𝐸𝑑𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒 || 𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝑊𝐻𝐼𝑇𝐸 𝑄𝑈𝐸𝐸𝑁

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑋𝑉

~Trapped~

As darkness fell the next day the Countess lay on her bed for she could not stop Elizabeth's words from spinning around in her head 'we must see you married'.

Even after over a month of being legally engaged to the Duke of Gloucester by royal decree, she could still not wrap her head around the fact that the wedding may actually happen, that she, Eleanor Woodville would no longer be a free woman by the time the new year came to pass.

Instead she would be the Duchess of Gloucester. Powerful? Yes. Respected? Yes.
But stuck in a loveless marriage which she would have to put up with until the end of her days unless the Duke died before her which Eleanor thought was rather a hopeful prospect! Still that did not stop her from trying to escape.

She had pleaded, she had begged and wept, even writing a letter to the king, trying to get the marriage plans dissolved but neither he nor the Queen would budge in their decisions and Eleanor knew that she was trapped.

At that moment she wished she had not sent her maids away for they were her friends, her closest friends in truth and she felt desperately lonely. They could always make her laugh, always raise her spirits, but then again, if she had not sent them back to their home she would have been putting their very lives in danger for selfish reasons of her own.

She sighed.

Turning onto her side, she tried to imagine what it would be like to share a bed with her husband. 'Husband' she thought 'will that ever not sound strange?'

She attempted to envision the Duke by her side, his shoulder length, jet black curls spread out on the pillow beside her....but she could not. All she saw what the white case that covered the linen stuffed with feathers and this made her sigh again, rolling back over onto her back. In all honesty, she did not know if she and Richard would even share a bed. It was well known that Eleanor hated to be alone during nights, always sought a companion in case she had a bad dream or simply needed someones presence to comfort her.

But would it be the same once she was married? Or would she be subjected to miserable solitude?

During her stay at the tower Elizabeth had said she would keep her company but her sister knew that the Queen would hardly ever come to bed as she preferred to stay in the chapel and pray for the King and for Parliament to vote against George's usurpation of his older brother. 

Because of this, Eleanor resolved to try and face her fear of being alone during the dark but that didn't exactly reach very far as the previous night (once she had come in from the riverbank) she has lit all the candles in sight and simply become lost in thought until dawn, contemplating her actions.