“Truly, I do wish to know more about you. Do you have brothers? Sisters? What of your parents?” She spoke in an insistent, frenetic rush. “I know you come from somewhere in the North, but where precisely is your home?”
Exasperated, he cut her off. “I have no home in the North.”
Perhaps if she had asked him to speak of something else, his patience would not have snapped. But he had his own secrets, and he saw no reason to share them with his wife. He pulled her roughly to her feet.
“I have waited longer than any other bridegroom would,” he said, so frustrated he wanted to shake her. “You made vows to me before God. As your husband, I could order you to my bed. I could drag you there kicking and screaming. It is my right.”
“I know it,” she whispered, her eyes cast down.
His anger seeped from him. God in heaven, she was still frightened of him.
“I don’t want to force you,” he said, and heard the pleading in his voice. “I am asking that you come to me, Catherine. And that you do it soon.”
He wanted her warm and willing in his arms. He wanted her clinging to him as he carried her to his bed. He wanted to see her weak and spent from their lovemaking. He wanted her to reach for him in the morning and do it all again.
He wanted, he wanted, he wanted.
She held herself rigid, waiting for him to release her. Unhappily, he let her go. He went to his bedchamber alone, hoping it would be the last night. Without bothering to remove his robe, he fell facedown across his bed.
He must have dozed, for he woke with a start to the sound of her screams. Heart pounding, he grabbed his sword from where it hung on the bedpost and ran to her bedchamber. In the darkness, he nearly collided with her maid.
“Lady Catherine is having one of her nightmares, m’lord,” the maid said breathlessly. “I will fetch Alys. She knows what to do.”
“Go quickly,” he urged her, and went to Catherine.
She was thrashing on the bed and moaning, “No, please, no!” When he tried to quiet her by taking her in his arms, her movements became more violent. He stood back, feeling helpless.
Alys came rushing in, her voluminous night robe billowing behind her. By now, Catherine had awakened. She sat up in the bed, her hands over her face, shaking violently. And still, she could not bear to have him touch her.
The housekeeper put a steadying arm around his wife and held a small vial to her lips. She drank it down and rested her head on Alys’s shoulder.
“That devil Rayburn is gone, thanks be to God,” Alys murmured as she held Catherine and smoothed back her hair. “He cannot harm you now.”
After a time, Alys eased Catherine onto the pillows and gingerly backed down the steps from the high bed.
“The draught will bring her a peaceful sleep, m’lord,” Alys whispered as they left Catherine’s bedchamber. “You’ve no cause to worry now.”
Alys would have continued out the solar, but he put his hand on her arm to stop her.
“But I do have cause to worry.” He nodded to a chair, and Alys sat down obediently. “Tell me what Rayburn did to her. All of it. Now.”
Alys looked away and said, “Lord Rayburn beat her viciously. We could hear her screams.” There was a note of pleading in Alys’s voice. “There was nothing I could do, save tend to her after.”
She grabbed a handful of her robes and wiped her nose and eyes. “May that man burn in hell for all eternity!”
“You would have protected her if you could,” William said. “He was a powerful lord and her husband.”
“I told Lady Catherine it would be a simple matter for me to slip poison in his soup, but she forbade it.” Alys shook her head in obvious regret. “She would not have me blacken my soul by committing a mortal sin.”
She stopped to blow her nose again. “The beatings stopped once she was with child.”
“That was the end of it?” He hoped she would tell him it was, but he did not think so.
“That’s what we thought. But then Jamie caught a fever and nearly died, poor lamb.”
William was confused. “Are you saying Jamie’s illness led Rayburn to mistreat her again?”
“I know it did,” Alys said, nodding her head vigorously. “I heard him shouting at her about one son not being enough, that there was nothing for it, but he must get her with child again. She cried and pleaded with him, promising nothing would happen to the boy.”
