Medieval 01 - Untamed

she had once reported to John.
    â€œMy guests?” Dominic asked silkily. “I wasn’t the one who invited Reevers to my wedding.”
    â€œThe purser will have accounts for you to check on the morrow,” Meg continued, “unless you wish me to do it for you as I did for my fath—that is, for John.”
    Dominic grunted. “I see you’ve managed quite nicely to quell your grief at his death.”
    â€œThere is little to grieve after. He has been in much pain since harvest. Now he is in pain no more.”
    â€œBlackthorne’s people seem to feel as you do about their lord’s departure. Only Duncan was truly saddened.”
    â€œAye. Fath—John always was different with Duncan. More kind.” Meg shrugged tightly. “Now I know why.”
    Dominic said nothing. For a few moments he simply watched his bride with the unflinching stare of an eagle.
    Though Meg said nothing more, it was impossible for her to remain wholly still under her husband’s cool regard. Without realizing it, she reached for one of the smooth river pebbles she kept in a dish by her table. The shape and texture and gentle weight of the stone soothed her.
    Silently Meg waited for Dominic to speak. As she waited, she let the pebble glide lightly from her palm to her fingertips and back, leaving in its wake cool memories of the hours she had spent listening to the river Blackthorne run clean and bright from its lake in the fells. Through forest and glen to Blackthorne Keep’s fields the water sang, and from there it ran on to the mysterious sea.
    â€œWhat is the sea like, my lord?” Meg asked wistfully.
    The unexpected question—and the poignancy of Meg’s smile—surprised Dominic.
    â€œRestless,” he said simply. Then, remembering, “Wild. Beautiful. Dangerous.”
    Breath came out of Meg in a long sigh. For the first time since Dominic had come into the room, she met his glance.
    And for the first time, Dominic realized that Meg was afraid of him despite her brave appearance. He wondered why. There was nothing he could do toher that wouldn’t rebound doubly on himself, his dreams, his hopes. Like a wolf in a snare, no matter which way he turned, the snare only tightened more.
    â€œDo you fear the Glendruid curse won’t protect you?” Dominic asked.
    The edge in his voice couldn’t be entirely concealed.
    â€œProtect me?”
    â€œFrom rape,” Dominic said bluntly. “From me.”
    Meg’s hand clenched around the pebble. It was no longer cool and soothing. Slowly she forced her fingers to relax.
    â€œI know my duty as a wife,” she said in a low voice. “You’ll not have to beat me until I can’t run away.”
    â€œIs that what you expected?”
    Again, Meg shrugged tightly. “Yes.”
    â€œIs that what John did to your mother?”
    â€œOnce.”
    â€œBut no more.”
    â€œAye. Just once.”
    â€œWhat happened?” Dominic asked smoothly. “Did lightning cleave the keep in twain?”
    â€œShe went into the woods. Shortly afterward, a storm came. Hail destroyed the crops in the field and the forage in the pasture. Because the sheep were hungry, they ate a deadly weed, sickened, and died.”
    Dominic grunted. “All because your mother had been soundly beaten for cuckholding her lord?”
    Meg’s face drew into tight, unreadable lines. “The priest found no stench of the Devil on the land. Never once, no matter how many times my father paid for exorcism!”
    â€œThe storm was mere coincidence, then.”
    â€œSome believe so.”
    â€œBut the simple people of the keep…they believe their fate is bound up in that of their lady, the Glendruid witch.”
    â€œAye,” Meg said.
    â€œDo you?” Dominic pressed, curious about the girl who was now his wife.
    She shrugged and threw back the silver hood of her mantle, feeling stifled by the past, by the present, by the future; and most of all by the man looming over her like a storm on the savage edge of breaking.
    â€œIt matters not what I believe,” she said tonelessly.
    Dominic looked at the fiery cascade of Meg’s hair against the silver fabric of her tunic. Without meaning to, he reached out to touch a silky lock.
    Meg flinched away before she could control herself.
    â€œDid he beat you, too?” Dominic asked.
    She said nothing. She didn’t have to. The