Dragon of the Island (43 page)

Everyone in the room gaped at Evrawc.

“You?” Maelgwn cried. “Julia is pretty, but
she is as strong-willed and stubborn as a mule. I would think you
would have had enough of overly independent women after your
wife!”

Evrawc smiled sheepishly. “Perhaps I’ve
grown used to being ordered around, and now that Wydian has gone
away, I miss it. At any rate, I’ve always fancied the girl, and I
would like to try marriage again... if she’ll have me.”

“Aurora?” Maelgwn looked at his wife
questioningly.

Aurora shrugged. “Why not? If she gets to
rule Viroconium, I doubt that Julia will mind our choosing a
husband for her.” She looked at Evrawc directly. “But mind
yourself, Evrawc, Julia is a tyrant if you let her have her way all
the time—you must stand up to her occasionally.

“I could not give you better advice in
dealing with one of Constantine’s daughters myself,” Maelgwn said
with a sly smile. Aurora caught his meaning and sat up indignantly.
She made a gesture as if to slap him, and he grabbed her arm
playfully and slid it around his neck so he could nuzzle her.

“Well,” Balyn said cheerfully. “It seems
that we are done here.” He nodded meaningfully at the other men.
“Perhaps the king and queen would like to be alone.”

“Aye,” Maelgwn said, laughing as he made
Aurora squirm. “We are done for now. You are all dismissed.”

Maelgwn’s kisses turned from playful to
serious after his men left, and Aurora broke away to whisper
breathlessly: “Perhaps we should go to the tower.”

Maelgwn smiled. “Aye, perhaps we
should.”

They left the barracks and began walking arm
in arm toward the tower. Despite the dirty snow that was piled
around the fortress—and the crisp, cold air—the sun was shining
brilliantly and the harsh weight of winter was forgotten for a
moment. Aurora slowed her pace to match Maelgwn’s slight limp, and
smiled to herself.

“It is hard to believe that you have just
let a woman join one of your council meetings,” she said slyly. “I
would never have imagined such a thing.”

Maelgwn smiled back at her. “It was hardly a
meeting of my council—we were just talking.”

Despite the jesting tone of his words, there
was a lingering sadness in his eyes that Aurora could not miss.

“You are are thinking of Esylt, aren’t you?”
Aurora asked gently.

Maelgwn nodded. “It still pains me,” He
sighed deeply. “At least I did not have to have her put to
death.”

“You think she will stay safely out of
trouble in Manau Gotodin?”

“Well, Cunedda has assured me that since he
defeated Ferdic, most of his men have come back and pledged their
loyalty to him. Ferdic and Esylt may wish to make mischief for us,
but without an army, they are no great threat.

“I almost feel sorry for Esylt,” Aurora said
softly.

“You?” Maelgwn looked at her in surprise. “I
thought you hated her.”

Aurora wrinkled her forehead in thought. “I
thought so, too, but somehow, when I found out Esylt had truly
betrayed you, I was able to see things from her viewpoint.”

She looked at Maelgwn meaningfully. “Women
have so little power, especially among the Cymru. The bards tell us
stories of great women warriors—like Boudicca, who defied even the
legions of Rome—but now it seems we are little more than
possessions of men. If she had been born a man, Esylt could have
been a great warrior, even a king—but instead she was stuck here at
Caer Eryri, worrying about the grain supply and
whether you
would marry her off to some doddering old chieftain.”

“Esylt never tried to earn my trust or do
anything but meddle in my affairs,” Maelgwn protested. “She is an
evil woman—just like my mother.”

“Perhaps,” Aurora said quietly. “But the lot
of women is not an easy one here among the Cymru.”

“Are you unhappy?” Maelgwn asked, stopping
to stare at her.

Aurora looked back into her husband’s face.
Her eyes caressed the proud line of his jaw, the delectable curve
of his mouth and the hypnotizing blue of his eyes.

“No, I’m not unhappy at all,” she answered
with a smile. “I have everything I want.”

Maelgwn smiled back with a radiance that
matched the gleaming gold torque at his neck.

“Come summer, you really will have
everything you want. I have spoken to one of the holy men from the
priory to have him come and help us plant an orchard within the
fortress next spring.”

“And a garden?” Aurora asked
breathlessly.

“Aye, and a garden.”

Aurora smiled mischievously. “Then maybe
someday you can fix the baths.”

Maelgwn laughed. “You are still trying to
convert me into a proper Roman farmer, aren’t you Aurora?”

