Chapter Ten
Llanwyffyn Stronghold
Home of Aeron ap Gruffudd
The home of Aeron ap Gruffudd looked more like a prison.
It had been in his family for generations, situated alongside a pristine lake that, from certain angles, looked as if the water actually touched the sky.
But it was the only thing touched by Aeron that was beautiful, for the lands that had belonged to his family for hundreds of years were mostly void of anything useful, stripped by hungry animals or men looking for things to eat or burn in their hearths.
Aeron had about two hundred men who lived in or around Llanwyffyn, men who served him, but he didn’t supply them with anything more than lands to live on. They had to supply everything else.
Megsy had never been to Llanwyffyn, but she’d heard tale of it. It was an odd place, as if the lands around it were darker, somehow. Other than the lake, everything seemed gloomier, like a land that had been drained of anything caring or lovely, the sentiment burned out of it long ago.
These were Megsy’s thoughts as she stood in the hall of Llanwyffyn.
If the lands were devoid of life, the interior of Llanwyffyn’s keep was like being thrown into the middle of a nightmare.
The floor leaned and was pocked with holes in places, packs of snarling dogs roamed the chamber, and an unnaturally large fire blazed in a pit in the middle of it.
Smoke filled the chamber because the holes in the roof where it was supposed to escape were blocked with bird droppings.
But none of it seemed to bother Aeron. He was a tall man with stringy black hair and a patch over his right eye, lost in a fight in his youth.
The two sergeants that had accompanied Megsy from The Neath were the ones to deliver the news to Aeron that the object of his affection and her father were now prisoners of the new English Lord of Wybren Castle.
Aeron wasn’t usually one to show any interest in most things around him, but when it came to Juliandra ferch Gethin, he was quite interested.
He and a few of his men listened to the sergeants speak of Juliandra’s captivity, and Gethin’s capture, with growing outrage.
By the time the sergeants were finished, Aeron was on his feet.
“How long ago did this happen?” he demanded.
“Less than a week,” the first sergeant answered. “They’re both captive at Wybren. Can you help us, great lord?”
Aeron’s nostrils flared. “Damn,” he rumbled.
“I knew something like this was going to happen, something terrible. I told that English knight that he is not welcome here, but he dismissed me. I have even sent word to my cousin about him, asking for help, but now I cannot wait for that help. The Saesneg has pushed my hand because he has taken what belongs to me. This will not stand.”
Megsy was growing increasingly fearful as she listened to Aeron rant. “She went to pay the toll for her father,” she said, trying not to weep. “He took her for payment instead!”
She blew her nose into her apron as Aeron scowled. “Foolish wench,” he said. “She should have never gone alone. Of course the Saesneg is going to demand that she stay. He has probably already taken that which belongs to me!”
He meant her innocence. The sergeants from The Neath passed glances, confident that they’d worked Aeron into enough of a frenzy that he would do something about the situation.
Where Aeron was concerned, it often took very little prompting for him to fly into a rage, especially where Juliandra was involved.
His jealousy would consume him like nothing else.
“I can give you about twenty men, my lord,” the first sergeant said. “I wish it could be more.”
But Aeron waved him off. “Keep your men,” he said. “I have my own. I can raise more.”
One of Aeron’s men, a cousin, in fact, spoke from behind him. “What do you have in mind?”
Aeron turned to look at the son of his father’s brother, a man he had been raised with.
“We should have never let the Saesneg take possession of Wybren, Adan,” he said.
“We should have done something the very day the knight took possession, but Glynn would not help me. Do you recall? He was reluctant. But I do not need him.”
Adan eyed his cousin with an expression that suggested years of living in fear of the man, but he’d long learned to be calm with Aeron or nothing would be accomplished. Aeron could shout louder and angrier than anyone, so Adan kept his composure as much as he was able.
He looked to the men from The Neath.
“Go outside and wait for us,” he instructed. “We will speak on this matter and decide what is to be done.”
The sergeants nodded and headed out, dragging Megsy along. She didn’t want to go, more interested in what Aeron would be saying because it pertained to Juliandra. But they dragged her through the door and once they were out of earshot, Adan turned to his cousin.
“You already sent word to Phylip about this,” he said. “You must wait for him to answer. He knows more about the Saesneg than you do.”
But Aeron shook his head. “I have waited,” he said. “And see what has happened? Now the bastard has Juliandra and something must be done.”
Adan took a deep breath. “Are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting?” he said. “You plan to attack Wybren without help from Phylip?”
Aeron looked at his cousin, a man he considered wise but also cowardly. Adan wasn’t fond of battle.
“We should have done it at the start, before the Saesneg gained a foothold,” he said. “I should have insisted Glynn give me his men, but I did not. I was a fool. Now they have Juliandra, sullying the woman before I had a chance to do it.”
Adan could see the unreasonable rage building and he knew he had to make his case before the blind fury took over.
