“Exactly,” Gruffydd said. “After our father died, you were as angry as ever. I know you thought I was a traitor to our people for continuing Gwenwynwyn’s legacy, and mayhap I am, but he felt that an alliance with the English was something that would survive Llywelyn. He knew the English would defeat him, at some point, and our father’s hope was that we would be given his lands. It was all quite political, really. But you saw the opposite… You saw Llywelyn in command of our lands once I was ousted.”
Elle could see the very clear picture that Gruffydd was painting. “I did,” she said. “Up until I married Curt, that’s exactly what I saw.”
“Do you still see it?” Gruffydd asked. “God, Elle, if you still see that, does Leominster know? Because if you betray him, you will ruin it for all of us. You will not be giving Brython back to the Welsh, but you will be bringing all of England down on us. Powys will be ruined, and when Llywelyn is defeated, our people will be at the mercy of the English more than you can ever know.”
She could see that he was verging on panic, and she hastened to reassure him. “That is no longer my opinion, Gruffydd,” she said. “In fact, that was what I wanted to tell you. Growing up, all I knew was rejection and hardship. But since I married Curtis, I have discovered what it means to be valued and respected and loved. I have a husband who is madly in love with me, and I am madly in love with him. I would rather die than betray him, I swear it.”
Now, it was Gruffydd’s turn to be shocked. “Is this true?” he gasped. “You… you mean it?”
“Every word.”
He blinked in response, his mouth hanging open. “But…how?” he finally asked. “Are you so easily swayed away from something you have believed your entire life?”
She smiled wryly. “What did I believe in?” she said. “I believed in Welsh rule for Welsh people. I believed in our way of life. But our way of life brought me starvation and cruelty and brutality. It brought me people who treated me poorly and ignored me. I believed in it because that was all I knew. But Curt has shown me a wonderful world of happiness and love and respect… I would much rather have that than what I had before, and if that means I have been swayed, then it is true—I have been. I’ve been swayed by love, Gruffydd. That is the greatest power of all.”
Gruffydd could hardly believe what he was hearing, but in the same breath, he’d never been so happy or relieved. His warring sister, who would rather use a sword than her words, had been changed by marriage. By love.
It was truly astonishing.
“But what about our people?” he asked. “You still believe in our cause?”
She nodded. “I do,” she said. “But as it was pointed out to me, I can do more good as a great lady than as a rebel. I have the money and the name to do great things, Gruffydd. I can feed the poor or educate children. I can make a difference in ways I could have never made it before.Thatis the cause I believe in—helping our people to thrive. Even if I am not changing a nation, I am doing what I can. I will make my mark. As for you… I misjudged you, Gruffydd, and I am sorry. I understand much more than I did before. I hope we can be at peace with one another in the future.”
Gruffydd smiled in delight and a little surprise. “I would like that,” he said. “In fact, I plan on marrying Hawise next month. I would like it if you and your husband could attend.”
Elle returned his smile, perhaps the first genuine gesture of peace between them in an entire lifetime together. “I would behonored to come,” she said. “I hope this is the beginning of something better between us, Gruffydd. I truly do.”
Gruffydd extended his hand to her, and, after a moment’s hesitation, Elle placed her hand in his. He gave it a squeeze.
“As do I,” he said. Then he chuckled. “I suppose I was wrong.”
“About what?”
“I once told Hereford that trying to make a good wife out of you was like trying to tame the wind,” he said. “I told him it could not be done. But I was wrong.”
Elle chuckled, somewhat embarrassed. “It was probably not the first time you were wrong,” she said. “Truthfully, I would not have believed it, either, had someone told me two months ago that I would be my happiest with an English warlord at my side.”
“But you are? Happy, I mean?”
Elle nodded sincerely. “Verily,” she said. “More than I could have dreamed.”
Gruffydd liked hearing that. In truth, the entire conversation with her had been a revelation to him, but a good one. And he’d never been happier to have been wrong.
Perhaps the English were wind tamers after all.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Iunderstand thatyou already know my wife, Lord Leominster.” Sir John Munstone indicated the slender, pretty woman next to him covered in jewels. “I hear that you are old friends.”
Curtis found himself looking at Larue la Dechy, the woman who had long pined for him, but a woman he’d had absolutely no interest in. She hadn’t aged well, unfortunately, and he could see that she’d painted her cheeks with rouge to an obnoxious degree. Everything about her screamed of excess.
He smiled politely.
“Aye, we are,” he said, focused on Larue. “Congratulations on your marriage. Lord Munstone is a good friend of the House of de Lohr.”
Larue was gazing at Curtis with the look of a hunter sighting prey. “I know,” she said. “When we received your invitation for tonight’s feast, I was most excited to see your mother and father again. Where are they, by the way?”
Curtis turned and pointed to the dais across the hall. “My mother is over there with my wife,” he said. “You’ve not met Elle yet. I should like to introduce you.”
