Crown of Blood | The White Princess

All I Have Lost, All I have to Lose

The next morning...

Lisbet woke to someone hammering on the door, also jerking her mother from sleep as well.
"What's going on?" Marin asked as she tried to wake up, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn with her hand.

"I don't know!" Lisbet cried, immediate panic rising in her as she scooped up Anne from where she lay between her two kinswomen, being careful not to jostle the sleeping babe too much in her haste.

Grabbing her dagger from where it lay on a side table, Marian motioned for her daughter to stay behind her and moved towards the door, throwing it open only to find a terrified Magda on the other side. A second later bells began to ring out and desolation descended on the Queen's heart.
"The Tudors are here" she whispered and Lisbet let out a cry.

"No!" She shouted, clutching a now awakened and wailing Anne to her chest "No! They cannot be here? Who are they here for?! Mama, the could not have caught you so soon?!"

"I don't know why they are here!" Magda muttered, making her friend's face turn a deathly shade of white "Marian, you must go"
"Yes!" Marian said "we must go and we must go now if we have hope of escape!"

Lisbet put Anne in her cradle and rushed to the window that overlooked the courtyard, trying not to let the tears that filled her eyes fall as she saw the band of Tudors that had approached, ride into the courtyard of Middleham...Lizzie leading them.

"Mama! You have to go, I will not allow you to die" she yelled.
"And I will not leave you" Marian returned fiercely "I will not flee, not again, not without you!"
"You must!" Magda yelled and the other two turned to her with stricken faces "I've seen how many there are...only one of us can escape...and it must be you, Marian"

"Magda is right, mama" Lisbet said "I cannot go for I will not leave Anne and if I have a babe with me I won't get five miles...Annie is waiting for you back in Burgundy...she cannot lose her mother and nor can I so you must be the one to escape and you must go now before it is too late! They will be looking for us already!"

Marian shook her head and walked over to her daughter, wrapping her arms around her as she pulled her into fierce hug.
"Know the choice to go is not mine, ma chérie" she whispered tearfully "and know that I love you...we will meet again...I promise"
"And I believe you, mama...I believe you with all my heart!" Lisbet retuned "but you must go! And you must go now!"

"I know a way to get you out, your grace" Magda said from the door "but we have not a second to lose. We must go!"
Marian nodded and stepped back from her daughter, giving her one last nod and gently kissing baby Anne before she turned and fled the room without a backwards glance, Magda close behind"

Once the door was firmly shut, Lisbet at once bounded into action. She must appear brave to her cousin, must not shed any tears, must not show her grief, she must show absolute confidence in herself and in the coming confrontation between her and Lizzie.