Chapter 14
Not all the nobles were as loyal as the Dudleys, however. Barely a day more had passed before a messenger rode into the castle, saying that he brought news of my half-brother and requesting an audience with me.
Since I was already seated in the Great Chamber at Warwick with Anne, George, Mary, Blanche, Edward and his father Charles Brandon, planning my next move, I had him shown in to speak to all of us at once.
"Now, James. You have come from the camp of His Grace the Duke of Richmond, have you not? Tell us the latest news. What of his campaign to seize the throne?"
"When I left them, My Lady Queen, Sir Edward Seymour was talking of riding to seize Colchester."
"Colchester? Why Colchester?" I glanced at George, Charles and Anne and saw the same question in their eyes. Colchester, big city though it was, was the wrong side of London from Richmond. Why were they riding there?
James's next words answered my question, but they dealt us a heavy blow in the process.
"It seems that they have struck some sort of an alliance with Lord Henry Brandon."
There was a collective gasp in the room at his words.
Lord Henry Brandon was my cousin by my father's younger sister Princess Mary. He also happened to be my sweetheart Edward's older brother and his father's heir. To have him throw in his lot with my half-brother was a shock to all of us.
"I'll kill him!" Charles Brandon's roar exploded into the silence. "I swear to God that I will kill him for this!"
To my horror, I realised that I was shaking, shaking with emotions that I couldn't even name. Without another word, I sprang up and rushed out of the room.
"Elizabeth!" I heard Anne shout after me, but I ignored her. I had to ignore her. If I was to keep my sanity, then I had to be alone.
"Elizabeth? Your Majesty?"
I heard the voice behind me as I stood on the battlements of Warwick Castle and recognised it instantly.
"I can't do this, Edward! I can't be the Queen everyone wants me to be!"
"Yes you can. You're half-Howard, half-Tudor and the best half of both. There's no one more suited to ruling this country than you." Edward came up behind me, wanting to comfort me as he would have done before, but not quite daring to because of my new-found status. I leaned my copper head back against his shoulder, silently breaking protocol. He slipped his arms around my waist, holding me loosely. Even though I relaxed at his touch, however, I couldn't shake the sense of failure that had plagued me ever since the audience that morning.
"No, I'm not. Didn't you see how I fled the room this morning?"
"You'd had a shock. It was understandable. Besides, you're still grieving for your father. People will forgive you a lot for that. It shows that royals have emotions like the rest of us." Edward soothed in a whisper.
"Mary would never have done that. She would have known what to do. When the news came that your brother had defected, people looked to me and I didn't know what to do. I thought I had Suffolk; that I could rely on it. I didn't know what to do, Edward!"
"You still can. You have my father and you have me. You can still rely on Suffolk."
"Henry's the heir, though. He's the de facto ruler when your father's at Court."
"Not any more. Didn't you hear my father's outburst this morning, Elizabeth? He's disinherited Henry. I'm Earl of Lincoln now."
"So you'll be Duke of Suffolk." I turned in his hold to face him, almost reaching for his cheek, but not quite doing it. Edward nodded.
"I will. One day. And I can tell you now that, as long as I rule it, Suffolk will be loyal to you." Edward promised, brushing my lips with his in the faintest of kisses.
I exhaled slowly, feeling my racing heart change its tempo from agitation to thrilling bliss. And then a second, wildly horrible thought struck me.
"What if the people don't see me as the true Queen? They hate my mother and, anyway, that was a second marriage. What if people think that the Lady Mary should be Queen, not me?"
"Elizabeth Tudor. Are you not His Majesty's trueborn daughter? Weren't you his best girl Bessie? His Princess of Roses?"
"True…true, but still. Mary's the eldest. The pearl of his world, she once was. The girl who never cried."
"But the marriage was invalid. Legally, you're the eldest daughter. Everyone knows that, Elizabeth. And your father knew it too. He loved you as his trueborn daughter and heiress. Always. You were his Tudor Princess and now you are my Tudor Queen."
Edward looked as though he might kiss me again, but he didn't, instead tightening his hold on my waist. I sighed and pressed myself against him once more.
"I just want this over with. I just want to be Queen in truth as well as in name. I just want to rid myself of my half-brother once and for all."
