There and back again - The continuing journey

CHAPTER 5 - THE NURSING OF AURIEL.

They took turns caring for her, almost without rest. Guy with his stronger hands was able to massage the body of his wife with the salve which would nourish her, and while he held her gently, her Aunt was able to soak and bathe her, to enable the fluid to enter her body, but she did not respond to any sort of stimulus.

Gwyneth slept fitfully in a chair when she could, and at night Guy lay on the bed by the side of his new wife, as if to imbue her with his strength, willing her to open her eyes, if only for a second, but she remained silent and still.

On the morning of the fifth day, Gwyneth told Guy sadly, "I will have to take her hair, for I believe the weight of it is draining her strength further, bring me scissors, if you have them."

Guy could hardly bear to think of the loss of Auriel's beautiful auburn tresses, but he went down to the kitchen and brought up her sewing box, handing the scissors to her Aunt saying, "It will break her heart when she wakes, but it will grow, do it."

Gently she answered, "Then I shall cut my own, that she does not feel the loss of it too keenly."

It was only then he noticed that her hair was the same glorious colour as that of his wife.

He lifted his wife's head gently from the pillow, pulling her hair to the side as her aunt braided it for ease of cutting, but as her Aunt put the scissors to the braid, Auriel suddenly opened her eyes.

"Dear God, she is back with us!", he cried, as he looked into the eyes of his wife for the first time in many days. "She has come back to me!"

"I will die of thirst here in this damned bed," she croaked, her voice rasping and her lips cracking with the lack of moisture, "and where are my children? I cannot hear them about the house."

Then she saw her aunt standing beside the bed and said, "So, you are here then, Aunt Gwynnie! Welcome to our humble home." before closing her eyes again.

Gwyneth shouted to Guy, "Wake her, wake her again! If she feels thirst, then life works in her yet, we must get her to drink!"

Guy lifted his wife from the pillows, shaking her gently into wakefulness, as her aunt put the brimming cup to her lips, "drink my lamb, you must drink, drink all of it!" Then they laid her down and she closed her eyes again.

A short while later Gwyneth told Guy to fold back the covers and he looked at her, wondering at her words, but he did as she asked and they both saw it, the huge wet patch spreading beneath his love, and Gwyneth took Guy's hand in hers and said softly, "Hallelujah, her body still functions!"

She leaned forward, wiping at her tears, then she laid her hand gently on Auriel's brow and said, "She is sleeping." Then she added, "We have wrought a great miracle here, you and I. We have won the first of many battles and we need dry bedding for our girl, but first, embrace your aunt, for she is in need of a man's strong arms."

So Guy held her tight to his heart, in gratitude for what she had done, and found he no longer feared the magic within her, because he knew that she had used it in the saving of his beloved.

That evening, Guy spoke with her, saying to her quietly as they sat by the bedroom fire, "You shame me with your forbearance aunt, for I have reviled and derided your people in my time, even my beautiful wife at the beginning, may God forgive me, and I am heartily ashamed of it now."

"Fear of the unknown is the enemy of us all," she answered. Then she went to stand over him in his chair, kissed him gently on the top of his head, and asked him, "Does your mother still live?"

When he shook his head, she said, "She would be proud of the man you have become," and at her words, he turned to her, still seated, and she held him close as he cried.

Auriel woke again three hours later, taking more water, a few mouthfuls of light chicken broth and sweet wine laced with honey. Then she gently touched her husbands face, asking him to kiss her, and he felt her lips move under his as she told him that she loved him, asking him not to leave her, before falling asleep again.

In the morning they brought the children to her, along with their new found cousin Mordred, and as she lifted her hand gently to touch Mordred's face, and smiled at them all, Guy felt the sun come out in his heart, though he knew that the most difficult days were still to come.

That same evening, after the children had been fed and put to bed, Aunt Gwyneth told him of young Mordred's parents, "At five years old, during the cleansing, he saw them slaughtered in front of him, his mother had hidden him beneath the floor and I found him there, three days later, as close to death as did not matter, covered in the blood of his parents, where it had dripped through the boards. His father was mortal, but his mother was one of the magical realm, and so, until his 13th birthday, there is no way of telling if he has magic in him.

Then she asked him if there was a high place nearby, as she needed the counsel and advice of others of her kind, and he gave her directions to a hill west of the farm, and after she left, he remained in his chair at the kitchen table, thinking on the dreadful tale she had just related to him.

She went back to the hill each evening, after first ensuring that her patient was comfortable. Then, on her return she would sit at the kitchen table poring over Morgana's papers and scrolls, working long into the night.

The days passed quickly and one morning just before dawn Guy woke to feel Auriel's hands and lips softly moving across his back and as he turned to look at her, he saw her eyes shining with unshed tears.

"I am so very afraid, my love. I am in such a dark place. Love me, for I have missed you so." But he answered "I cannot, for I have seen your poor bruised body and it breaks my heart."

"You can," she said, "because I desire it," and she reached down and caressed him until he was ready and they made love softly and gently in the dark, until they both gave a sigh of joy, falling asleep again in each other's arms.

The next morning young Mordred came from the cottage to tell them that Richildis was on the floor of her kitchen making a great noise and could someone come. Aunt Gwyneth ran to fetch her box, telling the boy to stay with his aunt Auriel, as Guy was off in the fields with Ivor.

She returned with the groaning Richildis and the twins, moments later, shouting to Mordred to come and amuse his cousins, while she helped Richildis up the stairs to the big bedroom. Auriel was greatly surprised when her aunt entered with her groaning dairy maid, saying, "You will have to move over my lamb, for there is a new life here on the threshold of birth and between us we must ensure its safe arrival!"

After a relatively short labour, Richildis, all the while clinging tight to her Mistress's arm, was delivered of a red faced, shrieking male child, who was so large that her aunt would have dropped him had Auriel not held out her hands to save him.

Guy arrived home shortly thereafter to find the kitchen in chaos and his children covered in flour and eggs, as Mordred sought to teach them the art of baking, though it was a skill he did not himself possess. Guy was followed a short time later by Ivor, who had arrived home to find the cottage empty, and his dinner on the floor.

"Ye Gods," Guy said, "what madness is this?"

Then all went quiet as they heard the mighty cries of Ivor's new son and the voice of aunt Gwyneth shouting down the stairs, "Will someone fetch the father of this child!" as Ivor fainted away.

Later when the kitchen was cleared away, Guy and Ivor carried Richildis back to the cottage with her precious burden, the now beaming Ivor proclaiming to anyone who would listen, that his boy was to be named Gwyllem, after the angel who had brought him into the world.

Peace reigned at last as the twins and their new cousin were fed and despatched to bed and Gwyneth hurriedly prepared a meal of smoked ham and eggs for those still awake to eat it. Then they sat around Auriel's bed, in the room where death had lingered for a while, but where new life had come to banish it from the corners, and they all rejoiced in it, for a while forgetting the shadow that still loomed on the horizon.