The Reckoning - 3 (50 page)

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he handed it to the disgruntled dog as a consolation prize. "I'm sure " he said, "that Edward would not begrudge a glove or two in the interest of marital harmony," making Ellen laugh again. But as he reached for the wine flagon, she said something so unexpected that he spun around to stare at her, the wine forgotten. "Say that again," he demanded.
"I said that I'd given her a Welsh name, that I'd called her 'Hiraeth.' "
Llewelyn came back to the window-seat, pulled Ellen to her feet and into his arms. "How in the world did you know about that?"
"My aunt Joanna. She once tried to explain to my mother why it was that the
Welsh sickened when they were uprooted, banished from Wales. She said the
Welsh had a special name for ithiraeththat it meant a love of their homeland, a sadness for what had been lost, a yearning for what could be"
She got no further, for it was then that Llewelyn kissed her. Their second effort was much more satisfactory than their first, and Ellen felt bereft when he let her go, not wanting the embrace to end. He smiled at her, then retrieved the wine from the table, and brought it back to the window-seat, where he kissed her again. She knew she was being foolish, but it bothered her to see how deftly he'd tilted their wine cup as he embraced her; it was too smoothly done, the sort of trick a man learned only by experience. How could she be jealous of his past? That would be madness, for he'd lived almost half of it ere she was even born. But she wanted him to feel what she felt now, the wonder and newness of it, and that was impossible, for there were twenty-four years between them, and God only knows how many women. She accepted the wine cup, watching him as she drank. Well, she could never be his first love, but by all that was holy, she'd be his last.
"How long do we have ere Edward sends you back to Windsor?"
She'd been worried that he might think her presence here meant Edward had relented, and she was glad that he seemed to read her cousin so well. "Only a few days," she said, wondering how she could endure being parted from him now.
He'd begun to kiss her throat, and she shivered, for he was evoking the most amazing sensations. How wonderful that their lust was sanctioned by Holy
Church, so she could give in to it without guilt! He was stroking her hair, brushing it aside to kiss her throat again, and she pressed closer, sliding her hands up his back, thinking that if only she held him tightly enough, mayhap the world would go away.
Llewelyn was the one to break free first. "Ellen ..." No more than that, just her name, but it was enough. Ellen felt a surge of triufflp ' sure now that he wanted her, too, just as much as she wanted ruin-
"Llewelyn ... is it always like this between men and women-
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"No," he said, discovering that she liked being kissed on her ear lobe. "The flame burns hotter at some times than others, cariad."
"And with us? Is this one of those times?"
He seemed to be considering. "Well," he said at last, "I think we're jdndling a fair amount of heat."
She knew she was being teased, did not mind at all. "How much heat? Enough to melt a candle? To start a bonfire? Could you be more precise, please?"
By now they both were laughing. "Enough heat to set half of Wales ablaze," he said, drawing her across his lap so that her head nestled into the crook of his arm and her long hair swept the floor. "I think you're right. It is a pity we had no courtship. Then I could have told you how very fair you are. I could have compared your hair to autumn bracken and your skin to silk, said all the foolish and fanciful things smitten lovers have said down through the ages."
"Why can you not say them now?"
"Alas, it is too late, two years too late. No man ever says things like that to his wife."
"No? We shall see about that," Ellen promised, and entwined her arms around his neck, pulling his head down so she could kiss him. This time it was

different; the passion flared up between them so fast that Llewelyn was caught by surprise, and he stopped thinking, yielded to it. So did Ellen, shifting so he could unpin the brooch closing the neckline of her bodice, stroking his face, his hair, gasping as he licked the soft hollow between her breasts. He was murmuring Welsh endearments she could not understand, but the sound of his voice stirred her senses almost as much as his breath on her throat, his hands on her body. "Oh, love," she whispered, "love, yes," not even knowing what she said, wanting only to taste his mouth on hers, to feel the weight of his body pressing down upon hers, and when he lowered her back onto the cushions, she looked up at him with starlit eyes and a smile to make him forget everything but the here and now, the woman under him in fhe window-seat.
He was never to know what stopped him, whether it was simply a lifetime's habit of control, or a protective urge stirred by her utter trust, °r even the insistent whimpering of the dog. It took an intense effort will to pull away from the soft body straining against his, but as he
*' UP, he became aware that the dog was no longer whining; it had gun to growl. His reaction came without thought, came from instinct ned sharp as any sword. Grasping Ellen's wrist, he jerked her upright the seat, just as the door opened and Edward entered.
tdwards smile froze, and for one of the few times in his life, his nse of humor failed him; instead, he experienced something oddly

