The Lady of the Rivers
Read The Lady of the Rivers Online
Authors: Philippa Gregory
Tags: #Fiction, #Historical, #Literary, #Romance, #General
By the same author
The Cousins’ War
The White Queen
The Red Queen
History
The Women of the Cousins’ War:
The Duchess, the Queen and the King’s Mother
The Tudor Court Novels
The Constant Princess
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Boleyn Inheritance
The Queen’s Fool
The Virgin’s Lover
The Other Queen
Historical Novels
The Wise Woman
Fallen Skies
A Respectable Trade
The Wideacre Trilogy
Wideacre
The Favoured Child
Meridon
Civil War Novels
Earthly Joys
Virgin Earth
Modern Novels
Mrs Hartley and the Growth Centre
Perfectly Correct
The Little House
Zelda’s Cut
Short Stories
Bread and Chocolate
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2011
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © Philippa Gregory, 2011
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.
The right of Philippa Gregory to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN HB 978-1-84737-459-2
ISBN TPB 978-1-84737-460-8
eBook ISBN: 978-0-85720-430-1
Typeset by M Rules
Printed in the UK by CPI Mackays, Chatham ME5 8TD
For Victoria
THE
LADY OF THE
RIVERS
CONTENTS
CASTLE OF BEAUREVOIR, NEAR ARRAS, FRANCE, SUMMER–WINTER 1430
CASTLE OF ST POL, ARTOIS, SPRING 1433
CASTLE OF CALAIS, FRANCE, JUNE 1433
WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, SUMMER 1433
PARIS, FRANCE, DECEMBER 1434–JANUARY 1435
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, AUTUMN 1436
WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, AUTUMN 1436
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, AUTUMN 1436–1439
WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, OCTOBER 1441
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, WINTER 1441–1444
TITCHFIELD ABBEY, HAMPSHIRE, SUMMER 1445
WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, SUMMER 1449
WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, SPRING 1450
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, SUMMER 1450
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, SUMMER 1450
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, AUTUMN 1451
THE WEST OF ENGLAND, SUMMER 1452>
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, AUTUMN 1452
PALACE OF PLACENTIA, GREENWICH, LONDON, CHRISTMAS 1452
THE TOWER OF LONDON, SPRING 1453
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, SUMMER 1453
CLARENDON PALACE, WILTSHIRE, SUMMER 1453
WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, AUTUMN 1453
WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, SPRING 1454
THE PALACE OF PLACENTIA, GREENWICH, LONDON, SPRING 1455
GROBY HALL, LEICESTERSHIRE, AUTUMN 1455
WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, SPRING 1456
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, SUMMER 1456
KENILWORTH CASTLE, WARWICKSHIRE, SUMMER 1457
ROCHESTER CASTLE, KENT, NOVEMBER 1457
WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, WINTER–SPRING 1458
WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, WINTER 1458
ON CAMPAIGN, SUMMER–AUTUMN 1459
SANDWICH, KENT, AND CALAIS, WINTER 1460
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, SUMMER 1460
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, WINTER 1460–61
GRAFTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, SPRING 1464
CASTLE OF BEAUREVOIR, NEAR ARRAS,
FRANCE, SUMMER–WINTER 1430
She sits, this odd trophy of war, as neat as an obedient child, on a small stool in the corner of her cell. At her feet are the remains of her dinner on a pewter platter, laid on the straw. I notice that my uncle has sent good slices of meat, and even the white bread from his own table; but she has eaten little. I find I am staring at her, from her boy’s riding boots to the man’s bonnet crammed on her brown cropped hair, as if she were some exotic animal, trapped for our amusement, as if someone had sent a lion cub all the way from Ethiopia to entertain the great family of Luxembourg, for us to keep in our collection. A lady behind me crosses herself and whispers, ‘Is this a witch?’