is disloyal." Richard remarked. "Who do you think killed them?" Those words brought an anger to George which he could not conceal. "The Queen? I have a disliking for that woman but I should never accuse her of murder."