Free The Hammer of the Scots by Jean Plaidy

you know of my love for you, but I am first a king and I mean to rule. I love you now as I ever did and never shall I forget your devotion to me and my dear father. But I cannot allow you to place my crown in jeopardy as you did that of my father. For that reason I act as I must and as I see it that is the right and just way to act.’
    ‘So you would humiliate me in the eyes of these rapacious Londoners.’
    ‘You will win only honour by discontinuing with this custody. And these Londoners are not rapacious because they wish to see their bridge repaired.’
    ‘If they want it repaired let them pay for it.’
    ‘It is exactly what they are doing. You know that part of the dues paid are for the upkeep of the bridge.’
    ‘I am disappointed in you, Edward.’
    ‘I am sorry for that but, if in pleasing you I must disappoint my subjects and deny them justice then, dear lady, I must perforce displease you.’
    She looked at him – so handsome, so noble, and she suddenly forgot everything but her pride in him. She leaned against him and he put his arms about her.
    He kissed her hair.
    ‘Dear Mother,’ he said softly, ‘I could not bear that we should be bad friends.’
    ‘You are a stubborn fellow, Edward,’ she said fondly. ‘Strange it is that I would not have you other than you are. But I miss your father so much, my son. I shall never cease to mourn.’
    ‘I know,’ said Edward. ‘I mourn him too.’
    ‘You are not like him. He was so fond …’
    Fondness, thought the King, often went with foolishness and that was something a king could not afford.

    Leaving his mother he went to his wife. He thanked God for Eleanor. How different she was from her mother-in-law. He could never have borne a domineering wife, but it was clear that a weak man needed a strong woman beside him. And he was now admitting to himself that his father was one of the weakest men he had ever known. A king must face up to the truth. He must learn his lessons and the first lesson of all was that until truth was looked straight in the face and admitted – however disagreeable – no progress would be made.
    ‘Edward,’ said the Queen anxiously, ‘you look a little distraught.’
    ‘An unpleasant matter.’ He told her of the bridge and how his mother had been using the funds for the wrong purposes.
    ‘I had to do what I did.’
    ‘Indeed you had.’
    ‘She was hurt. I think at first she thought I was some sort of traitor to the family.’
    ‘You, a traitor! That’s quite impossible. You are so wise … so strong. You always do the right thing.’
    He smiled at her fondly. ‘I know that whatever I do I shall have the support of my wife.’
    ‘But that is only right and natural.’
    He took her hand and kissed it.
    ‘I have something to tell you,’ she said.
    ‘Eleanor. You are with child?’
    She nodded and he took her into his arms. ‘This time,’ he said, ‘let us pray for a boy. I’ll have prayers said throughout the churches.’
    ‘Not yet, I beg of you. It is too early. I am always afraid when I speak of it too soon that something will go wrong.’
    ‘My dearest, why should it?’
    ‘There was John and the little one at Acre.’
    ‘My dear lady, many children die. John was delicate. Some children are born that way. As for the little one at Acre, that was not to be wondered at after all the hardships. And what of young Joanna, eh? She was always lively enough though Acre was her birthplace.’
    ‘I wish she were with us.’
    ‘Your mother will not willingly part with her. And you will have this new one. We have our darling Eleanor. What a handsome girl she is becoming! And little Henry …’
    The Queen was grave. ‘I worry about him a great deal.’
    ‘I thought he seemed better.’
    She shook her head.
    ‘Oh come, my love, he is a bright little fellow.’
    ‘He is so breathless and he always seems to have a cough. Edward, I don’t care for the Tower of London. It’s so cold and draughty and there is an