- 𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑟𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑛 -
It's the year 1464 and Eleanor Woodville lives at Grafton Manor as one of the younger daughters of Jacquetta and Sir Richard Woodville. At 11 years old, her worries are little and her joys great but her o...
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~Children of Middleham~
July 1473....
"Do you truly have to go?" Anne complained as she and Eleanor sat in the Duchess' solar together, both fanning themselves with their hands as the summer sun glared through the open windows.
"I do, I'm afraid, my dear" Eleanor replied with a sigh as she placed the letter Edward had sent her onto a side table, smiling tiredly at Bess and Isabel who were playing on a rug by the empty fireplace.
The two little ones were thick as thieves, though as different as chalk and cheese, quite like their mother's. Despite being the older of the two, little honey haired Isabel trailed after Bess all day long, as quiet as a mouse, though now she let out a giggle of delight as her little cousin knocked over the wooden bridge they had built together.
Anne had been happy to stay at Middleham throughout the past year, though it had turned out she had little choice in the matter and still didn't!
While George had handed over she and Isabel's guardianship to Eleanor and Richard he still refused to budge on any of the lands, determined to keep them for himself and leaving Anne penniless.
Once or twice Eleanor had suggested that she give the younger woman an estate in gift but those discussions had never lasted long as she had had other things to attend to. And Anne wasn't unhappy, she spend almost every day telling the Duchess that she was happier now than she had been in years!
Isabel was the apple of her eye, had become her purpose in life and Anne had blossomed into a very attentive mother to her, even more protective than Eleanor was over Bess and Matilda! Isabel was often by her mother's skirts, even when with Bess, but that was where she liked to be and so the two were content in that.
That morning a letter had arrived from Westminster, one Eleanor had been waiting upon for many months. Since she had been in the North, she and her sister had sent each other frequent missives and the Duchess had been overjoyed to learn that her sister was once again with child. Now, Edward had sent her a request, just as she had asked him the summer before, that she return to London for the birth of Elizabeth's babe.
She had given instructions for Anais and Marie to begin preparing for the long journey to London which was why she and Anne were residing in the stifling hot of the solar and not in the cooler rooms of her chambers.
She had already decided that she would leave her ward in charge and told the younger woman so then and there, despite the look of doubt Anne cast her way.
"I'm not sure if I can run a household?" She questioned, clearly unsure of herself and her abilities as she lifted Isabel onto her lap, kissing her hair. Eleanor merely chuckled and leant over to pat her friend's hand because she knew Anne was more than capable of managing Middleham.
