He laughed softly. A cruel sound. A knowing one. The battle had been engaged, and she was wise enough to know it. How long would it take him? he wondered to himself. How long until he could bed her? Her honey-colored hair looked soft. Was it? Her breasts beneath her simple brown jersey gown were nicely rounded. His fingers itched to fondle those sweet globes. To suckle upon their nipples. To his surprise he felt his manhood tightening in his breeks. It had been a long time since he had thought such thoughts, had his member behave in such a way.
Alix ate her cheese, but suddenly it was tasteless in her mouth. Jesu and his holy Mother Mary help her! What was she to do? Reaching for her goblet, she took a long drink of her wine. She recognized lust on a man’s face, in his eyes, when she saw it. Unable to help herself, she arose quickly from the high board. “If you will excuse me, my lord. Fiona. I find I am suddenly unwell.” Then she fled the hall.
“Poor Alix,” his daughter said sympathetically. “She works very hard, Da. We must be kinder to her, I think.”
“Indeed, my daughter, I have been thinking exactly that,” the laird agreed with his child. “I will send Fenella to make certain she is all right.” He called for his housekeeper and instructed her to go to Alix and see if she needed anything.
Fenella departed the hall. She knew she would find Alix in her bedchamber, but when she reached it the door was barred to her. “Alix, are you all right?” she called through the door, rattling the handle as she did.
“I am not feeling well,” Alix said.
“Let me in,” Fenella said in a firm voice.
The door opened to reveal a pale-faced Alix.
Fenella entered the chamber, closing the door behind her. “What is the matter, Alix?” she asked. “The laird was worried when you left the hall.”
“I should not have left it were I not afraid of him,” Alix replied.
“Afraid?Why would you be afraid of the lord? You have certainly never before been afraid of him. What has he done that you fear him?”
“His attitude has changed towards me,” Alix said, and she sat heavily upon her bed. “He looks at me when he believes I do not notice, but I do. I have seen men look at women like that before. I do not want him to look at me likethat!”
Fenella sat down next to the young woman. “He cannot help himself,” she said. “Dunglais has been without a woman in residence ever since his wife ran away.”
“Are there not women in the village for him?” Alix replied.
“Aye, there is a widow, but he visits her only when he must,” Fenella said.
“I do not want another husband,” Alix said. “I am content as I am.”
“And the laird does not want another wife, or so he says,” Fenella surprised Alix by saying.
Alix grew even paler. “Then what does he want?” But she already knew the answer to her own question. “Oh! It is unkind that he would insult me in this way!”
“You are offended that he would take you for his lover?” Fenella inquired. “But if you do not want a husband, and you do not want a lover, what do you want?”
“I want everything to be as it was. I want to take care of little Fiona and see to her education. Nothing more. I want no man, Fenella!” Alix cried, and she began to weep bitterly. “If the laird cannot understand that then I must leave Dunglais as soon as the snows are gone and I can travel in safety.”
“Did you love your husband so much, then?” Fenella said. “I did not think it so.”
“I despised Hayle! He didn’t want me for his wife. He wanted his mistress. A miller’s daughter, but his father would not have it. I knew that when I agreed to wed him, and I did so only that my poor father could have a safe place to lay his head in his last days. Still, I was willing to take this man for my husband, keep his hall, bear his children. I did not ask for him to love me. I asked him to respect me, to respect my position as his lawful wife. But he hated me, and took every opportunity to show it. Hayle killed himself, you know. Oh, his father and I told the priest it was an accident, but even the priest knew it wasn’t, although he said naught. My husband killed himself when his mistress and their son died in childbed. He was not able to accept my sympathy, to at least try to begin anew with his wife. He wanted to be with her, and because he loved her that much I could not fault him. But his death, and that of my own father, freed me. I will never again allow any man to have dominion over me.” Her tears had stopped now with the recitation of her tale. “Tell your master that he must treat me with respect, Fenella, or I will go. You are his friend. He will listen to you.”
Fenella drew a deep breath and then she spoke. “Was your husband cruel to you in your bed?” she asked candidly, and she looked directly at Alix. “Is that why you fear a lover? The laird is a kind man, Alix. He would never be cruel.”
Alix’s face had gone white at Fenella’s words. “Will you pander for him?” she gasped in shocked tones.
Fenella arose from her place by Alix’s side. “I will tell the laird of your distress,” she said stiffly, and then she left the bedchamber.
Alix followed after her, barring the door once again.
Returning to the hall, the housekeeper took the laird aside. Fiona was playing contentedly with the dogs by the hearth. “Her marriage was an unhappy one,” she said.
“I had assumed that,” Malcolm Scott answered.
“Not just the situation in which she found herself,” Fenella responded. “The husband was cruel to her in their bed. When I asked her about it, she grew as white as the snows outside the hall windows and accused me of pandering for you. I should have been offended but that her pain was so strong it was visible, my lord.”
“Ahh,” the laird said, “then she must be wooed gently.” He smiled.
