-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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The year of 1477 passed in a turbulent blur for Marian as she dealt with her grief and retreated more and more from court life, travelling back to Middleham with Richard and their children as soon as she could. Meg's family were as grief stricken as she, and she found comfort in that, found that she could talk to them which set her at ease a little; was saddened greatly when they returned to Warwickshire.
In January, Marian found that once again she was with child and after a long, tiering pregnancy, gave birth to a daughter in September which, although the baby was christened as Margaret, she immediately insisted on everyone calling her new daughter, Meg.
She kept this new daughter of her close to her, always near, never quite out of sight for she was becoming paranoid that the child would be ripped away from her as her namesake was; was determined to protect her from the evil demons of the world, one in particular with the cursed name of Clarence.
This paranoia of hers was definitely not unwarranted, for with each passing day, George's crimes seemed to increase, with more and more coming to light the deeper the King and his advisors dug. Yet, he had still not been caught.
However, not only did Meg's ghost follow Marian's waking hours, she also became etched into her nights, her blonde hair, her joyful, mischievous eyes, her laugh and smile terrorising the Duchess every time she closed her eyes for a moment. She would see Meg being dragged away, see her being forced to the block, see the axe sweep down, and then...she would wake up screaming, sitting up violently, head and eyes -which were often filled with tears- darting from side to side frantically until she felt the strong arms of Richard around her, comforting her.
Sometimes her screams of grief and horror were so loud, so heartbreaking that Lisbet and Edmund would come dashing into their parent's chamber, along with Percy who had been tasked with acting as the children's guard, and clamber onto the bed in great haste, clinging onto their mother, tears rolling down their own cheeks.
Every night, Meg would beg for Marian to help her, and every night all Marian could do was watch.
As Christmas time came around and Middleham castle came alive with merrymaking, Marian felt a little more joyful, as everyone around her was, and knew that she was on her way to healing, though the scar of pain would always be there and she had long since realised that this process of her grief would take longer than usual, for though she had tried, she had been unsuccessful in blocking Meg from her thoughts, as she had always done when she lost the people around her. It was her defence, her protection, but this time it proved to be futile.
In January, a grand feast was to be held to mark the fifteen years of Edward's reign and so, of course, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were travelling to court once again.
Only this time they would arrive without their children as they thought Middleham to be a much more safer place than the court, filled with friends and those loyal to the symbols of the white boar of Richard of Gloucester and the Golden Eagle of Marian of Lancaster. A place where George, or anyone else who may intended them harm, couldn't get to them.
