"You bastard!" Rhonwyn shouted at him.

"So, vixen, you have returned, have you? Well, you are not welcome here, lady. Get you gone!" he said coldly.

"Hospitality was gentler here in my day," Rhonwyn said dryly. "It touches me, Edward, to see how deeply and truly you mourned my alleged death. I)id yon ever love me at all, or was it simply the treaty between my lather and your king? I shall go to the king, Edward, for you have wronged me terribly by your actions. I disappeared, but there was no proof of my death."

"Was I to wait forever, lady? You were gone, and no trace of you or Fulk could be found. No ransom was asked. What could any of us think? Was I to mourn you for the rest of my days?" he demanded.

"You did not mourn me at all!" she cried. "You wrote to your cousin asking for Katherine's hand within a month of my disappearance. Then you hurried home afterward to undoubtedly have both church and state declare me dead. It is the only way you could take another wife. Oh, Edward, I loved you, and you betrayed me!"

"You do not know the meaning of love, you coldhearted bitch," he declared. "And now that you have magically reappeared in our midst, just where were you all these months?"

"In the harem of the caliph of Cinnebar," Rhonwyn said with devastating effect. "Rashid al Ahmet made me his second wife, and he loved me, but I could not love him, for I kept a memory of our love within my heart. How tragic that that love was nought but a deception on your part. In our months of separation I hoped, I dreamed, I prayed that I might be able to return to you. The very thought of you is what kept me alive. Then my brother came, and I was able to escape. I have ached to return to Haven and to you, Edward de Beaulieu. ‘Tis a fine homecoming you have given me."

"Whore!" he hissed furiously at her. "You shared another man's bed, and you dare to tell me?"

Rhonwyn shook her head sadly at him, but her sorrow was for him. She was not defeated by this turn of events. "Poor Edward," she said pityingly.

"Did this caliph find your cold heart and resistant body a pleasure, or did he actually wring a cry of passion from you?" Edward said rancorously.

"He taught me the true meaning of passion," she said quietly. "And, aye, he wrung many a cry of pleasure from me, Edward. He sought to learn the reason I felt such fear of being in a man's arms, and finding it, he freed me from my fears. I came home to share with you all he taught me. Now, instead, I find myself homeless and husbandless. I must decide what I am to do. How dare you, who have lain with others, criticize me. Your actions have shamed us both, but more important, when my father learns of this turn of events, he will be greatly offended, Edward. Your poor king will have to make amends to ap Gruffydd for what you have done. I have learned in my travels since I arrived in England that the king is not well at all. They say he will die before Christ's Mass. But I shall have my justice of you before then, I promise you." Then Rhonwyn turned to Katherine. "You may have him, lady. I think you perhaps better suited to Edward de Beaulieu than I ever was. I would not harm you or the child you carry. Both my brother and I are more than well aware of the stigma of bastardy. It is there even for a prince's children."

"Where will you go?" Katherine asked.

Rhonwyn thought a moment, and then said, "I do not know."

"Then you will remain here at Haven until you do know," Katherine said generously, and turning to her outraged husband, she told him, "The house is mine to direct as I will. Whatever anger you may feel toward the lady Rhonwyn, you cannot throw her out into the cold after her long journey. She must shelter here for the time being. That is my wish."

"As you please, dearling," he answered her. Then looking at Rhonwyn, he said, "Where is Glynn?"

"Where you cannot harm him, my lord."

"Did I ever contemplate such a thing?" he demanded, outraged.

"You were my husband then, and I trusted you. You are no longer my husband, and I do not trust you," she said icily. Then she said to Katherine in a more kindly tone, "Lady, I thank you for your generous offer, but I think it best I leave this place." She bowed to them all, and with Oth and Dewi in her wake, she left the great hall.

Rale de Beaulieu watched her go, his silvery blue eyes narrowed and contemplative. She had been a beautiful girl, but she was a far more beautiful woman, he thought. And clever to have realized that his sister was a better wile to Edward than she could have been. Her instincts intrigued him, as did her talk of passions unleashed. He wondered where she would go now and just what she meant when she said that she would have justice of his cousin. Strangely, he believed her when she said she meant Katherine and her unborn child no harm. But what was to happen to Rhonwyn uerch Llywelyn?

