Medieval 01 - Untamed

orphaned, widowed, childless, and defiled!”
    The tilt of Meg’s head made golden bells chime. It was the only sound she made for several breaths.
    â€œDominic le Sabre will not come for me,” Meg said.
    â€œHe will come. He must. Else you die.”
    â€œThen I die. Send for a priest to shrive me.”
    The certainty in Meg’s voice finally penetrated Eadith’s triumph. She stared in shock.
    â€œWhat are you saying?” Rufus demanded, stepping so close that Meg had to tilt back her head to see his face. “Of course Dominic will come to your rescue. Without you, he will lose Blackthorne Keep.”
    â€œTo whom?” Meg asked flatly. “Duncan will not take it. You cannot.”
    â€œWe can,” retorted Rufus. “We will.”
    â€œâ€™Tis a pity I will already be dead,” Meg said, stepping back to look around the camp. “I would enjoy seeing this scabrous band attack Blackthorne Keep. Once the Sword stopped laughing, he would gut you and leave you for the crows.”
    â€œThere will be no one but Thomas the Strong left to marshal the keep’s defenses,” Eadith cut in. “He is able enough, but stupid.”
    â€œSimon will fight as fiercely and cleverly as Dominic.”
    â€œSimon won’t be there,” Rufus said. “We told Dominic that he could have one knight accompany him with the ransom.”
    Meg nodded. “I see. That knight will be Simon the Loyal, of course.”
    â€œYes,” Rufus said, smiling with satisfaction.
    â€œâ€™Tis your plan to murder them both.”
    â€œThere was no other choice after the Norman bastard survived and began doting on you—and you on him,” Rufus said. “It was clear there would soon be an heir. If an heir was born, Blackthorne Keep would be lost to us.”
    â€œSo you tried to murder my husband during the hunt,” Meg said. “But we escaped.”
    â€œYou escaped Rufus,” Eadith said. “But you didn’t escape my snare.”
    â€œAh…It was you who made Marie ill so that I would stay behind.”
    â€œIt was a pleasure to watch the whore vomit. It was an even greater pleasure to watch the Norman bastard’s face when he finally returned and I told him you had run off to join Duncan of Maxwell.”
    â€œThat was stupid of you,” Meg said neutrally.
    Eadith smiled.
    â€œYou are too greedy for revenge,” Meg continued.
    â€œHow so?”
    â€œYou want Dominic to ransom me, yet you couldn’t resist twisting the knife by telling him I ran off to another man.”
    Eadith shrugged. “No matter. It will just make the bastard’s desire to pursue and punish you all the greater.”
    â€œThen you were the one who kept spreading gossip that Duncan and I were lovers.”
    Though there was no question in Meg’s voice, Eadith answered, relishing every word.
    â€œAye. Seeing the bastard’s jealousy was very sweet. You cast your spell most thoroughly, witch. And now you will pay.”
    Meg’s soft laughter was more shocking than curses could have been. Uneasily the Reevers shifted and looked at the descending darkness as though expecting ghosts to rise from the damp ground.
    â€œAh, handmaiden,” Meg said. “You have outsmarted yourself. ’Tis no great task, granted, but ’tis very amusing to watch.”
    The cool scorn in Meg’s voice was like a whip laid across Eadith’s body.
    â€œWhat are you ranting about?” she demanded.
    â€œEnthralled? The Sword?” Meg laughed once, a sound that made the Reevers flinch. “Eadith, you are a fool to the soles of your feet.”
    Meg turned to the Reevers. When she spoke, her voice carried clearly despite its eerie calm.
    â€œHear me, Reevers. Dominic le Sabre wants Blackthorne Keep, not me. If he gave me jeweled jesses and seemed to hang on my every smile, it was in hope of seducing a child from my body, not because I enthralled him.”
    Eadith began to speak, only to be silenced by an abrupt gesture from Rufus.
    â€œWhy should my husband give a king’s ransom for a faithless Glendruid witch who, even if she is fertile, will not give him a male heir?” Meg asked reasonably. “Dominic kept me only because the vassals would have risen up if he set me aside.”
    â€œAll the more reason for him to ransom you,” Eadith retorted.
    Once again Meg laughed, and once again Reeverslooked