The Star of Lancaster by Jean Plaidy Read Free Book Online Page A

sons. How will you like that?’
    She would like it very well, she told him. And she wondered why the women had tut-tutted and looked grave.
    Whatever she had to do with Henry would be good, she was sure.
    They sang together; they played chess; and she was fitted for the most splendid garments she had ever had. It was exhilarating until the messenger came from Pleshy with a letter from Eleanor. It was clearly written in a rage. Eleanor could not understand what had happened to her little sister whom she had always thought to be a saint in the making. How mistaken she had been for it was now disclosed that Mary was deceitful in the extreme. She had pretended to want the religious life, when all the time she was nothing more than a wanton. She had betrothed herself to Henry of Derby without consulting her sister. ‘After all we have done for you, Thomas and I,’ wrote Eleanor, ‘you treat us like this. I am deeply wounded. I beg of you stop this folly and come back to Pleshy. Here we will talk out these matters. We will see what it means. Why do you think John of Lancaster is so eager for this match? If you had been some girl without a fortune do you think Henry of Bolingbroke would have been so eager to marry you . . .?’
    Mary paused and thought: Had I been I should never have met him in this way. It was because I was staying at Arundel with my uncle and aunt that I did.
    ‘It is clear to me that it is your fortune which makes this marriage into the house of Lancaster so attractive to them,’ went on Eleanor’s letter.
    And, thought Mary, it is my fortune that makes you so eager for me to go into a convent that I may resign my share for you. Oh dear! How I wish I were indeed a penniless girl!
    That was foolish. Eleanor was right. John of Gaunt waspleased because of her fortune. It was different with Henry. She was sure he would have loved her whoever she was. But the marriage was welcomed because of the money. She was not so unworldly that she did not know that.
    ‘Come back to Pleshy without delay,’ commanded Eleanor. ‘We will talk of this matter. We will put our heads together and decide what is best for you.’
    She wrote back and asked Eleanor to come to Arundel. She was so caught up with the arrangements for the wedding that she could not travel. Eleanor would have recovered from the birth of dear little Joan now. But perhaps she would rather wait and join the celebrations at the Savoy.
    Eleanor was not one to give up. Mary must come back. Out of gratitude she must come. The Abbess was desolate. She was sure it was wrong for Mary to marry so hastily and while she was so young. Let her return to Pleshy. Let her talk with her sister. Let her remember all that Eleanor and her brother-in-law Thomas had done for her.
    Mary showed Eleanor’s letters to Henry. She wanted there to be no secrets between them, she said.
    Henry read the letters and said: ‘There is an angry woman. Sister though she may be to you, I would not let you go near her. Why she might lock you up and starve you into submission.’
    ‘Oh she is not such an ogre as that.’
    ‘ I am protecting you from now on, Mary.’
    She was consoled. She was always so happy with Henry; she had even ceased to worry about the matter of the marriage bed.
    A few days before they were due to leave for the Savoy Mary’s mother the Countess of Hereford arrived at Arundel.
    She had of course been informed of the coming marriage of her younger daughter and she was somewhat uneasy about it.
    She would have preferred Mary to have remained in her care but in accordance with the custom, as Mary was a great heiress, she must become a ward of some person of high standing. There was no one of higher standing under the King than John of Gaunt and as Eleanor was already married to his brother Thomas of Woodstock, the Countess had no alternative but to let her daughter go.
    She could not of course complain about the husband selected for her. The eldest son of John of Gaunt,