A Moment in Time

'Tomorrow,' Einion replied.

'I can't be ready by tomorrow,' Megan raged at him.

'You can,' he countered. 'Lasses are always ready to wed at a moment's notice, or so I am told.'

'Tomorrow will be perfect,' Wynne said, stemming the tide of protest she saw rising to Megan's lips. 'I have a lovely tunic dress that I seem to have outgrown, and 'twill fit you with just the tiniest bit of alteration.'

So Megan was wed the following day to Einion, with their lord and lady looking on happily.

'He's so perfect for her,' Nesta said afterward. 'He's every bit as strong-willed as she is, and her equal in all ways.'

'I am so happy!' Wynne said, twirling about the hall dreamily. 'I want everyone about me to be happy too. Einion deserved his freedom and would not have asked Megan to marry had he not been given it. She was absolutely beginning to pine for him. I had to do something.' She pulled up her skirts and danced a few steps. 'Is not love grand, sister?'

Nesta and Rhys took their leave and returned home to St. Bride's the following week.

'You will come to us in December, won't you?' Nesta begged. 'I want you there when I have my baby.'

'I will try,' Wynne promised her, 'but I may not be fit to travel myself at that point.'

Nesta's eyes widened. 'Are you…?' she began.

'Not yet,' Wynne said, 'but I pray daily for a child. I would give Madoc a son as quickly as possible.'

Nesta smiled at her sister-in-law. 'I know just how you feel,' she admitted, 'but I shall still hope that you can come.'

'If I cannot, send for my grandmother. She is good at birthings and will be glad to come to be with you,' Wynne replied.

'Would you, my lady Enid?' Nesta asked shyly.

'Of course, my child,' Enid answered. 'I shall enjoy a nice visit to St. Bride's, especially at the Christ's Mass feast, and I shall bring Dewi and Mair with me.'

The summer passed. With the coming of the autumn, Enid and Mair returned home to Gwernach. They went happy in the knowledge that Wynne was to bear a child to her husband in the spring. While they had been with her, her grandmother and her sister had kept Wynne's mind from the breach between Madoc and Brys of Cai. Now, with nothing more than her household to oversee, Wynne began to think about how she might reunite the brothers in friendship. It would not be an easy task, for Madoc refused to even discuss the matter with her, although she had attempted to broach it with him several times.

'My brother chose to distance himself from his sister and me years ago,' Madoc tried to explain to Wynne. 'His actions toward us since the day he left Raven's Rock, nay, since even before that, have been consistently hostile.'

'He attempted a dreadful act as a boy, I will agree with you and Nesta on that matter, but surely after all these years you can forgive him,' Wynne said. 'I cannot believe anyone is quite as wicked as you both insist Brys is. Surely there is some good in him.'

'Wynne, my dearest wife,' Madoc said patiently to her, 'I know it is hard for you to believe that my brother is beyond decency. You have been so sheltered all your life, but even the spiritual maturity you possess cannot have possibly prepared you for someone like Brys. He is simply evil incarnate, and he revels in wickedness. There is absolutely no remorse in him, dearling. This is no sibling rivalry, Wynne. This is a battle between good and evil. Between the darkness and the light. You are not yet prepared to fight such a battle. I am.'

For Madoc the matter was settled, but Wynne was not satisfied. The very early months of her pregnancy past, she was feeling full of new vigor. She wanted to believe everything that her husband said. After all, was not Madoc the wisest of men? Yet she could not quite believe Madoc in the matter of his brother. The thought niggled at the corners of her brain that Brys must surely have some redeeming qualities to him. If she could talk with him, understand his feelings about the estrangement between himself and his family. Of course, she would not be able to do it at Raven's Rock. She would have to go to Cai.

It would not be a long journey. The matter of a few hours only. She was able to ride still, and she would take Megan with her. No. Megan could not come. If she told Megan, Megan would tell Einion, and he would tell Madoc. They would stop her. The more Wynne thought about it, the surer she became that Madoc was wrong in this one particular matter. Brys could not be as bad as her husband and Nesta painted him. He had done a terrible thing as a boy, but he should not be shunned by his family for the rest of his life for a single sin. She smiled to herself. She would reunite the siblings, and her children would grow up surrounded by warm and loving relatives.

But when? When could she depart Raven's Rock undetected? She did not want anyone guessing her intent and chasing after her; spoiling her chances to make peace between the brothers. Wynne frowned. When? It had to be soon. Before the winter set in and she was unable to ride her horse. She almost shouted with delight when Madoc told her several days later that he must go to the valley pasturelands below to check on their herds.

'The shepherds report that some of the sheep are disappearing,' he told Wynne.

'Is it a wolf?' she asked him nervously.

'Nay, I think not, for no remains or blood have been found. My neighbors to the north are not the most honest people. I think it possible they have been stealing my sheep. If this is so, I must put a stop to it immediately. Weakness is a character flaw too easily taken advantage of, and I would not like to be thought weak.'

'How long will you be gone, my love?' Wynne said sweetly.

'Three days, four at the most, dearling,' he answered, and kissed her brow tenderly. 'I dislike being away from you, Wynne, but there is no help for it, and you will be quite safe at Raven's Rock.' He reached out and placed a hand over her belly. 'Have you felt a quickening yet?'

'Not yet,' she told him, smiling. 'Perhaps in a few weeks.'

'A child,' he said. 'Our child. What would you call him?'

'Anwyl,' Wynne said softly, 'and Angharad if he is a she.'

Madoc chuckled. 'I am not so pompous a fool to believe that my son could not be my daughter. It matters not. A healthy child is all I desire. A healthy child and a beautiful wife.' Then his lips touched hers, and Wynne wound her arms about his neck, sighing with pure and perfect contentment.

On the following morning she bid her husband a fond farewell, but as the day was wet and overcast, Wynne decided to wait until the morrow before setting out for Castle Cai. When the following day dawned sunny, she knew she had been wise in postponing her trip. She had dismissed Megan the prior evening, telling her maidservant, who was also pregnant with Einion's child and extremely sick in the mornings, not to come to her until the noon hour. Megan gratefully thanked her mistress.

Wynne dressed carefully, sorry that her journey would necessitate a plainer garb than she would have otherwise chosen to wear. She did so want to make a good impression on Brys, that she might gain his sympathetic ear. She had sensed from their earlier meeting that he was as stubborn as Madoc. Still, Brys would certainly be far more interested in what she had to say than what she was wearing. Their brief bout of verbal sparring at her wedding had shown her that he was a very intelligent man. The dark green tunic dress she chose would blend in nicely with the woodlands she must traverse. She chose a sheer white veil to cover her head, affixing it with a simple gold band which was studded with dark green agate.

She chose the time of her departure well, going to the stable quite early, when the sun was just barely up. The grooms were still sleepy and, although one, older than the others, thought to remark that the master would not want her to ride alone, Wynne easily overcame their concern.

'I will not go far,' she said with a smile. 'Just to the bottom of the castle hill and perhaps across the bridge. It's far too lovely a day to be penned inside, and winter will be upon us before we know it. Besides,' and she patted her belly with another smile at them, 'soon I shall not be able to ride.'

The stablemen chuckled, and then one of them helped her to mount her little mare. 'Remember, my lady Wynne, no farther than the bridge,' he cautioned with agap-toothed grin.