𝙪𝙣𝙗𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙙
two. — men at arms!
THREE DAYS AFTER meeting the king, life in Grafton had already become much more eventful. The Rivers family continued on with their daily lives, but there was tension lying beneath the surface; one that hadn't been there before.
Early that morning, sitting by the riverside where her mother wove spells, curses and destinies, Melissa Woodville stared out into the distance, her hand brushing over the cool steel of the Yorkist sword she had been gifted.
"I do not know what is to become of us, lady mother," she admitted, tapping into Melusina's spirit, who always lingered by the waterside, listening to the woes and troubles of her young descendants. "I do not know what to do. With this strife between Lancaster and York, with my sister's relationship with the king, with the battle at Bosworth..."
She sighed, her thumb brushing over the white rose of York on the hilt of her sword. "Just give me an answer, a clue. Tell me what to do, lady mother."
There was silence, except for the slow flow of nature, the rush of the river and the chirruping of birds. No answer was forthcoming, as was typical with Melusina. Melissa knew she would have to wait before her ancestor answered her plea; it could never be as easy as the breath of a wind or the fall of a leaf. Magic was much more complicated than that; that, she was very aware of.
Placing the sword down on her lap, the redheaded Woodville girl reached into the fold of her cloak and pulled out the brass key that she had retrieved from the very river.
"A key," she murmured. "But what does it stand for?"
It was a conundrum. Unlike Elizabeth's token, which had been fairly straightforward — a ring-sized crown ("I wonder what that means," Melissa couldn't help but think to herself sarcastically) — hers was the epitome of confusing. An old, brass key. It looked to be the miniature of something, with faded little inscriptions carved into it, but they were too tiny to decipher. Melissa had tried looking in their library, even consulted the priest at St. Mary's Church near the manor, but no one could tell her what it meant.
"Just another mystery," the girl grouched to herself, putting the key away and picking up the sword as she stood up.
Heading back to the manor, she could hear the shouts and hurried stomps of men running around the estate. In the distance, in their meager armory, Melissa could see her eldest brother, Anthony running an axe against a worn old whetstone.
They were going to war.
This wasn't a surprise to her. Last night, she had heard her father arguing with her mother, over Edward of York's summons to the battlefield. The new king had demanded a dozen men of Baron Rivers, to fight against Margaret of Anjou's forces nearby, and according to her mother, there was naught they could do but switch sides and do their duty to the Yorks.
In the kind of situation they were now in, Melissa knew it would be a fool's errand to walk around defenseless, especially as a girl formerly from the House of Lancaster. So, that morning, before she had set off for the river, she'd grabbed the thickest cloak she owned and a scabbard from the armory, attaching it to her waist the way Richie had shown her. Now, only a few feet away from their manor, she slid the sword where it belonged and covered the length of it with her forest-green cloak. No one could know she was armed, so in the case of an attack she had the upper hand, and the advantage of knowing how to fight as well.
Striding inside the great hall where the family was having breakfast, Melissa took her usual spot next to Richie, who eyed her cloak knowingly but said nothing.
"Where have you been?" Elizabeth inquired, biting into a freshly picked plum.
"Riverside," she replied shortly, taking up her own plate of bread and cheese.
"Anything to note?" Their mother inquired in a softly deceptive voice.
"Nothing," the red-head sighed. "Not yet, anyway."
Jacquetta eyed her sympathetically, before turning to her husband.
"Perhaps we should go out and wave them off," she stated referring to the soldiers they had outfitted for the upcoming battle. "I'm sure the girls would like to see the army on their way."
"Have you not had your fill of seeing men go off to war?" Baron Rivers asked gruffly.
"Well, we should show our support, Richard. If he wins, it will be better for us, and if he loses, no one will remember that we wished him well, and we can soon deny it."
"I'm paying them, aren't I?" Baron Rivers was not happy with his wife's demands. "I'm arming them from what I have."
"Oh, and we should find a purse of gold in the treasure room for His Grace." Jacquetta insisted.
Melissa resisted the urge to moan in pain, knowing that their finances were in no state for them to be able to give out charity to a man who already had more gold than he could ever want.
"A purse of gold to wage war against King Henry?" Her father had clearly had enough. "Woman, have you lost your wits!?" He slammed his hands against the table. "Are we Yorkists now!?"
"Yes," Jacquetta replied unequivocally. "If he wins. And he is likely to, for then he will control all our fortunes." She glanced at her daughters sitting at the table. "And the marriages. And there are many girls in this family, Richard."
Baron Rivers' back slammed against his chair.
"Sometimes, woman, you even scare me!"
The matriarch smiled innocently, reminiscent to her redheaded daughter when she was denying something she had done.
"Very well," her husband continued. "We will do it your way. And we'll wear white roses too if you wish, if you can find some this early."
"No need to worry, father," Melissa finally piped up. "We have some right here." She walked over to a vase set at the back of the great hall and brought it forward to him.
"Where did this come from?" He gaped, astonished.
"Mary and I picked them yesterday," she grinned, winking at her mother. "We thought they were an especially good looking batch."
The patriarch looked between his daughters, then at his smirking wife, and sighed as though he were greatly burdened. As he walked out of the hall, Melissa thought she could hear him mutter something about mimble-wimble.
LATER, AFTER BREAKFAST, the Rivers girls were all gathered together, bathing in wooden tubs and gushing about meeting the king.
