The Providence of Yselan - pt. 2/3
Wulfric came to stay with Lord Brocwulf of Kesselin two days prior to Midwinter. He arrived on a chilly afternoon and stayed cold until dinner where warm soup was served with hot mulled wine. This was when a conversation began, and Wulfric learned much about his host family.
Lord Brocwulf had recently returned from a two-year trip abroad fighting for Earl Eappa in the Kingdom of Viringia. The lord regaled the knight with his stories and laid out the reason for the conflict.
Unlike his father before him, Earl Eappa was loyal to the Commonwealth and desired to rejoin it, so after he assumed the title after his father’s death, Eappa severed ties with King Peal. This angered the king, and he sent seventy knights to change the earl’s mind, but his resolve was hard and pure, and many knights came to aid him—fifty in total he mustered, and sent messages requesting more knights aid him. Brocwulf received such a message and left to lend his sword. After a two-year campaign, Earl Eappa and all his lands and holdings had rejoined the Commonwealth once again. The King would be licking his wounds for the time being.
Here is where Lady Tephonia lamented her husband’s return with a smile and a well-placed laugh that turned Wulfric’s stomach and put him off the soup for a few minutes.
Love is not worth its weight in gold when women such as her lurk amongst the lily flowers. Verily, they surpass the kindhearted maidens in number!
But Wulfric’s thoughts were his own and shared by nobody, for their only daughter, Lady Leofgyth, was set to marry Sir Sigebeorht (son of Petter and Lulla) in the spring. By the lady’s tone, it was evident she did not want her daughter to marry Sir Segebeorht (but she would submit to her husband), and that she relished the opportunity to tell him that Sir Ealhmund (her future son-in-law’s identical brother) had not yet found a woman to marry.
“The family arrives tomorrow,” the lady said with a sigh. She did not care to notice her daughter’s piercing glare.
After dinner, Wulfric and Lady Leofgyth talked quietly in a corner of the room, and the knight learned far more about the family than he wished. Firstly, however, she apologized for her mother’s behavior only for Wulfric to firmly put the notion out of her mind.
“It is not a child’s place to apologize for her parents; their sins do not reflect upon you, however much you may think they do.”
Secondly, she told him her parents were not on speaking terms. That Wulfric knew to be true, for they had spoken nought a word to the other throughout the whole dinner, not even to pass the wine pitcher, nor did they look at the other. Their attitude was as icy as the night air. This Wulfric put to the reason why Lord Brocwulf had left for two years, but this is where Leofgyth put that notion out of his mind.
They had been this way for her entire life, since as young as she could remember. Wulfric pitied her. While a boy can readily overcome the strain of seeing his parents in a hard-hearted marriage, a girl needed to see an ideal loving marriage to emulate in her own union when it came; not all boys get married because many die in battle, but all girls should marry.
The next day, Midwinter’s Eve, arrived with Wulfric giving the family a charm bag as thanks for letting him stay with them. In the charm bag was pine, pinecones, cinnamon, and peppermint he purchased from a merchant in the southern part of the Grass.
At noon, Sir Petter’s family arrived with a surprise guess: a beautiful young woman who was introduced by Sir Ealhmund as Lady Yse. Lord Brocwulf’s eyes bulged and he desired to know her parentage, which she gave, and then he became quiet. Everyone marveled at how she resembled Leofgyth’s sister, but it was when Lady Tephonia asked the young maiden about the ash-leaf brocade hanging from her neck that Lord Brocwulf choked on his wine and, looking like he had seen a ghost, left the room.
A large lunch was served, with dried fruits and nuts for dessert, and which Lord Brocwulf was not present for. Sir Ealhmund sat beside Yse, for it was at once obvious that he had fallen madly in love with her, but she was distracted by the entire meal, asking Leofgyth who sat beside her and Tephonia who sat opposite her probing questions. Neither Sir Petter nor his wife spoke a wit to Tephonia, but to Wulfric they were courteous and a delight to eat with. Sigebeorht was a pleasure to speak with as well, and it was a nice Midwinter’s Eve treat to meet two identical twin boys.
After lunch, they moved closer to the hearth, and Wulfric finally had a chance to speak with Ealhmund and his father together, and together they gave the lad advice.
Though Wulfric had no desires when it came to women, he knew what a man ought to do when he fancied one, and he was disappointed with Ealhmund’s courting of her. He had spoken only short sentences the whole meal and kept stumbling over himself in the few moments Yse paid him any mind—yet despite ignoring him, it was clear she fancied him. His father gave him sound advice, and Wulfric thought to best engage her attention would be to ask about the brocade necklace she continually touched.
It was after this that Lady Lulla began to become worried for Lord Brocwulf; his wife seemed not to mind his absence. Sir Petter agreed, and he and Wulfric left the castle to search the yard for him, thinking the lord had become ill, but they were shocked to learn that Brocwulf had saddled his horse and left! So said the guard at the gate. When pressed for more answers, the guard shrugged.
“M’lord gave no indication as to his destination, but he said he would return by nightfall.”
“Shall we search for him?” asked Wulfric.
“We should. I have known him for my whole life, and this is peculiar behavior.”
