She smiled, kissed her cousin’s head and said, “Of course. I’ll visit you as soon as I am able. Now go below stairs with Casey. I wish to speak to your mother.”
Gianelle watched her daughters leave the room. “Go find your papa, my darlings. Katherine, hold your sister’s hand down the stairs,” she called out after them, then turned back to Tanon. “Something troubles you?”
“Oui.I have a question to ask you about men and being married. It is of utmost importance.”
Gianelle went to the bed and sat at the edge. She took Tanon’s hand and gave it a firm pat. “I realize your betrothed looks a bit…primitive, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
Tanon turned scarlet when her aunt blushed. “I was not talking about that! I just want to know what…Heavens, Aunt Gia, how can primitive not be a bad thing when your husband is tremendous and you’re so delicate?Non, non, don’t answer me. Just tell me please, what are feminine wiles?”
Gianelle’s huge topaz eyes narrowed on Tanon. “Wiles?” Her niece nodded. “Well, let me see now.” She looked up, and then to the right, tapping her finger against her chin. “They are your brains.”
Tanon giggled, knowing that couldn’t be right. “But mother saidfemininewiles. If they’re brains, then men have them too,oui?”
Gianelle glanced at her and decided not to voice what she thought ofthatsilly notion. “Well, of course, Dante has them. And your father is certainly intelligent, since he had the good sense to wed your mother.” She stood up, reached for Tanon’s comb and began working the tangles out of her niece’s long curls. “I suspect William has some brains beneath his gruff exterior.”
Tanon closed her eyes to her aunt’s ministrations and asked her how Dante had ever managed to win her heart. Gianelle certainly didn’t think highly of men, save her husband. Then again, she had been a slave before she met Dante, suffering under the abuse of her masters.
Gianelle sighed, remembering the man who had given her freedom, and so much more. “Your uncle was kind and even-tempered, and so very patient.”
“But I thought he was a womanizing snake?”
“Oh, he was.” Gianelle snorted softly. “Before he met me there wasn’t a woman alive in England or Normandy who was safe from his bewitching charm and devilish dimple. The same dimple you have.”
Tanon nodded and smiled, lost in the gentle tones of her aunt’s voice.
“He made me laugh, and he gave me things I dreamed of all my life.” Her voice grew softer. “How can you not fall in love with a man who gives you the sea?”
“You simply cannot,” Tanon agreed with a wistful sigh, engrossed in her aunt’s familiar tale of being rescued from the bonds of servitude by a dashing, loving man.
Eloise burst into the room, startling both women. “Forgive my tardiness, my lady,” she begged with a curtsey, though the moment she straightened, her repentance ended. “Come now, we’ve hours of preparation before the wedding, and less than that to see it all done.” She near bolted across the room, heading straight for Tanon’s emerald green wedding gown strewn across a high-backed chair.
“I still don’t see what’s the rush.” Tanon watched her maid scurry by her, dress in hand, toward the door.
“’Tis wrinkled! I’ll have to—” Eloise pulled the door open and staggered backward, then curtsied again at the man standing on the other side. “Your Majesty.”
The years had been kind to William the Conqueror. Well past middle age, he was still quite handsome and commanding in appearance. Even more so this morn garbed in full regalia for Tanon’s wedding. He wore his shoulder length hair, gone completely gray since the death of his wife, Matilda, a little over a year ago, in a neat queue tied with a black ribbon at the back of his head. A banded circlet of pure gold attested to his sovereignty, along with a breathtaking surcoat of scarlet with thick gold and silver thread stitched into the collar, cuffs, and hem. His deep gray gaze still possessed the power to thwart even the most resilient enemy. But when they rested on Tanon, they were plagued with regret.
“Leave us,” he commanded quietly to Eloise. He stepped inside and held up his palm to stop Gianelle when she moved to leave as well, his gaze never leaving Tanon’s.
“How do you fare,ma précieuse?”
“I feel like everyone is eager to see me go. I know it’s not so,” Tanon told him when he parted his lips to protest. “Everything has just happened rather quickly.”
“Oui,”he agreed miserably. “Tomorrow you will leave us.” Averting her gaze, he crossed the room and sat in the chair that had housed Tanon’s gown moments before. “Prince Gareth must return to Wales with haste. His presence, as well as yours, is vital.”
“If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t send me,” Tanon told him, assuring him that she understood.
William’s eyes met hers and he couldn’t help but smile. He had held her in his arms hours after her birth. He had loved her as his own from that moment on. It was her great importance to him that made her so valuable in Wales, and for that, he was truly sorry. He leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his thighs.
“I know you’ve been taught about the land you were to share with Cedric, but I wish to give you a better understanding of where you’re going. Wales is fraught with war. The natives fight us on the marches, and each other in the wild lands.” He gave her a look that said he would rather be telling her anything but this. “I don’t mean to frighten you, Tanon. But you need be prepared.”
“You aren’t frightening me,” she promised him.
William regarded her with pride lighting his eyes, unsure if she reminded him more of her father, or her mother.
“The country is not ruled by one king, but many, each governing regions in the north, south, east and west,” he continued. “The kings are enemies, but ’tis the princes who bring war against one another, vying to expand their territories. King Gruffudd’s son, Dafydd of Gwynedd in the north is the prince we thought had killed Gareth. You are a pledge of peace from a Norman king, not a Welsh one. Do you understand, ma chere? There will still be fighting in Wales, though you will not be in the middle of it. I have been assured that Gareth’s region is peaceful.”
Tanon nodded, thankful that Gareth was such a skilled warrior.