She gave him a demure glance from under lowered lashes, along with a dimpled smile. 'Truly. I must confess that, in my worst nightmares, I feared the king might give me to some horrible, elderly curmudgeon residing in the wilds of Meara or the Connait. But you are hardly such a man».

Still disbelieving, he dared to take both her hands in his, searching her blue eyes with his grayer ones as a faint smile began to lift the corners of his mouth.

«You did not find me a difficult patient, while I was recovering from my wound?» he asked.

«No more difficult than anyone in discomfort, and impatient to be healed and off about his life. In truth, our hours together were a welcome diversion from my usual duties in the schoolroom, dealing constantly with children under the age of ten — and I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to delve deeper into the king's library, in my quest to keep your mind occupied while your body healed.

«Or — no, that is only partially true», she amended. «It was not my pleasure alone, for I do believe you were as eager as I to browse in the old accounts. I came to admire and respect your mind in those weeks of your convalescence. To be courted by you now — and to have the king bless your aspiration — is a development I could not have dared to hope for».

«You truly do not mind that I am so much older than you?» he asked.

She laughed gently, shaking her head. «Truly I do not, my lord — though it has crossed my mind that your daughters may find it passing strange, to be acquiring a stepmother who is hardly older than they. I assume that will have been the reason for your recent absence, to inform them».

He allowed himself an easy smile. «Zoë is delighted, as you must have gathered from her greeting outside. Geill and Alazais are unperturbed — and look forward to meeting you in due course. They are fifteen and thirteen», he added, «and quite certain that they are very grown up, indeed».

He flushed slightly in embarrassment and ducked his head briefly, then bent to kiss the back of her hand before he released it. «We'd best join the others, before they begin to talk».

«Do you think they will not talk anyway, when they learn that we are to wed?» she said teasingly. «Oh, they will, my lord — and hardly kindly, some of them. It is one thing for a Deryni heiress to reside quietly in the king's household, under his protection, and even to make discreet use of her powers in the King's service. It is quite another for her to take a husband, and to bear others of her kind. There are some who will resent this match».

Kenneth allowed himself a faint smile. «If they resent it, it will also be because they envy me», he said. «You must wed someone, Alyce. Mayhap, if you marry me, there will be less resentment against our eventual sons.

«Or daughters», Alyce murmured, thinking of Zoë and the sisters she had not yet met. «You could sire more daughters».

A flicker of pain came briefly over Kenneth's face. «I have fathered sons», he said quietly. «Sadly, none of them survived. Zoë's mother… was not strong».

«I'm sorry», Alyce whispered, Reading his pain as she lightly touched his hand. «I shall try to do a better job. Sons are important to me as well — and to the king. He will expect us to produce a proper heir for Corwyn, you know».

He smiled faintly and covered her hand with his, lifting it to press it tenderly to his lips. «Dear, gentle Alyce, you are a brave young woman, to take me on».

She laughed gently and shook her head. «No, you are brave, my lord, to take on a Deryni wife. Whatever else may befall, I think it very unlikely that we shall ever find life together boring».

He, too, laughed at that, still half disbelieving his good fortune, and the two of them made their way back out to the cathedral steps, where the royal party were mounting up, preparing to depart. Zoë had dismounted during their absence, and came flying up the steps to throw herself into Alyce's arms with a glad cry.

«Can it really be true?» she whispered.

Laughing, Alyce returned her embrace, as Sir Kenneth looked on indulgently.

«More true than either of us could have dreamed», she replied. «And right glad am I of it. Will you mind that we shall be mother and daughter as well as sisters?»

Laughing, Zoë shook her head. «You shall always be my sister, darling Alyce. And I shall be happy and honored to own you as my stepmother as well. Papa, we are truly blest», she added, shifting her embrace to her father. «I hope you may be even half as happy as you have made me».

«Well, with that for a recommendation, we can hardly go wrong, can we?» Kenneth replied, bestowing a kiss on the cheek first of Zoë and then Alyce.

Chapter 26

«For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother».[27]

It had been a foregone conclusion that the betrothal of Sir Kenneth Morgan and Lady Alyce de Corwyn at that Twelfth Night court of 1090 would meet with less than universal approval — not because of any failing on Sir Kenneth's part, but because his affianced bride was Deryni. But no one could have predicted the terrible unfolding of other hatreds, as the day progressed.

The day began with the usual sequence of ceremonials customarily conducted at Twelfth Night court: knightings, squirings, and the enrollment of new pages for training in the royal household. Five new knights received the accolade, from diverse parts of the kingdom, and seven senior pages were promoted to squire.

Krispin MacAthan was among four new pages enrolled that day, finally allowed to exchange the play-tabard he had worn in aspiration for the full page's livery such as Prince Brion had donned the previous year. Both the young prince and the boy's mother had made much of young Krispin, to the notable disapproval of a delegation from Carthane. However, this was hardly surprising, since it was widely known that Jessamy and her son were Deryni, and Carthane was the principal venue in which Bishop Oliver de Nore continued to pursue his campaign of harassment against Deryni who stepped at all out of line.

As the king placed the scarlet page's tabard over Krispin's head, he was aware of the minor flurry of disgruntlement generated by this public distinction accorded a Deryni, but he also noted its source: several men in the party of a portly baron called Deldour, who had long been known for his antipathy toward Deryni. The man had been a minor irritant for years down in Carthane, his name periodically linked with the odd incident of Deryni persecution — but nothing serious. He was mostly a complainer and a boor.

His plaint this year, when the time came for presenting petitions for the king's justice, had to do with grazing rights along the Eirian, far from the troubles in Nyford. While he was known to be friends with Oliver de Nore, one of the itinerant bishops active in the ongoing persecution of Deryni — and had even taken Bishop Oliver's younger brother into his service as a chaplain — Deldour himself was considered to be a mere irritant rather than any particular threat. The presence of the bishop's brother hinted at potentials for more serious unpleasantness — and Zoë noted him, and recognized him as Alyce's old nemesis from Arc-en-Ciel, Father Septimus de Nore — but she was not about to intrude on the betrothal of her father and her dearest friend by bringing up past unpleasantness.

Lord Deldour's ire had only increased at the feast that followed court, when the king summoned Sir Kenneth Morgan and Lady Alyce de Corwyn to the high table and there joined their hands, lauding Kenneth's faithfulness and valor and, in token of his esteem, declaring his intention that the two should wed. A royal chaplain had been holding himself in readiness, and came at the king's beckoning to seal the betrothal with the blessing of the Church, to much astonished murmuring among the assembled lords and ladies and a renewed wave of mutterings within Lord Deldour's party.

27

PROVERBS 4:3