"Those ribbons are so pretty," Catherine, Melissa's littlest sister pouted, looking at the accoutrements weaved among the red-head's braids. "I wish I had your hair, Lissa."
"No, you don't," Melissa assured her. "Red hair is so hard to pair with colors. I can only ever wear blue, or green, and it is for that exact reason, Mary," she eyed her other sister, who was trying to snatch the dress from a nearby chair. "Why you may not borrow my green dress."
The blonde pouted and retreated to her own coral pink gown, which looked worn with use.
Melissa supposed she was fortunate in having a newer article of clothing than her other sisters did, most of whom were garbed in hand-me-downs. Her own sage green dress, which she was especially fond of, had been a recent birthday present from Elizabeth, who at the time had had enough money from her husband's estates to buy her favorite sister something she knew Melissa wanted. Perhaps it was selfishness, but she didn't want to share the one thing she had to herself with her sisters. And if Mary wore it, the girl knew the others wouldn't leave her alone until they'd had a try as well.
Soon, though, she put all thoughts out of her mind, donning the dress, her cloak (and sword), following everyone downstairs to greet the army.
"I do not like this," Richie whispered in her ear as they traversed the well-worn path down to the crossroads, where they were supposed to meet Edward of York. He had his own sword strapped to his belt, though unlike Anthony and John, he wouldn't be doing any fighting.
"No one likes this, least of all father," Melissa muttered back, observing their father's stout, plump form at the head of the group.
"All this fuss, just so Lizzie can become queen," he complained. "How do we even know he wants her as his wife, and not a mistress?"
"We don't," the Woodville girl murmured as lightly as she could, so as to not be overhead. "That's the problem."
Richard opened his mouth, probably to complain some more, before the resounding hoofbeats from the Yorkist army dulled all conversation around. Soon, the soldiers rode up to where the Woodvilles were standing, King Edward at their helm.
They all bowed, the women curtsying, and Melissa watched as her father motioned toward the men they had gathered.
"My men, Your Grace. All sworn to your service."
Edward nodded firmly. "I won't forget your support."
"Nor how dizzyingly quick it was conjured out of nowhere," the derisive voice of a man, one with shaggy brown hair, garbed in an all-black armor, grabbed the redheaded Woodville's attention. "Tell me, if I scratched that rose, will I find its true red color underneath?"
"I don't know about the roses in London, my lord," Melissa simply couldn't help herself, despite the alarmed looks her entire family started sending her. "But the ones we have here are true and genuine. They do not put up fronts and pretend to be something they are not." She then laughed. "And besides, I do not think that is how nature works. Unless you have some form of witchcraft with which to switch a flower's colors?"
"Melissa!" Jacquetta hissed, pulling her daughter toward her, afraid that she had contrived some sort of insult to the king's closest advisor, and in extension, the king himself.
Edward, however, held no such compunctions, and burst out laughing.
"The Lady Melissa speaks true, cousin, as I suspect she always does. There is no pretending with her." He grinned and swung himself off his horse, ignoring the man whom Melissa would come to learn was Lord Warwick.
"I say it as I see it, Your Grace," she parried back boldly, ignoring the now confused looks her family were sending her. Richie was the only one who had seen her banter with the Yorkist king, so he was the only one of them who wasn't shocked at their pseudo-friendship.
"Indeed, you do," the blond agreed, before getting distracted by Elizabeth, who stood a little ways back, behind the rest of the girls.
"Lissa, what on earth?" Her brother, Anthony hissed, as their father began trading insults with Lord Warwick.
"I met him a few days ago," she shrugged, adjusting the white rose on her lapel. "He isn't as stiff and intimidating as you all may think."
"He is still the king!" John grabbed her arm harshly. "You have to be careful with what you say to him."
"I'll say what I want to say, John." She glared, yanking her arm away from his grasp, just in time to hear the king tell their father that he would be joining them for supper tomorrow.
Seeing Elizabeth send their mother the brightest grin she had worn since her husband had died, Melissa turned back to her brother and gave him a wry smile.
"What?" John demanded.
"Oh, nothing," the girl replied nonchalantly. "Just that I think you may soon have bigger troubles than my devil-may-care attitude on your hands."
"What do you mean by that?" Anthony gave her a suspicious look.
Melissa simply smiled mysteriously and departed, knowing that he would learn on his own time. Behind her, Richie choked back a string of curses, and she knew he had caught on to the same answer that she had.
The king had asked Elizabeth to marry him.
a.n. lord warwick is introduced (though he doesn't do much talking), and with her sass, melissa becomes another woodville he hates 😁
more pondering thoughts about melusina's riverside token; the key, which, btw, looks like this:
any guesses what it may be?
🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
anyway, there wasn't much excitement this chapter, but everything kicks off from the next one, which you'll see in two days (or less, depending on how far I've gotten writing court scenes).
i can tell you that i've already written out a scene with duchess cecily and her daughters, and i'm so excited for interactions between them and melissa! cecily in real life was a whole badass, though the show made her seem weaker than she was by being "banished" from court by elizabeth (i mean, come one! she was practically a queen-in-waiting before her husband died! edward let her keep the queen's chambers even when his wife came to court, instead building new apartments for elizabeth! the power this woman wields was so understated in the show.)
yeah, i could go on a whole rant about this ... which is why i won't. i hope you enjoyed this chapter, and i can't wait to post more.
bisous! 😙😙