Aislin of Arianrhod (Land of Alainnshire) (27 page)

“I will. I promise.” Maeve looked thoughtful. “I love you, Aunt Aislin. Be careful.”

“I love you too.” Aislin said, pushing a stray lock of blond hair out of the girl’s eyes. She pressed her lips to Maeve’s forehead and let them linger a bit, her eyes closed. “I’ll see you at home, baby girl.”

Chapter Thirty One

T
HEY RODE NORTHEAST FOR A time, along the border Blackthorne shared with Arianrhod, taking care to stay hidden deep in the forest. Aislin hadn’t been on a horse for a long time, and she couldn’t keep the smile from her face.

“The horse seems to know where we’re going. Are they Magik too?” she asked Tristan.

“No. No Magik. Just well trained. I gave Roderic one of the better horses in our stable when I let him go. If he knows anything about them, he’ll have noticed Delphas is an outstanding horse. Many of the horses in our stable have bloodlines from your kingdom,” Tristan said.

“Rod, Fionn and Dom, our stable master, were the best at breeding horses. I’ll bet many of the lands around Arianrhod have horses bred by the three of them in their stables.” Aislin gave her horse a pat. “Roderic would know if he was on an exceptional horse. You may just lose her, depending on how this goes.”

“I’m sure we can work something out.” Tristan looked over at her. “You know, you just don’t seem like someone who would be interested in horses.”

“What do you mean by
that
?”

“I don’t know,” he said sheepishly. “I think about the memory I saw of you shoveling the stables. You had a smile on your face while you did it. You aren’t just another fluffy princess, are you? You have a genuine love of all things horse. Who taught you to ride?”

“Roderic and Fionn. Mother was forever locking me out of the manor house when I was small, so I tagged along with my brother and we usually ended up at the stable. I loved it there, and went as much as I could. I was always the little girl with the dirty face and bare feet running down the lane behind the prince. I’m sure I was an annoyance, but Fionn never made me feel that way.” Aislin shook her head. “It doesn’t seem fair that someone like Fionn dies while someone like Jariath lives.”

“I wouldn’t have expected
you
to think life was fair.”

“I know it isn’t. No one knows that better than I do. Still, so much has been lost, and I grieve for that. Fionn didn’t get much of a chance to know his children. Bryce was very small when his father died, and may remember him some. Maeve, on the other hand, was born just hours after he died of the sickness. In the middle of all of that chaos, Gwen went into labor, and I had to deliver Maeve myself. She was a tiny bit of sanity for me in a world gone mad.”

“
You
delivered her?” Tristan asked, arching his eyebrows over wide eyes. “There is just no end to your talents, is there?”

Aislin tossed her head back and gave a throaty laugh. “It was done out of necessity, I assure you! I didn’t have any idea what I was doing. Gwen and Maeve did all the work; I just caught her. I’ve always really liked the idea that the first hands she felt as she came into the world were mine.” She sighed and looked down, fidgeting with the reins.

“Anyway, it was a strange set of circumstances. One life ends, and only a few feet away, another begins. It took me a long time to come to terms with that,” Aislin said, looking over at Tristan. “I just wish he could’ve seen her before he died.”

“She’s a beautiful little girl. She resembles you greatly, but for the blond hair.”

“The blond hair is from Gwen’s side. Fionn was really looking forward to having another child. He used to taunt Gwen about being a great brood mare for the kingdom, but she knew how much of a tease he was. She would tell him he was very lucky to have her, that no one else would want the job of turning out foals to sit on the throne of Arianrhod. Fionn would just hold her and laugh. He loved to laugh.” She shook her head. “I really wish you could have met him. I think you would’ve liked my brother. The manor house was always full of laughter and chaos when he was around. Rod says Bryce has the same sense of fun. We can only hope.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about your father.”

“Sometimes I have a hard time remembering what he was like. It’s been twenty years since he died, and my memories are those of a fifteen year old girl.” Aislin frowned as she tried to think. “He was a kind man, but he could be stern. The people in the village loved him. He never asked anyone to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself. He took me under his wing when I was very small, when he saw that Mother wasn’t terribly interested in me. He saw to it that I learned the same things as Fionn. Well, everything except swordplay and fighting. It’s a good thing I knew most everything Fionn knew, or Arianrhod would’ve been in a bad way.”

