The Prisoners of Wyvern Castle

Madeline and Rupert plot their escape

The tower was a comfortable cage. Sometimes it seemed to Madeline she had lived here forever, talking with Rupert for hours on end, reading to him from the books Polly collected in bundles from the library—or at least from those books that were suitable, since Polly was just as likely to bring an account book or something in a language Madeline did not know—making music and making love. Rupert was nearly as startled as Madeline when she reached her first climax, but he quickly learnt how to play her body with the dedicated attention to detail, and the flair, that he applied to his violin.

Her world, always limited to the estate of Graviton Manor and the nearby village, had shrunk to the three upper floors of this tower.

At Graviton, she been surrounded by people: servants, villagers, neighbours. Here, had it not been for the occasional voices of guards when the doors were opening for Morris or Polly to come or go, or the sight of people crossing the courtyard in view of the tower windows, she might have thought she and Rupert and the two servants were the only people in the world. And the tower ghost, of course, the White Lady of Wyvern.

The White Lady was something of a joke between them, since they had seen no hint of the lost and bewildered lady who had purportedly died here, bricked up by her jealous husband who had, a few months later, tripped down the stairs into a dungeon cell and broken his neck. He was there yet, the servants whispered, trapped forever in the dungeons, and never able to reach and make amends to his wronged lady in the upper reaches of the castle they had shared.

At Graviton, Madeline had often been lonely. Here, she never was. She and Rupert were rarely apart, even by the length of a flight of stairs. They loved the same music. They largely agreed on the types of books they liked, and had fun arguing when they disagreed. They shared stories of their childhoods, which were remarkably similar.

Both were only children of second marriages, with mothers resented by the adult children of the first marriage. Both had been raised in the country, separated by their noble status from neighbours of the same age, surrounded by adult servants. Both had lost their mothers when they were ten.

Rupert's father had died in the same epidemic of ague that killed his mother. At least Madeline had kept her father until her eighteenth year. He had indulged his daughter with tutors and books, but kept her largely isolated until he died, at which point, she became a dependent of the new baronet, her half-brother, Sir James Graviton, who spent most of his time in London and largely ignored her.

Rupert, on the death of his parents, had become the ward of his half-brother, the new earl, who had also lived in London—with occasional visits to Clearwater for the hunting. Rupert had been most often confined to the nursery wing, while the earl filled his house with friends and hangers-on, ignoring the unwanted younger brother.

And then the 6th Earl of Penworth had died. Rupert could not tell Madeline the details. He had been injured in the same accident, suffering such a blow to the back of his head that he was also expected to die. "Nobody knows why I was with my brother in the phaeton. He had never before invited me to drive with him. And I cannot remember." Rupert was found, unconscious, thrown clear of the crushed remains of the carriage that had failed to take the turn at the gate. The earl was dead in the wreckage.

After days hovering between life and death, and months of headaches, Rupert recovered his senses, but not his sight. This did not deter his new guardian, his father's best friend and his sister's husband. Lord Wyvern set about training the young earl in the duties of his new position.

Rupert spoke of his guardian with respect and affection, but Madeline thought his life sounded very regimented and constrained. He was educated according to his station, memorising his lessons, since he could not write them. When not in the schoolroom, he was expected to attend to the business of the earldom, at first listening as Lord Wyvern explored the options and made decisions, and slowly taking over one small part of the work of one estate, then more and more.