-𝑂𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙-
It's the year 1466 and King Edward IV is on the throne of England. His wife and Queen ,Elizabeth Woodville, has just given birth to her first daughter ,Lizzie, but not all is w...
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It was all over in under an hour and the Yorkists emerged victorious, the warm blood of their enemies streaming down their faces and staining their armour as they cheered and hollered out their triumph over the rebels.
Richard found Marian leaning against the disembowelled body of her horse, her hair in disarray - helmet long gone -, and her body seemingly completely covered in mud and blood, some of which was her own. She sat with her sword still clutched tightly in her fist, eyes fixed on a burning standard...Buckingham's standard.
She looked up as the King sat beside her, her face pale and showing next to no emotion. Richard remembered the times in Scotland when they went into battle and how, for a few hours after the bloodshed, his wife would always be a little despondent (as was he) and needed gentle coaxing to draw her back into the light again.
"What caught you?" He asked softly as he tracked the stream of blood, which was flowing from her forehead, with his finger. "A dagger" she answered flatly, taking hold of his hand and kissing his fingers despite the mud and grime that caked them "it is nothing to worry about, I am sure..."
Marian then turned and began to stroke her dead steeds mane "he was so beautiful..." she whispered and Richard put an arm around her shoulders. "Aye...he was and he has served you well for many years, my love..."
The Queen nodded, wiping away the tears that had begun to break free from her eyes though it did little but smear the blood. Then, using her sword and Richard's arm for support, she rose from the ground and together they began to hunt for Rob and Francis.
Once reunited, questions immediately begun to be raised about Buckingham's whereabouts. According to Lord Stanley, the snake had escaped the battle field and was now fleeing with neither horse nor sword and so would be easy to track down. The King immediately dispatched his Lords to capture the fugitive and then acquired a horse; hoisting Marian up in front of him and galloping back to the village with his arm securely about her waist.
༒༒༒
"We shall rest at Ludlow castle for a few days on our journey back to the capital, my love" Richard said as he cleaned the wound on Marian's head while she straddled him in the warm water of the bath tub, gazing at him with love in her eyes "my older brothers Edward and Edmund passed their boyhood there, you know?" She shook her head "No, mon coeur, I didn't, but will be pleased to hear more...if you will tell me of course..."
"Another time Marian" Richard replied, discarding the wet rag he has used to clean the cut and beginning to trace the contours of her body with his hands "once we have settled a little at Ludlow and the executions..." "Executions?" "Harry's...you cannot expect me to spare his life after everything he's done, sweetling" "Sweetling?" She repeated, a little smile appearing on her lips "you have never called me that before, Richard" "Well do you like it?"
