"Give him to Enit," she commanded, a maternal tone in her voice. "Why Justin?"
"Today 'tis St. Justin's feast day, wife," he told her.
"I like it," Rhonwyn told him." 'Tis a strong name, and he will not be like every Edward or Henry or John. I suppose we shall have to name the others with those names."
"You said you didn't want any others," he said, surprised.
"What? When did I ever say such a thing?" Rhonwyn said indignantly. "Ot course we are going to have more children, Rafe. We must have at least two more sons, and a daughter or two for me. I promised a daughter to my aunt. The other must make a fine marriage. What foolishness! Who ever heard of just one child?" She laughed.
"Just take her at her word, my lord," Maybel murmured softly. "Women are strange in the last weeks of childbirth, but all is well once they have given birth to their babe."
Katherine and Edward were called from Haven to stand as Justin's godparents. Father John came with them. Kate cooed over the baby and said he was quite the handsomest little fellow she had ever seen, excluding her own two boys.
"Have you sent word to your father?" she asked Rhonwyn.
"Aye," Rhonwyn said shortly.
"And Brother Glynn?"
Rhonwyn smiled broadly. "I know he is excited for us, Kate. I only wish he might have been here, but he is not allowed to travel until next year, even to see us. When the next child comes he shall be its godparent. Perhaps we shall go to Shrewsbury before next winter and visit him at the abbey. I know that will be permitted."
"They say King Edward has come home. Soon we will have a coronation, although Edward and I shall not be invited. Only the great lords and those attempting to curry favor will go."
"Let them," Rhonwyn said. "I prefer my simple life here at Ardley, as you prefer your life at Haven. We are through with the powerful. At least until it comes time to marry off our children."
"I was hoping you would have a daughter for our little Ned," Kate said. "But he is only two, and there is plenty of time for you to have a little girl."
"I would like a daughter," Rhonwyn admitted.
"I am so glad you finally had a child," Kate told her sister-in-law. "I was so afraid that you were barren. Edward said you probably were because of your boyish activities. And you will be wed two years this Lammastide."
"I prayed to Saint Anne," Rhonwyn said piously, silently furious that her former husband, that betrayer, should have spoken of her so. If he weren't married to Rafe's sister, she thought, I would slice his ears off for that insult. Barren indeed!
In early September they took Justin to meet his uncle in Shrewsbury. Glynn was delighted by their visit, and the abbot freed him from his duties to spend time with his sister and her family. Justin was a fat and good-natured infant with his father's gray blue eyes and a fuzz of gold upon his mostly bald pate. He cooed, smiled, and drooled for his uncle, who was mightily impressed and said so as Justin grabbed Glynn's finger and attempted to put it in his mouth-except he could not quite find his mouth to match the finger with it.
They returned to Ardley, prepared to finish the harvest and ready the manor for the coming winter. In Shrewsbury they had learned that the king had been crowned at Westminster on August nineteenth. They planned to share their gossip with Edward and Kate and were surprised to find Edward awaiting them.
"Where the hell have you been?" the lord of Haven demanded of his cousin, ignoring Rhonwyn completely. "I have been here for several hours. Your servants said you were due back today, but they did not know when you would come."
"We have been in Shrewsbury to see Glynn and show him his nephew," Rafe replied. "What is the matter with you, Edward?"
"Katherine has been kidnapped!"
"What?" Both Rafe and Rhonwyn spoke at once.
"My wife has been kidnapped!" He turned his gaze upon Rhonwyn. "And it is all your fault, damn you!"
"My fault?" Rhonwyn was astounded. "Why should it be my fault, Edward? I bear you and Kate no ill will."
"The Welsh have taken her," he half shouted. "They thought she was you!"
"Me? Why would the Welsh want to kidnap me?"
"Not you. Ap Gruffydd's daughter!" he roared.
"Jesu!" Rafe exploded.
"Of course!" Rhonwyn exclaimed.
"What is it?" both men asked her at once.
"It could be any of several reasons," Rhonwyn explained. "It is possible someone wishes to curry favor with King Edward and thinks to hold me hostage in exchange for my father's good behavior. Or it could be that someone simply wants to topple Prince Llywelyn and means to do it by threatening him with his daughter's life. I would not expect my father to bargain for my life, and he knows that I comprehend him well enough to understand that. Had I been kidnapped, I should have attempted escape, but failing that I would fling myself from a battlement before I would allow my father's fate to be directed by such a dishonorable act. Either way they have the wrong woman, and we must find out where poor Kate is and mount a rescue."
"What a pity you did not think this same way when you were captured by the infidels," Edward said bitterly. Then he staggered back as Rhonwyn slapped him as hard as she might.
"How dare you preach to me, you pompous bastard!" she shouted. "This is an entirely different situation that Kate finds herself in than the one in which I found myself. I stayed alive to come home to you, Edward, but you did not care enough for me to wait. This, however, is not about you or about me. It is Kate we have to think of now."
"Agreed," Rafe said quietly, putting an arm about his wife. "Swallow your bruised pride, Edward, and finally accept that by acting in haste you lost Rhonwyn, but a merciful God allowed you to gain a good wife in my sister. Put her first, and let us decide how we are to proceed."
"Wine!" Rhonwyn called to her servants, and then she led them to the fireplace and motioned the two men to sit down even as she took the tapestried chair. "We must find out who has taken Kate and where they are. To this end I will send a messenger to my father telling him what has happened to her so he may be on his guard against any other betrayal. Where was Kate when she was taken, Edward, and where were you when it happened?"
"Word had come from my village of Ainslea that fever had broken out among the children. Katherine, good chatelaine she is, packed up her medicines and herbs and rode off with her serving woman to minister to the sick. When she did not return by late the next day nor had sent any message, I went with a half dozen men-at-arms to learn why. I found the village burnt and looted. The women and children had been taken off as slaves and the men slain, but for one elderly man they left alive to tell me of what had happened. He said they told him to tell the lord of Haven Castle that the Welsh had stolen his wife, and that they wanted no ransom. They merely wanted possession of ap Gruffydd's daughter for a bit. She would be returned alive eventually if I made no effort to follow them."
Edward swallowed down the entire contents of his goblet, then flung the cup aside, his head in his hands. "Jesu! Jesu! What am I to do? My sweet Kate is not used to a rough life as you are, Rhonwyn. She will die for certain. I should have been able to protect her!"
"Kate is strong," Rafe said. "They believe she is ap Gruffydd's daughter, and so she will be safe, for they only want her person for leverage against the prince for one reason or another."
"But what if they learn she is not ap Gruffydd's daughter?"
"They are unlikely to," Rhonwyn said. "None but the men at Cythraul and the nuns at my aunt's abbey knew who I was nor what I looked like. Few of you English do either. Daughters of great men, particularly bastard daughters, are of no importance but for the marriages they make. These men who stole Kate away did not know that our marriage had been dissolved, Edward, and that you had remarried another. They thought Kate was me, and Kate is clever enough to keep them believing it. In this part of the world the English, if they cannot speak our tongue, at least under-sand enough of it to get by." She looked to her husband. "Did Kate?"