Read The Star of Lancaster for Free Online

that first occasion.
    Henry suggested that they tether the horses and sit in the same spot for a while as he had something to say to her.
    ‘You will soon be going back to Pleshy,’ he began.
    She sighed. ‘Alas yes. My stay here has been longer already than I thought it would be. I shall be returning soon, I am sure.’
    ‘I too shall be leaving here with my father.’
    ‘It has been such a happy time.’
    ‘For us both,’ said Henry. ‘Mary, you will not go into a convent, will you?’
    ‘I am unsure . . .’
    He turned to her passionately, and putting his arms about her held her close to him. ‘Oh Mary,’ he whispered, ‘you can’t do that. Promise you will not.’
    ‘Why should it mean . . . so much to you?’ she asked rather breathlessly.
    ‘Because I want to marry you.’
    ‘To marry me . Oh Henry . . .’
    ‘Does that please you?’
    She looked about her at the stark branches of the trees which she loved and she thought the forest of Arundel was the most beautiful place in the world.
    ‘You have answered,’ he said. ‘It does please you.’
    ‘So much,’ she said. ‘I have never in my life been so happy as I have since you came.’
    ‘Then it is settled.’
    ‘What is settled? I shall have to go away from here and so will you.’
    ‘We shall be married,’ he said.
    ‘Married. How can we be? I cannot marry . . . just like that.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘It would never be allowed.’
    ‘I can tell you that my father will not forbid it and he is your guardian.’
    ‘How can you know that?’
    ‘He has told me.’
    ‘So . . . you have talked with him.’
    ‘Only because I was so eager. I felt if I could get his consent that would be all we needed.’
    ‘And . . . he has given it.’
    ‘He loves you. He says you have been his ward and now you will be his daughter.’
    ‘Is this truly so?’
    ‘It is indeed. He has been delighted by the way in which we have grown to love each other. He says he sees no reason why we should not marry . . . soon.’
    ‘Henry, I am not yet eleven years old.’
    ‘That is a very pleasant age. I am fourteen. You see there is not much difference between us.’
    ‘They would never let us marry yet. We should have to wait.’
    ‘There could be a ceremony . . . so that none could keep us apart. What say you, Mary?’
    She clasped her hands together and was silent. It was too much to take in. It was not so long ago that she had sat here,lost in the forest, uncertain of the way she must go back to the castle, uncertain of her way in life too.
    Henry had taken her hand and kissed it. ‘You want to marry me, Mary. You know you do. Think how you have enjoyed these last days. It would be like that for the rest of our lives.’
    She contemplated it and it seemed to her too wonderful to be true. Not to have to live at Pleshy; to give up her studies at the convent. How could she ever have thought she wanted to become a nun?
    ‘Yes, Henry,’ she cried. ‘I do want it. I want to marry you. I want to have many children. I want to be a wife and a mother and live like this for ever.’
    Henry was laughing. He embraced her fervently. He told her that he had never been so happy in his life.
    ‘Let us go back to the castle and tell them.’
    She did not want to go yet. She wanted to linger in the forest. For all he said, she feared their disapproval. Although they had seemed content to see her and Henry together and had not stopped their being alone, which in itself was strange, she still felt that her extreme youth would be stressed and while they would be kind, might let them become betrothed, that would be as far as this matter would go for the time. They might be married in say three years’ time . . .
    But she was wrong.
    When they returned to the castle Henry took her immediately to his father.
    ‘My lord,’ he cried, ‘Mary has promised to marry me.’
    Mary was astonished by the expression on the Duke’s handsome face. His eyes looked more fiercely blue than ever