Crown of Blood | The White Princess

So much, so many

Dressed in a golden gown and looking down at Arthur with a pensive expression while she pondered over her aunt's words, Lisbet gently tapped the child on the nose and could not help smiling when he burbled in delight.

Lizzie chuckled, gently stroking her cousin's hair, glad she seemed so fond of her new son.

Suddenly, all the maids curtsied and Lisbet turned around to see Henry standing in the doorway, a proud look on his usually serious face. Slowly, the girl stepped away from the cradle and took a seat in the window, pulling her knees up to her chest and putting a hand to her neck where her crucifix used to lie. She hoped Ned still had it.

"Must it be Winchester?" Lizzie asked as she turned to face her husband "I cannot be so many days away from him"
"I have said your mother may come with us, she is godmother and of course Lady Elizabeth shall be coming too" he looked over to Lisbet and nodded, she nodded back sharply and hid a smile when Lizzie sighed impatiently "this time your mother is really going, Lizzie!" Henry assured her.

"And I am not" she shot back
"I have commissioned his own badge for him..." Henry said, pulling forth a roll of parchment and unfurling it to reveal the red rose of Lancaster and the White one of York as one, the latter in the middle of the first "it's a sign of our new unity"

Lisbet got up from her seat and left the room, dragging a startled Maggie behind her.
"He really has no shame" she grumbled to her cousin as they entered her bedchamber and shut the door firmly "really I hardly think there is any 'unity' here!"

Maggie flopped down onto the bed, looking up at Lisbet with her large, innocent blue eyes.
"We must go along with it" she said gently "if we don't we shall never get Teddy back!"
"Of course of course, I should not be so selfish, Maggie" Lisbet sighed, kneeling by the bed "we will get Teddy back and I promise I will be on my best behaviour!" She pressed a kiss to Maggie's cheek and the girl smiled.
"Thank you, Lisbet..."

A knock came at the door and Elizabeth entered, dressed in a gown of blue and gold damask, a golden caul with a coronet attached to it, holding up her golden hair. For a moment Lisbet remembered what she had looked like as Queen.

"It is time" she said and her niece hopped up, casting back one last smile at Maggie before walking from the bedchamber to the courtyard.

Lady Margaret was swift to follow, carrying a wailing Arthur. Lisbet walked over and quickly brought the baby into her arms, smirking slightly as she did so, taking satisfaction in the fact that the boy stopped crying as soon as he was with her.

"So you think her a pious old bat too, poppet?" She murmured, kissing the baby's nose as she climbed into the carriage and smiled at Cecily who threw a fur blanket over her legs once she sat.

"You did well, Lisbet" Elizabeth chuckled "but you must do as I told Lizzie...guard your heart"
"Yes, Aunt" her niece replied demurely though both she and Cecily raised their eyebrows at one another a little.