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like embarrassment. Ellen's hair streamed down her back in tanelecj disorder. Clinging to Llewelyn as if she needed support, she gazed UD
at him with glazed, unfocused eyes; it was a look he'd often seen upon his own wife's face, but only in the privacy of their marriage bed. Edward knew that he was staring. He couldn't seem to help himself, though unable to believe that this disheveled, desirable wanton was his proper'
f staid little cousin, Ellen the untouchable, the ice maiden. But whatever
*had been happening in here, it was for certes not rape.
It was their silence that brought him back to his senses, to the reluctant realization that he was somehow in the wrong. "I am sorry," he said, not very convincingly, for he'd not had much practice at apologies. "I should have knocked."
"Yes," Llewelyn said, "you should have."
Edward was so astonished that anyone would dare to criticize the manners of the King that he forbore to take offense. He supposed he could not fairly blame the Welshman for being a bit churlish; in truth, he'd not have taken it with good grace either, had he been in Llewelyn's place.
By now, Ellen had managed to reorient herself, had adjusted her gown to make sure she was not showing Edward what was for Llewelyn's eyes only. But she had not drawn away from Llewelyn, had deliberately moved closer, in fact, and when he put his arm around her shoulders, she leaned back against him, then smiled at Edward. "You wanted something, Ned?"
"Edmund and Blanche are down in the great hall. I thought you might like to surprise them." Edward was slowly beginning to see some humor in the situation, and he added, "It seems to be a day for surprises. Shall I send up your maid to you, Ellen?"
"Oh, you mean this?" she said, running her hand through that wild, coppery mane. "Thank you, but that will not be necessary. I'm sure my husband can help make me presentable."
"As you wish," Edward agreed, torn between amusement and annoyance at the emergence of this new Ellen. "When will you be ready?'
"Thursday," Llewelyn suggested, so laconically that Edward took it as a joke and laughed.
"We will await you then, down in the hall." As he moved toward the door, Edward began to laugh again. "I am going to have to leaf11 the Welsh art of seduction, for certes. And to think I once thought that when it came to courting, Davydd was the quick one!"
Ellen could feel the muscles of Llewelyn's arm contract under her hand, and she was relieved when he kept silent. As soon as they wet* alone, she reached up, touched his cheek. "You need not be angry ° my behalf, love. Ned can tell the entire court, and I'd not care. You a16

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husband, and what happens between us is not cause for shame."
Llewelyn tightened his arm around her, drawing her in against his chest- It was clear to him that she did not understand the significance f what had just occurred, or the probable consequences, but he could not bring himself to burden her with more cares. Smoothing her hair hack over her shoulders, he kissed the corner of her mouth. "In truth, cariad, I am angry with myself, too, for it is folly to keep stoking a fire when there is no means at hand of quenching it. I may have cheated you of a courtship and a lavish wedding, but at the very least, I ought to provide a marriage bed."
She laughed softly. "It is rather like being drunk, is it not?"
He grinned, thinking she spoke truer than she knew, and got reluctantly to his feet, got them both away from the tempting proximity of that cushioned window-seat. "You go to my head, Ellen, not to mention those body parts farther south. Being alone with you is going to rut severe demands upon my self-control." And although he said it as a joke, he knew it was not.
Ellen gave him a look of such yearning that he could feel his treacherous body already rebelling. "There is an easy answer to that," she said. "Tomorrow we bolt the door."
Llewelyn could only marvel at the mysterious ways of the Almighty. His world in charred ruins about him, a lifetime's efforts set at naught, and suddenly this remarkable woman, this bond that went beyond a fever of the flesh. "No, cariad," he said gently, "we cannot."
"Why not? Why should we wait for Edward's court wedding? That is a misguided generosity on his part, for we are man and wife in the eyes of God and
Christendom. I have been your bride for two years, Llewelyn, but I want to be your wife. How can that be wrong?"
"It is not wrong, Ellen, but it is dangerous." He saw she still did not comprehend. "We cannot risk laying together until you are free, for we cannot risk giving the English Crown two hostages for the price of one. What if you got with child?"
"Oh, God ..." Ellen was shaken. "What a fool I am!" The thought °f delivering her child, Llewelyn's heir, into Edward's power was so horrifying to her that she shuddered, and Llewelyn pulled her into a dose embrace. Looking up into his face, she said, "I thought that if only We could meet, the separation would be more bearable. But it is not S°ing to be easier at all, is it? It is going to be even harder now to abide king apart, to keep faith."
She sounded desperately unhappy, she who'd been joyous but mojttents before.
"I know," he said. "In the past I was counting the days you Were freed. Now
I'll be counting the nights, too."
As he'd hoped, that coaxed a smile. "So will I," she said, with a

