Crown of Blood | The White Princess

Epilogue

Burgundy, 31st of December 1499...

"Please mama" Anne begged as she knelt beside her mother's death bed, clutching her hand "please you cannot leave me"

Ever since the day of her daughter's execution, Marian of Lancaster seemed to have lost all the strength she possessed both in mind and in body. She had not the will left to fight anymore and had to be virtually carried back to Gravensteen so weak had she become. Now for a month she had lain in this bed, unmoving and silent while Margaret and Anne watched over her, begging her not to leave them.

She had barely eaten, barely drank, let herself waste away while her dark hair turned grey and her limbs became so thin that they looked in danger of snapping as easily as a twig. Just as her dearest friend Elizabeth was, she was plagued with coughing fits and when she began to bring up blood that would soak her handkerchief, she knew her time was near and she also knew that she had long been ready for it.

So as the sun set on that very day, Marian knew that her time on earth was at an end and that her eyes would never again see the beauty of a sunrise.

She did not want to leave Anne. Her youngest child was possibly the only reason that she would fight death but her body and her heart would not allow it. She would never rise from her bed and by morning Anne would be an orphan just at the other two remaining York children would be.

Only three in total out of the 8 there had been.

Now as her daughter was at her bedside, Marian slowly turned her head to face her and used some of the only remaining strength she had to gently put a hand to the 13 year old's cheek.
"Do not weep" she whispered hoarsely "you are a York, ma chérie...you must be strong"
"But I am not" Anne wept "n-not without you, mama! Oh, you cannot do this to me!"

A slight smile touched Marian's lips and she sighed a little, feeling her heart begin to slow.
"My time on earth is at an end" she told her daughter gently "as is my strength...for it has all been used up...if I could find the strength to rise from this bed and care for you for the rest of my days I would...but I am sick Anne...I have been for many weeks now and it appears that this night is to be my last..."

"But it's not fair! It's not fair, mama!"
"Oh ma chérie...life holds few distinctions but there is one thing that shall always hold true... nothing is fair in love and war"

Anne began to weep even harder, making was little was left of Marian's broken heart shatter into a million jagged pieces. Slowly she put a finger to her daughter's lips and shook her head. "Do not let out last moments together be ones of sorrow" she murmured "fetch your lyre and play for me, ma chérie...it will lift my spirits beyond measure..."

Without any more words being said, Anne shot from her seat and retrieved the instrument she had managed to master by now, gently brushing her fingers along the delicate strings to that a beautiful melody filled the air.

Marian let the music slowly entrance her, drawing her from reality and from the world as a solitary tear escaped one of her eyes and she turned her head one last time to look at Anne who was seemingly gazing into the distance while she played, tears continuing to flood down her pale cheeks.

"Yes...nothing is fair in love and war" Marian whispered and she closed her eyes for the final time as her soul slipped from the earth and into the hands of another.

༒༒༒

As Marian felt her eyes fluttering open, she gasped as she saw her mother sitting beside (what she assumed to be) her bed. But this Margaret of Anjou was not the heartbroken woman that had died in the tower all those years ago.