Catalina nodded. “Far away, indeed,” she said. “But the land is beautiful, I hear, with big mountains and big rivers. Don’t you want to travel someday?”
Rebecca nodded. “Someday, for certain,” she said. “I want to go to the Levant where my father fought with Richard. Papa said it was a beautiful and mysterious land.”
They were in the stable now, and the girls, who had run on ahead, had already found the puppies. They were screaming with delight.
“Here,” Catalina said, tying off the pony in one of the stalls next to a bucket half full of grain. “We’ll leave your pony here whilst we visit with the puppies. What is the pony’s name, anyway?”
Rebecca looked at the little beast. “George,” she said. “There was a lad named George from Gloucester Castle who used to visit. He was a horrible child and tried to cut my hair with a dagger once. I named the pony after him so I could ride him and kick him and make him do what I wanted.”
She was serious, and Catalina fought off a grin. “Ah,” she said. “A most appropriate name, then. The pony is very obedient, thanks to you.”
Rebecca had forgotten all about George de Clare, and seeing the pony again reminded her of that awful little boy. But it was also a good memory, too.
“George was so terrible that my brother, Westley, helped me get revenge on him,” she said as Catalina led her over to the mass of wriggling dogs. “When we had visiting nobles, my mother would make a small feast for the children to mirror the big feast for the adults. Wesley put a handful of pepper in the gravy. We pretended like we wanted the gravy and George, being selfish, stole the whole bowl and drank about half of it before he realized it was full of pepper. He was never cruel after that, knowing we would punish him.”
Catalina grinned. “How wonderful it must have been growing up with siblings.”
“You do not have any?”
“Nay,” Catalina said, shaking her head. “It was just me. That is a lonely way to be.”
They were distracted by little girls and lots of puppies. One of them wandered over to Rebecca, who picked it up and cuddled it.
“I do not know if my mother will let me bring him in the keep,” she said, kissing the dog’s head. “Although she has had dogs before. Why not me?”
“True,” Catalina said. “Whynotyou? I would wager that when you show her the puppy, she will be unable to resist.”
Ines chose that moment to show her mother a white puppy and tell her that she wanted it very badly. Shehadto have it. “Mummy, please!” Rebecca watched Catalina with her young daughter, seeing how gentle she was with her. That made her increasingly curious about the woman.
Perhaps she wasn’t as bad as Rebecca had made her out to be.
“Your wedding yesterday,” she said hesitantly. “Were you happy with it? What I mean to ask is if it was something that made you happy. Most girls dream about their wedding, but yours happened very quickly.”
Now they’d ventured onto the subject of the wedding and Catalina wondered where this was leading. She hoped that she wasn’t about to be lambasted for her marriage to Essien, so she braced herself.
“My first marriage took place in Hereford’s cathedral,” she said. “It was big and bright. My father invited everyone he’d ever met, I think. It was a massive celebration for a marriage that was not worthy of such a thing. But yesterday’s mass was much more peaceful and intimate with so many of Essien’s friends. And your family was there. It made it so very special.”
Rebecca was listening. She might have been spoiled and headstrong, but she was intuitive. “What became of your first husband?”
“He died,” Catalina said. “He was traveling to France to help his brother in a war and the ship caught on fire.”
“Oh,” Rebecca said, sorry she’d asked. “Do you not mourn him?”
Catalina shook her head. “Nay,” she said. “Not ever.”
“You said your marriage was not worthy of the big mass?”
Catalina’s gaze moved to her daughters, now up and chasing the puppies around the stable. “It was not,” she said. “But it gave me the two greatest gifts I could ever receive. Therefore, I do not regret it. But it was nothing special. Not every marriage is.”
“And your marriage to Essien is?”
Catalina was careful in her reply. “I do believe it is special,” she said. “Sometimes, you meet someone whose heart speaks to yours. I’ve heard it happen to others, but never to me. But I think… I think Essien’s heart speaks to mine and mine speaks to his. But it has to come naturally. You cannot force somethinglike that. You have to find that one person in this world that feels the same way about you that you feel for them, and that is a rare thing. When it happens easily, it is the most special thing in the world, I think.”
Rebecca pondered that. She, too, was watching the little girls play as the puppy in her arms fell asleep. She had finally come to the conclusion that Catalina wasn’t the monster she’d built her up to be. She was just a woman who had married Essien, and so much of what Jonathan had said to her made sense. There had been no crime committed against her by Catalina. The woman had been forced into the marriage just as Essien had been, but she seemed to be content with it.
Happy, even.
“I do wish you good fortune, my lady,” Rebecca said. “I know that I was upset about it, but the truth… the truth is that Essien never belonged to me. But now he belongs to you and I wish you well. I truly do.”
