Epilogue

The Fair

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T here were many more expedient ways to get her out of bed than this, but he could not resist the rare chance to kiss her awake. She always rose up from the warmth of the bed like a flower out of the ground, unfolding herself to the sun.

"Cariad, you must rise," he said between kisses, with a laughable attempt at admonishment, because she seemed more interested in him than in waking. "Come, the day awaits and you will be loath to waste these morning hours."

"Waste?" She laughed, her head tilted back, the teardrop mark on her throat tempting him. Her hands stayed at his waist, smoothing over his skin, pushing up his tunic until she could lean forward and touch her mouth to the plane of his stomach.

"You were my first kiss, Robin," she murmured, "and the only man who has ever kissed me." Now she rested her chin on his belly and turned her sleepy gray eyes up to him. "I am owed eighteen full years of kisses. I mean to collect on my debt."

She returned to kissing his stomach, her fingers pulling at the ties of his braies. He could not quite find it in himself to push her away but before he lost all control of himself, he summoned up every ounce of gallantry he possessed to say, "Aye, and God help the man who withholds what is rightfully yours, but they are arriving today."

She pulled back, startled. "Today?"

He nodded. "They sent a rider ahead, who says they will be here by mid-morning."

She was already out of bed even before he had finished speaking, running to the door to call for her servant.

"I must dress, have you informed the kitchens? No, I should do it, I must tell them to put some of the goose fat aside, but has the wine arrived? Where is that girl Catrin, she knows she should await outside my door, and have you seen Nan this morning?"

He stopped the whirlwind of words and motion by putting his arms around her waist from behind while her hands were raised in the task of raking the tousled braid out of her hair. "Cariad," he said soothingly into her ear, and felt her go still under her hands. "The chamberlain greeted the messenger and even now prepares everything. The wine was delivered this morning. I sent Catrin to fetch Nan and some bread, and now I will have your promise that you won't forget to eat in all the excitement."

It was always the first task she forgot on any day where there was much to do. That described most days since they had come to Dinwen, and he did not doubt their future days would be even busier, as the castle Darian had only begun to be built. Even when his own day was so full that he could barely remember to breathe, he never forgot to eat. Therefore he had made it his private little concern that she was properly nourished, just as she was forever reminding him to wear thicker hose and boots, so often did he misjudge the cold.

"I will eat." Her hands covered his and gave them a gentle squeeze. She pulled away and turned to him, a smile bursting forth on her face. "They are coming," she said, and her chin lifted high in that way she'd had in her youth and that had been lost for so long – as though the world were hanging before her, and she would take a bite of it.

He would have kissed her again, but she was in motion already. Instead he went to see that enough of the new wine was brought up to the buttery, and opened a bottle of the finer vintage to sample. It was better than last year's attempt, and he was glad to have something so impressive to serve. He would be sure to send some bottles of this to Simon, with suggestions on how next year's batch might be even more improved. His brother would go to France in the spring, and was eager for as much instruction as Robert could give.

When the party arrived, he stood in the yard with Eluned to greet them. But when Eluned rushed forward, he stayed where he was and observed from a few paces away. So did the others. Only when she pushed back her hood did he realize it was a woman on horseback. She was uncommonly tall and broad, and she leapt from the mount without any assistance at all – more like a man than a woman. She only stood, looking down at her mother until Eluned embraced her.

Robert waited, not wanting to interrupt their reunion. When Eluned had determined that they could not leave to visit Morency until next summer, Gwenllian had said she would not wait for another year to go by. She and her family were to stay here for the whole of the Christmas season, but he scanned the small number of riders with her and did not see Ranulf.

"You look well." Gwenllian's eyes were sweeping over Eluned's face. They were exactly like her mother's – wide and gray, framed by a thick fringe of long, black lashes. "You look so well."

"As do you." Though Robert could not see her face, he could hear that Eluned was near to tears. "But where are your children?"

"They come with their nurse, who is too slow for me, and my lord husband. Half an hour behind me, no more." Gwenllian wrapped her arms around her mother. "You look so well ."

Robert turned to the chamberlain, who hovered at his elbow, and distracted himself with talk about the wine stores until he felt the two women approaching him and heard Eluned say, "My lord husband is curious to meet you."

Gwenllian was responding with something about how she too was curious because everyone but herself had already met him, when she broke off, looking at him. Robert found himself as arrested as she was when he met her gaze. She looked nothing like her mother except for her eyes, and at first glance he saw that the look in them was different in essence from Eluned. There were no shifting secrets or hidden depths there, no banked fire. Instead there was a kind of serenity and clarity, a centeredness that was disconcerting when it should not be. It matched the way she held herself and moved, with a balance and grace that was wholly unexpected in someone her size. She was frowning in confusion and then, as he watched, she recognized him.

