Unending Love by Kathryn Le Veque

softly bathed in firelight.  The small
chamber was dark and warm and Adalind lay there for a moment as she oriented
herself.  The last she recalled, she had been in Emilie’s solar with her
grandfather and Maddoc had come in to….
    Maddoc! Adalind sat bolt upright and nearly smacked her
mother in the process.  Christina had to move swiftly to get out of the way as
Adalind leapt out of the bed.
    “Mama!” she exclaimed. “Maddoc told Papa that he
wants to marry me!”
    Christina was fighting off a grin. “I know,” she
said. “Everyone knows. Papa told me but Willow heard us speaking, and she quite
happily spread the news until Papa told her to stop.  Unfortunately, she did
not listen so he spanked her. Now she is in my chamber weeping, Grandmother is
with her, and I am here with you. How do you feel?”
    It was a concise outline of the past few hours and
it took Adalind a moment to absorb it all. She looked at her mother with wide
eyes, both confused and elated. Truth be told, she wasn’t quite sure what she
was feeling. Excitement didn’t quite encompass it all.
    “I… I am not sure,” she said.  Then, she ran to
her vanity and grabbed the bone comb, running it through her long blond hair
swiftly. “I must find Maddoc and make sure he meant what he said. Perhaps he
was momentarily mad. Perhaps he was under a spell!”
    Christina couldn’t help the smile that spread
across her lips. “He was not momentarily mad nor was he bewitched,” she assured
her daughter.  “When Papa told me what had happened, I immediately sought him
out and we had a very long conversation. He meant what he said, Addie. He has
asked permission to court you.”
    Adalind looked at her mother with shock. “I do
not believe it,” she hissed, throwing the comb down and snatching the alabaster
pot of beeswax to rub over her lips. “I must speak with him.”
    Christina laughed softly. “Papa has forbidden
you from being with Maddoc without a chaperone,” she said. “Please come down to
sup.  You will feel better when you have eaten something.”
    Adalind grabbed her woolen cloak, brown and
lined with rabbit fur. “I do not want to eat,” she said. “I cannot. Mama, do
you realize what this means? Maddoc is… he is… merciful heavens, I still cannot
believe it!”
    Christina continued to chuckle as Adalind
wrapped up in her cloak and bolted to the door.  She reached out a gentle hand
to stop her daughter.
    “Where are you going?” she asked.
    “To find Maddoc,” Adalind said. “I told you,
Mama – I must speak with him. I must understand what has happened.”
    “I just told you that Papa does not want you to
be alone with him.  If Maddoc is truly a suitor, then he will be treated like
one.”
    Adalind lifted an eyebrow. “You may trust me
that nothing unsavory will occur between us,” she said. “I promise to behave. 
I will not throw myself at the man. Please, Mama… please ?”
    Christina knew better than to try and stop her.  Adalind
had been waiting her entire life for this moment, a moment she never truly
believed would come.  Propriety aside, she couldn’t deny her daughter.  The
glow in Adalind’s face had her relenting.
    “I left him in the knight’s quarters,” she said
softly. “Papa and everyone are in the smaller hall where the evening meal is
commencing. I do not know if Maddoc is still where I left him, but you can slip
outside and find him. Oh, and Walter de Burgh will be supping with us tonight.”
    Adalind’s features hardened. “Then I will not
eat in the hall. I do not want to see the man.”
    “I did not think so,” Christina murmured,
stroking her daughter’s soft hair. “I will tell Papa you are not feeling well.”
    Adalind kissed her mother on the cheek,
hurriedly, and slipped from the chamber.  Fortunately, the stairs were out of
sight of the great hall in the keep but the entry door was not. Christina, who
had followed her daughter downstairs, made sure that everyone’s