It was not fair to her, or to the people who would soon call her their lady, to treat her as a stranger and a burden. It was not only the Welsh who called him lord, and his treatment of her would be seen as a reflection of his feelings for the English under his rule.

So he tried. He said that he hoped to keep this manor house despite the new castle being built nearby, but she only nodded. He asked if she liked the view of the valley from this window, and she nodded again. It was only when he said that this had been his mother’s solar and that she too was very devoted to her prayers that Lady Margaret showed anything like interest.

“Your mother lives with the sisters at Cairusk,” she said. Her voice was so timid he thought it must be an affectation, put on because she thought it would please him. “Always have I wanted... I have thought myself more suited to that kind of life.”

This was hardly a surprise, but he bit his tongue against saying it. Her father gave her not to the Church, but in marriage. No matter her preference, she could not be married without her consent, so she must have agreed to this.

“My mother passed many hours in prayer, yet served as lady to her husband and her children, and to our people.” He looked at her bowed head, her submissive pose, and felt more lonely than he had ever felt in his life. “In faith, I hope you will find such a life pleasing to you.”

She nodded again, never looking up at him, and asked if he would join her in prayer this evening, after the meal. He declined as gallantly as he could manage, telling her it was not his habit, that he spent those hours in important tasks that could not wait for morning.

It was the first of what was sure to be many lies to this woman he must soon call wife. After the meal, he spent the evening in discussion with the master falconer, and an hour talking with the bard of inconsequential matters.

Then he went to his chamber and whispered his own prayers in the dark, as he did every night. As he knew he would do for as long as he lived. Mary, Ida, Isabella, Gwenllian, Eluned. He thanked God for them, because they had saved her.

He would not forget their names, because he could not forget her.

Chapter Twenty-Five

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