She smiled wistfully. “I remember he had big hands. When he would hold my hand, it would almost disappear in his. He was very handsome. His eyes were as dark as night, and his hair was long and brown, always pulled back in a queue and tied with a strip of leather. And he
adored
my mother. I always got the feeling he would’ve roped the moon and pulled it to Earth if she would’ve asked him for it. I can tell you they were complete opposites in temperament. Father was fun, like Fionn, but Mother has always been distant and cold. It’s amazing they had any children at all.” Aislin laughed at the irony.

“You have other siblings?” Tristan asked.

“Not living. Fionn was the oldest, born shortly after they were married. I had two brothers, Degas and Baile, who didn’t survive infancy. They both died before I was born. I came along in 1657. I remember my childhood being full of adventure, even if it was a little dysfunctional. Then my father was hurt, and things changed dramatically.”

“What happened?”

“He was out hunting wild boar when he took an arrow to the back of his neck. He survived the accident, but never spoke again. He lay in bed for six months, not saying a word or opening his eyes, until he died.” Aislin frowned and looked down at the saddle. “For some reason, Mother wouldn’t let us see him much during the time that he lingered. I used to sneak in when I knew she was busy and lay beside him on the bed. Sometimes I would talk to him. Sometimes I would just hold him.”

“You speak of him with a great deal of love in your voice.”

“He was the only parent I really had. Mother was never much of a factor in my life, but after Daddy died, she completely disconnected from everyone. It didn’t matter to me—I still had Fionn. Then Fionn died, and I was made regent, and... well...you know the rest of
that
story.”

“You must have known it would be difficult to run a kingdom of that size. Why didn’t you refuse the regency?” Tristan asked.

“I really couldn’t. There was no one else to do it. I was the only one who knew what needed to be done on a day-to-day basis to keep things running. I knew I had a duty to Arianrhod and Fionn. I wanted Bryce to have something he could be proud of when he returned to the throne. If it wouldn’t have been for Devin, I don’t know how I would have held things together. And that’s why I’m unmarried in my 35th year. After I was made regent, I didn’t have time for anything else. Certainly not a husband or children.”

They rode on in silence. Aislin tried to remember what it felt like to have her family intact, her beloved father and brother still with her. Thoughts of Fionn inevitably led to thinking of the day he died, and rather than fight it as she so often did, she let it replay in her memory.

The sickness visited Arianrhod in early September of 1681, and it tore through the village with little regard to wealth or status, taking mostly those in their prime. The lucky ones died quickly, choking to death on their own blood. The not-so-lucky lingered for days, gasping for air and turning a ghastly shade of gray before dying. A few got very ill, but recovered, and a very few, like Aislin, were never touched by the black hand of the sickness.

The baker had been the first to die, and then his wife and three of his five children. The blacksmith was next, followed by the tanner and his whole family. As the various workers in the village died, those jobs went undone. Thankfully, the harvest had been gathered by that time, but it didn’t take long for starvation to rear its ugly head. What good are bushels of wheat without someone to grind them and make bread?

Those who were able tended to the sick and dying. Over the objections of her mother, Aislin went from house to house, doing what she could to help. After awhile, the villagers began stacking the bodies up in the narrow lanes of the village. There was no one well enough to bury them.

King Fionn offered the sheltered courtyard of the manor house as a makeshift hospital, taking care to keep his young son and pregnant wife away from so much sickness and death. And then, showing no mercy, it claimed the life of King Fionn.

Fionn had fallen and died within minutes, bleeding profusely from his nose and mouth on the stone walkway of the courtyard. Aislin had held him in her lap, sobbing hysterically and rocking him back and forth as he choked to death. She’d begged him not to die, pleaded with him not to leave her. He’d lifted a bloody hand to her face as his eyes glazed over in death and asked her to please look after his little family. And then he told her how much he loved her.

