"And from what wise person did you learn all this?" De Lacy asked with an amused smile.
"From the Countess of Northumberland."
"And whence comes her knowledge?"
"If you were not new to England you would not ask," said she. "Henry Tudor was for years a prisoner of state in her father's castle of Pembroke. She knows him from daily companionship and should be competent to judge. Indeed, as the Lady Maude Herbert, it is said she was betrothed to him."
"Why did she marry Percy?"
"That, I can only guess. Her father fell at Edgecote; there were six other sisters … and the great Earl came a-wooing. Besides, Richmond was in exile, had lost his patrimony and a price was on his head."
"And she never loved him?" De Lacy asked.
"Nay, that I do not know; but she was very young, and if she did it was not likely a lasting passion. She seems happy enough as chatelaine of Topcliffe."
"Doubtless—yet, nevertheless, there is another woman in England than Stanley's Countess who may be dangerous to Richard if Henry Tudor ever seek an issue with him."
"You mean the Countess of Northumberland?"