~The Power I Hold Over You~

The two cousins stared at each other from across Edward's study, one holding the Queen, the other willing her to speak to him. All Constance did was cry.

The fire was not lit in the hearth but a chair was by it all the same and it was there Warwick placed the Queen, settling her limp body against the wood; pushing his handkerchief into her hand. Not once did she look at her husband and when Edward tried to go to her, his cousin blocked the way.

"Have you gone mad?" Richard demanded, not yet raising his voice but Edward knew from childhood experience, that only meant his rage was all the greater.

"Mad acknowledging my son?" He still retorted sharply.

"In front of the entire court and Queen who is with child!" Richard added, pointing to the woman behind him "It is common knowledge how much Constance and Elizabeth are at odds with one another yet now you have stood for your whore against your Queen!"
"I have not!"

"You have!" He cried, now raising his voice to a yell in the hope that the stupid boy in front of him might for once pay attention to words and not his cock "You dishonour your Queen and you dishonour France in return!"

God he was sure he'd never spoken as truthfully as he did then and yet Edward only stared, his expression incredulous. He looked like he was about to remind his cousin he was addressing his King but if he did that, Warwick swore those would be the last words Edward ever spoke.

"You are being ridiculous, cousin" Edward accused pointedly " I have not dishonoured her country!" Now it was Warwick's turn to look incredulous and he laughed, tossing back his head like he would when he was truly amused but his voice was thick with mockery, denouncing Edward as a silly little boy merely through his laugh.

The King shuffled from foot to foot, gaze unwavering yet pride stung. He knew what his cousin's mockery could do all too well and he hated it.

"You have acknowledged a bastard in public, in front of your entire court after your whore and her clan storm your petition session in front of your pregnant Queen and yet I am the one being ridiculous Edward?"

Richard shook his head, scoffing like he used to when one of his wards made a mistake in training "And don't you dare tell me not to call her your whore in doing so you will name yourself blind as well as dim"

Edward's jaw clenched and he advanced a step, teeth grinding together with anger and embarrassment.
"I am not a child, cousin, do not speak to me as if I were one" His old mentor merely sneered, looking down on him although Edward was the taller of the two.

"Then do not act like one" He hissed "Then I may consider treating you as the King you are meat to be instead of the petulant boy you seem! Really if your Father were here..." Those few words made Edward's head snap up like a taught bowstring, sending a shoot of pain down his spine that thrummed through his heart. He shook his head.

"If my Father were here...." Words failed him for a moment and if he'd not been so angry he was sure tears would've pooled in his eyes "I wouldn't be King"

"No" Warwick shot back, not caring how deep he drove his knife for Edward had driven his far deeper "but I can count on the fact that he will be wanting to thwack you from heaven, boy" Edward stared at him for a moment longer then finally dropped his gaze to his boots, shuffling back and forth again.

"Think on that" He continued, no longer shouting but his tone no less dangerous "because your crown, your throne is more precarious than our relations with France, relations you are in danger of breaking if you don't keep your cock in your breeches and your bastards out of the view of the court. Constance may not be of the royal family but by God King Louis will use any insult against her as an insult against him, as will the entire House of Bourbon! Now sit down"

He pointed to the chair opposite Constance and Edward didn't hesitate to obey, scurrying to his seat like a child and forcing himself to look at the woman opposite him. She stared into the unlit hearth beside her, one elbow resting on the arm of the chair white Warwick's handkerchief lay bunched in her fist; pressed against her mouth.

She no longer cried but her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy and her chest rose and fell at an alarming rate. Every moment or so she shook her head, taking a breath that threatened to turn into a sob until she forced herself to be steady.

Not once did she look up at her husband, she only turned to Richard with glistening eyes, like a child in need of a hug: fragile, desperate.
"Be careful" He told Edward as his hand came to rest on Constance's shoulder.

"Is that a threat?" He replied curtly, glaring at his cousin but his cousin only smirked, again looking on Edward like he would a naughty child.

"No" He clarified "but you may be facing many if you keep throwing about your power as if you are safe because you are not, Ned. I wish you were but you're not, you cannot afford to put one foot wrong because there are many who are watching, waiting to trip you up. Your Father would hate for you to fall"

Raising his eyebrows slightly, he gave Edward one final frown before he stormed out of the room, his rage boiling so hot Constance wouldn't have been surprised to see a trail of smoke behind him!

Upon opening the door he let out a loud scoff of disgust and the Queen's head snapped up at the sound of rustling silk and the babbling of a young babe. Elizabeth Woodville strode into the room, stopping short when she saw her rulers and their defeated expressions.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, ignoring Warwick's second scoff as he walked away, her voice light and cheerful "I do hope I'm not interrupting something" Out of the corner of her eye, Constance saw Edward grimace and sniffed, glaring at him. God taught her not to hate but for all her piety she couldn't help hating Elizabeth.

