Chapter Eighteen #2
Elle nodded. “She is,” she said. “Melusine has more experience in managing kitchens than I do, so it is something that comes easily for her. She, too, has come to see that living with the English is not such a bad thing. It helps that she is fond of one of the warriors.”
The ladies grinned at each other, knowing how the distraction of a man could change a woman’s life because they had all experienced the very same thing. “And you, my lady?” Liora asked, seated next to Christin. “What tasks do you have here?”
Elle smiled, perhaps in embarrassment. “Truthfully, I have never been good with things women are expected to tend to,” she said. “I have no training, not the way all of you have. If Curtis has told you anything about me, then you know I was in command of Brython when Hereford and his army came.”
Dustin nodded proudly. “She held Chris off for an entire month,” she said to the group. “She is to be commended.”
The women giggled, knowing what a blow that must have been to Christopher and his pride. “Then you are helping Curt with his army?” Christin asked.
Elle shrugged. “A little,” she said. “I know the warlords of these lands, so we discuss that a good deal. I give him my opinion on their strengths and loyalties. When I am not doing that, I tend to the keep and the kitchen stores. But Curt and his knights have been very generous in teaching me what they know about managing a house and hold, at least as much as they are able. I have been keeping the ledger of accounts for Curt, of what we spend and how much money we have. I make suggestions on income that do not include taxing his vassals.”
“Oh?” Dustin said, interested. “What have you suggested?”
Elle was reluctant to answer, given that she was so new to the concept of finding income for a castle.
She didn’t want to sound foolish in front of these women who had been doing it all their lives, but she figured that saying something would be better than avoiding the question.
She didn’t want to appear rude when the truth was that she was simply uncertain.
“It is not really my idea,” she said timidly.
“But Curt told me that Lord Hereford has herds of cattle for income. I… Well, I have suggested that we buy some and have our own herd. You see, in the life I led before my marriage, I never had enough money to buy cattle or anything else, but now, we have the money to purchase what we need to make Brython thrive, and it seems logical that we must create income not dependent on taxation.”
Dustin smiled broadly. “Well done, my lady,” she said. “You are clearly brilliant. My son is very fortunate to have married such a bright mind.”
Elle smiled modestly. “The past two months have been quite an education for me,” she said. “I have had to learn quickly. I have had to change my way of thinking, with many things. And… and I think I like it.”
As Dustin and Christin continued to congratulate her and discuss other ideas worthy of making money for a castle and its inhabitants, Elle caught sight of Gruffydd. He was standing by himself as Christopher and Curtis were off speaking with other lords and their wives.
I’ve had to change my way of thinking.
That meant with her brother. All Curtis had asked her was to be civil to him.
Perhaps they would never been the best of friends, but he was her only living sibling.
As she gazed at him, he could feel herself easing when it came to Gruffydd.
Had he ever wronged her? She honestly couldn’t think of a time he had.
If she thought very hard, she remembered a time in her life, when she’d been very young, that he’d sung her a song or tried to help her catch a fish. Little things.
But things she remembered as being… pleasant.
But she’d grown older, and he went away.
She went to live with her grandmother. And when she came back from her grandmother, Gruffydd was on a different path than she was.
His was diplomacy; hers was fighting. They never agreed on anything, and her animosity toward him grew to the point where she’d given him a sleeping potion and thrown him in the vault.
And now, they were here. At a crossroads. Did she want to hate the man for the rest of her life because he chose to ally with the English and she didn’t agree? Now, she found herself married to an Englishman. Her life was changing for the better.
Perhaps she needed to rethink her attitude toward Gruffydd.
Perhaps it was time to put the hostilities aside.
“Will you excuse me a moment?” she said to Dustin and the others. “I see my brother. I should like to greet him now that Curt is not taking all of his attention.”
The ladies waved her off as they continued their conversation about revenue and running a castle.
Elle stood up from the table, making her way around it and toward the hearth, where Gruffydd was nursing a cup of wine.
It was warmer over here because the hearth was blazing like mad, spitting sparks and smoke into the hall.
Most people were congregating away from it, in the center of the room, and Elle came up behind Gruffydd as the man swallowed a big gulp of wine and then burped.
“Is the wine to your liking?” she asked.
Startled that she’d snuck up on him, Gruffydd turned to her quickly. “It is very good,” he said, eyeing her warily. “Your husband told me that it was from Burgundy.”
Elle nodded. “Aye,” she said. “He had it brought from Lioncross. It seems that the family buys it by the shipload.”
“The English do indeed like their fine wines,” Gruffydd agreed, but he quickly moved to the meat of the situation between them.
There was no use in avoiding it. “I know you were not told that I was invited, but I did not realize that until I arrived. Had I known, I might not have come. If my presence here is upsetting, know that I had nothing to do with it.”
Elle could see that he was gearing up for what he thought was going to be a fight. “I know,” she said evenly. “Be at ease, Gruffydd. I come in peace. I know this was my husband’s doing.”
That seemed to relieve him but also confuse him, as if he weren’t certain how to act now. “Right,” he said, a bit nervous. “Then try not to be too hard on him. He wanted all of his allies here. If that displeases you, then I am sorry.”
Elle could hear the same old Gruffydd in his tone, in his words.
The man was a diplomat. He’d never been much of a fighter.
That had fallen to her. She cocked her head as she gazed at him, perhaps through new eyes.
Or perhaps she was trying to see him through new eyes.
Marriage to Curtis was causing her to see many things differently.
Even Gruffydd.
“I never did understand you,” she said. “It occurs to me that much of it stems from the fact that you were never a soldier, Gruffydd. Always the diplomat, the peacemaker. Our father taught you that, didn’t he?”
Gruffydd wasn’t sure he wanted to speak on this subject, the root of every wrong between them, but he answered.