She’d held Fionn for a long time after he died, covered in his blood, unwilling to let anyone take him from her. She couldn’t say how long she sat there with him. Her next memory was of Gwen screaming. She’d looked up in horror as Gwen stumbled out into the courtyard and found Aislin holding her dead husband.

Gwen had fallen on his body, begging him to live for their children. Aislin could still see the look of pain and disbelief that had crossed her face as she went into labor in the courtyard.

Pushing Fionn to the side, she caught Gwen as she fell. Aislin was terrified for the tiny baby about to be born into such madness. She’d struggled to keep her wits about her, doing her best to comfort a sobbing and thrashing Gwen. Giving orders for clean linen and water, Aislin had propped her up as best she could and prepared her for birth.

Baby Maeve came into the world about an hour later, slipping easily into Aislin’s waiting hands. The baby, despite being a month early, was healthy and screaming at the top of her lungs. In that instant, Aislin knew a bond as strong as the one she’d had with Fionn.

Fionn had told her he loved her with his dying breath. Aislin clung to that whenever things got hard. Sometimes it was the only thing that kept her sane.

She snuck a sideways glance at Tristan, his face in profile to her. It occurred to her that he was the only other adult she could even remotely call a friend. Oh, she had her family and the people who worked for her, but that didn’t feel the same. There was an easiness with Tristan, an openness that she’d never felt with anyone else. Despite the inauspicious beginning they’d had, she’d become comfortable with him.

She’d allowed the regency to take over her life. It had left her isolated.

What if? What if I just tell my family: I don’t want to be regent anymore, and stayed with him?
The thought was so shocking to her—so against what she’d always believed about herself—that she stopped the horse, and literally thought she was going to stop breathing.

Tristan’s horse took a few steps beyond hers before he noticed she wasn’t with him. He turned the horse and trotted back to her. “What’s wrong?”

She finally started to breath again, but her heart was thumping wildly. “I guess I’m just anxious...about finding my mother and Gwen.”

Could it really be that easy? Could I just give myself permission to live my own life?

“You’re not a very good liar.”

“I was just thinking about the past. Something I shouldn’t do.”

“You spend a lot of time running away from yourself,” Tristan said.

“I know. Please...let’s just ride.”

There were questions in his eyes, but he didn’t press her. He simply turned his horse around, and they continued in silence.

The sun was sinking into the horizon when Tristan swung down off his horse and said, “We’ll stop for the night here. There’s a small clearing where we can build a fire.”

“Won’t someone see it?”

“No, we’re still deep enough in the forest yet.” Tristan unpacked everything from both horses. He then patted them on the neck, and said, “Go on home! Off with you!” Both horses turned and trotted off in the direction they’d come.

“What are you doing?”

“We’ll start out on foot tomorrow morning. I don’t want to take a chance someone will see us on the horses.”

“And they’ll find their way back home without riders?”

“Yes. We train all of our horses to return to Oakenbourne. You sound surprised.”

“I’ve just never heard of such a thing,” Aislin said, as she watched them trot away. “How long before we’re in Arianrhod?”

“Half a day or so. We should have your mother and Gwen out of the manor house by tomorrow, early afternoon, if everything goes well.”

Aislin nodded. They’d made good time coming through the northern part of Blackthorne along its border with Arianrhod.

Tristan busied himself starting a fire and arranging their campsite. He rolled out their bedding side by side, then dug around in his backpack for something to eat. “Come and sit down. We’ll eat and then get some rest. I have a feeling it’s going to be quite a day tomorrow.”

She sat down beside him and pulled a small piece of bread and some dried meat out of her backpack. She leaned over, bumped him with her elbow, and said, “Is there room in your blankets for me?”

He sighed. “Nothing would please me more than to make love to you all night long. But I can tell you with absolute certainty Blackthorne Forest isn’t a place you want to be caught with your pants down.”

Aislin began to laugh. Tristan pulled her against him, tickling her, and they both rolled on the ground, laughing. He quickly pulled her up to straddle him. The affection she saw on his face made her feel warm all over.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with you, elf,” she said, smiling down at him, her hands splayed against his chest, feeling his heart beat. “I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time.”

“I’m completely at your service, human. Now and always.”