~Anthony~

"Your turn your turn!" Anais giggled as she clapped her hands together like a child, her feet patting merrily on the floor beneath her chair. Eleanor grinned at her and looked to Marie before glancing at the stack of cards in amongst the food and drink in the middle of their table and at her own cards in her hand.

She was winning by far.

That morning was the first the three friends had spent together since April and it was now dawning on late June! Their reunion at the palace gates the previous day had been a spectacle for all to see for Anais had thrown herself at Eleanor like one of the children and even Marie had cried out and gathered her friend into her arms; abandoning her usual prim nature.

Eleanor had spent the evening and night with Richard and their children, listening to their tales and stories, smiling and laughing but she had spent that morning eating and playing cards without a care in the world!

It felt like heaven after the stress of the past weeks.

As she looked between the two (who were clearly in their cups) she could feel her heart flutter with excitement as it had done when she had seen them the day before! They were her dearest friends, she considered them to be family, like her sisters even! And they thought of her as the same!

"Come along, your grace!" Marie drawled as she poured herself another glass of wine, combing her hand through her long dark hair that was set loose for once "before you have played your hand we two shall have grown old and died!" Anais erupted into high pitched giggles that were soon engulfed by hiccups that made her shoulders bob.

Eleanor winked.
"Have no fear, my ladies, you shall still have your youth by the time our game is done!" She said and produced her card. The ace of spades.
"Oh fuck" Marie grumbled as she threw down her card which had a King and Anais was thrown into another fit of laughter.

"You swore!" She giggled, pointing at her friend "I heard you!" Eleanor laughed with her, her mind dizzying with glee as she applauded herself and Marie began to smile too, though rather dreamily as if she were in a trance.

A hurried knock sounded at the door and Anais rose to answer it only to wobble and find her legs didn't work, falling flat on her face! The other two fell into shouts of childish laughter as the knocking persisted and Eleanor signalled for Marie to go and answer it.

"I wonder who it could be?" She asked as Marie practically stumbled towards the door, yes those two had definitely drunk more than her for as she stood she found she didn't stumble at all! Either that or the drinking games Richard had taught her to play had given her some form of stamina!

She raised her eyebrows as Margaret Beaufort rushed into the room, her usually dull eyes alight with worry as she ran forward and dipped into a curtsy.
"Well well, to what do we owe the...."
"It's your brother!" Margaret cried and all of Eleanor's humour vanished from her face. She laughed lightly, waving her hand a little.

"My brother? Anthony?" She asked and Margaret nodded, looking slightly bewildered for a moment as she caught sight of Anais clinging onto a chair leg and calling it 'Francis'. But Eleanor merely frowned "what about him, Margaret?"

"He's was executed just an hour ago your grace"
Eleanor stared at the woman before her, her brows furrowing as she tried to take in the words said to her.

"No" she murmured, shaking her head before her voice rose to a shout. She shook her head, again and again as if to shake the very information from her mind. She covered her ears, screwing her eyes tightly shut "no my brother is not dead! I have heard no song! No song I tell you!"

"What song?" Margaret asked but any response she might have had was drowned by the scream that suddenly tore from Eleanor as she sunk to her knees, wrapping her arms around herself.
"Anthony!" She cried, finding her body suddenly engulfed by grief that shook her "Anthony! He said he would keep you safe! He said he would not harm you!"

She fell silent for a moment.
Then her eyes flew open.

"Richard" she hissed and Margaret flinched at the sudden change in the Duchess' voice as she struggled to her feet "Richard how could you?!" Eleanor's tear blurred gaze fell on a blade used to carve the ham she and her friends had eaten and her shaking hand reached out to take it, curling around the hilt.

Wiping her face with her sleeve, she pushed aside the chairs in her way and fled the room, not caring that no one had tried to stop her for she would not be stopped 'he said he would not hurt him!' Her mind cried as she ran along the hallways of Westminster 'he promised me! He swore to me!'

As she came to Richard's study, she threw open the door and strode in before slamming it shut. Her husband looked up from the documents he was pouring over and immediately stood as he saw the state she was in. Chest heaving, eyes and face red.

"My love what is...." he did not get a chance to finish as Eleanor moved forward, making her way across the room in less than a second it seemed before she shoved him hard against the wall, forcing the breath from his lungs. He groaned a little before gasping as he felt a knife pressed to his neck and realised it was Eleanor who held it.

