But, to Jonah’s surprise, Chip lifted his head, almost regally.
“We were marching with two thousand soldiers,” he said. “All loyal to me. All there to protect me. We were supposed to meet Gloucester and Buckingham”—he said these names sneeringly, without titles—“in Northampton. But Lord Rivers said we should press on to Stony Stratford, fourteen miles away, fourteen miles closer to London.”
“Gloucester is our uncle on our father’s side,” Alex contributed. “Buckingham is his friend.”
“Oh,” Jonah said. “Where were you for all of this?”
“With our mother,” Alex said. “Already in London. But I’m the younger brother, remember? I don’t really matter.”
It bothered Jonah that Alex could talk like that. But Alex only shrugged and turned his attention back to Chip.
“We stopped at an inn,” Chip said. “And Lord Rivers told me to rest for the night while he rode back to meet the others. Gloucester and Buckingham and their men.”
“Did he take the two thousand soldiers or leave them with you?” Katherine asked. Jonah was surprised that Katherine would ask that question.
Chip flinched.
“He … he left them with me,” Chip said. “Practically all of them.” He sighed.
“And?” Jonah whispered.
Chip pounded his fist on the table, so suddenly that the mugs wobbled on the tray.
“Gloucester tricked Lord Rivers,” Chip said. “They went out drinking together, all nice and friendly. And then the next morning he had Lord Rivers arrested. It wasn’t fair. It was … it was traitorous!”
Outrage gleamed in his eyes.
“But you weren’t arrested, were you?” Jonah said. “You had the soldiers.”
Chip was staring off into the distance, remembering.
“That morning I was already on my horse, ready to ride on toward London. Everyone said that we should push on, that we shouldn’t wait for Lord Rivers. That … scared me. I knew Lord Rivers wouldn’t desert me. But when you’re king, you’re not allowed to show fear. So I was sitting up straight, leading the way … and then Gloucester came, galloping through my troops.”
Jonah, who’d only ever ridden a horse once, at Boy Scout camp, could practically hear the hoofbeats.
“Gloucester’s a determined-looking man, you know?” Chip said wistfully. “He always acts like he knows he’s right. And he has a way of saying things that you know are wrong, but he makes you feel like you shouldn’t argue. You don’t think of what you should say back to him until hours later.”
“So, what did he say?” Katherine asked.
“He bowed down to me,” Chip said. “He said I was the king.”
Jonah did a double take.
“What’s wrong with that?” he asked. “I thought you were the king.”
He wondered if he’d missed some huge chunk of this story.
“It was deceitful,” Chip said, his voice wavering. “If Gloucester had just attacked me, straight-out, my soldiers would have protected me. My chamberlain, Thomas Vaughan, would have given his life for mine. But no, Gloucester goes on and on about how loyal he is to me, and how my father left him the task of being my protector while I’m underage, and so he’s going to accompany me to London, not Lord Rivers. And he said we didn’t need all the soldiers, because that might scare people in London into thinking there was going to be some big battle, and so all the soldiers should go home, and I should leave my chamberlain behind too and just go with Gloucester and Buckingham.”
“And you agreed to that?” Katherine asked.
“I’m just a kid, okay?” Chip said. “And Gloucester was saying all the right things, and I didn’t know yet that he’d had Lord Rivers arrested.” He hesitated. “It was like we were playing poker, and Gloucester could see all of the cards in my hand, and I didn’t know anything about his. But I stood up to him later! Later, as we were riding away, he said that my father had had bad advisers, and that they were the reason he’d died, because they’d let him eat and drink way too much, and that’s why he was going to protect me. And I said, ‘Sir, do not malign my father’s memory. I trust his judgment, and I trust the advisers he gave me.’”
Chip sounded so proud and fierce saying that. But then he slumped against the wall.
“That only made Gloucester say, ‘Ah, and I’m glad of that, for I am the main adviser your father left you.’ And he smiled, and it was just like a fox, or a wolf—I should have told my soldiers to attack! I should have fought for Lord Rivers!”
Now Chip was scaring Jonah. Jonah tried to think of something to calm him down, but Katherine was already begging for the next part of the story.
“So then he locked you up and wouldn’t let you act like a king?” she asked eagerly.
“Nooo,” Chip said. “I was signing documents, I was going to council meetings, we were planning for my coronation, the big ceremony when I’d get my crown. … My brother came to join me here so he could play his part in the coronation too!”
“So, what was your problem?” Jonah asked, frustrated. “What do you have against Gloucester? Just because he’s your father’s brother, not your mother’s …”
“Everything changed,” Chip said. “Nobody would tell me anything! But suddenly there weren’t any more council meetings to go to, and I hadn’t seen Gloucester in days, and the servants acted like I was sick or something, like I had to stay in my room or the courtyard … they even moved my room to another place where I’d be ‘safer.’ This is the Tower of London, you know? It’s the palace. But lately … lately it started seeming like I was a prisoner here.”
“A prisoner someone tried to kill last night,” Alex reminded him.
That word, “kill,” lingered in the air. Jonah, trying to avoid thinking about it, realized something else.