Moonlight And Shadow Read online

  Contents

  Introduction

  List of Characters

  Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-one

  Twenty-two

  Twenty-three

  Twenty-four

  Twenty-five

  Twenty-six

  Twenty-seven

  Historical Note

  Acknowledgments

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  MOONLIGHT AND SHADOW

  A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the author

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 2002 by Isolde Martyn

  This book may not be reproduced in whole or part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. Making or distributing electronic copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could subject the infringer to criminal and civil liability.

  For information address:

  The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  The Penguin Putnam Inc. World Wide Web site address is

  http://www.penguinputnam.com

  ISBN: 978-1-1012-0450-4

  A BERKLEY BOOK®

  Berkley Books first published by The Berkley Publishing Group, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  BERKLEY and the “B” design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Putnam Inc.

  Electronic edition: MARCH, 2003

  For my parents, Joyce and Fredy,

  with thanks not only for their love but

  for nourishing the joy in history that has

  been so much part of my life

  Introduction

  Readers of The Maiden and the Unicorn will meet some familiar historical figures in this story, which is set twelve years later in 1483.

  England is at peace and still ruled by the Yorkist king, Edward IV. He has given the north into the keeping of his competent brother, Richard of Gloucester, whose headquarters is at Middleham, northwest of York.

  Wales is being governed by the young Prince of Wales’s household at Ludlow under the leadership of the king’s brother-in-law, Lord Rivers. This is of considerable annoyance to twenty-nine-year-old Harry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, who resides at Brecknock (Brecon) in South Wales.

  It seems that the old battles between the houses of York and Lancaster are over, or are they? Harry is very conscious of being a Plantagenet and having a distant claim to the throne; over in Brittany, Henry Tudor is waiting for a crack in the Yorkist solidarity; and nearly everyone dislikes the queen’s family.

  Heloise Ballaster, maid of honor to Gloucester’s duchess at Middleham, and Sir Miles Rushden, friend and adviser to Harry, are about to be ensnared in personal conflict as well as a deadly battle for the crown that could destroy them all.

  List of Characters

  Only those persons marked with an asterisk are fictional.

  The Household of the Duke of Gloucester at Middleham, Yorkshire

  HELOISE BALLASTER* eldest daughter of the merchant Sir Dudley Ballaster; maid of honor to the Duchess of Gloucester

  LADYMARGERYHUDDLESTON half-sister to Anne, Duchess of Gloucester; bastard daughter of Warwick the Kingmaker

  SIRRICHARDHUDDLESTON knight banneret; husband of Lady Margery Huddleston

  RICHARDPLANTAGENET, DUKE OFGLOUCESTER youngest brother of the Yorkist king, Edward IV; later lord protector for his nephews; future King Richard III

  ANNE, DUCHESS OFGLOUCESTER wife of Richard Plantagenet; daughter of Warwick the Kingmaker

  EDWARD son of the Duke of Gloucester

  DR. JOHNDOKETT chaplain to the Duke of Gloucester

  FRANCIS, LORDLOVELL chamberlain to the Duke of Gloucester

  SIRRICHARDRATCLIFFE retainer of the Duke of Gloucester

  SIRPIERSHARRINGTON* retainer of the Duke of Gloucester

  The Household of the Duke of Buckingham at Brecknock, Wales

  SIRMILESRUSHDEN* (Y C YSGOD ) son and heir to Phillip, Lord Rushden; friend of the Duke of Buckingham

  HARRYSTAFFORD, DUKE OFBUCKINGHAM brother-in-law to the queen; cousin to Richard, Duke of Gloucester; descended from King Edward III

  SIRWILLIAMKNYVETT acting constable of Brecknock Castle; friend of the Duke of Buckingham

  SIRRICHARD DE LABERE retainer of the Duke of Buckingham

  SIRNICHOLASLATIMER chamberlain to the Duke of Buckingham

  SIRTHOMASLIMERICK steward to the Duke of Buckingham

  PERSHALL servant of the Duke of Buckingham

  RALPHBANNASTRE servant of the Duke of Buckingham

  CATHERINE(CAT) WOODVILLE, DUCHESS OFBUCKINGHAM wife of Harry Stafford; sister of the queen, Elizabeth Woodville

  EDWARD(NED), LORDSTAFFORD son and heir of the Duke of Buckingham

  BESS Ned’s nursemaid

  BENET* Ned’s servant

  BRIAN* archer

  EMRYS* Welsh harpist

  RHYS APTHOMAS Welsh lord

  LADYMYFANNWY* maid of honor to the Duchess of Buckingham; ward of Rhys ap Thomas

  THOMASNANDIK Cambridge scholar and astrologer, formerly in Lord Hastings’s employ

  TRAVELLER* Sir Miles Rushden’s beloved horse

  DAFYDD* a superlative mouser

  At Bramley in Somerset

  PHILLIP, LORDRUSHDEN* Sir Miles Rushden’s father

  DOBBE* servant to Miles Rushden

  SIRDUDLEYBALLASTER* a merchant, knighted by King Edward IV for supporting the House of York