So, they mounted and entered Kesselin (after reporting back to everyone inside) to ask if anyone had seen the lord leaving, and they learned he went northwest. They followed the road, searching left and right and calling his name but only the wind answered back. At a spot where the road split north, they stopped and pondered for a while. Though there are few travelers in the wintertime, there was still too many footprints, hoofprints, and cart tracks in the snow to know which ones were the lord’s tracks, and so they returned to Kesselin empty-handed.
A mood fell over the group, and few people talked; Yse had no more questions to ask and now she sat with Ealhmund, who was much better at acting as a steadfast lover than a poetic one.
When it came time for dinner, nobody desired to eat—except for Wulfric who did not speak up—and this is when Lord Brocwulf returned, cold, tired, breathing heavily, and looking like he had seen a ghost.
“Friend!” cried Sir Petter. “Where did you go off too?”
“Are you okay, m’lord?” asked Lulla.
Everyone who had been sitting stood, and Wulfric took a step forward and threw a blanket around the noble’s shoulders. Lady Tephonia did not look at her husband.
“What’s wrong?” asked Petter.
But Sir Brocwulf did not hear him, he had not heard anyone; his eyes were transfixed upon Yse, and when they all realized it, they instinctively backed away from her, including Ealhmund.
“My little Yselan, my little Cinder!” old Brocwulf spoke in a whispered hush. His lip quivered and he was on the verge of tears. He haltingly stepped towards his daughter, hands outstretched, but then he became self-conscious and withdrew his hands. Yselan sat there, unmoving. “Do you hate me? You must hate me. I should never have listened to your mother. I’ve thought about you every day since I abandoned you. I’ve hated myself for eighteen long years. I searched for you, but nobody knew the family who adopted you. Until you came here and said who raised you. I rode to them and begged for them to tell me who gave you to them, and they told me a midwife had!”
His voice became haggard and he began to shake. “Did they treat you well?” he asked, stepping towards her. “Please tell me they treated you well and loved you more than the world itself—”
The lord broke down in tears. Wulfric looked away. Brocwulf fell to his knees and sobbed on his daughter’s shoes. “Drive my sword into my heart, end my suffering, send me to the Abyss so that I can finally answer for my sins! Do what I couldn’t do. Let me finally die.”
Yselan was crying too. “Why, father?” she whispered.
He told her the wretched story, and everyone looked at Lady Tephonia, who shied away. Lady Lulla’s eyes shone with so much hate it was a miracle the object of her hatred didn’t catch fire. Leofgyth had drawn into herself, and Sigebeorht didn’t know how to comfort his soon-to-be wife. Ealhmund stared at his mother and father and hated Tephonia more than he ever had before. By the temperature in the room, Wulfric wished he stayed with a different lord. But then the lord told of how he tied the ash-leaf brocade upon Yselan’s wrist.
“This little thing you wear now around your neck, it was my token of protection for you. Now it doesn’t fit your wrist, your chubby little wrists are slender now and graceful, a proper lady you have grown into.”
Lady Yselan placed her hands on her father’s head and raised him up to look at her. She kissed him on the forehead and whispered in his ear, but her father withdrew, shaking his head.
“Do not forgive me, I do not deserve your love. I was weak. I must pay for my sins.”
“And you will, father, every day of your life you will try to answer for it. But I do not want revenge. I forgive you and my mother. I do not hate either of you. Adeo will judge you; I trust in him.”
The room became quiet. The lord cried and the fire crackled. Wulfric had moved to bar the door; he would not allow Tephonia to flee. She stared out the window at the falling snow; her face reflected in the glass emotionless. Leofgyth ran a hand down her stomach.
“I have a sister?”
Yselan smiled brightly at her sister. Brocwulf composed himself and stood. He gave a hand to his daughter and she took it, standing as well. Then he extended his other hand to his other daughter, and she took it.
“I deprived you both of the life you deserved. To survive in this world without a sibling to lean on is to suffer in silence.” Brocwulf looked at his guests. “And to you, Petter, Lulla, Sigebeorht, Ealhmund, Wulfric, let me introduce my daughters Leofgyth and Yselan. Tonight, on this cold eve, is a night for endings and beginnings.”
“Forgive me, my lord,” interjected Wulfric, “for if tonight is a night for endings, then judgement must be passed on Lady Tephonia. She wished to kill her newborn baby and thought she had made you her accomplice in this heinous act of infanticide. Until tonight, she believed Yselan was dead; she might as well have been dead.”
Lady Tephonia gave no defense for herself. Yselan also gave no defense for her mother, because while she forgave them and trusted in Adeo’s judgement, that did not mean her mother should not be punished in this life.
Lord Brocwulf asked his oldest friend to judge his wife, but Sir Petter refused because he could be impartial, and said a third party must be involved, and so they turned to Sir Wulfric. He thought for a long time.
“Lady Tephonia, you shall be stripped of your titles and exiled from this castle. You will leave in the morning with warm clothes, food, and a horse. I trust the good people in the county will help a helpless woman.”
As Wulfric spoke, the woman became aloof, and when he finished, she retired into her and her husband’s bedchamber and did not come out again.