Captives: Kingdoms Rule Hearts Read online

  “What?” the girl said, her voice shaking slightly. “Wh– what – who are you?”

  Catheryn smiled gently. “My name is Catheryn. What is yours?”

  The girl pulled a hand up to sniff at her nose, and Catheryn saw that the clothes she wore were no peasant’s garb. This girl was of a good family.

  “Emma,” the girl said slowly, eyeing Catheryn up and down warily. “Who are you? You’re that woman that eats with us, aren’t you?”

  Catheryn dropped to the ground next to her, and tucked her legs underneath her body. “I am no one in particular,” she said. “I hope you do not find my question impertinent, my lady, but what has caused you to lose so many tears?”

  The girl called Emma sat up a little bit straighter, and Catheryn stifled a laugh. She had known the title ‘my lady’ would soon brighten up the girl’s spirits.

  “I have a sister,” Emma began, turning her body slightly so that she was facing Catheryn more. “She and I are twins. She is slightly older than me, by but an hour or so, and yet she uses it to taunt me, to claim power over me.”

  “Do you not love her?” Catheryn asked quietly.

  Emma sighed, and looked around at the field they were sitting in. “It is impossible for me not to,” she admitted, “for she is my second soul in this world, and we do adore each other. It is just… difficult.” Her gaze suddenly focused back on Catheryn. “Do you have a sister?”

  Catheryn shook her head, and plucked some grass from the ground. She twirled it between her fingers as she spoke. “I was the only child of my parents.”

  Emma’s eyes widened. “Just you, alone?”

  “Yes, but we had a large household, so I was never lonely. In fact, one of the boys I grew up with eventually became my husband.”

  “I could not imagine being a child alone in a family,” Emma confessed, and added in a whisper, “although sometimes I wish I was.”

  She looked up at the older woman nervously, but Catheryn laughed.

  “I think all of us ladies wish that, at one point or another. Tell me about your family.”

  Happiness spread across Emma’s face as she considered her beloved family. “Well…”

  “Emma?”

  A voice rang out over the field, and both Emma and Catheryn turned to see from whence it came. The figure of a woman, draped in a blood red dress, was hurtling towards them from the castle.

  “Emma!”

  As the figure drew nearer, it became clear to Catheryn that the woman running towards them in such disarray was none other than Adeliza. Catheryn turned to the girl that she had been comforting.

  “Is that…?”

  Emma sighed deeply, and nodded.

  By this time, Adeliza had reached them.

  “Emma, my darling, Isabella has told me –”

  But Adeliza stopped short. Her eyes flew between her daughter and the woman who had arrived to be their prisoner. It was clear that they had been talking, and the tears on her daughter’s face which she had rushed to dry were already gone.

  “My lady Adeliza,” Catheryn quickly rose, and smiled at her hostess – or jailor. “We were just discussing your family. Emma tells me that she has some wonderful siblings. You must, of course, take the credit for that family bond.”

  Adeliza’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.

  Emma, in her turn, rose also. “I must apologise, my lady mother, for not coming to you about this. I needed somewhere to be alone, and then this woman –”

  “I see,” Adeliza cut her daughter’s apologetic speech off, but Catheryn was relieved to see that she was smiling. “Run back home, my love, and speak to your sister. She is almost as repentant as you are.”

  The mother and daughter smiled at each other, and then moved together quickly for an embrace.

  Emma ran back to the castle, skirts flying in the breeze – leaving Catheryn and Adeliza to a slightly awkward silence.

  Catheryn waited and waited, but Adeliza said not a word. Both of them had turned to watch Emma go, but Adeliza did not move to face Catheryn after Emma was out of sight. Catheryn was not sure whether it was worth raising her voice; but then she did not know the Norman customs. Was it permissible for her simply to walk away?

  “My youngest,” Adeliza said suddenly, still facing away. “You think that you have learned everything that you can, and yet each one continues to surprise you.”

  “You are blessed,” Catheryn said. “I had but two children, one daughter, one son, and both as different from each other as summer and winter.”

  Adeliza swivelled on the spot, and Catheryn saw that she was smiling.

  “It is so often the way,” she said. Then her smile faltered. “You say that you had two children?”

  A fist of iron clenched around Catheryn’s heart, and she felt her legs shake. She sat down – out of desire or out of necessity, she knew not which.

  Something passed across Adeliza’s face that Catheryn had never seen before. It was not until the woman she had barely spoken to before knelt to sit down with her that she realised what it was: tenderness.

  “You lost a child?”

  The voice that Catheryn expected to be full of disdain and indifference was instead a strange combination of interest and respect. Adeliza looked sad, and yet embarrassingly intrigued.

  Catheryn forced herself to respond. She nodded. “My son.”

  There was silence between the two mothers, two women that suddenly had more in common than any two men could possibly imagine.

  Adeliza’s voice was almost a whisper. “I lost my first born son.”

  Catheryn’s hand reached out to the woman who was strangely both her captor and her sister.

  “Tell me about your boy,” she said gently.

  Adeliza smiled wanly. “He was never really mine to begin with,” she confessed. “We had him for such a short time. The Lord only blessed us with him for five days, and then he simply did not awaken.”

