Read Online A Secret Alchemy by Emma Darwin - Free Book Online

suddenly, somewhere in the depths of me, the old scar starts to ache.
    “Doesn’t Adam look handsome in that?” says Gareth, as if neither of us has been looking at Mark. “And what about work? You said in your letter that you were writing about Anthony Woodville.” I explain. “He’s an attractive character, isn’t he?” says Uncle Gareth. “I remember you telling me what was written on the manuscript of his Dictes and Sayings . Not Caxton’s printed version, the grand, illuminated manuscript, the one that was presented to the king and queen.”
    “It’s marginalia, not contemporary,” I say, and the words swim up from my memory: “‘This Earl was the most learned, valiant, and honorable knight of the world for his time, yet all was exercised with adverse accidents in his life. At length came to achieve the honor of an undeserved death.’ His name is scratched out, too, everywhere it appears in the copy.”
    “Is it really? He must have seemed quite a threat, even when they’d killed him…” Uncle Gareth shakes his head, wonderingly. “How young they were, to be fighting over a kingdom. I remember being amazed when I discovered that Shakespeare’s Crookback Dick, whom I used to have nightmares about, was only thirty-three when he was killed at Bosworth.”
    “And that he wasn’t crook-backed. At least, the real Richard, Duke of Gloucester, wasn’t…But you’re right. Edward IV was eighteen when he won the battle of Towton, which finished off poor old Henry VI as a king. And he had brothers, and then sons.All those glamorous Yorkist men. Though no one would have put money on Richard ending up on the throne. It’s people whose main use is as inheritors and rulers of land who have power when they’re so young. That’s why gentrywomen were married in their teens—twelve or thirteen, sometimes—and the boys the same. That’s their value.”
    “But such boys had to prove themselves, too. Their value was in what they could do.”
    “Of course. It’s hard to see it with poor old Henry, mind you. Though going mad was hardly his fault. Not that he was much good before that. Did you know that at the time it was called the Cousins’ War?”
    “No, I didn’t. Makes sense, of course. I suppose no one asked Henry if he wanted to be a king. It was the Lancaster family business…Do you have a thesis yet? A definite line?”
    “No, not yet. It’s centered on their books, but I don’t know what they’ll tell me. The politics are so huge and complicated, they tend to dominate any account. But I’m sure that’s not how it felt at the time. What about all the stuff that was to do with living, having children and day-to-day managing the household? No one’s approached them as I’m planning to. There’s space for that.”
    “How much do we know of the books?”
    “Well, there’s been good work on what we know of Elizabeth’s, which is very little. And we can work out a lot more for Anthony, because of course he translated quite a lot, and so on. And Edward’s library is well known. He was a great collector, had special caskets made for his favorite books so he could take them with him from palace to palace. Even on campaign. But no one’s brought all that together.”
    “And then there’s the princes in the Tower. What’s your view?”
    “Of who killed them? And when? I don’t suppose we’ll ever know, though I know where I think the weight of probability lies. In a sense, it’s not necessary for the kind of bibliographic study I’m doing. It’s what it must have been like for them, for Anthony and Elizabeth, never knowing what had happened. Where the boys were. If they were alive or dead…” And for the life of me I can’t stop myself going on: “You never heard from Mark, did you?”
    “No.”
    “Only—only Izzy was wondering what happened to him.”
    “Dear Izzy. She keeps telling me to get some help. I—I suppose that’s what made her…think of Mark.”
    “Yes,” I