His voice was soft. “It was after Oliver Howard took…her.”
“Jeanne.”
“Yes, that one,” Rogan answered. “The woman came to me and told me she wanted Howard, that she carried his brat. She asked me to stop the feud. I should have killed the bitch with my own hands.”
“But you couldn’t.”
“I didn’t, anyway. I returned here to get supplies—we’d been fighting the Howards for a year—and early one morning I shot an arrow to test a bow and the wind caught the arrow and carried it into a window over the solar. At least, that’s what I thought at the time. I also thought I heard a woman scream. I went to the solar, then to the rooms above. No one had lived in them for years because of the stories of the ghost. My father used to curse her because when he had guests, she always appeared and frightened them.”
“Were you frightened when you went to get your arrow?”
“I was too angry then at the Howards to care about a ghost. I’d lost my two brothers, and every arrow was needed.”
“Was she there?”
She saw Rogan smile slightly. “I thought a ghost would be…foggy, I guess. She was so real-looking. She had my arrow and she gave me a scolding, said I’d nearly hit her. At the time I never thought about the fact that I had been shooting away from the castle walls.”
“What did you talk about?”
“It was odd, but I talked to her as I’ve never talked to anyone else.”
“Me, too. She knew so much about me. Did you talk about Jeanne?”
“Yes. She told me my wife was not the one.”
She looked at him. “The one for what?”
“I don’t know. It made sense when I was with her, but none whatever when I left. I guess it had something to do with the poem.”
Liana’s eyes widened. “What poem?”
“I haven’t thought of it in years. Actually, it seems to be more of a riddle. Let’s see…
“When the red and white make black
When the black and gold become one
When the one and the red unite
Then shall you know.”
Liana lay quietly in Rogan’s arms and thought about the riddle. “What does it mean?”
“I have no idea. Sometimes I used to lay in bed and think about it, but I never came up with anything.”
“What does Severn think? Or Zared?”
“I never asked either of them.”
She pushed away to look at him. “Never asked? But it could have something to do with the parish registers. The Lady is your grandmother, and if anyone knows where the registers are, she does.”
He frowned. “The woman is a ghost. She’s been dead a long time. Maybe I didn’t see her and I dreamed the riddle.”
“I didn’t dream the story about you and Jeanne Howard. The Lady told me how beautiful Jeanne was and how much you loved her.”
“I hardly knew the Howard bitch, and I don’t remember her as being especially good to look at. Certainly nothing like Iolanthe.”
Liana pulled the sheet over her bare breasts and sat up. “Oh, so now it’s Iolanthe you want. You could get money and beauty.”