Medieval 01 - Untamed

For the weak, peace is naught but a cruel dream, and he would have no more of cruel dreams.”
    Land, a noble wife, sons…and peace. Above all, peace .
    The litany of Dominic’s desire rang through Meg’s mind as she looked at the lines pain had drawn on her husband’s face. In silence she raged against the malice of circumstance and men, the irony of Dominic’s marriage to a Glendruid wife like a knife turning in her heart.
    You have earned peace, land, a noble wife…. Of all women on earth why did God send you to me?
    â€œWill he have sons of you?” Simon asked.
    Meg’s only answer was the soundless flow of her tears. She held Dominic’s palm pressed to her cheek when he began talking again, returning to the sultan’s carefully wrought hell.
    For a long time she listened to Dominic’s delirious nightmare and his equally delirious dream of peace. The pained cries that would never have escaped his lips if he were awake tore at her heart.
    Watching Dominic and hearing the echoes of his old agony taught Meg that the Norman warrior who had condensed out of the mist beyond Blackthorne Keep wasn’t the cold, invincible force she had believed. He was a man who had been brutally used by life. She wept for him and for the fate that had mated him to a woman who couldn’t give him the dream he had earned at such great cost.
    Finally Dominic fell silent. Slowly his breathing deepened and his body relaxed.
    â€œIs he all right?” Simon asked.
    â€œYes. He is sleeping now, a true sleep.”
    Simon watched the lines of strain fade from Meg’s face as surely as they had from Dominic’s when he slept. With a soft prayer of thanks, Simon stroked back the thick black hair from Dominic’s forehead. The gesture said much about the affection between the two brothers, a bond that went deeper than the accident of a shared father.
    â€œIt is so strange,” Meg whispered.
    â€œWhat is?”
    â€œDuncan touched John that way,” she said without thinking.
    The gentleness Simon had displayed vanished.
    â€œDuncan,” Simon said in a low, savage voice. “I’ll have his heart for this.”
    Meg drew in a swift breath. “For what?”
    â€œPoisoning my brother.”
    â€œDuncan was nowhere near here!”
    â€œHis minions were.”
    â€œThe Reevers are gone.”
    â€œGod rot them,” Simon said coldly. “I’m talking about Duncan’s spies within the keep. One of them poisoned Dominic. When I find out who, I will hang him.”
    Meg looked stricken. “No one in the keep would poison…”
    Her voice died as she realized that someone had . She closed her eyes. Unwittingly she ran her hands up and down her arms as though warding off a cold wind. The thought of someone within her home so hating Dominic as to kill him in this cowardly way literally chilled her.
    â€œBefore I watched your struggle to save Dominic’s life,” Simon said, “I was certain you were the poisoner.”
    Meg’s eyes opened as green and hard as the emerald Dominic had given her.
    â€œI am a healer,” she said.
    â€œAye.” Simon smiled almost gently. “Were it not for you, Dominic would be dead. So it is reasonable to assume you didn’t poison him in the first place.”
    â€œPerhaps no one meant to poison him. Perhaps whoever drugged the ale tipped too much in one of the mugs and Dominic was unlucky enough to get that mug.”
    Simon tilted his head aside as though considering the matter.
    â€œPerhaps,” he said after a time, but there was no enthusiasm in his voice. “It’s not very likely.”
    â€œWhat do you think happened?” Meg asked.
    â€œI think someone poisoned the barrel of ale, andthen added more to Dominic’s mug to be certain.”
    â€œWho? When?”
    â€œThe barrel could have been poisoned at any time.”
    â€œNo. Only since the day before the wedding.”
    â€œWhy do you say that?”
    â€œThat was when I discovered the potion was missing,” Meg said.
    â€œDid you tell Dominic?” Simon demanded.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œGod’s blood, why not?”
    â€œI wasn’t certain what kind of man he was,” Meg said bluntly. “In any case, it could have been one of your people who stole the medicine.”
    Simon made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Nay. The knights are loyal. Dominic sold