She departed Haven Castle, her head high, but her sight was blurred by the tears that filled her eyes. He had not really loved her. The shock of that knowledge burned into her heart and soul. How could she have been so damned naive? She would have been better off with the caliph, but that door was tightly closed to her now. She could not go back to Cinnebar no more than she could come back to Haven.

"Where are we going?" she finally asked her companions.

"To your brother, lady. Then we will decide upon how to kill Edward de Beaulieu," Oth said grimly.

"You cannot kill him," she said quietly.

"Surely you do not still love him?" Oth said angrily.

"Nay, I do not love him, but you cannot kill him. They would blame me. I have had enough shocks today to last my lifetime, Oth. I mean to go to King Henry to complain of Edward's treatment of me. Certainly the king will compensate me for what has happened. Then, too, I must be declared alive once more in the courts."

Glynn, as she had suspected, was outraged by what had happened at Haven. He was ready to storm the castle himself and slay Edward de Beaulieu, but Rhonwyn dissuaded him as she had Oth and Dewi.

"He must be made to pay somehow," Glynn said irately.

"Yes, but how?" Rhonwyn asked.

"I am taking you to Mercy Abbey," Glynn said suddenly.

"I am not of a mind to join a religious order," his sister replied. "Do you assume my life is over because my husband has disowned me, little brother? It is not, I assure you!"

"I'm taking you to Mercy because our aunt will certainly know how you may proceed. Our upbringing at Cythraul did not prepare us for such deceit, sister. You surely have an honest grievance against Edward de Beaulieu and must be compensated by him. I am a poet and a dreamer. I do not know how to advance your cause, but she will."

"How can you be certain of that? You never met her," Rhonwyn said to him.

"The abbess Gwynllian is well known in religious circles for her intellect and cleverness, sister. Her fame extends even as far as Shrewsbury. It will take us several days to reach her house, so we must begin now, Rhonwyn. Where else can you go to lick your wounds in safety and consider what you are to do next? Certainly not to our tad."

"Let us ride," his sister replied tersely.

They rode hard, resting the horses between dusk and dawn, eating oatcakes and wild berries, drinking from the streams of water that dotted the countryside. They came to Mercy Abbey in late afternoon. The cluster of stone buildings did not, this time, seem quite so forbidding as they had when she first saw it. Again the church bell was pealing for the office of None. Entering through the abbey gates, they waited for their aunt to emerge from the church.

Gwynllian had never met Glynn, but she recognized him immediately. Seeing Rhonwyn by his side, she said, "Praise God, you're alive! What has happened? Why are you here unannounced?" Her eyes mirrored her deep concern. "Come into the chapter house, and we will talk." Her glance flicked to Oth and Dewi. "You know where to put the horses," she told them. "Then go to the kitchens, and they will feed you. Come," she said, turning back to her niece and her nephew. She led them into her privy chamber and poured them each a small cup of wine. She motioned them to seats as she took her own. "Now," she said, "why have you come to me? Does your father know you are here and alive? And will it cause an incident with the English?" she demanded of them.

"It is a long story," Rhonwyn began. Then she told her aunt of what had happened in the several years since they had last seen one another. "I did not know where else to go," she finished. "I am too fine a lady now to live at Cythraul, aunt."

"Aye, you are," the abbess agreed.

"What am I to do?" Rhonwyn said. "Edward de Beaulieu has treated our family with great disdain. Surely he can be made to pay for that insult, but I have no idea where to begin."

"Do you want him dead?" her aunt queried.

Rhownyn shook her head. "That would be too easy," she replied. "The lady Katherine I hold blameless in the matter. She is meek and was subject to her brother's will."

"Do you want him dead?" Gwynllian asked, half jesting.

Rhonwyn actually laughed aloud. "Nay. I do not like Rafe de Beaulieu particularly, for he is arrogant and obviously has a lofty opinion of himself. However, he loves his sister and did what he believed was best for her even as my own brother, Glynn, did when he sought me out in Cinnebar."

"Restoring you to life legally will not be difficult," the abbess said thoughtfully. "Your existence cannot be denied. It is plain fact." Her long elegant fingers drummed lightly upon the long table before her. "As to the rest I must speak to the bishop at Hereford. Edward de Beaulieu discarded you without any real proof of your demise and quite hastily contracted another marriage without a decent period of mourning. But your induction into an infidel's harem as his second wife will surely stand against you, Rhonwyn. You were a Christian knight's wife, and yet you yielded to the lustful blandishments of another man. There are many who will think you should have died rather than succumb."