Caitlyn Box Set
Page 79
Hugh and I looked at him.
‘What you did, Hugh. Breathing life back into Caitlyn’s lifeless body. Thumping her chest. I thought you had cracked a rib or two.’
‘He did.’ I smiled at the man who killed me to save me, and my thoughts turned from death to life. One death – two lives.
I touched the imperceptible swelling of my stomach. There would be plenty of time to tell Hugh about his child.
~~~~~
We named her Blod.
Epilogue
‘Oh, wow!’ The woman’s tone was hushed, almost reverential.
She wafted a hand in front of her face, doing little to dispel the dust floating in the air. For a moment, she had a kind of an odd feeling, as if something wasn’t quite right, but she wafted that away as well.
The team had done the necessary checks before they’d opened the tomb, and this air, although stale, was fit to breathe. They’d also brought breathing equipment with them just in case. So, there was nothing at all to worry about, was there?
Three others crowded around her, their headtorches shining through the small hole, illuminating the space. It was only just large enough for one person at a time to squeeze through, and even then it would be a bit of a push.
‘Careful,’ one of the men said, as the anthropologist went to step forwards, and he dipped his head, so his light shone on the floor. It was littered with human bones.
‘Sorry, I got carried away for a sec,’ the anthropologist replied. ‘We’d better wait for the other guys, anyway,’ she added, referring to the rest of the crew. Besides, they had a long way to go yet, before they could start cataloguing and excavating the site. Every inch needed to be photographed, recorded, and measured. It wasn’t often a new burial chamber of such a great age was found.
‘Look at the niches,’ the woman breathed, itching to get started. She could barely contain her excitement. ‘There are children here, as well as adults. The remains go right back.’ Leaning further into the chamber and holding onto the man nearest to her for support, she peered into the furthermost corner, her headlamp struggling to pierce the gloom.
‘What was that? she asked, suddenly, her head cocked to one side as she listened. ‘I thought I heard…’ She trailed off, not sure what she’d thought she had just heard, or in fact, whether she’d actually heard anything at all.
‘Okay, let’s move back and give ourselves some space to work,’ the team leader instructed from behind her. ‘I want this wall done first, before anything else, and Joe, can you take some samples of the material used to cement the stones together? I want to see if we can get a handle on when the wall was built. Ethan, if you can—’
The list of instructions was endless, they had such a lot to do.
And in the furthest-most niche, tucked away behind the skeleton of a long-dead child, bones which were even older sighed and stirred in their pouch of soft baby-skin.
They had waited this long, they could wait a while longer.
THE END
Historical Note
The events which serve as a backdrop to the story of Caitlyn and Hugh are real enough. Llywelyn Fawr was probably the last of the great Welsh princes, and he did indeed marry Joan, the illegitimate daughter of King John, and half-sister to King Henry III, when she was just 13. Llywelyn was in his thirties.
William de Braose, Lord of Abergavenny (and grandson of Matilda, Lady of Hay who featured in The Spirit Guide) was captured by Llywelyn’s forces in 1228 during a battle with Lord Marshal and Hubert de Burgh, over the building of an English castle on Welsh soil. William de Braose was ransomed for the huge sum of £2000, and a promise of an alliance between him and Llywelyn with the proposed marriage of Llywelyn’s son, Dafydd, to William’s daughter, Isabella.
When William was caught with Joan in Llywelyn’s bedchamber, Llywelyn had William hanged. In his heartbreak and outrage, Llewelyn imprisoned Joan in a tower for twelve months, but he eventually forgave her for her adultery and took her back as his wife. When Joan died in 1237, Llywelyn was distraught. In his grief, he founded a Franciscan Friary near to the shore of Llanfaes, on the island of Angelsey, where he had Joan buried. From his castle on the mainland, he would have been able to look across the waters towards the Friary.
Joan’s maternal ancestry has been a point of contention for many years. The only real information about her mother is that her name was Clemence, and that she may have married Nicholas de Verdun, after King John had settled substantial lands and holdings on her. It is thought that Clemence was Norman French, and that Joan spent her formative years in Normandy before being brought to England by King John for her wedding to Llywelyn.
Note: I have Anglicised the name Llywelyn a little, to make it easier for those readers who are unfamiliar with Welsh pronunciation. And I have taken liberties with locating events at Criccieth Castle. The castle was certainly one of Llywelyn’s strongholds, but it probably wasn’t completed until after the time in which this novel is set. If you ever have a chance to visit Criccieth, you’ll understand why I couldn’t resist using this impressive construction as the main setting!
I’ve also omitted the fact that Joan would probably already have met William prior to 1228, because William’s father, Reginald, married Gwladys Du, Joan and Llewelyn’s daughter, which made Joan’s relationship to William somewhat complex. Especially since negotiations had taken place to marry Joan and Llewelyn’s son, Dafydd to William’s daughter. It was easier to simplify things by leaving Gwladys Du out of the novel altogether. I have also made Isabella older in the novel. She was actually only six years old when the arrangements for her to marry Dafydd took place. Probably the best way to describe the tangled mess of relationships is, “it’s complicated”!
However, once again history gives us a tale of women capturing the hearts of men, but whether they used dark magic is up for debate. But if they did, it would certainly go some way to explaining their actions and the actions of those around them.
Caitlyn, Hugh, and Blod are all my own imagination. Honest!
By Elizabeth Davies
Resurrection series
State of Grace
Amazing Grace
Sanctifying Grace
Fall from Grace
Eternal Grace
Caitlyn series
Three Bloody Pieces
A Stain on the Soul
Another Kind of Magic
and
The Spirit Guide
The Medium Path