"Why did you do it?!" she demanded, holding the blade firm as she stared into his eyes "You said that you wouldn't harm him. Yet I hear that my brother is dead! Executed at the Tower!"

Surprised surfaced in his eyes but she brushed it aside.
"I...." he began as her words dawned on him but she merely pressed the knife harder into his neck.
"Do not try and conjure up excuses" she hissed.
"Leena" he said slowly "whatever has happened, I did not order it" she scoffed.
"Did not order it?!" She cried "oh please! Who else could the order have come from? The faeries?"

"Our enemies" he pointed out and she scoffed again, though he felt the blade against his neck relent a little.
"Our enemies managed to worm their way into the most secure stronghold in the country?" she returned.

"I didn't do it" he replied "I swear and you know I am telling the truth because you love me and you know that I would not do this. I gave you my word that I would not harm Anthony and I have not. To the best of my knowledge until now he was safely in the tower. And you know that I would never betray you like this. You know I wouldn't." He held up his hands in surrender. The knife shook in her hand, only slightly, but he noticed. Noticed the way her eyes changed from a bright emerald glistening with tears to a deep sage as they were shed and her lower lip trembled "I did not order your brother's death, Leena. I swear I didn't"

The knife shook again, quivered uneasily in her grip. The grip that was weakening, as was her anger, melting away like snow in sunshine until only grief was left.

"Oh my darling" she breathed and then she clattering of a knife falling to the floor filled the room as she fell into his arms, sobbing "I'm sorry!" She wept, raising her head to press desperate kisses to his face "I'm sorry, Richard"

꧁꧂

As Eleanor woke the next morning she reached out to draw Richard to her only to find the sheet next to her empty yet still slightly warm. She groaned a little as she sat up, her body aching from the night before where she and Richard had made love to one another until neither had any strength left to do so in an effort to distract them from their grief and troubles.

Their clothes lay scattered around the room, caught on pegs and strewn over coffers and mirrors. His doublet lay by the fireplace, where he had laid her down and made love to her so passionately she had been sure she had entered heaven as her toes curled and she tossed back her head, tears of pleasure leaking from the corners of her eyes.

Now he was sat in his shirt and breeches in the window. Even though he was now thirty there was a decidedly boyish appearance about his face that morning with his tousled curly hair and open, honest eyes that stared out of the window.

Pulling a fur blanket around her as a covering she slipped from the bed and padded over to join him, sitting opposite him in the window and smiling across at him. He turned his head to look at her, sighing a little.
"I've something to tell you, my love" he said and she nodded, instantly knowing what it was he wanted to say "I am going to take the throne of England"

"You are sure?" She asked quietly, taking his hand and he nodded as she had done.
"A boy King was one thing" he murmured "an illegitimate boy King simply cannot happen....I have spent hours inspecting the evidence Harry presented to us and in truth it is irrefutable. It seems I truly am the rightful King" he paused slightly "will you stand with me?" He asked and Eleanor shuffled over to him, placing herself on his lap as she kissed him.

"I may have shown doubt and distrust yesterday" she said "and I was wrong, I know that now. But I have loved you for over a decade Richard Plantagenet and I trust you with all that I am and all that I have. The path that is now to be will be a hard one, there is no doubt about that and my seeing makes me feel the danger even more. But if this is the path which you are going to take then I will walk it with you and we will weather whatever storms are to come together. Come hell or high water I will be by your side"

She kissed him again, feeling his arms wrap around her, calm and confidant in her love "Je t'aimerai alors que le soleil brûle et que nos châteaux s'effondrent à nos pieds" she whispered against his lips.

'I will love you as the sun burns out and our castles crumble at our feet'

He smiled at her, kissing her forehead.
"Your French has improved" he teased before he leant back against the window frame "I will be King! And you, you will be my Queen"

"Queen Eleanor of York" she said, testing the name on her tongue. It did not feel nor sound right to her and she suspected it never would. Was her destiny now to become the Queen of England? To rule the entire country by Richard's side? "Our family will never be able to have peace again" she whispered and Richard bowed his head a little as the thought occurred to him too.

"Perhaps not" he agreed "but we can find a new type of peace for us. Together"
"Always together" she confirmed, sealing her words with another kiss.