The Maiden

1299 England

WILLIAM DE BOHUN stood hidden in the shadows of the castle's stone walls and looked at his nephew, who sat in the window enclosure, Rowan's golden hair bathed in sunlight, his handsome face frowning in concentration as he studied the manuscript before him. William didn't like to think how much this young man had come to mean to him over the years. Rowan was the son he wished he had been able to breed.

As William looked at the tall, broad-shouldered, slim-hipped, handsome young man, he once again wondered how that dark, ugly Thal could have bred someone like Rowan. Thal called himself King of Lanconia but he wore animal skins, his long dirty hair hung past his shoulders, and he ate and spoke like the barbarian he was. William was disgusted by him and only allowed him to remain in his house at the request of King Edward. William had given the man the hospitality of his estate and had instructed his steward to plan entertainments for the loud, crude vulgarian, but William himself had stayed as far as possible from the hideous young man.

Now, looking at Rowan, William's stomach tightened in remembered anguish. While William was busying himself far away from the barbarian king, his beautiful, kind, dear sister, Anne, had been falling in love with the odious man. By the time William realized what was happening, Anne was so deeply bewitched by the man that she was vowing to kill herself if she could not have him. The stupid barbarian king didn't even seem to realize that Anne was endangering her immortal soul by the mere mention of suicide.

Nothing William said could dissuade Anne. William pointed out the repulsiveness of Thal's person and Anne looked at him as if he were stupid. "He's not repulsive to a woman," she had said, laughing in a way that made William slightly queasy as he thought of that dark greasy man's hands on Anne's slim, blonde person.

In the end, King Edward had made William's decision for him. He said there weren't many Lanconians but they were a fierce lot, and if their king wanted a rich English bride, he should have her.

So King Thal married William's beautiful sister Anne. William stayed drunk for ten days, hoping that when he sobered it would all turn out to be his imagination. But when he woke from his drunken stupor he saw Thal, a head taller than his tall sister, swooping down on her, enveloping her fair loveliness with his darkness.

Nine months later Rowan had been born. From the first William had been inordinately fond of the pretty blond child. His own childless marriage made him hungry for a son. Thal showed no interest in the babe. "Bah! It screams at one end and stinks at the other. Children belong to women. I'll wait until he's a man," Thal had grunted in that strangely accented English of his. He was much more interested in when Anne would be well enough to return to his bed.