"I remember you!" she gasped. She stared at him in wonder, her mouth slowly dropping open as she looked to her mother and then back him. "You danced–" She stopped herself from saying more, suddenly conscious, and dropped into a very brief and awkward courtesy that allowed her to drop her eyes.

He looked to Eluned, whose lips were pinched shut, her cheeks turning pink. He gave her the crooked smile that never failed to soften her, and she covered a startled laugh with a small cough followed by a query about the roads. Gwenllian looked at her in shock, and then back to him in unabated amazement.

They talked of the journey here and a wide variety of mutual acquaintances as they waited for the rest of the party to arrive. They spoke of William's plans to visit France next year, of a Welsh cousin named Davydd who lived at Morency and hoped to wed in the spring, and of Kit, with whom Ranulf had stayed on his journey from court last year and become great friends. Kit would come too, with his wife and other children, to pass the Christmas season.

At the mention of his friend, Robert looked around the yard in search of little Robin. He found the boy standing very near to Nan, whose virtual absolute silence Robin seemed to value greatly. The boy had grown shy during his time as a hostage, and had been so tongue-tied during Ranulf's stay in his household that he'd never said a word to the man, even in greeting. But Robin had confided that he wanted more than anything to see Ranulf of Morency's skill with a sword.

Robert said so to Gwenllian, who replied, "Nor do I doubt he will be glad to give the boys a show, and if it is done today when he is weary from travel, there is yet the chance that he might be bested."

"He is never bested," came the sudden response from Robin, who retreated a half-step behind Nan as though surprised by his own boldness.

"So do all men tell me," she answered mildly, then turned to the sound of her husband arriving.

Gwenllian reached up and took a child from the nurse's arms, while Ranulf lowered their older boy down from the saddle they shared. She brought them forward and said, "Henry, this is your grandmother."

The boy looked between Eluned and Gwenllian for an anxious moment before taking a breath and giving an almost lengthy speech in Welsh. Robert recognized some of it – well-loved , and may God bless this household , and honor, memory – and knew that the boy was not parroting words in a language unknown to him.

Eluned covered her mouth briefly, to stop the trembling of her lips, before she stooped down to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder. She spoke in Welsh, and Robert understood enough to know she said, " Wales lives on in you, beloved. "

Then she rose onto her toes to press a kiss to Gwenllian's cheek, and took the baby from her. Little Madog was beginning to cry, but Eluned soothed him easily and continued to speak to Henry in Welsh, telling him to follow her as she led him on a meandering path around the yard. In the meantime, Ranulf had seen Robin and began to draw him out. The boy had a look of hero-worship on his face, and Robert thought he might actually have begun to drool when Ranulf pulled his sword from his scabbard to show it.

Gwenllian stood next to Robert, watching her mother with her sons. Her expression was unreadable, but he thought she saw what he did when he looked at Eluned now – that she was quicker to smile, less impatient, and that she moved differently, as if all her muscles and joints had been loosened a little.

"She is teaching Henry all the words to do with horses which are different in the dialect she grew up speaking. How could she know how well he will love that?" Gwenllian wondered. She turned those disconcerting eyes to Robert for a long moment of assessment before returning her gaze to her mother. "My husband has said you love my mother very well."

Robert nodded. "In faith, he was surprised to know it. He was inclined to amazement that any man could love her." He watched her eyes flick to Ranulf, and sensed her tension. He grinned. "His amazement died when I asked him if he thought you could come from a woman any less remarkable than you are."

She had a serious air about her, so he knew the slight twitch at the corner of her lip was a rare and wonderful thing. "Haps that is why he has taken to saying that our sons will grow to be as fierce as lions, and we must guard against their pride. Their inheritance will be my ferocity and his arrogance."

He laughed and said low, "I have heard his arrogance was bested by your ferocity, despite what all men say."

She looked sharply at him, and he knew she had not expected that Eluned had told him about her studies with the sword. Gwenllian looked at him a long time, her brow slightly furrowed. Her thoughtful frown created the same pattern of lines across her forehead as Eluned's.

"She trusts you." She seemed hardly to believe it. "She loves you, then. With all her heart."

"It is as much a marvel to me as it is to you," he assured her.

He looked to Eluned, whose smile was so wide that the dimple had appeared in her cheek. He had forgotten many things over the years, and remembered other things wrong, but it seemed to him that it little mattered anymore. Now he lived for today and tomorrow, not yesterday. And so did Eluned.

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THE END