Chapter LXXII

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March 1484

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March 1484

Ned, Maggie, Nora, Arthur, Teddy, Bella and Kathryn, the young children of York ran together across the castle. Bella and Teddy helped Kathryn run with them, swinging her around every so often to compensate for her smaller legs.

"Kathryn, Bella! Maggie! Teddy!" Anne scolded them, but the children ran off anyway, ignoring her.

Ned, Richard's and Anne's son, was trailing behind them, his wooden sword raised in the air, when his mother spotted them.

Before her own son could get away, Anne grabbed Ned by the arm he used to hold his wooden sword.

"Edward!" She exclaimed, frowning when she noticed that her son was only wearing his underclothes. "Where are your clothes?!"

"I'm hot," the boy said simply, shrugging his shoulders.

Alarmed, Anne placed her hands on both sides of her only son's neck, immediately feeling how hot he was. "You're burning up," she stated and grabbed her son by the hand, to lead him back to his room where she could nurse him back to health. "You must be put to bed at once."

"No! Lady Mother, please! I want to keep playing with my cousins," Ned whined, detesting the way his mother babied him.

"Anne?" A voice called out and Anne turned her head, watching as Richard, Charlotte and Edmund walked toward her together.

"Ned has another fever," Anne informed her husband, sister and nephew calmly.

"He's just been running around," Richard assured Anne, not seeing it as a big deal, unlike his wife.

Glad that his father had taken his side, Ned ran off to find his cousins.

Anne sighed in defeat as she watched her only son run away from her.

"My spies tell me that Henry Tudor's declared that he is King of England and announced his betrothal to Caitlin," Richard informed Anne, who turned to face them with a shocked look.

"What?" She asked, letting out a small gasp.

"He claims that in my sister, he will unite Lancaster. That he'll marry their son to Kathryn and unite York and Lancaster in one, in the House of Tudor. The deaths of my younger brothers has only made him bolder and now he will invade the very first moment he can," Edmund explained, trying to contain his anger. "Of course, my daughter will marry no son of his and when my son is born, he will be the one who becomes King."

─────•~❉᯽❉~•─────

Edmund held his wife as she slept. Her nose was pressed against his chest, snuggled into him. It was a restless sleep, but it was a sleep. She had cried herself into this state after feeling blood soak up her skirt.

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