  She clasped Catheryn’s outstretched hand tightly.

  “It does not matter how long we have them for,” Catheryn said softly. “They are still precious to us.”

  Adeliza nodded. “And your son?”

  “He was much older,” Catheryn confessed. “And yet still very much my baby. He was but six years when… when he was taken.”

  “Taken?”

  Catheryn swallowed. She had never thought that she would discuss this with another woman, let alone a Norman woman. And what about her husband? As a Norman lord, it was almost certain that he had been one of the invaders, one of the fighters. It could easily be he who had taken her two most important men from her.

  “In the invasion,” she managed to say. “They… they came to our home, and they killed him.”

  The hands that were entwined were quickly dropped. The two women sat in silence, knowing exactly who ‘they’ were.

  “But then,” Adeliza said quietly, “is this not our lot? Is this not what it is to be a woman: to create life, and then to have it snatched away from us before our eyes?”

  “You speak truth,” said Catheryn, “and yet I wish it were not so.”

  “I thought, once,” Adeliza smiled ruefully at her companion, “that my daughters would live in a better world, and have a different life. But the longer I spend in it, the more I realise that it is exactly the same.”

  “Your two daughters – what are their ages?”

  “A month before your arrival they celebrated their fifteenth year.” Adeliza smiled at the thought of those happy memories. “And your daughter?”

  Catheryn sighed. “Annis is perhaps just a year older. She does not look much older, but she is.”

  “Where is she?” Adeliza said curiously.

  “She remained in England. I was taken during the Conquest, taken here to Normandy against my wishes. Annis stayed behind… and I do not know what fate I have left her to,” Catheryn said bitterly.

  Shock covered Adeliza’s face. “She is still there?”

  Cathe
ryn nodded.

  “But – you are all that she has of her family left in this world! Should you not go to her?”

  Catheryn tried not to let the bitterness of her soul seep into her words, but she could not help it. “You are the one keeping me here, Adeliza. If I could will myself to her through sheer power of spirit, I tell you, I would be there. But I am not permitted to return to her.”

  “But… but…” Adeliza stammered, “but anything could happen to her!”

  “You think I do not know that?”

  A soft breeze floated through the field, and the grasses murmured their secrets. The sound of two girls laughing was carried by that same breeze, and the two women turned to see Emma and a girl Catheryn assumed was her twin sister, running and laughing around the castle walls.

  “Blossoming into womanhood,” remarked Catheryn.

  Adeliza laughed. “And yet the child remains!”

  Catheryn thought of Emma and her wailing tears, and joined in the laughter.

  After their giggles had subsided, Adeliza’s voice turned serious once more.

  “I must thank you,” she said formally, “for calming my daughter.”

  Catheryn smiled. “I would that some woman is doing the same for mine.”

  Chapter Eight

  Evening had drawn in faster than anyone had thought possible, and once more a feast was held in the castle of the family FitzOsbern. For the first time since she had arrived, Catheryn finally felt as though her presence was not an insult.

  Sitting beside her was Adeliza, and the two women talked together quite happily. In fact, they had barely stopped speaking since they had joined together at the table.

  “So you have three children?” Catheryn asked. She looked around the room, with the four tables set out as a square, and saw Emma laughing with a girl who looked remarkably like her. The younger woman caught her eye, and they shared a smile of understanding across the room. It appeared that Emma and her twin were back on speaking terms.

  On the other side of Adeliza was a tall, pale young man with a rich cloak and a highly decorated belt. Catheryn had assumed since the first day of her arrival that he was a son of the household, but he had said nothing to her and, from what she had seen, very little to anyone else.

  “Four,” Adeliza replied with a smile. “The three youngest you can see here. Emma, you have met, and her sister Isabella.”

  Catheryn looked over once again at the twin sisters.

  “It is strange to think that Isabella is but a short time older,” she said. “Does that affect –” Catheryn stopped suddenly, and reddened.

  Adeliza looked puzzled. “What is it?”

  “I must beg your forgiveness,” Catheryn said awkwardly. “In my country, it is normal to ask such questions of a host, but I think perhaps it is not so acceptable here.”

  Instead of a frown, however, her words were met with a laugh.

  “Oh, Catheryn,” Adeliza smiled. “It is almost expected between us Normans to enquire about marriages amongst our children. Do not be embarrassed; it is natural to wonder.”

  Catheryn’s smile returned. “Is it really so accepted?”

  Adeliza shrugged. “Some ask because they are curious, and some ask because they have someone in mind – a friend, a cousin, a mistress – and some just ask because they need to show an interest. Not to ask would in fact have drawn more attention!”

  “And so,” asked Catheryn eagerly, “your girls’ prospects. What are they?”

  Adeliza’s smile flickered. “Not so certain as they once were,” she admitted, lowering her voice so that the babble of the room could mask her words. “Ever since the invasion…” Her voice trailed off as she looked at Catheryn. “I do not wish to offend.”

  Now Adeliza looked anxious and embarrassed, but for Catheryn it was with just as little cause.

  “Come now,” she said, “was it you who invaded my home? Was it you who decided to go across the water? Did you decide who should and who should not die? No. And so continue, my lady Adeliza,” Catheryn’s smile encouraged her to speak. “Please go on.”

