Medieval 01 - Untamed

Keep!”
    â€œThat is the point,” Dominic said. “I am to be stripped of my ability to support my knights. Without them, the keep will soon fall. Not that I will know it.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI have been instructed to deliver the ransom with no more than one knight to attend me. It is reasonable to conclude that I will be slain despite the good priest’s protestations to the contrary.”
    â€œYou can’t do this. ’Tis madness!”
    â€œAye,” Dominic said savagely. “’Tis madness indeed.”

27
    W HEN M EG FINALLY WAS PERMITTED to dismount, she was sore and stiff from the brutal ride. Surreptitiously she glanced around at the Reevers’ illegal keep. Nothing she saw reassured her.
    There were more than twenty men lounging around the rude forest bailey. Only one man wore the expensive trappings of a knight, and it was obvious that the battle gear had seen better days. The remainder of the men were little more than bandits, poachers, and felons.
    Guards sat idly along the edge of the ragged palisade that ringed the bailey. None but the knight had ever been numbered among Duncan’s companions. Rough of manner, raggedly clothed, only the Reevers’ weapons seemed to have received any care. Swords and knives gleamed in the light from a bonfire that served the needs of both warmth and cooking.
    The men watched Meg with blunt lust or animal indifference as she limped over to a big oak and collapsed at its base. Neither the coarse men nor her own bruised body bothered her nearly as much as the waking dream that had come to her duringthe grueling ride…a newborn babe laughing up at her with eyes of Glendruid green.
    Have you bled yet, small falcon?
    No .
    Nor would Meg for nine months more, if she had dreamed truly.
    Dominic, will you ever know your child? And if you do, will you believe it is yours?
    A hand shook Meg roughly.
    â€œGet up, witch, and serve your betters their supper,” Eadith said.
    â€œEadith! What are you doing here? Did they steal you, too?”
    The other woman smiled bitterly. “I haven’t a silver coin to my name. Why would any man steal me? Nay, I came to the Reevers willingly.”
    â€œWater does find its own level, doesn’t it?”
    â€œMind your tongue, witch,” Eadith said, slapping Meg smartly. “I have waited long for this. Move your donkey’s arse and serve us supper or I’ll give you to Edmond the Cruel for instruction in your new profession.”
    When she would have struck Meg again, a knight who was somewhat less ragged than the others stepped forward and jostled Eadith aside.
    â€œRufus wouldn’t like that,” the knight said calmly to Eadith. “He plans on using the witch first. Any marks on her, he wants to be the one to put them there. He was quite clear about that this morning. Remember?”
    Eadith’s mouth flattened into a sour line, but she made no move to strike Meg again. Eadith knew very well that Rufus had plans for the Glendruid witch. It had been Eadith who had put many of the plans into the Reever’s thick head.
    â€œIs this how you repay Blackthorne’s kindness?” Meg asked, rising and adjusting her mantle aroundher shoulders against the damp mist and covetous eyes of the Reevers. “Treachery?”
    â€œWhat kindness?” Eadith asked scornfully. “I was the daughter of a keep as great as Blackthorne and I was turned into a common servant.”
    â€œYour keep fell to the Normans.”
    Anger tightened Eadith’s already drawn features. Her pale eyes flashed like an animal’s with reflected firelight.
    â€œIt was not a fair battle,” she said curtly. “They came upon the keep through treachery.”
    â€œFair or foul, the result was the same,” Meg said. “Your family and husband were slain and you were thrown on the mercy of neighbors who fared no better than you. You were a homeless, childless widow when Lord John rescued you, gave you a respectable position, and promised to find you a husband.”
    Eadith smiled thinly. “But first, John tried to make me pregnant.”
    Meg’s breath came in sharply.
    â€œDidn’t you know?” Eadith said coldly. “The lord of the keep tried to rut on every female before he gave permission for her marriage.”
    Though Meg began to speak, Eadith gave no opening.
    â€œJohn promised every girl the