Here Be Dragons - 1 Sharon Penman (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📖

Chester selected Tuesday, November 22, as the date for the wedding, three weeks past Elen's fifteenth birthday, five days before the beginning of Advent, when the marriage Mass would be prohibited. Elen and John the Scot were wed in the city of Chester, in the same abbey church in whichLlewelyn and Joanna had been wed sixteen years earlier. The wedding was a social event of impressive proportions, attracting the highborn of Wales andEngland alike. Rhys leunac had died that past August, but his brother Owain was present, as were his uncles Maelgwn and Rhys Gryg. So, too, was Llewelyn's cousin Madog, lord of Upper Powys. Henry could not attend, but he'd sent his younger brother, Dickon, and his seven-year-old sister, Nell, in his stead.And as Joanna glanced now around the great hall of the Earl's castle, she saw most of the Norman nobility."I was astonished when Hubert de Burgh accepted his invitation, she confided to Richard. "He and Chester have been at odds for months now, and I would not think he'd want to socialize with a man who h'ke him so little.""The English court thrives on such feuds," Richard said dryly-' very fact that de Burgh mistrusts Chester would guarantee his preset1 here; he'd want to make sure Chester and Llewelyn were not conspu1 Fagainst him. I daresay that if he were not in Ireland, even Pembroke tvould have attended the wedding.""I'm right glad he did not. The last thing I want is a brawl, thank you.Speaking of which, I was not heartbroken when Gruffydd refused to come. But he and Senena are the only ones absent. That's Tegwared, Llewelyn's other son, standing over there with my Davydd. You've never met Tegwared, have you? I do not know him well myself, for he was with Cristyn till he was seven, and was then reared in Ednyved's household as a foster son, in accordance with custom.The lass with him is his betrothed, one of Ednyved's daughters." Joanna's smile was fleeting. "At least that is one marriage we need not worry about."Richard followed the path of her gaze, across the hall to where Elen and her new husband were standing, surrounded by well-wishers. "Is it strange for you, Joanna, being back at the scene of your own wedding?" "Somewhat strange, yes.Sixteen years does not seem so very long, but a surprising number of our wedding guests are now dead. Hugh Corbet. His brother Robert, just last month.Stephen de Hodnetyou did not know him, a friend of Llewelyn's."Fearing that she was going to name Maude de Braose next, Richard sought to distract her, saying hastily, "And of course Isabelle is not here. I miss her, Joanna, more than I'd have expected. Does she write to you?"

"Isabelle? Not likely! But I did have news of her just a fortnight ago.Although it's less than a year since she gave Hugh a son, Henry says she is with child again."Joanna paused, looking about the hall. The feasting was now done, and the trestle tables were being dismantled to allow for dancing. "I'm rather gladThomas Corbet is not here; I remember him stirring up trouble at my wedding.So, too, did Fulk Fitz Warm; he kept going on about the bedding revels at the top of his voice! But he was not invited, either; he's siding with Pembroke these days. So, too, is Baldwin de Hodnet, even though Llewelyn once gave both men refuge at his court. They are just about the only Marcher lords not present, though. All the Fitz Alans are here, and more de Braoses than I can count."It surprised Richard that she sounded so nonchalant, almost flippant. "Are you more comfortable now, Joanna? Being with the de Braoses?""The truth, Richard? No, I am not. But that is a problem I'm learnm8 to live with. What other choice do I have, with three of my husband's daughters wed into the de Braose clan?""Three? Gwladys and Reginald de Braose, of course. And then Wnat is her nameMarared and Reginald's nephew Jack. Who else?""Last year Gwenllian was wed to William de Lacy, half-brother to

544Hugh de Lacy, Earl of Ulster, and Walter de Lacy, Lord of Meath. Walter is husband to Margaret de Braose, Maude's daughter.""Ah, Joanna, what a tangled coil." But after a moment Richard started to see the perverse humor in Joanna's predicament. His mouth twitched, and he coughed, trying to camouflage a laugh.Joanna gave him a look that was quizzical, half resentful. But there was something contagious about his amusement, and she was soon laughing, too. "Iknowit's ludicrous," she admitted. "I'm bloody well surrounded by de Braoses;any day now I expect to find one under my bed!"Their laughter had been a spontaneous, almost involuntary reaction to the absurd, and it ended as abruptly as it began. Much sobered, Joanna said quietly, "It is not so bad with Reginald, for I do not see much of him anymore; he and Llewelyn have not been on good terms for several years now.But Jack de Braose is often at our court. We're polite to each other, Richard, too polite. But I cannot look into his face without remembering that his father and grandmother died in a Windsor dungeon, that he spent eight years in confinement at Corfe Castle. And if it is so uncomfortable for me, how must it be for him?"Richard knew it was not the place, but the opportunity might not arise again."Joanna, I hope you'll not take amiss what I'm about to say. Your problem is not with the de Braoses. It's with Papa. Until you face the truth about him, about the manner of man he was and how you feel about that, you're going to continue doing this to yourself, and I hate to see it. Jesu, we earn enough guilt and remorse of our own in this life without taking on the sins of others.""I have faced the truth! Do I deny the cruelties Papa committed, do I defend him? What more do you want of me?"Joanna's voice had risen; several