  DIONYSIABALLASTER* younger sister of Heloise Ballaster

  MATILLIS* second wife of Sir Dudley Ballaster

  SIRHUBERTAMORY* retainer of Sir Dudley Ballaster

  MARTIN* groom to Sir Dudley Ballaster

  CLOUD* Heloise Ballaster’s dun mare

  The Prince of Wales’s Entourage at Stony Stratford

  EDWARD, PRINCE OFWALES(KINGEDWARDV) elder son of King Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth Woodville

  ANTHONYWOODVILLE, LORDRIVERS eldest brother of the queen; uncle to Edward, Prince of Wales; in charge of the prince’s household at Ludlow

  SIRRICHARDGREY half-brother of Edward V; younger son of the queen, Elizabeth Woodville, by her first marriage

  JOHNALCOCK, BISHOP OFWORCESTER controller of the prince’s household; supporter of the Woodvilles

  ROBERTSTILLINGTON, BISHOP OFBATH ANDWELLS a former chancellor of England

  Others

  THEVAUGHANS an English family, based at Tretwr, with a dislike of any authority, especially Buckingham’s

  LEWISGLYNCOTHI Welsh bard

  WILLIAM, LORDHASTINGS Lord chamberlain to Kings Edward IV and Edward V

  SIRWILLIAMCATESBY retainer of Lord Hastings

  CECILY, DUCHESS OFYORK mother of Richard of Gloucester; residing at Baynards Castle, London

  JOHNMORTON, BISHOP OFELY royal councilor; previously a supporter of the House of Lancaster

  JOHN, LORDHOWARD supporter of Richard III; later Duke of Norfolk

  THOMAS, LORDSTANLEY royal councilor; third husband of Margaret Beaufort and st
epfather of Henry Tudor

  MARGARETBEAUFORT, COUNTESS OFRICHMOND mother of Henry Tudor, a claimant to the throne; wife of Lord Stanley

  EDWARDIV, KING OFENGLAND Yorkist king of England since 1461; oldest brother of Richard, Duke of Gloucester; husband of Elizabeth Woodville; father of Edward, Prince of Wales and Prince Richard

  ELIZABETHWOODVILLE, QUEEN OFENGLAND wife of King Edward IV; mother of Princes Edward and Richard and their sisters, as well as two sons from an earlier marriage: the Marquis of Dorset and Sir Richard Grey

  THOMASGREY, MARQUIS OFDORSET eldest son of the queen by her first marriage

  HENRYTUDOR an exile in Brittany; son of Margaret Beaufort; descended from a bastard grandson of King Edward III

  DR. ARGENTINE physician to Edward V

  DR. LEWIS physician to the Countess of Richmond

  GEORGE, DUKE OFCLARENCE late brother of King Edward IV and Richard, Duke of Gloucester; executed by Edward IV

  SIRHUMPHREYSTAFFORD Welsh Marches supporter of Richard III

  TYLWYTH TEG*? faeries and friends to Heloise Ballaster

  Prologue

  MIDDLEHAM, YORKSHIRE, YULETIDE, JANUARY 1483 Packed like a row of spoons, the maids of honor to her grace of Gloucester snuggled together in the great bed for warmth against the icy wind howling across the moors of Wensleydale. It should have been impossible for a nightmare to insinuate itself amongst them, but Heloise Ballaster awoke as she hit the floor, bringing the candlestick crashing down with her and bruising her elbow on the wooden bedsteps.

  The shriek of her nearest neighbor awoke the others and four faces peered down at her from the edge of the coverlet, their braids dangling like a row of bell ropes.

  “Your pardon,” whispered Heloise ruefully, goosefleshed as she scrambled quickly back up into the high bed.

  “Was it him again?” asked someone.

  The dream of an armored knight, visor down, thundering towards her with a deadly lance aimed at her breast?

  “Yes. And I always fall. Why do I always fall?”

  “Mayhap it was not his lance he was aiming at you, Heloise,” giggled the worldliest among them. “Maybe there is something you are not telling us.”

  There was.

  Heloise’s nightmares always came true.

  One

  Bring us in no bacon, for that is passing fat,

  But bring us in the good ale and give us enough of that,

  And bring us in good ale!

  Bring us in good ale and bring us in good ale,

  For our Lady’s blessed sake, bring us in good ale.

  YORKSHIRE YULETIDE, 1483 Tankards slammed bawdily upon the trestle tables and the great hall of the Duke of Gloucester’s castle at Middleham guffawed with Yorkist laughter as the cockatrice, a gaudy, four-legged monster with the head of a rooster and the tail of a crocodilus, capered round among the revelers. By rights, the legendary creature should have had a pig-like rear but no one could be bothered arguing. It staggered and swore with two voices as someone grabbed hold of its scaly tail.

  “Ouch!” spluttered Heloise Ballaster, who was playing the head. She recovered her balance and craned the cumbersome beak round to see which drunken lout was impeding her progress. The merrymaking had become suddenly too boisterous and some of the rowdier youths were trying to discover who owned the cockatrice’s legs.