Tearing her eyes away from her husband, she looked at the little boy in Elizabeth's arms, so perfect and happy, a little grin on his pink lips while he sucked the wooden poppet he held. He was blissfully unaware of what was going on around him, that he was a bastard, that he was the cause of a Queen's broken heart.

But not only that, he was her one desire and in that moment, more than wish he didn't exist, Constance wished Anthony was hers, just like she did when she saw Arthur. Oh what she would give for them to be her boys, her sons, her precious Princes, but there was nothing she could give to make them hers and the sight of the perfect little babe sickened her.

"Get out...." She hissed and Elizabeth's eyes flicked to hers, almost shocked that the Queen would address her "Get out" Constance repeated "or I will have you dragged from here" The blonde woman frowned but didn't move an inch, sticking her nose up in the air and looking to the King.

"Ned?" Bile rose in the Queen's throat at the nickname. How dare she be so intimate with her husband, with her King who was above her in every way possible "Ned?"

"Leave" His order was quiet but clear all the same and Elizabeth's eyes widened "I said leave Elizabeth" He repeated when she made no move again, mouth opening and closing like a fish's in disbelief. 'You thought you held more power than I' Constance thought, triumph swelling inside of her but not enough to quell her rage.

Looking between the King and Queen, Elizabeth flushed a bright red and finally turned to leave, kissing her boy gently on the head.

"Lady Grey" Edward's voice stung like the wind on a winter's day, her name no longer the sweet caress on his lips she'd come to know. He didn't bother to rise, instead merely turning his head and fixing his mistress with an icy gaze "I believe you know it is the custom to curtsy when leaving the presence of your Queen"

Elizabeth gaped at him but he didn't waver and waited, watching as she gathered her skirts and turned to the Queen.

"Your grace" She dipped down, silk pooling around her, bowing her head. 'The Devil in disguise' Constance thought when she rose, the shock in her eyes hardened to anger that tempted a laugh. She thought herself so high but one day she would be cast low, Constance was sure of that.

She would see it done.
"Go" She ordered harshly "Now"

This time Elizabeth obeyed and went silently from the room without protest, shutting the door behind her. Her absence did nothing to ease the tension suffocating those left, if anything it made it worse for there was no one else for Constance to focus her anger on but Edward.

"How could you?"

Blue eyes met green.

"This is not my fault..."
"Not your fault?" Constance cried, incredulous "It is entirely your fault!"
"I would not cast out a child of mine"

"That child should not exist!" She snapped sharply, rising from her seat as her breaths quickened again. A strike of pain shot through her belly and she grimaced, placing a hand atop it "She should not be here! You sent her away and now have welcomed her back as if you hold no power at all!"

Walking to his desk, she leant against it, not turning for fear she would throw a candlestick at the King if she saw his face "She undermines you as King, humiliates me as Queen and yet you pay no mind to it?" Her voice rose to a shout again and she heard Edward rise from his seat "Is this truly how much you lust for this roadside whore?"

A pair of hands tried to slide around her waist, tried to trace soothing circled on her hips but Constance moved, shrugging her husband away. If she let him, she knew she would give in, she knew she would relax into his arms and not give Elizabeth another thought until he was gone. She shook her head. Not this time.

"Connie...."

For once the name didn't sound sweet to her, it was bitter, sour with the memories of moments ago when Elizabeth had called Edward 'Ned' and she moved around the desk to where he couldn't reach her, where he couldn't use her love for him against her.

"No!" She yelled "No! I will speak and you will listen" She ordered "because I am sick of the air I breathe being poisoned by Woodvilles and you are pouring them into the court as if you are content seeing me ill!"

Tears blurred her vision again and she leant her hands on the desk. Edward had promised, he'd sworn to her that she would be bothered by Woodville's no more, he'd sent his whore from court and now....here she was again.

A man willing to accept his bastards was a rare thing indeed but why, 'why?' her mind cried, did he have to do it in public? "Just as my belly is doing its business!" She cried "Just when I think we may have a son you do this, Edward!"

Her gaze snapped up to meet his and softened only slightly while she tried to steady her breaths. God, she loved him, she couldn't help it and in that moment she hated herself for that love "I knew that you would take others to your bed" She murmured "and I do not care that you do for I know it is the nature of men; the nature of Kings. I have always known it but that does not stop me from wondering, in moments such as this...."

She sighed, feeling another bout of pain in her belly and realised she had no strength left for anger. Instead she only kept her eyes on his, slowly emerging from the far side of the desk to his side. Not once did he try to speak, letting her come to him, peer up at him from beneath dark lashes.

