‘Edmund! You should not be here,’ she warned. ‘Lord Giles’s men are positioned throughout the village. You cannot let them capture you.’
She ran to the small shuttered window and opened it only enough to permit herself a view down the main path of the village. She could see Brice off in the distance. Turning back to her father’s liege lord, she shook her head and ran to his side. Claiming another embrace, she waited for him to speak.
‘They will not capture me, Fayth. Fear not. I still have many who aid me, both here and in the keep.’
‘Spies?’ she asked, even as her stomach churned at the thought. He nodded in answer. ‘Why are you here?’
‘I am here for you, Fayth. You did not think I would abandon you to these Norman pigs after you risked your life for me?’ He drew her to him and kissed her on the forehead. ‘Your words and actions saved many lives that day and I only pray you have not been mistreated because of it. King Edgar was impressed when I told him of your courage.’
Fayth began to answer, but Edmund waved her off. ‘I have only a few moments but want to tell you I understand that he has forced you into marriage.’ The bile rose in her stomach now as he spoke of her husband. ‘You do what you must to survive, Fayth. Submit to him until I can free you from this unholy joining. Our good Saxon lords and their men are rising up—’
‘Edmund, you must listen to me,’ she interrupted. ‘This lord is not unkind to me. He has forced nothing on me to which I did not give consent. You should leave this area, leave Wessex, before it is too late.’
He stared at her as though a stranger now. Holding her by the shoulders and searching her face, he shook his head.
‘Tell me you have not fallen for his kind words and lies, Fayth? Swear to me that you will avenge your father’s death at his hands.’
She stumbled then, not accepting his words. ‘It was a battle with thousands of men, Edmund. The chances that he was the one are…’ Cool logic had led her to that conclusion in the dark of the night as she considered Lord Giles’s explanation.
‘There were witnesses, Fayth,’ he said solemnly. ‘Some of your father’s men survived and now fight at my side.’
She heard the words, but she’d convinced herself that Giles had played no part in killing her father. Now, she feared that she had been lulled for his own purposes and hers.
‘This lord who treats you well is no different from the one who took the rest of Leofwyne’s lands. That one has branded the people, like the lowest of cattle, and cuts off a foot or hand if they are caught trying to escape.’
She gasped at the horror, shaking her head in denial.
‘These Normans follow their master well, Fayth. They yet practise the atrocities they brought with them, learned from the ruthlessness of William the Bastard.’ He shook her shoulders and forced her to meet his gaze. ‘How long until this lord begins to show his true nature? When there is not enough grain to get through the winter do you think it will be his Norman and Breton knights who starve or your people? Our people?’
A whistling caught his attention and he released her. ‘His man comes now. You must go to him, but hold strong, Fayth. I am putting my plans in place and will send for you when I can. Watch for a message.’
Shaking and confused by his claims, she accepted his quick kiss and watched as he hid in one of the alcoves of the cottage. Just as she was about to open the door, he whispered yet again.
‘I will bring you proof of your father’s death at his hands so that you can rest easy when we dispatch the bastard who thinks himself high enough to claim Taerford, and you.’
Fayth lifted the latch on the door and opened it, leaving the cottage and walking onto the path so that Brice would see her and stop his approach. Edmund would probably wait until dark to make his way out of the hut and back to wherever he hid. When Brice went straight for the door, and stood searching around the hut with his sharp gaze, Fayth knew he was suspicious.
‘Is aught wrong, my lady?’ he looked back at her and asked.
Sickened by Edmund’s words, she took a deep breath, but found it worsened the roiling of her stomach. Worse, her legs trembled and her head began to spin with dizziness.
‘I am not well…’
He caught her just as her legs buckled and held her as her stomach rebelled against all she’d heard. She remembered little else until she woke in her bed in the keep with Emma at her side.
Giles entered the keep and found it as silent as a church. His men sat at table, Brice in his chair, but no one spoke or argued as usually happened. Tired, hungry and angry, he wanted a good meal, a cup of wine and his bed.
He wanted his wife, too, but that did not seem to change and she was not present in the hall. He’d been hard for days now and every memory of her skin, her touch on him, her taste, made it worse. Now, he needed to speak to Brice and his commanders before he could seek her out. The grave expressions on the faces of his men spoke of other matters. Brice stood at his approach and drew him off to the side for a private word.
‘The lady fell ill,’ Brice began. ‘It started while we were in the village today and she is abed now.’
Giles started in the direction of the stairs even before he decided to go to her. ‘Is it the fever?’
He moved quickly, taking the steps two at a time to reach their chambers faster, not waiting for an answer. The old woman Emma sat before their door and she stood as he came closer. Truly he caught but a few words of her explanation—bleeding, courses, stomach, posset, sleeping—but he did gather that she did not seem in danger.
With a word to Emma to stay, he opened the door and walked to the bed. He had to search in the low light of the few lit candles to find her, so swallowed up amongst the coverings and the pillows was she. Not knowing why the thought of her ill bothered him so, he reached out and touched her cheek. He offered up a brief prayer of thanks that it felt cool to his touch.
Before he could wake her, he stepped away from the bed and left the chamber. With Emma remaining to oversee the lady’s care, and Brice trailing his steps, he went back to the hall where he found the meal and wine he’d wanted. But as he shared the news of the surrounding area with his men he found his appetite had deserted him.
