Medieval 01 - Untamed

agreed.
    â€œYet you break your word to me in other ways.”
    Her hands paused. She was glad Dominic’s eyes were closed; even half-dead from the lingering results of the poison, he would have seen the fear in her.
    A wise man shows mercy only once to the same person. Never fight me again, small falcon .
    But she had.
    â€œHarry’s wife—” Meg began, rubbing Dominic’s temples again.
    â€œI remember,” he interrupted. “A long, difficult birthing. How does she fare?”
    â€œI don’t know. Simon has allowed no one but himself in or out of this room. Even now, he sleeps outside your door.”
    â€œDoes the woman need you?” Dominic asked.
    Meg wondered what Dominic was thinking. His voice gave no clue. Nor did his body. He was fully in control of himself again.
    â€œI think not,” she said. “Gwyn returned just before sunset yesterday. If something were wrong with Adela, Gwyn would have come to me.”
    â€œAnd to the devil with Simon’s edicts?” Dominic asked neutrally. “Or mine?”
    Meg wondered how to explain to her husband that she was responsible for the people of the keep in a way that transcended the normal duties of a lord’s wife.
    â€œKnowing people hurt when I could bring ease,” Meg said haltingly, “that they sicken when I could bring health, that they die when I might have helped them live…”
    Meg fought the ache constricting her throat as she searched Dominic’s face for a hint of his thoughts. There was none. His expression was like his voice: ruthlessly disciplined, almost inhuman in its lack of emotion.
    â€œWhatever punishment you mete out to me for breaking my vow,” Meg whispered, “could be no worse than knowing one of my people died when I could have saved her.”
    Dominic’s hands closed over Meg’s, stilling her soothing motions against his temples.
    â€œYou broke your vow to me,” he said.
    â€œYes,” Meg said, closing her eyes.
    â€œYou will do it again if your people need you.”
    â€œYes,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, husband. I can obey you in many things, but not in that.”
    â€œAnd you are prepared to take whatever punishment I find suitable.”
    She took a deep breath and said, “Yes. Just don’t truly lock me away. I couldn’t bear that.”
    â€œNor would the people,” Dominic said. “Is that it?”
    Hesitantly Meg said, “Aye.”
    â€œYou are truly a double-edged sword, wife.”
    â€œI don’t mean to be. I am simply…what I am.”
    â€œGlendruid.”
    â€œYes.”
    After a moment Dominic asked, “How did you get out of the keep?”
    Meg did not answer. Nor did she open her eyes. She didn’t want to confront the cold anger of her husband.
    There was silence for such a long time that Meg finally risked a glance at Dominic. He was watching her with a clear calculation that once would have chilled her. Now, knowing what drove him, she felt only the same compassion that she did for the people of Blackthorne Keep, caught in lives that were rarely of their own making.
    â€œYou are a very brave woman,” Dominic said coolly. “But then, you are well protected. If the least thing displeases you, you simply hold your ‘people’ over my head like the sword of Damocles.”
    â€œThat’s not true!” Meg said passionately. “I hated being shut away from the sun like a falcon newly come to the mews, but I didn’t cry my unhappiness from the windows. I detested being a steppingstone on the way to men’s ambitions, but I said nothing to the people of Blackthorne Keep when the king decreed my marriage. Even when John beat me, I said nothing!”
    â€œBut the people knew just the same.”
    She hesitated, then nodded, for it was the truth.
    â€œJust as I know about their pain,” Meg said simply. “We are…joined.”
    Dominic let the silence stretch while he considered the Glendruid wife who kept surprising him with her combination of vulnerability and intransigence.
    â€œObviously there is a bolthole in this keep,” hesaid finally. “You will show it to me, and only to me.”
    Meg didn’t want to reveal her secret route from the keep, yet it was Dominic’s right as the lord to know where the bolthole was.
    â€œYes,” she said softly.
    The corner of Dominic’s mouth