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fervency that was only partially exaggerated for comic effect, "oh, j^. deed, so will I." But she had an idea then, and fumbling in the bodice of her gown, she drew out a man's ring looped upon a beaten gold chain.
"So that is what I felt," Llewelyn said, and she gave him another smile, this one bright and bewitching and hot enough to singe his good intentions.
'g "This is my father's ring, never off his finger until he rode out to die on
Evesham's bloody field. It became my mother's most cherished keepsake, and on her deathbed, she bequeathed it to my brother Amaury. I in turn promised that
I'd hold it for him, keep it safe until he regains his freedom. I want you to wear it, Llewelyn, and each time you look at it, think of me and know that we'll soon be together in Wales."
"I shall guard it well, cariad," he said, "and return it to you upon our wedding night." He kissed her then, long and hard, for never had their wedding night, their life together, seemed so far out of reach. It was no longer a matter of honor, of marital vows and injured pride. There was just one woman now in all of Christendom whom he wanted, whom he had to have, no matter the cost. But God help them both, for Edward now knew that, too.
22
WINDSOR CASTLE, ENGLAND
January 1278
1 HE sky was still shrouded at noon, for the ran1 had yet to slacken, a stinging, icy rain that spilled steadily from cloud thick enough to smother the sun, threatening to blot out the ligh* *° days to come. As she stared down into the dismal, deserted quagi^ of the middle bailey, Ellen found it easy to believe that the rain coui go on like this till spring.
She had been sitting in the window-seat for hours, heedless or

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.j]] and damp and Juliana's futile attempts at cheer. Juliana had never n her moods swing so wildly as in these days after her return to
Windsor; she was either in euphoria or despair, sometimes within the nan of the same hour. Juliana was still adjusting to the change; it was revelation that the even-tempered Ellen could be just as volatile as her high-strung mother. But Juliana needed no doctor to diagnose Ellen's ailment, for it was evident to her that Ellen was smitten with her own husband. And remembering her sweet, stolen moments with Bran, Juliana was both thankful and envious that Ellen was to have so much more, a lifetime moreif Edward could be trusted to keep faith.
Juliana was about to propose a chess game in another effort to raise Ellen's spirits. But Sir Nicholas de Seyton spared her the trouble. Drenched to the skin by his dash across the bailey, he dripped his way toward the hearth, and between sneezes, announced that the Lady Ellen had a visitor, one sanctioned by the King.
The unexpected guest was just as rain-soaked as Sir Nicholas, but he did not seem to mind it as much. He looked surprisingly cheerful for a man so mud-splattered, and immediately made a favorable impression upon Juliana, who liked his slanting dark eyes and cleft chin, and could not help noticing, too, his compact, sturdy build. All that Ellen saw, though, was that he was clean-shaven. "You are Welsh!"
"Indeed I am," he confirmed, stroking his telltale mustache. Striding over to kiss her hand, he gave her an appraising look, and then, a boyish, summertime smile. "I am Goronwy ap Heilyn, my lady, and I have been sent by my lord
Prince to speak with youin private," he added pointedly.
"That was deftly done," Ellen said approvingly as soon as Sir Nicholas withdrew. "You do know how to get your own way, I can see that. But come over by the fire ere you catch a chill. Juliana, do we have any wine?"
Goronwy was amused. "I came only from London, my lady, not the Holy Land, and if there are any folk in Christendom inured to rain, for certes it is the
Welsh. My lord has good news for you. On the Friday eve after Christmas, the
Countess of Lancaster gave birth to a son."
"That is indeed good news. Blanche and the babe are both well?"
He nodded. "They christened him Thomas, after the holy martyr, ^cket. Nor is that all. What I have to tell you now, my lady, will be
Ven more welcome. The English King has agreed to turn your brother er to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Worcester and
,^ter Ah, no, my lady, Lord Amaury has not been set free! But he now be held in the more merciful custody of the Church, and will
^°n be transferred from Corfe to the Lord Edmund's castle at Sheroorne"