"Why am I not enough for you? Why must you have her? What is in her that is not in me? What does she give you that I cannot?" They were all questions that burned in her mind each time she saw the golden head of a Woodville and was reminded of her husband's infidelity, of Elizabeth.

Did he bed her because she knew she could have sons? It was strangely possible but what was the point in that? Elizabeth could not give him legitimate sons, only his Queen could, Constance.

"I try...." She continued and Edward's eyes darkened with guilt "I truly do..."
"I know, sweetheart" He took her hand but it only lay limp in his palm, cold like when they lost their babes and it seemed Constance was in a different world. Her skin was cold, the opposite to the fire burning in her heart.

Not anger: sadness.
Not a fire of burning red but a fire of swirling blue the same hue as Edward's eyes that danced around her heart, stinging, striking.

"Then tell me what I lack!" She cried, two searing tears gliding down her cheeks "tell me what I have to do to have this woman thrown from my life! What must I do to rank higher in you affections than she!"
"You don...." Edward began, only to be cut off by a definite shake of her head.

"I am your wife and yet she might as well be! She is a sickness, Edward, and will only bring suffering and pain to us all! Don't you see she is tearing your family apart? Our family?" Elizabeth and her clan were almost the entire reason Richard rebelled!

They were the reason the country was void of peace; that there were cracks in the house of York when it needed to be stronger than Lancaster could ever hope to be "Richard sees her for what she is, George does too and you are driving them from our arms! You saw anger in Richard's eyes before he left court but I doubt you saw the hurt I did, that you would dismiss a man who seeks only good for you in favour of your mistress!"

At long last she gripped her husband's hand and brought it to her lips, kissing his knuckles like he did to her, to show love and affection. This time she did it to show need, her need for him, England's need for him. They could not afford to be divided by one woman.

"He is more than your cousin, Edward. He is your brother. He may have stood against you but only because you drove him to it, because you let the Woodvilles infect our shores with their corrosive ambition. They are like acid and will soon burn away everything you hold dear"

She lingered for a moment, reaching up to gently caress Edward's cheek, smooth and clean shaven, littered with small scars collected from battle over the years, scars she'd kissed countless times. No, she couldn't help loving him, she always would no matter what.

While she called Marie her heart, Edward resided there too and he was her very soul. He was the one she adored and would stand by in all but this.

Pushing herself onto the tips of her toes, she placed a gentle kiss to his lips, relishing the warmth, but pulled away before he could settle his hands on her hips. Without another word she walked across his study and reached for the door, the metal handle cool on her skin.

"They will never burn you"
His words summoned a small smile to her lips and she glanced over her shoulder, one hand returning to the soft roundness beneath her gown where her baby grew. Their baby.

"They already have" She said and slipped away into the palace.

Another strike of pain struck her belly and she groaned, cradling her bump as she walked. It was best she rested for the remainder of the day, and perhaps the next day too, she thought, just for precaution. Her body needed no added stress and the adrenaline that pumped through her veins without yielding was a danger to her pregnancy.

She couldn't afford one single mistake.

"There, my love" She cooed when a little kick set her stomach aching "We shall rest now and all will be well" One hand ran over her gown and she forced herself to breathe deeply, focusing on the rustle of her silk train. The soft sound reminded her of running water and she took comfort in it, navigating the hallways to her chambers.

When she came to them, she nodded to the guards stationed outside and walked through the doors, feeling a sweep of relief over her body when they shut. The harsh thud was nothing less than angelic.

That was until, of course, she turned and saw the Woodville woman sitting by the fire, a chess board ready to be played in front of her on a table. Elizabeth lounged in her chair, idly thumbing at the head of the ivory Queen. The piece she wished to play.

The true Queen halted in her tracks.

"Get out" She hissed but Elizabeth only glanced up from below soft lashes, a small smile on pink lips but no less a lion stalking her prey. Why on earth had the guards let her in? 'God they must be fools and I shall have them gone' Constance thought, advancing only to have Elizabeth's suave voice stop her once more.

"Join me"

"You dare to command me? I am your Queen" Constance's words were a rare fire on her tongue, spat from a dragon's throat but the lion did not cower, she only tilted her head, her smile remaining. One graceful hand reached out, gesturing to the seat opposite her, inviting as if they were in her rooms, not Constance's.

Lord, her arrogance knew no bounds.

"Sit, your grace" She murmured. At least she allowed the Queen the respect of her title, too often she had not "or you orchestrate your own doom" Constance scoffed and wandered over to the little table, taking a seat with one hand placed protectively over her belly. Before her lay a set of oak pieces, the opposite hue to Elizabeth's, rather like their hair, Constance mused, flaxen against darkening brown.

