The Hammer of the Scots by Jean Plaidy Page A

and he her. She was happy in Scotland once they grew up and were together. Let us thank God that she did not suffer. Alexander says her death was peaceful in the castle of Cupar. They had gone to Fife for a short sojourn, and there she had to take to her bed. Alexander says that she was buried with great ceremony in Dumfermline and that the whole of Scotland weeps for her.’
    ‘My daughter … my child …’ mourned the Queen. ‘I loved her so much, Edward. She was my favourite child after she went to Scotland. I shall never forget the anguish we suffered when we heard of her plight. And now she is dead … Her poor children! How they will miss her … And Alexander … He loved her I know. Who could help loving Margaret …’
    ‘I will take you to my wife,’ said Edward gently. ‘She will know how to comfort you better than I.’

    While the Court was mourning the death of Queen Margaret of Scotland Beatrice gave birth to a daughter.
    It was a difficult confinement and the physicians thought that the shock of her sister’s death had affected Beatrice adversely, and for this reason her own health began to fail.
    Fortunately for the Queen Mother she could be with this daughter, but this brought little comfort to her because she realised that Beatrice seemed to be in the same kind of failing health from which Margaret had suffered.
    Beatrice coughed a great deal; she was easily fatigued and a terrible premonition seized the Queen Mother.
    ‘Has God truly deserted me?’ she asked her daughter-in-law.
    The Queen replied that she must not despair. Beatrice had her dear little daughter whom she had named Eleanor as she said she would and very soon she would recover. She had had five children before the new baby and had come satisfactorily through the ordeals.
    But Beatrice’s health did not improve and her husband grew more and more concerned.
    The Queen Mother warmed to him when he talked to her of his fears. He truly loved her. That much was obvious and she knew then that that was something for which she should be grateful. All her children had made happy marriages, and they were rare enough, particularly in royal circles, and she believed it was clue to the example she and their father had set them. ‘One thing we taught them,’ she told Lady Mortimer, one of her closest friends, ‘was the joy of family life and how when it is ideal there is nothing on this earth to compare with the happiness it brings.’
    But what John of Brittany had to say to her gave her no comfort.
    ‘My lady,’ he said, ‘Beatrice’s health was impaired in the Holy Land. She should never have gone, but she insisted and maybe she will be blessed for it, but I am deeply concerned for her. The dampness of the climate here aggravates her chest. I want to take her back to her home in Brittany and that without delay.’
    The Queen Mother was silent. Her heart cried out against this. Beatrice was her great comfort now that she had lost Margaret. In looking after this daughter she could find some solace. But if she went away, how lonely she would be! And yet, she had seen her daughter’s health deteriorate, and it might well be that John was right. Certainly he was looking at her now with such poignant pleading that she found it impossible to protest.
    ‘She longs to be with her children,’ said John. ‘She is torn between you and them. She often reproaches herself for having left them to accompany me on the crusade. I believe that if I took her to our home she might recover.’
    Whatever the Queen Mother’s faults she had never failed to do what was best for her children.
    Sorrowing, she took her farewell of her remaining daughter.

    She tried not to worry about Beatrice. John had assured her that he would send frequent messengers to her with news of her daughter’s health. She would let herself believe that a rest in her own home would be good for Beatrice although she believed in her heart that if Margaret had stayed in her care instead