At that moment, Lady Eluned came in with servants who carried refreshment. She bade them put it down and then depart. She remained to open her own offering – a bottle of mead, the finest and famed, from her own Welsh family’s estate. While she busied herself, Will answered.

“Edward would give you much in return for serving him well in Aderinyth. Do you agree to his conditions, you will rule there as your father intended, and none of your lands sacrificed.”

Gryff only blinked at him as Lady Eluned placed a cup in his hand. He concentrated on holding it, forcing his numb fingers to function as he tried to take in everything Will had said with so few words. He finally shook his head in confusion, and spoke to the part of it he was most sure of, only to gain time to absorb the rest.

“As my father intended?” he asked skeptically, almost laughing at the idea. He could not recall if he had ever told Will of it, how often his father had praised Gryff’s brothers for being so truly Welsh, so like the princes of old. Gryff himself had not been told outright that he was less admired, but he did not have to be. “There is naught he could have wanted less. He gave me as hostage so his eldest son and heir need never be corrupted by Norman ways.”

Will gave him such a look that he began to doubt everything he had ever known of his life.

“Nay, Gryff. He was made to give over his heir, and he gave you.” He shook his head, as though it were the most obvious of facts. “How else do you think Edward would have been content with you and not your brother, may God assoil him?”

He was so utterly sure that Gryff could only stare, frowning. His father had declared that he would follow Norman ways of inheritance, and that Aiden would be the sole heir. Everyone in Aderinyth knew it. Yet it was not Aiden who was given as hostage, as he should have been.

Gryff looked down into the amber liquid in his cup. The scent that rose from it was indelibly linked to his childhood, the rich fragrance of the same mead that had been served at his father’s table. He was transported, a boy again as his father commanded him to learn the ways of the Normans. But also to never forget that he was Welsh. They cannot take that from you without you permit it.

Lady Eluned had handed a cup to Will and was now setting the bottle on the table between them. She had known his father, at least a little. She would understand. She would tell Will it could not be true.

“My father,” he said to her, and then was caught in her piercing gray gaze. “Aiden was eldest. Always was Aiden meant to be heir.”