Here Be Dragons - 1 by Sharon Penman (best inspirational books txt) 📕

I would I meant to""I do not want to talk about it Not tonight ""But you do not understand, you've not let me explain""Joanna, not now1"THE world had become a bewildering place to Davydd His brother was dead But then he was not His sisters had been weeping continually01 tnree days now, his mother had been sleeping with Elen and him in he nursery His father seemed no happier after learning that Gruffydd as alive, while his mother wept quietly m the night, and near dawn b e d awakened them all with her screams Davydd did not understand Sitting on the edge of his bed, he watched as his mother and Aunt t n folded his clothes into an open coffer He was anxious, wanting "lake sure they packed his favorite toys, his wooden horse and his ^Ppmgtop ^

T394395"Mama had a bad dream," he told Catherine. "I dream aboni wolves sometimes.""We all do, sweeting." Catherine straightened up, said softly "Joanna, are you sure about this? I truly think you should wait till Lle' welyn comes back ...""I cannot, Catherine." Joanna drew Catherine aside, out of he son's hearing."He might not let me go, and if I do not, I think I may truly go mad. Idreamed about her last night, about Maude . . . Catherine, I have to go."She moved over to the table, picked up a letter. "I want you to give this toLlewelyn, Catherine""Madame!" Branwen was standing in the doorway. "Madame Prince Llewelyn just rode in. When he saw your coffers being loaded onto the pack horses, I... Ihad to tell him.""I understand, Branwen." Joanna leaned back against the table, gripped the edge for support."Papa!" Davydd scrambled from the bed, ran to his father. "We're going away, Papa, we're going to England! Did Mama tell you?""No, Davydd, she did not." Llewelyn's eyes flicked down to the open coffers, up to Joanna's face. "Catrin, would you take Davydd outside?""I was going to leave you a letter." Joanna held it out, as if in proof; he made no move to take it."Where were you planning to go ... to your father, to John?""No!" She took a step toward him. "I'm not going to my father, Llewelyn. You must believe me. I could not do that . . . not now. I'm going to my brother... to Richard.""For how long?""I... I do not know yet. Mayhap a month. Llewelyn, I have to go. I have to find some way to live with what I've learned. Nor can we continue like this.If we had some time apart, it... it might help."She'd feared that he might forbid her to go. Yet suddenly she wanted him to do just that, to tell her to stay, that their problems could be worked out, that he could forgive her.A splash of red midst the floor rushes caught Llewelyn's eye; bending down, he retrieved his son's whipping top. He turned it over in nis hand, fingering the wooden point, and when he looked back at Joanna, his eyes were bleak."I think you're right," he said. "It is probably for the best that you go.I'll see that you have a safe escort."Not trusting her voice, Joanna could only nod."You may go, Joanna, if that be your wish. But not my chil They stay with me.""They are my children, too, Llewelyn!"She sounded so panicked that he found himself relenting. "You may take Elen, then," he said reluctantly. "But not Davydd. Not my son-'"But why? Do you want to hurt me as much as that?"He slammed the wooden toy down upon the table. "Do you think I'd ever willingly deliver up a second son into John's hands?"She shrank back. "But""But what, Joanna? Are you going to assure me again that I've no cause for concern, that John would never harm a child?"Joanna flinched, no longer met his eyes. "No," she whispered. "No.."Llewelyn found he could not be impervious to her pain, however much he willed it. "I do not want to quarrel with you, Joanna.""I'm not going to my father's court, Llewelyn, I swear I'm not. Davydd would be safe with me."His mouth hardened again. "No. You may take Elen ... for one month, no longer than that. But not Davydd."He moved toward her, seemed about to speak, and then reached, instead, for the letter. Their fingers brushed, the meaningless, impersonal intimacy of strangers, and Joanna drew an audible breath. When she raised her eyes toLlewelyn's, her lashes were wet, fringed with tears.

"What I did was not an act of betrayal. I would never betray you, Llewelyn.""I want to believe you," he said at last. "But even if I can, is that enough?Could we live with John's shadow ever between us?" And Joanna had no answer for him.

)2GRANTHAM, ENGLANDSeptember 1212IXiCHARD stood by a window in his bedchamber, staring out into the rain-drenched darkness. The storm had swept in from the north, scattering the manor livestock and soaking the oats and barley harvested and left out to ripen in the late summer sun. Lightning had seared the aged yew tree in the village churchyard, and the villagers were sheltering before their kitchen hearths, cheated of daylight hours precious to a people dependent upon rushes dipped in tallow and fires that gave off more smoke than light. "Sweetheart, are you not coming to bed?" "Soon." But he moved, instead, to the table. Eve sat up, stifling a yawn. "Are you reading again that letter from your lord father?" "Yes."Another woman would have wanted to know if he planned to return to court. Eve was quite content to wait until Richard chose to tell her, and it was that which he valued even more than the pleasure she gave him in bed. That Eve was lacking in perceptiveness, even in simple curiosity, mattered little toRichard; what did matter was that she made no emotional demands, that she was placid and good-natured and easily relegated to the fringes of memory during their long separations.He glanced down at the letter, at the