FRAGMENTS OF A DYNASTY
Summary: also inspired by Philippa Gregory, Jasper's thoughts of giving up Margret to yet again another husband.
Pairings: Jasper/Margret, Henry Stafford/Margret.
He felt his throat tighten to the point where he couldn't swallow.
Why on earth did God decide a man could not marry his brother's widow? Is it not a man's duty to take care of his kin? Would he not take better care of Margret if he could marry her and keep her at Pembroke?
Surely he would take better care of her than Sir Henry Stafford who, like Jasper had been, was merely the second son. Who would never inherit the Dukedom, so what was the point? Surely the Earl of Pembroke would take better care of the Lancastrian heiress than a mere knight. Surely the man who will take care of her son for the rest of his life would be better for the mother? Surely he, Jasper Tudor, was the best for Margret Beaufort?
The past two years had been a strange bliss after Henry was born.
Every day he would visit the nursery to find Margret there. They would tell Henry stories or play with him or help him learn to walk. They spent such a large part of their lives together that it would be quiet and terrifying to not have Margret in his life. Every morning he would go to Mass to find her praying solemnly and every morning afterwards she would place her tiny hand on his arm and he would escort her to breakfast. Just like every evening he would escort her to dinner and every night he would escort her to her bedchamber's door.
So how could he be expected to give her up to Sir Henry Stafford?
He would not say anything as he watches her become another man's wife again. He would not say anything as she complains and cries and begs him to let her stay. He would never really be allowed to say anything because she had chosen God long ago and if he had given her a choice of his own hand in marriage or a chance to be a nun, she would take the latter immediately.
And yet...he has seen the way she looks at him. The overwhelming look of desire mixed with fondness and sheer happiness. He has listened closely to her and can hear the words unsaid, words that she wants him to say as well. Words that could never be said without them both sinning. He has felt her arms round him when she has hugged him in one of her moments of forgetting propriety, the feel of her hair beneath his chin as her head rests on his shoulder. And that one time, years after he watched her be given to Sir Henry Stafford, he remembers the feel of her lips against his.
And as he sets out for another battle, another chance to die knowing he'll never have Margret, another chance to fight for Margret and her son's right for the throne, he thinks that he is the better man.
For no one could love her more. No one could know her better. No one could let her be free as he can. No one can see that godly light in her eyes.
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