Chapter 4
It seemed that they rode for days although their return was actually no longer than their journey to Aberffraw had been. Each night they made camp, and Averil’s bedding was set next to her husband’s. Yet not once did he touch her, or even kiss her. And each day they rode side by side learning bit by bit about each other. Rhys spoke of his father with admiration, and how he loved Everleigh. He told Averil of how when he was eighteen his father had, to everyone’s surprise, fallen in love with the daughter of a distant relation who had been orphaned and placed in his custody. They had wed, and nine months later Mary had been born. Her mother, however, a delicate creature, had not survived the childbirth.
“Was your stepmother good to you?” Averil asked him, curious.
“Always,” Rhys answered. “When Rosellen was first brought to Everleigh it was thought that my father would match her with me, for we were close in age. She was sixteen. But Da loved her from the first sight he had of her, and she him. Their marriage was the right thing. And because she loved my father she was good to me even when she was carrying her own child. That child might have been a son and heir for my father. Still, Rosellen treated me with great kindness.”
“Is that why you love Mary so much?” Averil said.
“Aye,” he agreed, “but you will come to love Mary, too, for she is sweet by nature,” Rhys responded.
“My sister Junia is sweet, but Maia is more determined than even I am. I suppose it comes from the pride she has in being our father’s legitimate daughter although no one in our house has ever made a distinction between us. We are simply the Dragon Lord’s daughters,” Averil explained.
“And your mothers all get on with one another?” he queried her.
“My mother, Gorawen, and the lady Argel, are great friends. Da’s second concubine, Ysbail, is a good woman, but inclined to be a bit prickly. She is very concerned that her daughter Junia not be slighted. But of course, Junia never is.”
“You love your sisters,” he remarked.
“Aye, and our little brother Brynn,” Averil told him. “He is almost nine. He looks so much like Da that we sometimes have to laugh when we see them together. He is very proud that he descends from King Arthur. He knows every bit of our family’s history, and will tell you all about it whether you will or no.”
“You will miss your family,” he said quietly. It was a statement more than a question.
“Aye, but you will not forbid them Everleigh, my lord, will you?”
“Nay, they may come when it suits them,” he replied.
“If your sister is the mistress of the manor, what am I to do?” Averil asked. “I am not used to being idle. Will we live in the manor house?”
“I have always lived there, but there is a bailiff’s cottage, Averil, if you would prefer it,” he told her. “It has not been lived in for many years. The last bailiff of Everleigh was a cousin of my father’s. He had neither chick nor child. When he died I was sixteen. My father then made me the manor’s bailiff, so the cottage is mine by right.”
“If your sister and I can exist peacefully together then we shall live in the manor house,” Averil said. “But if Mary is in charge, and she has Rhawn, then I shall spend my days making the cottage habitable again for us one day. For now I shall set my loom up in your hall. Will that be satisfactory, my lord?”
He nodded. “I think it a wise thing you plan, Averil, for once Mary is wed we would do well to leave her with her husband though she should never ask us to go. Still, it will be several years before my sister is old enough to be married.”
They had chattered back and forth as they rode each day, and Averil began to consider that she had made a good match even if Rhys FitzHugh was not a great lord. How Maia and Junia would tease her over her former boasting, but then, see who they would have as husbands one day, Averil thought. Maia, of course, would make the best match, being true born. And Ysbail would certainly see that Junia was not wed badly.
They finally arrived back at Dragon’s Lair, and as they entered the hall of her father’s keep Gorawen ran forward to embrace her only child.
“I am wed,” Averil said softly.
“Has he been kind?” Gorawen asked anxiously.
“He has had no opportunity,” Averil murmured.
“Thank heavens!” her mother exclaimed low. “There is much you need to know, my daughter. There are things I must teach you before you go to his bed. I shall tell him that he may not have you yet.”
“I do not know if he even wants me, really,” Averil said. “He has not even kissed me yet, Mother. While there was little occasion for coupling along our journey, surely he might have found a moment to steal a kiss, but he did not.”
“Perhaps he is shy,” Gorawen suggested with a small smile.
“He kidnapped me, Mother!” Averil said. “I hardly believe him to be shy.”
“Do you talk with one another?” Gorawen was becoming just a little concerned.
“Aye. I have learned much of him, and he me,” Averil answered her parent.
Gorawen nodded. “That is to the good,” she said. “I think perhaps your husband is giving you a chance to adjust to your new situation in life. He has shown no animosity at having to wed you?”
“Honor was at stake, Mother,” Averil responded. “And if I have learned one thing, Mother, it is that Rhys FitzHugh is honorable despite his behavior in the matter of obtaining my person.”
“But he shows no anger towards you at having made the error he made?” Gorawen persisted. “Often a man will make a mistake where a woman is concerned, and then he will blame her for his blunder. Has this been the case with you and Rhys FitzHugh?”
“Nay,” Averil said slowly. “I believe he has come to terms with what he has done. He speaks fairly to me, and has not censured me for his fault.”
“Good, good!” Gorawen said, but she thought to herself that she would watch this new son they had obtained most carefully. Averil had not her experience where human nature was concerned.
Averil kissed her mother’s cheek, and then turned to curtsey to her father’s wife.
Argel took the girl by her shoulders and kissed her on both cheeks. “Welcome home, Averil,” she said. “I am happy that all has worked out well for you.”
“Thank you, lady,” Averil replied sweetly. “Now, my sister Maia must have a husband of her own. But let him be near, lady, so we do not lose one another.”
“And then my daughter must be matched,” Ysbail said sharply.
“Junia has several years before she should wed,” Merin Pendragon said.
“But he must be as fine a gentleman as is chosen for Maia,” Ysbail persisted. “Not some poor bailiff such as Averil has wed, though I will admit he is handsome.”
“Aye, aye!” the Dragon Lord said impatiently.
Now it was the sisters’ turn to greet the returning Averil. They rushed her with little shrieks and giggles, hugging their eldest sibling.
“What is it like?” Maia demanded.
Averil shook her head at Maia. “The hall is hardly the place to speak on such things,” she said, reluctant that her sisters know she was still a virgin.
“He is very handsome, as my mother says,” Junia remarked.
“Is he?” Averil turned and looked at her husband. “Aye, I suppose he is.”
“How could you not notice?” Junia