“Listen to me,” he said. “You may be able to raise hundreds to attack Wybren, or mayhap not. Glynn did not give you his men for a good reason – too many of the warlords know what attacking a Marcher castle will do to them. It will bring all of the Saesneg Marcher lords down around us and we cannot fight them all.”
Aeron didn’t want to admit that he was right. “Then what?” he said sarcastically. “We do nothing, Adan? You know that I cannot sit aside while that bastard takes that which belongs to me.”
Adan shook his head. “You must wait for Phylip to respond,” he said. “You will need his support.”
“I do not need his support.”
Adan lifted a dark eyebrow. “You do and you know it,” he said, holding up a hand to beg patience while he continued.
“Aeron, you must put a siege out of your mind for now, at least until you hear from Phylip. Right now, you do not have enough men. It would be futile because you would not have enough support for a sustained campaign against a castle that has never been breached.”
Aeron was confident in his arrogance. “No one has ever seriously tried,” he said. “With enough men, we can get over her walls. It can be done.”
Adan switched tactics. “Then the Saesneg might harm Juliandra to punish you for your aggression,” he said. “Did you ever think of that?”
Aeron hadn’t, but he hated to admit such a thing. His rising battle ardor was cooled. “Nay,” he finally said. “They are cowards and brutes. I suppose it is possible that they could.”
Adan nodded firmly. “You want her returned to you whole and safe, not thrown over the wall to punish you for your actions,” he said.
“If the Saesneg wants a woman, then mayhap that is what we should do. Exchange Juliandra for another woman and that would solve the problem of Juliandra’s captivity.
We could bring him one, someone beautiful and lush. ”
Aeron’s eyebrows lifted. “More beautiful and lush than Juliandra?”
Adan conceded the point. “I realize that will be difficult, but if you want your lady returned to you safely, then you will have to offer the Saesneg something equal, or better, in return,” he said.
“Give him another woman in exchange for yours. Tell him that the woman we have is more valuable than Juliandra somehow.”
Unfortunately, Aeron wasn’t very bright. He thought in very simplistic terms, which meant he thought that such an exchange might be a good idea, not realizing that his cousin had only presented it to keep him from raising an army and turning this section of the Marches into a battlefield.
Adan was trying to prevent a bloodbath, that was true, but he was mostly trying to prevent a death – his.
He could only hope his cousin took the bait.
“Could it be that simple, then?” Aeron said, excitement in his tone. “We give him another woman and Juliandra is returned to me? But the woman we offer will truly have to have something outstanding, something that makes her more attractive than Juliandra.”
Adan was already nodding as if he had the perfect solution.
“She will,” he said. “I am thinking of Yestyn’s wife, the woman who has provided him five children because he cannot keep his hands from her.
You know the one – with black hair and black eyes, and breasts that are enormous and milky.
The woman makes every man who meets her want to bed her.
You can smell her female scent from a distance, like a siren’s call. ”
Aeron knew the woman. She was bold and lush and curvy, with big, red lips that she never hesitated to put on a man’s privates, even after she spoke the words of marriage with one of Aeron’s biggest and toughest men.
He finally snorted.
“Rumor has it that the last two children aren’t even Yestyn’s,” he said, a lewd grin on his face. “She was down washing by the lake one day and I saw a man come up behind her and take her right there on the shore. And she let him. She is too much woman for one man.”
“Then let her seduce the Saesneg,” Adan said with a grin. “He could not turn her away. Juliandra is beautiful, but she is also pure. She’s not yet learned how to seduce a man. But Lilia… she knows. She unfurls herself every chance she gets and if she can control the man…”
Aeron was catching on. “Then we can control him.”
“Exactly. That is better than any siege.”
Aeron was starting to like this plan. It was far more subversive than the one he had in mind, but probably more effective. “She can also tell us of his plans,” he said. “We can plant her right where we need her and she can tell us everything.”
Adan was relieved that Aeron was seeing things his way.
“She can tell us everything he is doing,” he said.
“Who knows? One day, she may even leave the postern gate open and we can infiltrate the castle before they know it is happening. It will be too late by the time they realize we have come and Wybren will again be ours without a good deal of bloodshed.”
Aeron nodded, feeling calmer than he had moments earlier. Adan had successfully manipulated him into believing this was the right course of action.
“Then summon ap Hywel,” he said. “I would speak with Glynn about this situation and our plan to remedy it. If we cannot do it with force, then we shall do it with subversion. That ought to make him happy. He and I shall go to Wybren together and we shall make the Saesneg an offer he cannot refuse. But if he has taken Juliandra’s innocence, I shall demand amobr. ”
He was speaking of the traditional compensation when a woman’s innocence was lost, marriage or otherwise. It could often be a hefty fine and, by Welsh law, the Saesneg was required to pay it unless he wanted great trouble.
Perhaps Aeron was hoping for that because in his view, the Saesneg commander of Wybren had stolen a personal possession – the woman he intended to marry.
And there was going to be hell to pay.