Chapter 38

38

E llyn did not see Lady Brenna again until the next day. She did not see Rennwick either. He had escorted her back to her chamber and left her at the door with the most chaste kiss she could ever have imagined. When she thought to make a jest of it, he bowed politely, formally, and made the excuse that he had to check on Terrowin and the others.

"Will you come back afterward?"

"I cannot say, Your Grace. It will depend on how quickly my lady wishes to leave this place and begin the journey home to Burgundy."

Ellyn frowned. "What did you call me?"

"You are a princess of royal blood. Would you prefer I address you as Your Highness?"

"I would prefer you call me Ellyn, as you have done for the past few weeks. Nor do I wish you to treat me any other way than you have."

"That may not be possible."

"Not possible? God spare me, what has come over you? I am the same person I was last night in your arms, the same as last week, last month."

"And yet, as we have discovered, you are someone entirely different," he said gently. "You are no longer Ellyn the Fletcher."

"And because of that you no longer love me?"

"I will love you as long as I draw breath. But it may not be my right to love you any other way."

Her jaw dropped and he bowed again, then left her standing outside her chamber door. He did not come back that afternoon. He did not come back that evening. She did not see him at the evening meal, which was taken in the company of forty-three silent nuns, or at morning prayers in the chapel.

When a knock finally came to her door, she flung it open only to see Lady Brenna standing there leaning heavily on a walking stick. Behind her, half in the shadows of the unlit hallway, was Renn.

"May we come in?"

"Of course." Ellyn stepped aside to let the older woman pass. Renn put a foot over the threshold but stopped and gestured for her to precede him into the room. With all the elegance she could muster, she rolled her eyes, turned, and followed Lady Brenna over to the fireside.

"I realize you have had a great deal to absorb," Brenna said. "But there is one more matter we need to discuss; sooner rather than later."

"Does it have to do with me going to Burgundy with you?"

Lady Brenna reached out a hand, which Ellyn took to help steady her while she settled into an X chair. "Surely you understand that you cannot go back to England. Not until Edward Longshanks is mouldering in a cold stone crypt. If you have never been to Burgundy, I think you would like it. The forests are as thick as those in Lincoln and they grow all the way up the mountains, where the very tops of some have snow all the year round. My own home sits in the clouds two peaks away from Rennwick's lands. On a clear day, one can see the lights in his castle twinkling through the darkness."

"It sounds quite lovely, but—"

"Rennwick de Beauvoir is a man I trust implicitly and so should you. He is a knight of impeccable character whose lineage can be traced back to Frederick Barbarossa, who was Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire at the same time as Richard the Lionheart was King of England. I cannot think of a better man to champion you, Enndolynn Eleanor Ware, and keep you safe, or a better man to take as husband"

Ellyn's head jerked up. " Husband ?"

"You need a husband to protect you," Brenna said and pointed a bejewelled finger at Rennwick. "And you need a wife. Preferably one who will not lie like a sack of grain beneath you or run away screaming at the first hint of trouble. I will not bore you with stories of the number of times I fought proudly alongside my husband, or the times he called upon me without hesitation, to make good use of my bow arm. Let neither of you attempt to deny you would not be here without the help of the other. And let neither of you dissuade me from the notion that it would be a good match… and likely a timely one if the noises overheard coming from Ellyn's chamber or the report of Lord Rennwick creeping out bare of foot early yesterday morning should result in any embarrassment nine months from now. Oh, look Sparrow. Look how red-faced the two culprits have be come. One could rub a beet on their cheeks and see no change in color."

"My lady, I—"

She waved Ellyn to silence. "Never apologize for being in love, dear girl. As the woodsprite would say, deathbeds are the place for repentance. Before reaching them, one should make certain of committing enough sins to make the grovelling for mercy worthwhile. There is no need to give me your yay or nay here, on the spot, but I would beg you to think about it. I was hoping my son would have come back with you; he can be most persuasive in practical as well as political matters. But I understand he was ill and could not make the crossing just yet?"

"Sabinius… is your son?"

"I know." She sighed. "The ears are dreadful, are they not? I blame it on some blowback on Griffyn's side, for all the men in my family were handsome to a fault and well-proportioned everywhere. But dear Sabi assumed the thankless task of castellan at Bloodmoor in order to keep it out of the crown's hands. As it happens," she explained, "part what I told Lord Rennwick was not entirely false, for without a Wardieu in residence, Bloodmoor would fall into the crown's hands and that would give Longshanks control of half of Lincolnshire. There was a royal decree drawn up by the toad himself, Lackland, in an effort to legally gain titles and estates he could not steal outright. The decree stipulated that an heir must take up residence for at least a year and a day or all their lands would be forfeit.

"Longshanks covets the northern lands, make no mistake, so we must keep to the terms of the decree. But there is something he desires even more: Unquestionable legitimacy. Marrying a Plantagenet princess would give him that. "

Ellyn sighed. "I have never had any desire to be anything other than what I am. A common girl with no lofty airs."

Lady Brenna smiled. "Royal blood flows in your veins, child. It cannot be drained or changed for something less potent."

Ellyn glanced over her shoulder at Renn, who instantly lowered his gaze.

"You see?" she whispered to Brenna. "He cannot even look at me. He calls me Your Grace now and Your Highness!"

Lady Brenna whispered back. "Would it make you more comfortable if he called you ‘wife'?"

"Not if he was forced to do so."

"Ah." Lady Brenna raised her voice and looked over to where Rennwick stood by the door. "My lord, will you come closer."

Rennwick approached the fire.

"Ellyn tells me you no longer have feelings for her. Further, that she would sooner take a wooden post to husband than a man who will not step forward and fight for her."

Renn looked at Ellyn, the green of his eyes blazing with reflected sparks from the fire. "That is not true. I told her that I would love her unto my dying breath."

"Would you champion her?"

"Yes."

"Vow to honor and defend her?"

"Yes."

"Protect her from all harm?"

"With my life."

"Give her a dozen babies?"

He glanced at this last adjunct and saw the smile on Lady Brenna's face. His expression softened and he looked back at Ellyn. "Yes. If she will have them."

"And you, Enndolynn Ware, a far simpler question: Do you love this man?"

Ellyn blinked to clear the wetness from her lashes. "Yes."

The violet gaze flicked from one face to the other. "Well then. We are surrounded by a flock of graycloaks. If you shake the cobwebs out of your heads, the union can be sealed here, today, in front of God and all His witnesses."

Rennwick shook his head. "Not quite so fast, my lady, for she has a temper and I know for certain she is as stubborn as the day is long. She has yet to obey any order I have given her and I expect she would balk should one be delivered now, even though it be logical and for her own good."

He moved closer and took Ellyn's hands in his and raised each in turn to his lips. "I would therefore put it as a request , Ellyn the Fletcher, Enndolynn Eleanor Ware. A most humble request to do me the honor of becoming my bride."