Wendot and Griffeth both saw their new sister before her return, and charged her with all sorts of friendly messages for Llewelyn.  If Wendot thought it hard that the brother who had always been England’s bitterest foe should be pardoned and rewarded, whilst he himself should be left to pine in captivity, at least he made no sign, and never let a word of bitterness pass his lips.  Indeed he was too ill greatly to trouble himself over his own condition or the future that lay before him.  Fever and ague had supervened upon the wounds he had received, and whilst Griffeth was rapidly recovering such measure of health and strength as he ever could boast, Wendot lay helpless and feeble, scarce able to lift his head from the pillow, and only just equal to the task of speaking to Arthyn and comprehending the good news with which she came charged.

The brothers had now been removed to better apartments, near to those occupied by the prince, whose servants they nominally were.  Griffeth had begun to enter upon some of his duties towards his royal patron, and the friendship begun in boyhood was rapidly ripening to an intimacy which surprised them both.  Such perfect mutual understanding and sympathy was rare and precious; and Griffeth did not even look back with longing to the old life, so entirely had his heart gone out to the youthful prince, whose days on earth, like his own, were plainly numbered.

Lady Gertrude Cherleton was still an inmate of the royal household.  She was now a ward of Edward’s, her father having died a year or two previously.  She was not considered a minor any longer, having attained the age of eighteen some time before, and the management of her estates was left partially to her.  But she remained by choice the companion of Eleanor and Joanna, and would probably continue to do so until she married.  It was a source of wonder to the court why she did not make choice of a husband amongst the many suitors for her hand; but she had hitherto turned a deaf ear to the pleadings of all.  Sir Godfrey Challoner had long been sighing at her feet, but she would have none of him, and appeared to be proof against all the shafts of the blind god of love.

But her intense excitement when she heard of the arrival at Carnarvon of the two brothers from Dynevor told its own tale to the Princess Joanna, who had ever been the girl’s confidante in this matter, and who had known from childhood how Gertrude had always believed herself pledged.  It was a charming secret for them to cherish between them; and now that Wendot was once more beneath the castle roof, the impulsive Joanna would launch out into extravagant pictures of future happiness and prosperity.  Her ardent temperament, having no personal romance to feed upon —­ for though her hand had once been plighted, her future lord had been drowned the previous year in a boating accident, and she was again free —­ delighted to throw itself into the concerns of her friend, and the sense of power which had been so early implanted within her made her confident of being able to overcome obstacles and attain the object of her wishes, be the difficulties and dangers in their path never so great.