Page 62 of The Daughters of Avalon
She screwed her face.Had Elspeth come from a nunnery?But why hadn’t she said so?Could it be that Lord Aldergh impregnated a nun?How very, very gauche!
Somehow, she sensed William would be pleased to know these things—and perhaps he would reward her well? More than anything in this world, she craved her lord’s approval, and so often it seemed she displeased him. Taking the garments and folding them all neatly into a pile, she set the blade on top, but slipped the silver into the pocket of her skirt.
Unfortunately, the pile was too heavy to bear whilst rising from her knees, so she stood up, then lifted up the hauberk, which must weigh no less than a full stone. She folded it neatly on the bed, then bent to pick up the remaining garments andplaced them all on top of thehauberk, and then she lifted them all up together, heading toward the door with her arms laden.
First, she would stop by her own chamber to hide the pieces of gold and silver, then she would take the garments to William. If later Elspeth should return for her belongings, she would gladly return the silver, but if she gave them to William they would never be seen again. She knew her betrothed very well. Moving into the hall, she closed the door behind her, intending to return later to clean the room.
They couldn’t have traveled morethan a few miles when Elspeth turned to see if they were being followed. The sight that greeted her made her stomach plummet.
A conspiracy of ravens flew from a smoke damaged tower at Amdel, a fluttering of wings so dense it looked like more smoke unfurling. Her breath caught as the mass swelled, lifting and diving in sync then separated after a macabre dance across the dusky morning sky.
Swallowing, she turned to peer into Malcom’s taut-jawed face. “Malcom?” she said. “Whatever it is you need to say, I beg you tell me now.”
Chapter
Twenty-Four
By the look on his face, Elspeth didn’t need to hear him say so to know that her mother had swept into the priory in the middle of the night, taking Seren, Rose and Arwyn. What she wished she hadn’t foreseen was that she’d sent Rhiannon by tumbril to Blackwood.
Obviously, they had been wrong about d’Lucy. He must have agreed to accept Rhiannon as a bride, but, if so, why the tumbril? Perhaps Morwen meant to make a point and humble Rhiannon in the process: that, for all the Goddess’ favor, Rhiannon was still subject to her mother’s whims.
But if d’Lucy knew of this and approved, he was more of a monster than Elspeth ever supposed. She had abandoned her sister to this man!
It didn’t matter that Rhiannon was more accomplished than she was; Elspeth was the eldest, and as the eldest, it was her duty to protect her sisters—a task she’d failed at, quite miserably.
If there was any comfort to be found it was that Rhiannon had been very clear with Malcom: She was going precisely where she wished to go.
And now, apparently, so was Elspeth, for Rhiannon had charged her “champion” with spiriting her north to Aldergh. Andthough Aldergh was also where Elspeth wished to go, she didn’t appreciate being used as a pawn in a game of Queen’s Chess.
Nevertheless, none of this was Malcom’s fault. He was but answering a call from the Goddess, and perhaps after all was said and done, he would be equally as horrified as Elspeth.
Only after they were far enough away from Amdel, with no sign of pursuit, did he finally slow their pace and produce thegrimoireshe and her sisters had begun putting together. Small as it was, Rhiannon must have found a way to hide it in on her person. And if Elspeth weren’t so appalled over the entirety of the situation, she might have laughed over the manner of Rhiannon’s delivery. It was just like her sister to be so theatrical—a small trait she and Morwen shared, along with her temper. Thankfully, that was all they had in common, and the world was a safer place for the disparity.
I’ll put a turd in your teeth and turd in your bride’s teeth too!she’d screamed. But where in the name of the Goddess had Rhiannon ever learned to speak such blasphemy?
Evidently, there was a lot Elspeth was beginning to realize she didn’t know about her sister—perhaps not all of it good.
As for the book… there was little wonder no one suspected it. There weren’t many men who could read or write, and fewer women. But, of course, they would think it no more than a heap of filthy rags.
And, itwasdirty—stained with so much soil from their garden and all the tints and tinctures they’d created whilst crushing herbs. Malcom had hesitated to put it into his saddlebag after she was through with it, but Elspeth reminded him that he’d ridden halfway from Wales with the book nestled against his bare chest. He laughed, but it was rueful.
Along the way, he slowly confessed everything: He told Elspeth about finding the empty hut where she’d lived with her sisters, scrubbed free of every trace of its occupants; the strangeconversation he’d shared with Ersinius; the broken wheel on the tumbril; the unsettling conversation he’d had with Rhiannon—everything.
And if he, too, seemed quiet thereafter, Elspeth well understood why: It was not every day a man was asked to believe the impossible.
How she longed to explain everything she knew about the Craft, but she wouldn’t do so, unless he asked. It was not her custom to speak openly about such things—not when her whole life she’d been warned against it and her grandmamau had suffered deadly consequences.
And aye—perhaps Morwen did betray their grandmother, but it was Elspeth who’d told the Scots king’s son about hergrandmamau’s skills. At scarcely five years of age, she had boasted to that wicked little boy that her grandmamau would cast a spell on him if he didn’t stop teasing her, and the wretch had gone to tattle to his father, who then told the Bishop, who then approached Morwen for confirmation. For the price of Blackwood, Morwen then handed her mother over to the Church to be burned alive, swearing her own innocence and devotion to the Church.
But Morwen was no Christian. She was a disciple of the Crone, the witch Goddess whose dabbling in thehudduhad been the downfall of Avalon.
Fortunately, her sister was right about this much: So long as Seren, Rose and Arwyn did not challenge Morwen, her mother would no more harm them than she would toss a pot of gold into the Endless Sea. They were but a means to whatever end she’d imagined, and Elspeth suspected Morwen meant to place them all strategically, as she did her gruesome little ravens, each daughter in the house of a lord she could manipulate to her will.
Her mother was naught if not patient and she had been planning this ill-conceived scheme for some thirteen years or more—most likely from the day she’d beguiled their father.
Poor, poor Henry.
But he was not alone; there weren’t many men who could resist Morwen’s wiles, and those who could, had little chance against her sorcery—darkmagikElspeth had no knowledge of, and therefore little recourse against.
