Page 282 of The Daughters of Avalon
Eyeing Rhiannon circumspectly, Marcella continued to sprinkle the contents of her vial, as she added, “I must confess I argued against him. I truly believed he was mistaken.”
“I see,” said Rhiannon, very carefully.
“Nay, you do not. Despite your many talents, Lady Blackwood, there is so much you do not understand.” Her expression was sober, though without enmity. “In fact, perhaps there is much your visions have revealed to you, but so much remains veiled.”
There was a note of sadness in the paladin’s tone.
“You are, indeed, quite strong,” she said matter-of-factly. “But you are arrogant and all the weaker for it, else you’d have realized long, long ago that your sister was Regnant. Consequently, you would have placed her life before yours, as did your sister Arwyn… as I do for you…”
Rhiannon swallowed. So much as she longed to object, there was a note of truth in her words, and truth was indisputable, no matter how much she wished to deny it. She had, in fact, believed herself to be the Regnant and she had placed her own life above that of her sisters’ on so many occasions.
Marcella shook her head. “The boy’s heart is as big as his mouth, I fear. And yes, I do believe he was enamored of Seren. Alas, after seeing how his affiliation with your sister changed Giles, I very much suspected Jack’s motives. There is somethingabout you Pendragons,” she said, with measured wariness. “Something that naturally beguiles…”
Rhiannon opened her mouth to disagree, because if that were, in fact, true, she shouldn’t have spent five long years in confinement at Blackwood; still Marcella continued.
“For Rosalynde, Giles turned his back on his brethren. He was our superior, and thusly entrusted with the Sword of Ages. But then he gave the sword to your sister.”
Marcella’s eyes shone. “But you knew that, didn’t you?”
Rhiannon nodded; she did. Her visions had revealed as much.
“Then you should also understand why I mistrusted you, particularly when, despite that I pleaded for Cael to put aside his alliance with Morwen, it was only after meetingyouthat he changed his mind.”
“And yet he didn’t,” Rhiannon argued, overlooking the paladin’s use of her husband’s given name. “If, indeed, he had, wouldn’t he be here with us instead of there, with her?”
There was an unmistakable note of bitterness in Rhiannon’s voice, and Marcella rolled her eyes. “Mon Dieu, there is so much you do not know,” she said, gesturing toward the vial she held. “Go on. It doesn’t matter who dispenses it, but please try to scatter it evenly. Last night you tossed it all into one spot.”
Eager to put dissent behind them, Rhiannon nodded, and said, “I am sorry.”
Marcella gave her a tentative smile, and turned to do her work, but Rhiannon needed to know. “Marcella… I was wondering… the way you speak his name… I must suppose the two of you are not cousins, after all?”
There was no need to say to whom she was referring.
“Nay,” Marcella confessed, without looking at her. “We are not.”
“What, then?”
She peered up then, casting a glance over her shoulder. “Cousins so far as the world should know.”
“Otherwise?”
She stopped dispensing her potion and turned to face Rhiannon directly. “What wewereis lost to me now, Lady Blackwood. What he is now isyourlord husband. This is not something I will ever disrespect… nor will Cael ever forsake a vow of honor. And yet, this is the rub: If you believe he would, you do not know the man at all, and I pity you this more than I pity your circumstances.”
We are not aligned,Rhiannon heard Cael say, again.
So then, as Marcella had just confirmed, he would not forsake his vows to her mother, and thus, she was bound to be his enemy no less than she was his wife.
A wave of sadness enveloped her—particularly so, since it was clear to her now that the woman standing before her knew more about her husband than Rhiannon was ever bound to learn. “He made a vow tome,” Rhiannon said plaintively.
“And yet… I did not see him kneel before you and pledge his sword.”
Rhiannon’s gaze shot up. “You were there?”
Marcella smiled sadly. “For an instant. I watched from the shadows to satisfy my own curiosity. Sad, is it not? That I would pledge him—and you—my life, even as he forsakes me for another.”
“I… am… sorry,” said Rhiannon, but she wasn’t, not entirely. Some small part of her reveled in the fact that she and Cael were man and wife—even if the truth was that neither she nor Marcella could have him and he was lost to them both.
“He does love you,” Marcella said quietly.
