Author's Note: I apologize for the wait on this story to my readers. I have been suffering from both the flu and writer's block, but here's the beginnings of what I managed to cull out of my notes on the Fate and Fortune series for Book 2-The Shadows in the Mists. Be on the watch for the title of this to change if I think of a better one-this was the best I could do on short notice.
Augusta
Disclaimer: See the disclaimers forBook One, it hasn't changed.
15 December 1012 Anno Domini
Rowena tucked a stray strand of hair back into place and scrawled a loopy signature on a letter. Wording letters to Helga was a delicate process, taking most of her skill to avoid anything at all that could lead to Helga figuring out her secret. Or rather, Gwyneth figuring out her secret. Helga lacked the kind of mind to decipher the intricacies of what people said and then what they actually said. Gwyneth, though...The woman was highly intelligent, and would see straight through a weak cover. She looked at her handiwork critically.
Dear Sister,
We'll have to winter at Glen. It's already snowing here, though I doubt the first freeze has come to Lanast. We have harsh winters in Glen; almost as hard as those in the tales of Tintagel and the moors that Godric tells me. He's well,and sends his love. You should have seen his face, Helga, when I told him about growing up here in Glen. It seems so little andold-fashioned to him; I fear he's entirely too much the lord gentleman. I've decided that before we go back to Tintagel, he'll have a whole new perspective on country bumpkins.
I fear I can't linger long over a letter. I have many duties and little leisure here, as the work for the Lady of Glen never truly ends. I know you worry so, so I spare a moment each week to write you a paragraph or so. Do try to understand, Helga darling, why I can't send you lovely long letters like you send me. I simply don't have time. I wake up and go to work, and fall asleep as soon as the work's done. Still, I am happy, in a way. I was not raised to luxury and idleness. Until next week, dear,
Rowena
" Well, Godric, what d'you think? Good enough?"
Her husband leaned over her shoulder to read, a bit of a grin on his face. " Couldn't have done it better myself. You're as wonderful at lying for me as you are at everything else." He laughed a little dryly. Only they and Helga and Salazar would have been able to understand why it was funny that Rowena had to do Godric's lying for him. He was a horrible liar, she thought absent-mindedly as she twisted her wedding ring. It still felt odd there, that ring. So did calling herself Rowena Gryffindor as opposed to Rowena Ravenclaw. Still, there was nothing that anyone, not even Gwyneth, could do to part them now. There was not a single loophole in the law that could be used to make the marriage invalid. As if he knew what she was thinking, he kissed her.
"Let the old cats talk," he muttered into her hair. "We've gone this long without their approval, so what's the rest of our lives? If Lady Jelansen and Marie refuse to have anything to do with us for the remainder of our time on this earth, I'd say we're better off than we were to start with. I can't say I'd call the company of either one of them a pleasure." Rowena didn't miss the fact that he omitted mentioning the 'cats' that would probably go into fits at finding out that Godric Gryffindor had married Rowena Ravenclaw, so she brought them up herself.
" What're we going to say to the others besides them when we get home?" she asked. " Salazar's going to throw a fit, and for all Francis's protests that he wants his brood to marry whoever they want to, I don't believe he'll be happy to learn that you married me behind his back, and as for Gwyneth and Helga-"
" We'll just tell them that that's the way it is and throwing fits about it won't change the facts of the matter," he said firmly. " My father is a reasonable man. He told me just before we came to Lanast the time I met you that if I didn't care to marry Helga, then I could wed someone else quietly and that be the end of it. Not in breakfast-table banter, either, love. At the time, I'll confess I did not care who I married- Helga was as good as the next woman. Then," he sighed theatrically, " I met you. I think the moment I laid eyes on you was when I decided I'd never marry Helga."
" Isn't it strange?" she murmured, resting her head against his shoulder for a moment. " If we had never met, we would have just married who we were told to, and where would we have been then?"
" I could tell you, but I won't." She laughed a little. The Sight, of course. Of her new family, only two besides herself didn't have the ability to See- her sister-in-law, Marie, and her father-in-law, Francis. Rowena had no desire to know what was going to happen; logic said that it could only lead to pain and problems.
" When are you planning to tell Francis about us?" she asked.
Unless she was very much mistaken, Godric had gone very wary. " I-ah-already have, Rowena. I wrote."
Rowena's eyes flew open. " You wrote! Good God and Mary Virgin preserve us! I see now why your family got your surname!"
" Some have said it was for bravery, and some for sheer madness. I prefer to think the first." When she didn't laugh, he put a consoling hand on her shoulder. "There was hardly any way we could keep him from finding out, Rowena. Better to let him get over his intial reaction before we actually see him and the rest of the household. I asked him to keep it quiet, and he will."
" So now you, me, Isabel, Mama, Francis, John, Beatrice, and the priest all know," Rowena said, naming off the people who had been informed of Godric and Rowena's marriage. " How safe is a secret between so many?"
" Isabel and Enna and the Holy Father won't speak, and I doubt you or I are going to rush off to tell Helga," Godric said consideringly, obviously thinking it out. " John and Beatrice would betray us, given the chance, but a simple charm keeps them from saying anything without our consent. Father should keep his mouth shut just to keep peace in his home for a while longer-as you said, Salazar is not going to be happy at having you snatched away from him."
" Snatched away?" Rowena demanded. " What is that supposed to mean? I never was his to begin with!"
" He thought you were." Godric looked old for a moment. " Salazar can be obsessive over some things-over things he considers to be his.You are one of those things. It will take him a long time to resign himself to this marriage. But he will. Salazar can hold a grudge for ages, but I've never known him to not forgive and forget with time."
" I'm afraid, Godric," she said softly.
" Of what?"
"What's coming. You don't have to be a Seer to know that more than some bad feelings are going to be stirred up by this. What's going to happen, Godric?" He didn't answer, and for once she was glad that he was as unwilling to admit the truth as she was to know it.
