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The boy's father was dead. 697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAdjyWKOhGF
So was his brother.
Cecily was on her knees, the broken sobs tearing apart her chest and pressing down on her like the weight of a thousand suns. She clutched at the neckline of her gown; it was suffocating her, she couldn't breathe, there was no air, no way to catch her breath... Nothing, nothing was right, everything was turned upside down... 697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKOM6Ntxf0v
She felt as though her heart was shattering and the shards were piercing her lungs. As if the loss of her husband wasn't terrible enough, but her son... Her Edmund too?
With trembling fingers, she took off her butterfly headdress. She cast it aside, not caring that the priceless silk folds were lying in the dust and mud that soldier's boots had walked in. 697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDZ7zlqYBII
Her slender fingers tugged at her silvery hair, grasped at her skull. Her breath was coming in gasps as she rocked back and forth on the cold stone floor, the iciness of the stone sending tremors through her knees all the way up through her body. She shivered violently.
Her collarbones were red where her nails had scratched her pale skin, where her hands had searched for something to hold on to, something to anchor herself to. 697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2tP1XPj7sj
She grasped at the golden necklace around her neck, holding it tightly and pulling on it until it snapped. It had been a gift from her husband.
Now he was dead.
The boy watched from the darkness of the corridor. The door had been left ajar, and before the tall, lean figure that he recognised as that of his brother, he bore witness to his mother's grief. 697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaDcRsQRE1i
Cecily had never before shown such emotion, but upon the news of her widowhood, she had opened the floodgates and now found herself unable to stop or control the waves of despair that consumed her and left her shaking on her knees.
The boy's eldest brother kneeled before his mother, taking her into an embrace. Cecily clinged to him, her hands around his neck gripping the armour he still wore. Her sobs had turned to cries; desperate, heartbreaking cries.
"They will be avenged." Edward muttered. Cecily nodded, silencing herself.
The boy moved forward slightly. The floorboard beneath him creaked. Edward's head turned.
"Richard?" He asked. He had not expected his youngest brother to be awake at this hour. It was late. It had taken Edward hours to ride from where he had been stationed. He had come as soon as he had heard the news.
"Father? He is... Dead?" The boy stammered.
Cecily once more broke down. Hearing the words from the mouth of her youngest son once more gave the grief a foothold.
"Aye." Edward said grimly. "Yes, Richard. It is true."
"Edmund too?" Richard asked. Edward nodded silently.
Richard felt tears burn in his eyes. He was eight years old, and had no understanding yet of death. All he knew was that men were not to cry. Like Edward, he tried to remain stoic, to grit his teeth and furrow his brow and push his emotions to the back of his mind. 697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvKo6Q1alP3
But he was never to see his father. Not ever again? And Edmund? Never?697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9y4E8VpqFV
Childlike questions cropped up in his mind, but Richard knew this was not the time to ask them. How can they be gone, he longed to ask. How can it be, when they were both so strong? Both such fearless and brave men, how?697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8RidG2ic7J
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Edward saw the boy struggling to fight back tears, and turned away from his mother and faced the boy.
"It's okay, Dickon." He said softly. "I'm going to take the crown. I'm going to avenge our father and brother." He said with a sad smile.
Cecily's head snapped up. Her eyes were fierce and frantic.
"Make them pay, Edward." She said savagely. "Make the bitch that killed your father pay for what they've done to him. Slaughter the bastards that cut down your brother." She said venomously.
Her tone was like ice, her eyes were ruthless and violent. She wanted the woman who had commanded her husband's brutal death dead. She wanted the woman who had had her husband's head struck off and stuck on a spike to meet the same fate as he had. She wanted the woman behind the death of her second son to suffer. She wanted the men that had struck down her son to die as brutally as Edmund had.
"Don't worry," Edward said darkly. His eyes had become like slits, his mouth downturned in a sharp line. One fist was clenched, the other was gripping the hilt of his sword. When he spoke, his words were like knives. "I will."
Then there was silence. 697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmyNVFXlwaY
Edward left, saying nothing. The only sound was the noise of his heavy, armoured shoes hitting the stone floor as he departed and the gentle sniffs of Cecily as she picked herself up of the floor.
She sent Richard upstairs to gather his things and alert his brother. They were leaving, fleeing the country until it was safe again. Richard understood then, that this is what it was to be a Plantagenet. It was not nobility and royal blood as his father had told him. It was turmoil and grief and conflict with those you should have called family. The name he bore was heavy, and not with the riches his father had promised. It was heavy with a burden Richard didn't want to bear any longer.
Silence fell once more.
Then there was nothing. Nothing, nothing left to make them stay in the castle they had called their home.
A/N: Okay so Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York was beheaded and his head stuck on a spike over York. His son, Edmund, was killed in cold blood when he was fleeing the battle. Cecily shipped off Richard (later Richard III) and his brother George off to the Low Countries for safety. Edward won the throne months later and became king Edward IV of England.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJzwWXf5PZ1
The 'she' that killed the Duke is Margaret (or Marguerite) of Anjou (or d'Anjou). She was the wife of King Henry VI. The Duke of York was his cousin and had been proclaimed heir to Henry, disinheriting Margaret's son. Safe to say she was pissed. Her men killed the Duke and after putting his head on a spike, placed a paper crown on top of it to mock his status as the king's heir. One of the first things Edward IV did when he came to the throne was to remove his father and brother's heads from the top of Mickelgate bar.697Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcG3VHKZ7vi