"And what could you possibly hold over me?" She asked, plucking the oaken King from his place. While there were two Kings on the board there was only one in England and he could not be shared "You are the whore of a King who from this day I would perhaps suggest is discarded or if not I can persuade my Lord husband to do so" She shook her head "You never fail to amaze me"

Her steely words did nothing to move the woman opposite her. She only sighed.
"You are right. You are the Queen"
Constance tutted.
"I am more than that. I am your undoubted Queen anointed by God"

"A barren Queen" With those words, the King slipped from Constance's fingers, landing with a clatter on the marble floor and a hand rushed to her belly, cradling it protectively. No, no one would dare say that. It was not true, her mind cried, it was not true!

"I am not barren" Surprisingly her words were firm, void of the shaking that gripped her hands "Or are you blind as well as a whore?" Elizabeth merely smiled again, a smile that could not hide the wickedness beneath it, the nearby flames flickering in her eyes; a revelation of the devil only a few saw.

"I have not been blind these past ten years and I doubt I shall go blind this time either" She drawled, twisting the knife she'd forced into the Queen's heart long ago and Constance wouldn't have been surprised if her gown dampened with blood. Five little bodies flashed before her eyes, all tiny, all covered in blood: all dead. James, her long sought for boys, her precious girl, the little one too small to know it's sex.

"Don't you dare ill wish my boy" She hissed.
"The boy you failed time and again to have while I have given the King two" Of course that was what Elizabeth believed she held over her Queen and of course it was what Constance suspected too. She believed it sometimes.

"Bastards" She retorted bitterly "Bastards with no claim" Elizabeth's small smile widened and once more her slender fingers, glistening with jewels, reached for the King, picking him up as easily as she believed she could puppet Edward.

"Oh they could have a claim, if they were legitimised"

Had she not been so appalled, Constance would've laughed. Not only was her rival arrogant she was also deluded! While she felt doubts and fears, she'd known from her coronation that she was the one true Queen and none would replace her. If Edward even tried, he would find the might of France and it's allies crashing down on his head which was a blow he did not need.

"Impossible" She scoffed "You are not married to the King" Elizabeth shrugged, making the silk of her gown rustle as the layers rubbed together.
"I could be" She replied calmly "He needs a son. More than one. He needs sons. Sons you cannot provide. Why wouldn't he marry me? Cast you aside?"
"Because he...."

"Because he loves you?" She interrupted with a smirk, the condescension of her additional years seeping into her tone "How naïve you are, to believe the words of men spoken when they want their cock between your legs" Constance flushed a bright red and Elizabeth only grew more confident, looking at the Queen like a child "I did not think you were that, well....stupid"

"I am not stupid and I will give Edward a son. Many sons. Legitimate sons. He would never set me aside" The blonde across from her stared for a moment before she began shaking her head, letting a heavy sigh pass her lips.

"And in those few words you prove you are still a child. Weak. Naive. You may be Queen and have the King's hand but I have his heart, you would do well to remember that, Constance" Her words were like a whip to the Queen's heart, tearing at the deepening scars forced there by years of pain and Woodville torment.

But the scars did not open, not in that moment, the attack only fuelling an anger in Constance that had been brewing all the while they talked. Gathering her skirts, she never let her eyes leave Elizabeth's as she rose, moving slowly around the table and towering over her for once. Leaning down, her hands rested on either arm of the chair and she sneered, looking her rival up and down in disgust.

She would not let her win, no matter if what she was about to say went against all she'd ever been taught.

"And you would do well to remember I am a the sister of the Duke of Bourbon, one of the closest friends of the French King, head of one of the greatest dynasties of France and I have the might of my homeland behind me who with one word will have you strangled in your sleep and take your boys, as would the Nevilles" A small smile graced her lips and she tilted her head, just like Elizabeth had done.

"You have no allies at court, Elizabeth, and if you ever call me Constance again or let one mention of my children pass your poisonous lips, I will strangle you myself. I am the Queen of England. I hold more power in one word than you could ever do in a thousand. Now get out, before I change my mind and have your heart stopped where you sit. I assure you, I know many ways to do it and my brother, James, would be a more than willing participant"

Her voice turned hard and satisfaction coiled within her as she watched Elizabeth shrink away somewhat. It was involuntary, she was sure, but she shrank away all the same, flickers of fear replacing the fire within her eyes. For once, Constance had wielded her power and for once it had worked.

She had struck a blow not easily returned and when she pushed away, Elizabeth did not hesitate to stand. The two glared at one another in silence and Constance jerked her head towards the door, watching as the Woodville woman glided away, her expensive shoes tapping quickly across the floor.

"Yes, that's it" She whispered "Go"