Post of the Month

~ May 2010 ~

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Jenet & Gwydion ~ Written by Angela & Rhys. 

Posted on the HoS Yahoo group October 2008.

Quietly, Jenet moved across the village green of Elsdon, turning only once to watch Mark, Osanna's son, ride away through the encroaching dusk, on the pony.

They had ridden fast, to be back at Elsdon before nightfall. The pony had been well rested, and so moved swiftly under Mark's skilled hand. Jenet had offered him a bed by her fireside for the night, but the twelve year old lad had shook his tousled dark head and had said he preferred to make for the village of Sookholme, which was on his way back to Sedgeley and was where his mother's sister Geva lived. Jenet could not blame him. There he would no doubt find a brighter fire and more plentiful food, as well as the known company of kin, some of whom were probably of his own age.

They had ridden back to Elsdon through deep overhung forest, then taken the Lincoln Road part of the way. Past hay-fields and quiet lanes; past wheat-fields becoming golden and pasture rich. When at last they had crested the hill before Elsdon, a smoky dusk was making its presence felt, and the village was becoming quiet and sleepy, animals already put away for the night and children called indoors.

Jenet's eyes went ahead of her as she quietly crossed the village on foot, for Gwydion ap Bryn was standing framed in the open doorway of her cott. At first her heart turned over, for she wondered if by his standing there that something might be wrong, and her first thought was Nesta, and then as she neared she saw by Gwydion's expression that there was nothing wrong. He just had seen her arrive back at the village and was waiting for her. Behind him inside the cott, she saw the glow of her fire, and was grateful he had got it going. She was tired, all her muscles ached from the unaccustomed riding, and she wanted to do nothing more than to warm herself by it and take a bite of bread before sleeping the short summer night away.

She smiled at the man in acknowledgement as she approached. "Gwydion."

"You needn't worry," the Welshman said, drawing aside from the doorway as she neared; Jenet ducked through it and her anxious glance at once sought out the shape of Nesta asleep in the bed in the corner, huddled up under a blanket.

"She's fair enough," Gwydion said softly as Jenet went across to her daughter, and leaning over her, stroked the long hair back from the child's forehead. Nesta slept soundly, cloth doll tucked against her, curled up in one arm. "I took her to the Widow Goldburga, and she fed the child."

"Goldburga is kind," Jenet said softly.

"Yes, she is," Gwydion agreed.

Jenet withdrew from the bedside, and taking a blanket from the end of the bed, wrapped it around her shoulders for warmth, and came back across to the fire in the central hearth, smiling at him. "As you are, Gwydion ap Bryn."

He looked somewhat embarrassed at this and scratched his head. "Only do what I think needs doing, cariad. If a child needs feeding, then feed her. If she needs amusing, then amuse her. I told her stories by Goldburga's fire, diverted her from your absence and made her laugh. She fell asleep at Goldburga's and I but lapped her up in a blanket and carried her across to here and put her to bed. And I made up the fire in here and stayed by it, wondering if you would return this night. What happened with the lass and the baby? - she was having trouble birthing, was it?"

"She was delivered of a healthy son, and she is well also, blessed be." Jenet sat on the low stool before the fire, and poured ale from the jug standing on the hearth into a horn beaker. She cupped her cold hands round the beaker and drank thirstily.

"A happy ending, then," Gwydion observed.

"Well," Jenet replied quietly, "as happy as a successful birthing can be, when the girl lost her husband a few weeks ago." She sobered, thinking of Meg's panicked scared face whilst giving birth, and the look on Meg's face later when she had gazed down at her newborn son. Nothing had been said, but she had almost seen Meg think _I wish he were here...._

She reached out and took from a nearby platter the remains of the breakfast she had been eating when Mark had arrived seeking her help for Meg very early this morning. The bread and cheese was stale by now, but she little cared, she was hungry. Osanna had made a nourishing broth for Meg after Alan had taken his leave, and Jenet had been invited to stay and partake, but she had preferred to start home for Elsdon. She bit into the bread and cheese now, and took another sip of the ale.

"Still," she added, "the lass now has her child safely delivered, and she has SOMEthing left of her husband. He lives on in the child, and that will be something of a comfort." And her eyes strayed across the cott to the bed in the dark corner where Nesta lay sleeping.

Gwydion, where he still leaned against the doorframe, absorbing all she had told him, fell to thought. "Aye, true enough, I suppose."

"Alan was at Sedgeley," Jenet ventured.

Gwydion's voice was interested. "He was?"

Jenet nodded. "He had come to ask if anyone had seen Robert of Huntingdon. Apparently Robert's gone missing....has been missing for days now. I pity his poor wife, with a child to look to."

"He's done for, then...." Gwydion descended to sit in the doorway where he had been sleeping on guard at nights, ever since Alan had asked him to watch over Jenet and her daughter. "A blind man, lost in Sherwood...a great many number of accidents could have befallen him."

"The blind are far more capable than you give them credit for," Jenet said softly, thinking of her time spent with the young traveller Timothy. She wondered if he had found the outlaws, if he had spoken of her to Alan. At least Alan knew now that Timothy was looking for Tuck, and maybe they would keep an eye out for the young man.

Gwydion pulled his cloak and blanket over him where he sat in the doorway, and rested his head back against the wooden door frame. "So how was Alan, then?"

"He seems well enough," Jenet replied carefully.

A quiet chuckle escaped Gwydion. "And the rest."

Jenet pursed her lips to avoid the smile that wanted to come, but failed.

"So you talked with him, then," Gwydion observed.

"Aye," Jenet replied.

She sat, her blanket wrapped around her shoulders, staring down at the glowing embers of the fire. "He has these moments of quiet stillness sometimes. They intrigue me. It's like his thoughts just swirl in out of the void, descend upon him, and spirit away his affability. It's not that during these times he's not friendly. It's that he's just so.. Still."

There was no comment from Gwydion over at the doorway; she drew her blanket further over her shoulders. "He talks sometimes for no other reason than to fill the silence," she said softly. "As if he's afraid of it. But then those odd moments come when he almost seems to welcome that silence. When his whole being just gathers into a single moment of....quiet."

There was no answer from Gwydion, and she sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, running her mind backwards throughout the day - all the images, all the thoughts and feelings came rushing back - Meg's sweating panicked face as she struggled to give birth, the stuffy interior of the cott, the bustle at Sedgeley, the sweet peace of Meg's toft in the evening sunlight as Alan had dug up the vegetables. The whole day came back to her in a jumbled cavalcade.

Then Gisbourne's face swam before her once again, his threatening voice sounded in her ears. _"I'll be watching you Jenet, remember that when you try to sleep at night."_

Jenet lifted her head and stared up at the hemlock where it had been tied and hung from a rafter to dry in the dark shadows of the corner of her cott, away from prying eyes.

"Gwydion?" she said softly across to the doorway.

Gwydion's eyes had been growing heavy and had been starting to close; now he blinked them open at the sound of her voice. "Aye?"

Jenet's voice was soft. "I may ask you to take Nesta away from Elsdon soon."

He did not reply, he found he could not, and she found she could not add to her oddly calm statement. He but closed his eyes with uneasy feeling at her words and drifted into sleep over by the doorway.

Whilst Jenet fell to an uneasy silence of her own, sitting by the fire, and she watched the glowing embers, and she thought on the past day, on all that had been and all that might be.