  Adeliza swallowed, and continued.

  “You must remember, my lady Catheryn,” formality slipped back into her phrases again, “that many things that once were, and are no longer, are changed because of the invasion. Some families that were once great lost all of their sons, and now have only daughters. Others that had no land are now rich men.”

  “The game has changed.”

  “Exactly,” Adeliza nodded at Catheryn’s words. “It is becoming more and more complicated, especially as the girls are now much older.”

  Their faces turned to the subjects of their conversation.

  “They will soon be married,” Catheryn said slowly. “Who do you have in mind?”

  Adeliza pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Isabella is the eldest, which means that she is most likely to marry Ralph de Gael.”

  Thoughts stirred in Catheryn’s memory.

  “Do I not know him?”

  Adeliza nodded. “I would not be surprised. He was born in England, but fought on the side of our King William during the invasion. He is a little… older than my Isabella, but he is a good match.”

  “What is his age?”

  “He is nearing thirty years,” Adeliza confessed, and then continued quickly, “but really, it takes that time for a man to be worth marrying!”

  Catheryn laughed. “In too many cases, you speak the truth!”

  “Well,” Adeliza said after they stopped chuckling, “he would be a good match for Isabella – but now I think it more likely that he shall marry Emma.”

  Catheryn screwed up her nose in confusion, and ripped some bread off the loaf before her.

  “Why?”

  Adeliza looked around her, as if to check that no one was listening to their conversation.

  “I have not spoken of this with anyone,” she said conspiratorially, “not even my husband, for I have not seen him since he left to go with our King to England. But there are now no limits on the type of man my daughters can marry – no limits of country, especially.”

  Catheryn’s eyes widened as she began to understand what Adeliza was hinting at. “You mean…?”

  Adeliza nodded. “Having a husband who is English is no longer a problem, and there is one man who is the prize.”

  Catheryn spluttered out her words, “You can’t mean… Edgar Ætheling?”

  “You don’t think that my daughter is worthy of him?” Adeliza’s voice was frosty once more, and Catheryn was brutally reminded of their first meeting.

  “Wait, wait,” she said hurriedly, “you misunderstand me. I just did not realise that Edgar was still an eligible match for any young woman. I would have thought that King William would not want him to marry a woman of such a high status family. Surely Isabella and Edgar’s children would be a great threat to the royal family?”

  Adeliza waved away that concern with her hand. “Edgar cannot seriously consider himself an alternative to William. His marriage to Isabella will only secure her and her children’s lands both here and in England. Ralph de Gael will then marry Emma.”

  “God forbid.”

  Adeliza and Catheryn turned in shock to look at the man who had spoken. It was the young man sitting beside Adeliza. He blushed. He turned away from them, and started talking to his neighbour.

  The two women couldn’t help themselves. They collapsed into giggles. They only paused in their laughter to help themselves to more succulent pork that was being offered to them by a servant. The man sitting on the other side of Adeliza leaned forward to help himself too, but before either woman could speak to him, he returned to his seat and began eating silently.

  “That,” Adeliza said in an undertone, “is my son, Roger.”

  Catheryn stole a glance at the boy – or rather, young man. His hair mirrored his mother’s, but she had to assume that his face was closer to his father’s, as there were no similarities there.

  “Tell
me about him,” Catheryn said, turning back to Adeliza. “He seems very… different from his sisters.”

  Adeliza smiled happily. “He is a little shy, perhaps, and a little too concerned with the way that people think about him, but Roger is a good man. He is seventeen years, and very good with our villagers. The people love him.”

  Catheryn nodded. “Those are good traits for a son – but then, did you not say that you had four children? Where is the fourth?”

  “William is my oldest, named for his father,” Adeliza drained her goblet, and gestured for a servant to bring her more wine. “In fact, he is lately married.”

  “Congratulations! Who is the lucky woman?”

  “There is no reason why you would know her – Maud is her name, but she comes from no family of particular repute.”

  Catheryn hesitated, but then continued to say what she thought. “I would have expected the eldest son of such a house as yours to marry a woman of great power and wealth.”

  Adeliza smiled. “You forget that everything has changed. Before this time last year, this house was ancient, and yet had accrued little honour. But my husband is the cousin of our King William, and our power rises with his. William married almost three years ago now. Maud may not have a title or a name worth keeping, but she is beautiful, well-learned, and came with a large dowry. What’s more, they are fond of each other. We saw no reason to prevent a love match as it brought so much.”

  Catheryn looked approving. “That is indeed a good match; for both you, and her family. It is rare indeed to marry for love. When do you hope for children?”

  Adeliza shrugged. “I do not expect it, although I certainly do hope. I think she is a little young to be a mother. She was but fourteen when they wed.”

  “I do not know,” mused Catheryn. “I was near her age now when I was blessed with Annis.”

  “Tell me about her,” said Adeliza. “I feel that I have spoken far too much about my brood.”

  “I do not blame you.” Catheryn watched as Emma and Isabella pushed their plates aside, and they leaned together to whisper. “But really, there is not much to tell.”