"Then it's time we went south. Rode to London. Wouldn't you agree?"
"Yes." I breathed, glad Edward was able to give voice to the burning desire inside me. He unwound his arms from around my waist and stepped back.
"I'll go and tell my father and Lord Ormonde. They'll organise everything. Your wish is our command."
He half-bowed to me and made to move away, but I called him back.
"Lord Lincoln?"
"Yes, Your Grace?"
Leaning forward, I captured his lips with mine, kissing him firmly.
"Thank you. I don't know what I'd do without you."
"You don't even have to consider that." With one last quick embrace and a bow, Edward left me turning everything we had said to one another over in my mind.
Little did I know that Mary had followed Edward up to find me and had therefore been witness to our entire exchange. I never did find out either, or not until later, at least, for she slipped away before I noticed her. However, alarmed at my obvious feelings for Edward, she went straight to Anne about it.
Of course, Anne already knew that Edward and I were fond of each other, so she wasn't surprised by Mary's news, or even the slightest bit worried.
In fact, she even managed to talk Mary into agreeing that, if I was to be an even more attractive prospect as a Queen Regnant for the commoners than I already was compared to my bastard half-brother, then it would probably be best if I already had a consort at my side as my husband.
It was an unprecedented move and a slight gamble, but even Mary could see the sense in it. Edward and I were both sixteen going on seventeen. Married, we stood a far better chance of providing the common people with the security that they so craved; security that my half-brother couldn't provide, no matter how hard he might try. If God smiled on us, we might even be able to give them the longed-for heir, the Prince or Princess of Wales that they wanted so desperately.
Knowing my half-sister approved of her decision to ask Edward and me if we would consider the sacrament of marriage, Anne rode up to me just as we were setting out for London.
"Elizabeth? Can I talk you for a moment?"
"Of course, Anne. What is it?"
"I wondered, if, well, if you'd ever considered marriage." Anne, uncharacteristically nervous, looked sideways at me as I nudged Sovereign into a walk.
"What kind of a question is that? I'm a Princess born and bound to wed. Of course I have." Startled by Anne's question, I answered her more snappishly than was perhaps necessary. Sovereign shied at my tone and Anne put out a hand to catch his rein and steady him as she continued to press me.
"Have you given any thought as to who you might marry?"
I shrugged. "A foreign Prince, I suppose. Or a Royal Duke. I can't say I look forward to it, but it is what's expected of me."
"Oh. So you've never considered marrying an Englishman? Not even in your wildest dreams? Not even, oh, I don't know, a certain future Duke?"
At that, my head snapped up and I looked Anne in the eyes for the first time since our conversation had begun. "Edward Brandon? Do you really think the nobles will accept him as my Consort? One of their own?"
"Why not? They accepted your mother and me as their Queens, didn't they? His birth's just as good as ours. In fact, better."
"But Father had married a Princess before he married you or Mama. It doesn't matter whether his marriage was valid or not; he went through the motions. I haven't done that. Besides, Edward's only my age. He's only sixteen. And England will need alliances in the years to come. Much as I'd love to marry him, I'm not sure it's such a good idea."
"We need to get England under control before we look for alliances abroad, Elizabeth. You know that as well as I do. And you know how much your father's people will do for the prospect of a Prince. If you and Edward were married, you could offer them that possibility better than your half-brother ever could. And as for the alliances, Mary's of marriageable age. Blanche isn't far off, and I could marry again as well. I'm only 19, remember. I'll be twenty next month."
"Well, I'm not going to force Edward to marry me." I cut Anne off, unnerved by the fact that we were already discussing the prospect of her remarriage, not even a month after my father's death. "I love him too much for that, Cousin. You should know that by now. If he asks me, then I'll say yes, both for my own happiness and for the good of England, but I'm not going to force him into the role of King Consort, not if he doesn't want to play that role. That's my final word on the subject."
Spurring Sovereign on, I cantered away from Anne, riding to the head of the procession, where I could better acknowledge the cheers of the common people as they began to line the streets of Warwick as the word spread that I, Elizabeth Tudor, was marching south at the head of an army to seize the throne that was rightfully mine.