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

for my daughter Elen," he said coolly, "to be part of her marriage portion when she's of an age to wed."John nodded. Assuming he'd been dismissed, Llewelyn rose, made an obeisance as meaningless to him as the oath of homage he'd had to offer to the EnglishKing. But as he reached the door, John could hold back no longer."I freed your son, just as I promised. So why, then, did you not bring Joanna with you? She's not seen me for three years; how could you keep her away?""I did not forbid Joanna to come. That was her choice.""You expect me to believe that?""I do not much care what you believe.""I know you've tried to turn Joanna against me. But I know my daughter, know she'd not believe your lies, your""Lies?" Llewelyn moved away from the door. "There are twentyeight families to testify to the truth of Nottingham Castle. To you, a Welsh death might count for less. But to Joanna, a child is a child. You murdered my hostages to take vengeance upon me, but you hurt Joanna, too. She still dreams of that lad you hanged at Shrewsbury, Maelgwn's son. Only in her dreams, it is Davydd, her son, on your gallows.""I'll tell you who I blame for Joanna's painyou! If you'd let her come to me, I could have explained, could have made her understand that I only did what Ihad to do. I hanged those hostages because you broke faith. They'd still be alive now, had you not betrayed them. Once you did, I had no choice. I had to set an example, but you forced me to it.""It does not surprise me that you find it so easy to justify the deaths of children. But what of murder done in the dark? How do you justify starving a woman and her son to death?"To Llewelyn's surprise, John flushed. Only then did he realize that this might well be the first time John had been held accountable f"r Maude's murder, for her family and friends had been exiled or intimidated, and John's family and friends did not truly want to know."They died in one of my prisons," John said, after a lengthy pau56' "but I did not seek their deaths. Despite what you and others think-am not responsible."For a man nurtured on parental falsehoods, a man to whom 'X was now not so much habitual as reflex, it was a surprisingly uncon ^ ing defense. Llewelyn slowly shook his head. "Is that what y°u want me to tell your daughter?"For once, John could think of nothing to say. The look on Ll^ lyn's face was one he'd seen before. The man who'd come to tell ^ that Maude and her son were dead was a trusted servant, a man wl^ shown himself to be immune to conscience, impervious to scruples there'd been in his eyes something John had never expected, a look, judgment, of involuntary revulsion. And it was only then that John L, realized the full measure of what he'd done.He'd given in to Angevin rages before, said things better forgot^ given commands he later regretted. But he'd never done anything L could not afterward justify to himself. Not until he'd allowed himself take an unforgivable vengeance upon Maude de Braose and her soj Not until he'd seen the truth in a soldier's eyes, that there were son, acts nothing could justify.He felt no grief for Maude, no remorse. What he did feel was hard(, for him to admit, to deal withshame. He did not think he was ar,, more cruel, any more vengeful than other men, than his brothers, ^ enemies. But he could not defend what he'd done to the de Braosej could only put the memory from him as an

aberrant act, a tragic mis, take. All men have things in their pasts that they'd change if they could All men. But that was not an argument he could make, not to Llewelyn ab lorwerth. The Welshman's eyes had taken on the glitter of dark ice. he was seeking absolution, he'd come to the wrong church."I should never have given my daughter to you. Of all the mistakes I've ever made, that must rank amongst the biggest.""Is that the message you'd have me give Joanna? That our marriage was a mistake?""No, damn you, it is not! Tell Joanna . . . tell my daughter that she wil]always be that, my daughter, and she will always be welcome at my court."'N mid-August came a second letter from the Pope, castigating Stephen ^ngton and some of the English bishops for not giving John greater Support against his barons and ordering the Archbishop forthwith to e*communicate all"disturbers of the King and kingdom." When Lang°n refused to comply, the papal legate Pandulf suspended him as Archbl*op of Canterbury.it was late September when the papal bull Etsi Karissimus reached gland.Condemning the Runnymede charter as "shameful and base illegal and unjust," as "concessions thus extorted from a great , "Ce who had taken the Cross," it declared the charter to be "null and ldof all validity forever."n September 30, a disloyal castellan surrendered the great royal n I

472fortress of Rochester to the rebels. On October 13, John seized the city and laid siege to the castle. By then, Fitz Walter and his cohorts had already opened negotiations at the French court, had offered the English crown toLouis Capet, the eldest son of the French King.39TTWYN, NORTH WALESJanuary 1216JL/LEWELYN led his army into South Wales in early December. Joined by the other Welsh Princes, he laid siege to the Norman fortress of Carmarthen, which had been for more than seventy years the center of royal power in the TywiValley; it fell to Llewelyn in just five days. The castles of Cydweli, Llanstephan, St Clears, Langharne, Narbeth, and Newport were taken in rapid succession. On the day after Christmas, the Welsh added Cardigan and Cilgerran castles to their list of conquests, and a jubilant Welsh chronicler recorded