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

departure. "Are all the Welsh as mad as that?""I would that they were," John said tersely. "If so, Wales would be an English shire by now." Rising, he moved away from the table and, for the first time, noticed his son. Richard had entered unobtrusively some moments before, after a futile attempt to coax Isabelle into interceding on Gruffydd's behalf; she'd parried with a cynical and unanswerable, "If John indulges me, it is because Iask only for what I know he s willing to give."Gruffydd's intransigence had not surprised Richard any, but father's forbearance had. He reached John just as Will said approving >- "Your patience with the boy was commendable, John, in truth itw"That was not patience, Will. He called my bluff, pure and simp^ The joke is that I doubt whether he truly knew what he was doing e as he did it!""What do you mean?" ^"Think upon it, Will. How would you have me explain

425Daughter that Gruffydd's assurances of good health were extracted under torture? Even if I resorted to more subtle means of persuasion, withheld food or sleep until he agreed to cooperate, there'd be no way to keep him from regaling Joanna with all the gory details afterward. It hould be obvious by now that the damned fool is too simpleminded to scare!"While there was understandable exasperation in John's voice, he seemed to be taking Gruffydd's defiance with remarkable equanimity. Isabelle was right, Richard decided; something was definitely in the wind.John was shaking his head again, in disbelief. "I daresay if I'd told him he was free to return to Wales, he'd then have insisted upon staying in England!I ought to have reminded him of the fate of his granduncles; mayhap that would have shaken some sense into him.""I know about as much of Wales as I do of the heathen kingdoms of Cathay,"Dammartin drawled, "and I confess I find them of equal interest. What befell the boy's kin?""After my father lost the battle of Crogen to Llewelyn's grandfather, OwainFawr, he took vengeance upon his Welsh hostages. Two of them were Owain's sons, Llewelyn's uncles. Their eyes were put out with red-hot awls."Dammartin was not shocked, for Philip had been known to do the same to captured English soldiers; while Norman knights and men of rank were routinely ransomed, it was not unheard of to mutilate cornmon soldiers, thus rendering them unfit for further combat. But for Will, that was a jab into an old wound."I've never been able to understand how our father could have done that," he muttered. "It was not like him." He hesitated. "John . . . you'd never take vengeance of that sort upon Llewelyn, by blinding Gruffydd?"Will saw at once that he'd made a monumental blunder. John's eyes jvere suddenly opaque; a muscle jerked in his cheek. "I told you why Ianged those accursed hostages! It was necessary to set an example, to remind my barons how much was at stake. I did what had to be done, m bone-weary of being criticized for it. Christ, the utter hypocrisy° " a'I! Who spoke up for those blinded Welsh hostages? Or those hap-^Ss souls hanged by my sainted brother Richard at Chalus? He took his call vengeance upon men, women, and children alike, and none p"lrn 'butcher' for it. As for that double-dealing hellspawn on the like ne' his hands are as bloody as Richard's. I may treat my Jews sku hCOWs' m^ them for all they're worth, but they've not been ered by rampaging mobs as they were in Richard's reign, and

436I've never burned Jews at the stake the way Philip has eightyComte-Robert, when a Christian was found slain." r'e~John paused, breathless, realizing too late just how much h ' vealed. "Leave me," he said, in a tone that brooked no aren '* Richard alone braved his displeasure by remaining. ent-"Why did you want Gruffydd to write to Llewelyn, Papa? VVK would you gain by that?" atJohn was standing by the window, watching as Gruffydd and h guards rode through the gateway, on their way back to confinement * Dover Castle."Llewelyn did warn me, Richard. He told me plainly th Joanna was his hostage as Gruffydd was mine. But I did not believe hi not then."Richard was suddenly sorry he'd stayed. "And now?""Twice in the past six months I've summoned Joanna to my court and twice he has refused to let her come. The last time I even offered to provide hostages if it would ease his qualms. Hostages ... for my own daughter! And all I got in return was a stilted letter from Joanna, sayine it was not possible for her to leave Wales, a letter she obviously wrote at Llewelyn's direction."Richard had learned to pick his way through conversations about his sister as if each one were a quagmire. But never had he so dreaded making a misstep.Knowing that John was too adept at reading faces, he busied himself at the table, pouring wine for them both. "So you thought Llewelyn might relent if you made it worth his while?" he ventured cautiously, and John nodded."But I did not reckon with his son's lunatic yearnings for martyrdom! It might be foresighted to look after that lad, Richard; what could better serveEngland than to have Gruffydd one day reigning as Prince of Gwynedd? Can you envision him ever humbling his pride to an English King as Llewelyn did atAberconwy? When pigs fly and monks no longer like their wine!"Richard was relieved that they seemed to be edging away from the precipice. To banish Joanna into the peripheral reaches of memory where she could do John no harm, he said hastily, "How long are you going to keep me in suspense, Papa?Isabelle says you've a scheme outwit Philip and foil his invasion plans. What do you have in mind a miracle?" frJohn laughed. "I am merely taking a page from Philip and ^ lyn's own book.Philip has had great sport these months past, Posinj?n£ a pious