  “I’ll deal with this knave,” exclaimed the cockatrice’s tail. Will, the duke’s jester, loosened his arms from Heloise’s waist and jabbed two fingers out the rear end of the costume into the fellow’s nose, and then he squirted the contents of a leather bladder after it. The onlookers collapsed in fits of raucous laughter as the esquire staggered back in humiliated surprise, his face dripping with pudding ale.

  “We must end this, Will!” Heloise muttered, lurching away as a reveler tried to peer inside the beak. Thank heaven she wore a black mask as well. Yes, definitely time to make their exit. This prank was growing far too perilous. God’s mercy! If it should be discovered that one of the duchess’s maids of honor was prancing in doublet and hose—with a man’s arms and face against her waist (not that the jester ever showed any interest in women)—her virtue would be put to the question. Besides, it was not just fear of disgrace that was fraying her wits but a gnawing sense of evil about to happen.

  “Shall we make for the great chamber then, mistress? Mistress?”

  Heloise did not answer. She swayed as the rush of blood that precipitated a vision flooded her mind. Not now, please God, not now! But it came unwanted—the nightmare image of the duke’s son writhing upon the floor, choking for breath.

  “Mistress?” Will’s arms shook her back to the reality of the smoky hall. He turned her towards the dais, for the great chamber where they had left their outer garments lay beyond the high table—the high table where the duke’s heir, a giggling ten-year-old, was reaching out to the golden platter of wafers and sugar-coated almonds. Almonds that could choke a laughing child!

  “Jesu!” Fear of discovery—not just of shamefully playing the cockatrice but her terror that the entire castle might shrink from her as a witch—warred with her duty. But how could she risk the life of Richard Gloucester’s precious son?

  “No,” Heloise exclaimed. “No!”

  The cockatrice hurtled up the hall, its rear staggering, reared up to grab the platter, and tripped. Silver dishes skidded, sweetmeats flew as if magicked, goblets splashed their contents down the sumptuous cloth, the central trestle tumbled, crashing down the steps, and the duke and his guests sprang up.

  The music and the laughter stopped in midbreath. Heloise, blanching behind her mask, took an anguished look at the colored shards of costly glass spattering the tiles, and gazed up wretchedly at his grace’s astounded face. But the boy was safe. Uncertain, surprised, but beside his father, safe.

  Silence, growing more menacing by the instant, surrounded the grotesque cockatrice. Heloise backed into Will, wishing the floor would swallow her up. For an instant, it seemed to the onlookers that the monster’s back and front legs were trying to go in different directions and then the creature shook itself into some sort of unison and hurtled out the nearest door.

  “That was impressive,” commented a female voice laced with humor. “We shall have to remember that for next year as well.”

  Lady Margery Huddleston, the creator of the costume, had hastened after them into the great chamber. Briskly, she gripped the painted edifice that had been stifling Heloise and wriggled it free. Already there were raised voices beyond the door.

  Heloise blinked at her helplessly, wishing desperately that she might turn time backwards. How could she possibly explain? “I am sorry, madam. I am so sorry.” Here was the last person she wished to anger; Margery, the duchess’s bastard half-sister, had been a good friend to her.

  “They will want to understand.” Margery tilted her head towards the great hall. “I want to understand! God’s mercy, where—” Scanning the chamber, she snatched up Heloise’s discarded overgown. “Quickly!” Hastily, she tugged it over Heloise’s head, struggling to hide the shirt and borrowed hose just as the door opened.

  “Aye, Mistress Ballaster!” exclaimed the jester, crawling with sweating pate and scarlet face from the beast’s entrails. “Would you care to explain what in hell you were about? Oh, lordy, here is the judge and jury.”

  Thirty-one years old, Duke Richard of Gloucester was not a tall man, but, being a brother to the king, his authority gave him extra stature, and at that instant he was looking stern enough to hang a man—or woman. His golden eyes took in the discarded skin of yellow fustian, the scaled, flaccid tail, and rose questioningly to the scarlet-beaked head that his sister-in-law was hugging to her bosom. Margery gave a tiny shrug and the duke stared beyond her to his wife’s crumpled maid of honor.

  “Close the door!” he ordered grimly.

  Heloise’s face burned with shame as his shocked gaze fell upon the ungirded gown with its collar slatternly awry, and the loosened ginger le
gs of the cockatrice puddled around her ankles. Gravely, she removed her mask. At least her accursed hair, bonneted into a coif, was out of sight. They had been so courteous and decent to her, these people, and this was how she repaid them. All the warmth and respect she had sought to kindle in her few months at Middleham was turning to ashes. Controlled though it now was, Gloucester’s voice was like a lash to her already bruised morale.

  “Since you seem to be the brains of this creature, mistress, perhaps you would care to enlighten me as to why you upset our table?”

  Others had followed the duke in—the chamberlain and his grace’s chaplain—and she could hear an inebriated crowd gathering outside with the excitement of carrion crows anticipating a killing.

  “I thought my lord your son was about to choke.” It was the truth. “I was wrong. I beg your pardon, your grace.” Please do not send me home, your grace, her eyes beseeched him. Not to the beatings and the anger.

  “How could you discern such a thing?” Dr. Dokett, the chaplain, stepped forward, his huge black sleeves aflap with malevolence. “You were at the end of the hall. How could you possibly see?”