A Memory of Love

easily explain it away. Oth and Dewi will go with you. They will say your father sent them to see if they could find you, and they did. Where you have been is not anyone's business but Edward's. Answer no questions from any others.'

'Where are you going?' Rhonwyn asked her brother.

'Nowhere. I will be here, and Oth and Dewi will keep me informed as to what is going on at Haven. There is a cave in the hillside in the woods that will shelter me. They know the way. Go now and reclaim Haven for yourself and your husband. If you need our tad's aid in ousting Rafe de Beaulieu, sister, I will ask him myself.'

The guards at the portcullis gaped with surprise as Rhonwyn rode through and into the courtyard of the castle with her escort. She dismounted, and the first person she saw was Father John.

He paled and crossed himself. 'Be you a ghost, lady?' he quavered.

'Nay, it is I, Rhonwyn, and I have at last come home,' she answered him.

'God have mercy on us all,' the priest said. 'Lady, you must come with me, for I have much to tell you.'

'In time, good father, in time,' Rhonwyn said. 'I want to go into the hall.' She hurried into the castle, the priest running after her in despair. As she entered the hall she saw Enit and called to her. Looking up and seeing the mistress she believed dead, Enit screamed and fainted as the other servants familiar to Rhonwyn gasped with shock. 'What is the matter with them?' Rhonwyn said, turning to the priest.

'Surely you know they all thought you dead. The lord sent a message to me and to his cousin when you disappeared. When he returned home from the Holy Land alone we believed it a truth, my lady.'

'Edward is here? At Haven? When? Is he in our apartments?' Rhonwyn ran from the hall and up the winding staircase, the priest running after her once again.

'Lady, lady! Wait! There is something you must know!' His tone was so desperate that Rhonwyn stopped and turned to him.

'What must I know?' she said.

'Lord Edward is married,' Father John told her.

'I know. He is my husband,' Rhonwyn said.

'Nay, lady. He is Lady Katherine's husband,' the priest replied.

'How can he be wed to Katherine when he is wed to me?' she demanded angrily. Her heart was hammering furiously.

'You were believed dead, my lady Rhonwyn.' The priest led her back into the hall.

'He hardly mourned me, did he?' she said bitterly.

'You could not be found. There was no trace of you at all. What else could he think? Everyone said you were dead. He finally joined the prince at Acre, but he had never really recovered from his illness. Prince Edward sent the lord home last summer. At the lord's request both the church and the courts declared you dead, leaving Edward de Beaulieu free to remarry, which he did last September. He is not a boy, my lady. He needed a wife to give him an heir.'

'Father, I am told we have a visitor.' Katherine de Beaulieu came into the hall.

'Indeed, lady,' Rhonwyn said, turning to face her rival. Then she gasped with complete shock. Katherine's belly was so distended that it was more than obvious she was with child. A child that would be shortly born. Rhonwyn's hand went to her mouth to stifle her cry of pain.

'Oh, God!' Katherine whispered, her own hand going protectively to her belly. 'They said you were dead.'

'Perhaps it were better that I was,' Rhonwyn replied harshly.

At that moment both Edward and Rafe de Beaulieu ran into the hall. Edward rushed to Katherine's side, his arm going about her protectively. His eyes blazed angrily.

'You bastard!' Rhonwyn shouted at him.

'So, vixen, you have returned, have you? Well, you are not welcome here, lady. Get you gone!' he said coldly.

'Hospitality was gentler here in my day,' Rhonwyn said dryly. 'It touches me, Edward, to see how deeply and truly you mourned my alleged death. I)id yon ever love me at all, or was it simply the treaty between my lather and your king? I shall go to the king, Edward, for you have wronged me terribly by your actions. I disappeared, but there was no proof of my death.'

'Was I to wait forever, lady? You were gone, and no trace of you or Fulk could be found. No ransom was asked. What could any of us think? Was I to mourn you for the rest of my days?' he demanded.

'You did not mourn me at all!' she cried. 'You wrote to your cousin asking for Katherine's hand within a month of my disappearance. Then you hurried home afterward to undoubtedly have both church and state declare me dead. It is the only way you could take another wife. Oh, Edward, I loved you, and you betrayed me!'

'You do not know the meaning of love, you coldhearted bitch,' he declared. 'And now that you have magically reappeared in our midst, just where were you all these months?'

'In the harem of the caliph of Cinnebar,' Rhonwyn said with devastating effect. 'Rashid al Ahmet made me his second wife, and he loved me, but I could not love him, for I kept a memory of our love within my heart. How tragic that that love was nought but a deception on your part. In our months of separation I hoped, I dreamed, I prayed that I might be able to return to you. The very thought of you is what kept me alive. Then my brother came, and I was able to escape. I have ached to return to Haven and to you, Edward de Beaulieu. ‘Tis a fine homecoming you have given me.'

'Whore!' he hissed furiously at her. 'You shared another man's bed, and you dare to tell me?'

Rhonwyn shook her head sadly at him, but her sorrow was for him. She was not defeated by this turn of events. 'Poor Edward,' she said pityingly.

'Did this caliph find your cold heart and resistant body a pleasure, or did he actually wring a cry of passion from you?' Edward said rancorously.

'He taught me the true meaning of passion,' she said quietly. 'And, aye, he wrung many a cry of pleasure from me, Edward. He sought to learn the reason I felt such fear of being in a man's arms, and finding it, he freed me from my fears. I came home to share with you all he taught me. Now, instead, I find myself homeless and husbandless. I must decide what I am to do. How dare you, who have lain with others, criticize me. Your actions have shamed us both, but more important, when my father learns of this turn of events, he will be greatly offended, Edward. Your poor king will have to make amends to ap Gruffydd for what you have done. I have learned in my travels since I arrived in England that the king is not well at all. They say he will die before Christ's Mass. But I shall have my justice of you before then, I promise you.' Then Rhonwyn turned to Katherine. 'You may have him, lady. I think you perhaps better suited to Edward de Beaulieu than I ever was. I would not harm you or the child you carry. Both my brother and I are more than well aware of the stigma of bastardy. It is there even for a prince's children.'

'Where will you go?' Katherine asked.

Rhonwyn thought a moment, and then said, 'I do not know.'

'Then you will remain here at Haven until you do know,' Katherine said generously, and turning to her outraged husband, she told him, 'The house is mine to direct as I will. Whatever anger you may feel toward the lady Rhonwyn, you cannot throw her out into the cold after her long journey. She must shelter here for the time being. That is my wish.'

'As you please, dearling,' he answered her. Then looking at Rhonwyn, he said, 'Where is Glynn?'

'Where you cannot harm him, my lord.'

'Did I ever contemplate such a thing?' he demanded, outraged.

'You were my husband then, and I trusted you. You are no longer my husband, and I do not trust you,' she said icily. Then she said to Katherine in a more kindly tone, 'Lady, I thank you for your generous offer, but I think it best I leave this place.' She bowed to them all, and with Oth and Dewi in her wake, she left the great hall.

Rale de Beaulieu watched her go, his silvery blue eyes narrowed and contemplative. She had been a beautiful girl, but she was a far more beautiful woman, he thought. And clever to have realized that his sister was a better wile to Edward than she could have been. Her instincts intrigued him, as did her talk of passions unleashed. He