Marta stared in shock at the woman. “It cannot be. I saw with my own eyes. I was sure she died.”
Bhric looked to his wife, pale and staring at the flames in the hearth as shocked as Marta, though she remained silent, not uttering a word and that worried him.
Marta shook her head again. “If this is true and you knew this when you took the bairn that night why did you not tell me the lass was my granddaughter?”
“Think on what you say, Marta,” Orianna cautioned. “If I had told you, you would have wanted to have kept her.”
“Of course, I would have, she is my blood, my daughter’s child,” Marta said upset.
“Exactly. You would have wanted to bring her to live with you. Asger was relentless in his search for his son and your daughter. He had sent men to speak with Rune, believing your daughter would return to you.”
“He kept the truth from him?” Marta asked.
“Rune spoke what truth he knew that your daughter was dead, killed in the attack on your tribe,” Orianna said. “I was glad I had decided not to tell my husband what I knew and what I had done so you, and my family would have no secret to hide and nothing to fear. I only confessed all to my husband before we came here, and he was not at all happy with me.” Orianna recalled his anger, but she had no regrets for what she had done.”
“If Asger had found out you lied—” Marta shook her head.
“A lie was nothing to what may have happened if Tavia had been kept with us, Asger would have eventually discovered the truth and demanded her return and for what purpose? To kill his son’s child, make her a slave? Your daughter begged with her dying breath for her daughter’s safety, and I could not deny her that. I knew the only safe place for your granddaughter was with Newlin. No one would ever suspect she was not his daughter. She would be safe with him, and she has been all these years.”
“Is that why you chose Tavia as my wife?” Bhric asked.
“I suppose part of it was, but it was Eydis’ courage that even with her last breath she pleaded for her daughter to be safe. She was a courageous woman, and I knew her daughter would be as well and that she would make my son the perfect wife. I also knew that he would be the perfect husband for her, always keeping her safe and that meant Eydis and Brant had not died in vain.”
Tears ran down Marta’s cheeks as she looked upon Tavia. “One of the servants saw how upset Lord Bennett was speaking with Orianna the night of your birth. Servants began to talk and when the whispers reached me I believed what I heard. That Lady Margaret had cheated on her husband and Lord Bennett was your true da.”
Tavia simply stared at the woman as she explained, not knowing how to respond and feeling too numb to the unbelievable news to feel anything at all.
“When I learned you were to be Lord Bhric’s wife, I requested to come here with him to make sure you did not do to him what I thought Lady Margaret had done to her husband. I believed you were just like your mother.” She shook her head. “And you are, brave and strong like my Eydis.” She shook her head again. “How did I not see my daughter in you? How could I have treated my own blood so poorly? Can you ever forgive me?”
Tavia stared at the woman only partially hearing her. It was all too much to take in, to believe, to accept. She wanted to forgive the woman—her grandmother—but she had known only hatred from her. How did she suddenly trust her? She did not know what to say and when she saw that Marta was still speaking but she could not hear her and that the room was dimming around her, she turned her head quickly to her husband and went to say his name… and was engulfed in darkness.
Bhric caught his wife before she slumped over in the chair, his heart beating wildly in his chest from fear. “Tavia! Tavia!”
“Get her to her bedchamber,” Marta ordered. “I will send for Hertha.”
Bhric did as Marta said, rushing through the Great Hall with his wife in his arms and hearing people shout to him. His mother stopped to explain to them. But what excuse she gave he did not know or care. His only thought was for his wife and his bairn.
Fen licked Tavia’s face in between whines after Bhric laid her on the bed.
He let the hound be since it had helped wake her after the tree incident while he quickly dunked a cloth in the bucket of water and rinsed it. When he returned to sit beside his wife on the bed, he was relieved to see her eyes fluttering open.
“I am here, Tavia,” he said softly, wiping her face with the wet cloth.
“Bhric,” she whispered.
“Aye. I am here,” he repeated and took her hand in his as he continued to wipe her face.
Hertha rushed in the room with Marta and Orianna.
“She’s awake,” Marta said with relief, her lower lip trembling, fighting back tears.
Hertha looked at Marta, finding it odd that the woman suddenly cared what happened to Tavia.
Tavia kept hold of Bhric’s hand as she assured everyone, “I fainted that’s all.”
“Have you eaten?” Hertha asked. “Or received upsetting news?”
“She has eaten little,” Bhric said answering for his wife, then gave Hertha a slight nod in response to her second question.