“Aye,” he said. “Elle… I have said this before and I will say it again. I am sorry that our father did not treat you well. I am sorry he ignored you. Do you remember when you were very small and I would come to you and tell you stories? And sometimes I would even take you with me when I went to be with Papa?”
Elle nodded. “I remember,” she said. Then she snorted ironically. “In fact, I was just thinking about that. I remember all of that, but one day, you simply stopped coming to me.”
“Do you know why?”
“Nay.”
Gruffydd grew serious. “Then mayhap it is time for you to know,” he said. “It wasn’t because I wanted to. It was because I needed to.”
“Needed to? Explain.”
He lowered his voice. “Because Papa had grown… senile,” he said.
“There was some kind of madness in his mind. He was already an old man when I was born, and even older when you were born. There is eleven years between our births, Elle. You were, and always will be, my baby sister. But I stopped coming to you because Papa developed this madness and a real hatred toward our mother. Even the mere mention of you would cause him to rage. I stopped coming because he needed to be managed. And I needed to keep that rage away from you.”
Elle looked at him in shock. “But… no one ever said anything about madness,” she said. “I never heard anything at all.”
“I know,” Gruffydd said, somewhat agitated.
“There were only a few of us who knew, and we tried to keep it very quiet. There was no knowing what would happen if it got around that Gwenwynwyn ap Owain suffered from madness. It would have destroyed his rule, his control over his own vassals, and it would have given Llywelyn a great opportunity to seize Powys. But I never had a chance to tell you, for you were sent away to our grandmother, and when you returned, you reflected all of the bitterness and love for Llywelyn that she had. Certainly, I would not have told you then.”
Elle was feeling a good deal of astonishment at the revelation. “Of course not,” she said. “It would have gone straight to Llywelyn.”
“Exactly,” Gruffydd said. “After our father died, you were as angry as ever. I know you thought I was a traitor to our people for continuing Gwenwynwyn’s legacy, and mayhap I am, but he felt that an alliance with the English was something that would survive Llywelyn.
He knew the English would defeat him, at some point, and our father’s hope was that we would be given his lands.
It was all quite political, really. But you saw the opposite…
You saw Llywelyn in command of our lands once I was ousted. ”
Elle could see the very clear picture that Gruffydd was painting. “I did,” she said. “Up until I married Curt, that’s exactly what I saw.”
“Do you still see it?” Gruffydd asked. “God, Elle, if you still see that, does Leominster know? Because if you betray him, you will ruin it for all of us. You will not be giving Brython back to the Welsh, but you will be bringing all of England down on us. Powys will be ruined, and when Llywelyn is defeated, our people will be at the mercy of the English more than you can ever know.”
She could see that he was verging on panic, and she hastened to reassure him.
“That is no longer my opinion, Gruffydd,” she said.
“In fact, that was what I wanted to tell you. Growing up, all I knew was rejection and hardship. But since I married Curtis, I have discovered what it means to be valued and respected and loved. I have a husband who is madly in love with me, and I am madly in love with him. I would rather die than betray him, I swear it.”
Now, it was Gruffydd’s turn to be shocked. “Is this true?” he gasped. “You… you mean it?”
“Every word.”
He blinked in response, his mouth hanging open. “But… how?” he finally asked. “Are you so easily swayed away from something you have believed your entire life?”
She smiled wryly. “What did I believe in?” she said.
“I believed in Welsh rule for Welsh people. I believed in our way of life. But our way of life brought me starvation and cruelty and brutality. It brought me people who treated me poorly and ignored me. I believed in it because that was all I knew. But Curt has shown me a wonderful world of happiness and love and respect… I would much rather have that than what I had before, and if that means I have been swayed, then it is true—I have been. I’ve been swayed by love, Gruffydd. That is the greatest power of all.”
Gruffydd could hardly believe what he was hearing, but in the same breath, he’d never been so happy or relieved. His warring sister, who would rather use a sword than her words, had been changed by marriage. By love.
It was truly astonishing.
“But what about our people?” he asked. “You still believe in our cause?”
She nodded. “I do,” she said. “But as it was pointed out to me, I can do more good as a great lady than as a rebel. I have the money and the name to do great things, Gruffydd. I can feed the poor or educate children. I can make a difference in ways I could have never made it before. That is the cause I believe in—helping our people to thrive. Even if I am not changing a nation, I am doing what I can. I will make my mark. As for you… I misjudged you, Gruffydd, and I am sorry. I understand much more than I did before. I hope we can be at peace with one another in the future.”
Gruffydd smiled in delight and a little surprise. “I would like that,” he said. “In fact, I plan on marrying Hawise next month. I would like it if you and your husband could attend.”
Elle returned his smile, perhaps the first genuine gesture of peace between them in an entire lifetime together. “I would be honored to come,” she said. “I hope this is the beginning of something better between us, Gruffydd. I truly do.”
Gruffydd extended his hand to her, and, after a moment’s hesitation, Elle placed her hand in his. He gave it a squeeze.
“As do I,” he said. Then he chuckled. “I suppose I was wrong.”
“About what?”
“I once told Hereford that trying to make a good wife out of you was like trying to tame the wind,” he said. “I told him it could not be done. But I was wrong.”
Elle chuckled, somewhat embarrassed. “It was probably not the first time you were wrong,” she said. “Truthfully, I would not have believed it, either, had someone told me two months ago that I would be my happiest with an English warlord at my side.”
“But you are? Happy, I mean?”
Elle nodded sincerely. “Verily,” she said. “More than I could have dreamed.”
Gruffydd liked hearing that. In truth, the entire conversation with her had been a revelation to him, but a good one. And he’d never been happier to have been wrong.
Perhaps the English were wind tamers after all.