Aurora nodded. “I must if I am to make sure
that our child grows up as a civilized Roman and not a
barbarian.”

“You vixen!” Maelgwn cried, catching her up
in his arms. “Tell me that you love me as I am—a wild, dirty
brute—tell me or I’ll throw you into the snow!”

“All right,” Aurora answered, laughing. “I
love you as you are! Now
you
tell me... ,” she said, sliding
down out of his embrace. “Tell me that you will still want me when
I am fat and heavy with your child.”

Maelgwn’s face grew serious and his eyes
burned with blue fire. “Let me get you to the tower room, and I
will show you how much I still want you.”

They climbed the stairs in silence, with
their fingers twined around each other’s. When the door closed
behind them, Aurora stared again at her husband’s intense,
passionate face.

“Take off your clothes,” Maelgwn commanded,
and Aurora hurried to obey. Her hands were trembling, and her
breath seemed to come in short gasps. Would it always be like this,
she wondered? Would he always make her feel so helpless with
excitement?

Aurora lay down on the bed, and Maelgwn slid
down next to her. He leaned over to take one of her nipples in his
mouth, and Aurora moaned. “Be careful,” she cautioned hoarsely.
“They are so tender.”

Maelgwn lifted his head up and smiled. “What
a woman you have become,” he said, gazing in awe at her engorged
breasts and slightly swelling belly.

“Do you still find me... desirable?”

“Aye,” Maelgwn answered solemnly. “You are
more of a goddess than ever. Tell me something...” he asked. “The
babe—when was it conceived?”

Aurora blushed and looked away. “I think,
nay, I am sure—it was at the Lughnasa festival.”

“I thought so,” Maelgwn answered softly. “It
should be an awesome child then, born of a goddess and a god.”
Maelgwn hesitated a moment, and then reached up to stroke Aurora’s
hair tenderly, smoothing it languidly into waves with his
fingers.

“I’m sorry about that, Aurora. I didn’t mean
to come to you as Cerrunos. I didn’t mean to trick you. But I felt
the power move within my veins, and I could not resist you.”

“It’s all right. I understand now,” Aurora
answered. “I think it was meant to be. I wouldn’t let you come to
me as my husband, and so you found another way.”

Maelgwn slid his fingers down her body, now
caressing the fine, soft hair below her stomach.

“Tell me one more thing, Aurora,” he
whispered. “Tell me if it was better that night—tell me if the god
pleased you more than the man.”

Aurora sighed as Maelgwn pulled her close so
that he could push himself into her.

“Ah,” she moaned. “It is the man I love...
the man I will always love.”

The End

Dear
Readers,

Few settings are as steeped in romance and
mystery as Dark Age Britain. The term “dark ages” suggests our
scant knowledge of this time period and the lack of written
history. In writing
The Dragon of the Island
, I was forced
to rely on other authors’ interpretations, as well as weaving the
sparse threads of history into my own pattern of fact and
imagination.

While Aurora is purely my own creation,
there really was a Welsh warlord named Maelgwn the Great. The monk
Gildas, writing in 643 a.d., referred to him as “O, thou dragon of
the island,” and denounced him as a tyrant and a terrible sinner.
For all his bitter condemnation of Maelgwn, Gildas’s work also
suggests a complex and enigmatic king, a man who struggled with his
conscience and had doubts about the value of worldly power.

Through military might, murderous intrigue
and perhaps simply by the force of his larger-than-life
personality, Maelgwn the Great eventually came to dominate much of
Britain and reign as the ultimate symbol of Celtic preeminence.
There are hints that he filled the void left by King Arthur’s death
and served as
Rex Britannia
for a number of years, and his
sons held positions of power in what is now Scotland as well as
Wales. Five hundred years after Maelgwn’s death, Welsh princes from
the region of Gwynedd continued to claim descent from his
lineage.

Maelgwn’s hold upon my own heart has been as
compelling and passionate as his control of his homeland. Having
created Maelgwn as a character, I found I could not easily abandon
him and move on to my next hero. Halfway through
The Dragon
,
I began planning two more books based on Maelgwn’s life and times.
I hope you look forward to reading the sequels as much as I do
writing them.

Good reading,

I am fascinated by history, as well as
Celtic myth and legend. These interests inspire and enrich most of
my books, both historical romance and historical fantasy. Raised in
the Midwest, I currently live in Wyoming with my husband, four cats
and a dog. Besides writing and working (I’m employed in a public
library) I enjoy gardening, travel and reading, of course!

For more about my books and me, visit my
website
http://marygillgannon.com
.