A Memory of Love

The lord of Aberforth looked up and perused Kate. 'You do not look like your mother,' he said in a rough voice. 'Nor do you favor your tad particularly, lady. However, I see ap Gruffydd's mother in you. She had hair your color. Your mother had hair like gilt thistledown.'

Kate was curious, and she realized she was expected to reply. 'You knew my mother?' she said.

'Briefly, though intimately,' he chuckled.

'Why, my lord, have you kidnapped me and had me brought here?' Kate demanded to know. 'My husband will be most vexed. He is not a wealthy man and cannot be expected to pay you too exorbitant a ransom.'

Rhys ap Daffydd laughed. 'You have your father's overweening pride and your mother's spirit,' he replied. 'I want no ransom from your husband, lady. It is your father I have occasion to deal with, and as he will not listen to reason, I thought perhaps if I had custody of his daughter he might be more amenable to… ah, negotiation.'

'You have a quarrel with Prince Llywelyn, and so you have kidnapped me?' Kate was both astounded and outraged. 'You are a coward, my lord, if you cannot deal with ap Gruffydd without threatening a woman of his family! I will not help you.'

'You do not understand, Rhonwyn uerch Llywelyn,' Rhys said. 'Your father has gained his title from the English, but nonetheless we have honored that title because it meant that Wales was left in peace by the English. Now your sire refuses to do fealty to King Edward, thus breaking his bond with England. Edward Long-shanks is not an easy man and will not bear this insult. When he comes into Wales to punish your father, we will all suffer for our prince's misbehavior. I have friends in England who have requested that I reason with your father, for all our sakes. Since he has refused to grant me an audience, I must gain his attention in the only way I can, by bringing you here to Aberforth. Your father will not allow you to be harmed.'

Kate remembered what Rhonwyn had said the few rare times she had spoken of her father. It was very unlikely that ap Gruffydd would come to his daughter's aid if it did not serve some good purpose for him. Kate could see that Rhys ap Daffydd was no true patriot. What he did he was doing for his own gain. She suspected he meant to attempt an assassination of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd when he came to rescue his daughter. She saw her own country's hand in such a plot. It was absolutely disgraceful and dishonorable. 'Well, my lord, you can but try to reason with my tad,' she told him, 'but he never really cared greatly for me as I was not a son.'

'What happened to the lad?' Rhys demanded.

'What lad?' she countered.

'Your little brother' was the reply.

'Glynn? Oh, he died when he was twelve of the pox,' Kate said easily. She knew that if she said Glynn was a religious in the abbey at Shrewsbury, Glynn might very well find himself in danger, too.

'So,' Rhys crowed triumphantly, 'you are Llywelyn ap Gruffydd's only living heir. He will come for you, female or not.'

'If you say so, my lord,' Kate told him. 'Now, I am hungry and I am chilled to the bone, as is my servant. Have me shown to my chamber and have hot food brought to me. I should not want to tell my tad that you were a poor host, Rhys ap Daffydd.'

The lord of Aberforth laughed heartily. 'They say you were raised roughly in the Welshry, lady, but you speak as if you were truly a princess born.'

'I am,' Kate replied loftily. Then she followed a servant who led her to her chamber. When the door had closed behind them, she breathed a deep sigh of relief and said in her own English tongue, 'It is obvious that none of these people have ever seen Rhonwyn, Mab. And I fooled them! I actually convinced them I was she.'

'I couldn't understand a word you spoke, lady, but your manner was fearless and proud. What will happen to us now?'

'Our captor is Rhys ap Dafydd, and he is in league with some of our countrymen. I think he means to use the prince's daughter to lure ap Gruffydd here. Then, I believe, he will assassinate him if he can. This is to be done to curry favor with King Edward.'

'And afterward?' Mab ventured.

'I don't know,' Kate answered her servant honestly. 'I don't think they will kill us. We are just the bait in the trap. And the prince's daughter is supposed to be wed to an English lord, and the marriage was part of a treaty between our two lands. I suspect they will return us back to England when they have accomplished their nefarious purposes.'

'How do you know he means to kill the prince?' Mab asked.

'I do not, for certain,' Kate replied, 'but instinct tells me he lies, Mab.'

'But when the prince comes and sees you are not his child,' Mab fretted, 'what will they do?'

'By then it will be too late,' Kate said.

'Oh, mistress, I am so afraid!' Mab said.

Kate put comforting arms about her servant. 'I know,' she said, 'and I am, too, but we cannot let these men see we are afraid. Edward and Rafe are already on our trail, I know it! They will find us and rescue us before long, Mab.'

'How?' Mab now sobbed, totally unnerved. 'How will they get into this fortress, and how will they get us out? It is hopeless, my lady. It is hopeless!' She began to weep.

'Nay, 'tis not hopeless,' Kate reassured her, although she was not certain at all that Mab wasn't right. 'Mab, think! What is the worst that can happen to us? We will be killed. But if our mortal bodies die, do we not live on in the spirit? To be with our blessed Mother would not be such a terrible fate, Mab.'

'But I haven't ever lived, lady!' Mab hiccuped. 'I am still a virgin. You at least know the joy of marriage and children.'

'And so will you, Mab,' Kate said firmly. The door to their chamber opened, and she continued, 'Look! Here is a nice hot supper for us. Things will seem much brighter after you have eaten.'

'If it ain't poisoned,' Mab said darkly.

'I don't think they brought us all the way from Haven just for the pleasure of poisoning us,' Kate remarked. Then she turned to the servant who had brought the meal. 'Tell your master I will require a hot bath tonight. I was nursing an infant when I was taken, and my bodice is soaked through with my milk. I shall also require a clean chemise and a gown. Are there women of rank here?'

'Lord Rhys's leman,' the servant answered.

'Then my requirements can be satisfied certainly,' Kate said.

'Yes, lady,' the servant replied, and hurried out.

'You would wear the clothes of that bandit's whore?' Mab demanded.

'Aye,' Kate admitted. 'They are surely cleaner than what I am now wearing. Both my chemise and gown are sticking to my breasts. The smell on my clothing is not particularly pleasant. Oh, I hope Edward was wise enough to get wee Henry a wet nurse, Mab.'

'If he wasn't, the other women will see to it,' Mab, her courage now restored, comforted her mistress. Her eye went to the tray of food as she realized that she was very hungry. 'Let us eat, lady. You sit, and I shall serve you.' She began to ladle rabbit stew onto the trencher of bread. 'How long do you think it will take Lord Edward to find us, my lady?'

'He is probably on his way now,' Kate said, spooning the hot stew into her mouth. 'Ummm, this is good. At least the cook is competent here, Mab. We shall not be starved. Aye, Edward is more than likely very near us, and my brother with him. Listen! Do you hear rain? Well, at least we were spared riding in a downpour.'

Outside, the rain fell heavily, and at the convent where Kate's captors had stopped that first night, Rhonwyn was in earnest conversation with the mother superior, having introduced herself as the niece of the Abbess Gwynllian of Mercy Abbey. The convent's porteress was with them, waiting to be given permission to speak.

'We do not have many guests, being in such a distant locale,' the mother superior said, 'but several nights ago four men and two women sheltered with us. Sister Margaret can tell you more.' She nodded to the porteress, giving her permission to add what she could.

'Did they tell you who they were?' Rhonwyn asked.

'The one who appeared to be their leader said the lady was his sister and the other her servant. He was taking