“Are you sure you want to be my husband when the days come?” she asked him, her cheek turned to his chest. “I won’t stop bugging you about not fighting.”
“What is bugging?” he asked with amusement in his voice.
“Nagging.”
“I see.” The amusement was gone.
“There is no reason to fight, Nicholas. You said yourself you didn’t fight for Richard but for York. Maybe you saw it as some noble thing, to die with the word York on your lips. Very dramatic.”
He dipped his brows and gave her a confused look.
“But things have changed. You didn’t have me waiting, worried sick over you. I’ll be heartsick until you return, and if you don’t…” She shook her head and wiped her tears. “I don’t want you to go, Nicholas. There’s no reason to go. At least Elia will have a companion when she is wearing out the wood in the floors.”
“You seem to have this all settled in your mind.”
She sighed. “I’m being selfish, I know. But your heart isn’t in this. You know that. Why risk dying over it?”
She was happy when he didn’t argue but remained quiet. Let him think about it. In the meantime, she would do everything she could to keep him off the battlefield.
They returned to the castle and were met by Elia on their way from the stable.
“Richard is looking for you. Lady Elizabeth told him about Henry Tudor. He seems restless and he’s quite angry with Elizabeth’s mother for always siding with Henry.”
Nicholas shook his head. His scowl was deep and menacing. “What does he expect when he had her marriage declared invalid and possibly had her sons killed? Should she be on his side now just because she wears a white rose?”
Kes and Elia shared a glance. Kes wanted to ask, should he?
He looked at her, stripping her of her thoughts and reading them. “I do not have to be on his side to fight for him. The princes may be found—”
“They are never found, Nicholas,” Kes told him. “If Richard lives, it will change history. Let’s not have any part in that.”
He stared at her, his gaze going soft. “Kestrel, mayhap I die in battle, unable to find victory for the king. Mayhap whether or not I fight does not matter. Richard will die.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “The de Marres have never lost before. Why would you suddenly lose now? I fear you’re killed.”
“I have always been prepared for that.”
“But I haven’t,” she told him. “It took almost five hundred and fifty years to find you. I don’t want to lose you now.”
“Nicky,” Elia joined in. “Kes told me about some of these things. I must say I have to agree with her. You would have to be dead for the Whites to lose. I ask you not to fight. If history says that Richard must die, who are we to try to change it?”
“We will cease this talk now, ladies,” he commanded, reaching the castle doors.
“Nicholas!”
They heard the king bellow the instant he heard the doors opening.
“Where in blazes have you been?” he lamented loudly at the top of the stairs. “Henry Tudor and that old rat bastard, Jasper, his uncle, have landed in Wales and have amassed an army of five thousand against me! What shall we do?”
Why hadn’t Kes ever thought of these kings frightened when their time was up? She always imagined they rode out to a glorious death. Maybe some did. Richard III did not.
“We shall stay calm,” was Nicholas’ first suggestion. He climbed the stairs to the king with the others following. “Our men in Nottingham and Leicester await word. We have your army in York and more men in Leeds if we need them. There is no need to worry. I have everything under control.”
Had he already been in contact with his men? Kes wondered. It sounded as if he’d already made a decision. Something he didn’t share with her.
“Ah,” the king breathed hard. He turned to look at Elizabeth stepping around the corner in the hall. “I knew you would. But how could you unless you were aware of this information before me?”
Nicholas glanced at Elizabeth. “She told me.”
“Nicky,” young Elizabeth said when she saw and heard him.
“I warned her against telling you,” he continued. “Why set your nerves on edge when I could take care of it all? Aye? Has it not always been this way?”
“Aye,” Richard admitted, letting Nicholas calm him. “As soon as you could wield a sword, you have always protected Edward and me.” He looked at Elizabeth. “All of us.”
“’Tis my duty,” Nicholas replied, making Kes’ heart falter. “Come, let us go to the solar.”
The king nodded. “I would have you know that I did not murder my nephews.”
But you would sleep with your niece, Kes wanted to bring up. She held her tongue. Elizabeth denied she’d been intimate with him when the ladies were embroidering.
“And yet,” Nicholas countered smoothly as they entered the private solar. “you wasted no time going to the courts and having them declared illegitimate and setting yourself up as the next king.”
“Aye,” Richard agreed. “I went to much trouble. I did not need to kill them. They were my blood. I did not want to kill them. I was their protector. I loved them just as much as you did, Nicky. But I want the crown so I made certain they could never claim it, and I did it without shedding their blood.”
Kes realized how close they must have been when Edward was alive. Nicky, as they all affectionately called him, was part of their family. A little brother who’d grown up fierce and strong. Nicholas fought for York because it had given him the family he’d lost.
The king’s reasoning sounded like a valid argument. It didn’t matter though. History must not be tampered with. Richard had to die whether guilty or innocent of the princes’ disappearance and subsequent deaths.
“Then where are they?” Nicholas pleaded. “Who might have them and why? Tell me what
