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

her.It was true that he did not treat her like a wife. His was more the casual, affectionate playfulness of an older brother for a much younger sister. But he never failed to smile at sight of her, saw that she was accorded all due respect as his Princess, just as he'd done on their wedding day, when he'd backed her up before Maude de Braose; she was convinced now that there was nothing coincidental in his providential appearances that night. And since their marriage, he had always been there when she most needed him, as on that dreadful day when her dog chased a squirrel onto the wooded slopes of Maes yGaer, and she'd come running to him in a panic, for Sugar was all she had of home. He had soothed her, sent men out to search for the dog, had even forborne to tease, at least until after the animal was found.Above all, Joanna appreciated Llewelyn's kindness in not flaunting his concubines at court. Even had she been sharing his bed, she would not have expected him to be faithful; fidelity was a marriage vow for women. She did not doubt that Llewelyn had a mistress. But he did not do as so many Norman lords did, parade his conquests before one and all, heedless of his wife's discomfort. Not all men did swagger over their sins, of course. Her father had amazed many with his unexpected discretion after taking Isabelle as his bride.He was not faithful to Isabelle, but for a man notorious for his wenching, he showed a surprising sensitivity to Isabelle's pride. Joanna alone had not been surprised, for she knew that, in his way, her father loved Isabelle. ButLlewelyn did not love Joanna, and that made his consideration all the more remarkable to her, made her all the more grateful for it.Llewelyn was her one comfort in a world that frightened her, and she regretted deeply that he was so often gone from Aber. He was a man ever in search of additional hours in the day, juggling innumerable interests like so many colored balls, presiding over the Uchel Lys, his High Court, fortifying his various mountain strongholds, consulting with vassal lords, with his rhaglaws and rhingyllsbailiffs and court officials. Like John, he traveled extensively about his realm. But John always took Isabelle with him, and Llewelyn never offered to take her.THE great hall was lit by rushlight; torches were used sparingly in Wales/pine and fir trees being less common there than in England. It was a

205I night for August, and a fire blazed in the center hearth. Of all thatC° na found foreign in Wales, the altered dinner hour had been hardest her to accept. In England, dinner, the main meal of the day, was ed between ten and eleven in the forenoon, followed by a light sup-5at five- But the Welsh ate just one meal a day, and that in the evening'The food and the trestle tables had been cleared away. Llewelyn as sitting by the hearth, picking out a plaintive melody on a finely ed harp.Joanna knew no people who loved music as the Welsh did. Every house, no matter how poor, had a harp; it passed by law to the youngest son, could never be seized for debt. Remembering how her father's lords had sneered at the Welsh passion for music, claiming that every pigsty did hold a harp, Joanna frowned.The unfairness of that gibe ranlded. Whatever their faults, the Welsh were not at all as Normans saw them; that she could say with certainty after three months in their midst.Llewelyn was the focal point of all eyes. While that was normally the case, there was an emotional intensity in the looks he was getting tonight, for he had given them all a bad scare. Five days ago, he and a few friends had gone off for a day's hunting. Because it was not an official circuit or clych, had no purpose but pleasure, he had been accompanied by only a token escort, and when the second day passed without word from him, a sense of unease began to spread. By the third day, all pretense was gone, and people were openly voicing their concern. Joanna found her sleep haunted by visions of twisting mountain trails; she could not stop thinking of the wolves that roamed the lower slopes of the Eryri Mountains, nor of the tusked wild boars that could disembowel a horse, rip apart a man with such murderous ease. But it was not until she talked to Enid that she became aware of a more sinister undertone to their fears. Fumbling for words, Enid drew upon enough broken French to conveyLlewelyn's true danger, that he might have strayed too close to the Powys border. She needed to say no more; Joanna understood all too well. Gwenwynwyn would gladly risk war for a chance to catch Llewelyn off guard, for withLlewelyn's death, Gwenwynwyn would stand alone as the unchallenged power inNorth Wales.On the fourth day, Rhys had ridden in from his own estates on the'sle of Mon, at once ordered out search parties. That night Joanna could not bear to withdraw to her own chambers, remained in the great hall, where word would first come. Ednyved's wife, Gwenllian, was there, °°' and she made Joanna feel as if she were somehow intruding where he had no right to be. But for all the resentment smoldering in Gwen-lan s eyes, Joanna was utterly unprepared to hear her remark, "I mar-61 that she does pretend to such concern. Who does not know, after all,

206207,.,,,,,.,i j i_ u i ui i,r <,. , ,, .,,. _.., , . ,, , , .t . r- j rxu n-POJI / ,nH vet not a wife. Just as at her father s court. The King s bastard it later, she'd sought