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

words or unhealed wounds be^^ Llewelyn to "de to war with s°ught to make peace ... to no avail " U$' Tswallowed my pride, that he kindled our quarrel all over ag Ue^elyn rebuffed me so sharplyJoanna sighed, picked listlessly jT"",, , ^ it has been three weeks since he J 'H,!f00d SCt before her- "And H'ng war inCeri, fighHng Henry a^"d.D^ de south- They are than that. Not a single message has Llld df Bur«h' but I kno^ no more , String the bread down, Joanna K^ ^^"*me' "ary a word/' aZ Ve heard me ou* m virtual silen^VCai^eiine a speculative look. life' 3S l did? We're talking about n e;uSurely y°u understand why IOthln8 less than Davydd's very

592"I am myself a mother. Of course I understand. But I can stand Llewelyn's anger, too. If only you had come to him first"Resentment flickered, failed to catch. Was Catherine's caution so surprising?Joanna doubted that in all of her married life she'd acted independently ofRhys. Moreover, she looked ghastly, looked /*' and thin and colorless, had aged shockingly in these months of owhood. "I did not mean to burden you with my troubles, Cathe ' We'll talk of them no more," Joanna promised, and kept to that res 16 for the remainder of her stay. eWhen Joanna returned to Aber at dusk the following day, she vv tired and dispirited. With each visit to Catherine, she could see the d' tance between them widening, could see in Catherine only a gentl ghost of the lively, loving woman she'd once been. But she did not know how to arrest the drift; her every lifeline seemed to fall short of Catherine's indifferent fingers.Her mood did not improve on finding her bedchamber in disarray. Not only hadMadlen taken advantage of her absence to sleep in Joanna's feather bed, she'd neglected to make it up afterward. Moreover, several of Joanna's more expensive gowns were spread helter-skelter about the chamber, and Joanna doubted Madlen's glib explanation that she'd been sorting them out; trying them on was more likely. Joanna was annoyed, but Glynis was outraged and began to berate the younger girl for such unseemly behavior.Madlen was quite unperturbed by Glynis's ire. Nor was she apprehensive of losing her place in Joanna's household; she was comfortably confident thatJoanna would overlook all but the most egregious of impudences, for she was a cousin once removed of Ednyved. But Madlen still had no liking for reprimands, and she sought to avoid one now with a tried-and-true tactic, diversion."Madame, I have wondrous news for you! A letter arrived this forenoon from your lord husband. He says the war is going very well for us The English are running low on food, are sore beset by our men, and they're losing their will to fight, are squabbling amongst themselves. Lord Llewelyn has cut off their supply lines, even captured a great Norman lord when he ambushed a foraging party, one who'll bring goodly ransom. He writes that he expects the war will soon be over, t Hubert de Burgh will have to abandon the castle he hoped to build a Pen y Castell and withdraw from Wales." ,/s"I am not going to ask how you know the contents of my husoa l J.A i_ Lryi ^L i. T ; L .. .1. ,.^-.,, j.^* £^.4-^.1-1 if frfTfQi dll^*. not yet. Right now I just want you to fetch it for me, aAimc,T T*r/-tiil,-fl r->rf t-*t-Tr irif^ w^-»ni- lofforl T rannO*rCaU.letter . . . not yet. Right now I just want you to fetch it tor quick!""Madame, I would not pry into your letter! I cannot Adda shared it with us in the great hall."

593nna could not hide her dismay. "The letter was to Adda? Not to1116 "Mo Madame, not to you." Not spiteful, just oblivious, Madlen, yjthely, "Oh, but Lord Llewelyn did include a message for you h letter. He sent that captive Norman lord to us for safekeeping, but1(1 the lord is to be treated as a hostage of high rank, not as a^ mon prisoner, and he is to be given the freedom of the court, as heL . ed his knight's honor he'd not try to escape. Yet our lord would as n rely upon a more tangible barrier than an enemy's honor, and he. j^ jt kest to put a swift current betwixt the lord and temptation. That s his message, that you should at once move the court to the isle ofMon."Joanna spun about, moved to the window so she'd not betray herself with burning color. Almost immediately, though, she recoiled, havmg caught sight ofSenena crossing the courtyard. "What is she doing here, Madlen?""The Lady Senena? She came back yesterday, is making arrangements to send some of Lord Gruffydd's household goods to Deganwy: his favorite feather bed, wall hangings, and the like." Madlen gave Joanna a look of avid curiosity, wishing that just once Joanna might confide in her, share those intimate details about which she could now only speculate. But Joanna was silent, and she began to pick up the discarded dresses with a sigh of frustration. So much excitementLord Gruffydd's confinement, Lord Llewelyn's quarrel with her lady, war with the Englishand she was at the very heart of it all. But what good did it do her when her lady hoarded her secrets like a miser?Joanna's anger had not yet abated by the time she entered the great tall. In truth, she welcomed her resentment, her sense of injury, for it kept her fear at bay. Llewelyn's silence was becoming more and more ominous. For the first time she found herself thinking the unthinkable: what if Llewelyn could not forgive her?Much to Joanna's relief, Senena was not in the hall. She started 'Ward the dais, while Madlen chattered on cheerfully at her side.^re is the Norman lord, Madame. I think he's very handsome, inAnd