And the servants, now awake with their delight, cheered lustily at the laird's announcement.
Chapter Thirteen
It had taken Sir Udolf Watteson three days to be freed from his bonds. Finally one of his serving men, the only one who seemed left in his house, came into the hall and released his master. He was dying of thirst, and had pissed himself a dozen times over during his captivity. "Where the hell were you?" he demanded of his servant as the man untied the priest who was in an equally unfortunate condition.
"My lord, we were all bound and then imprisoned in the pantry," the man said. "When one of us finally managed to get free, the others were released."
"And where are the others?" Sir Udolf wanted to know.
"Gone, my lord," the serving man replied in a low voice.
"But you remained because of your loyalty to me," Sir Udolf said.
"Aye, my lord!" the servant responded.
The master of Wulfborn Hall knocked the man before him to the floor. "Liar!" he shouted. "You returned to see if I was dead, and had I been you would have stolen what you could from my house!" He kicked the cringing servant, who was trying to inch away from the angry man.
The serving man scrambled to his feet. "Nay, my lord! Nay! I am loyal. Were I not I should not have freed you and the priest from your bonds."
"He is being truthful, my lord," Father Peter said in a raspy voice.
"Go and tell the others they had best return to the hall or I shall set the sheriff upon them. When they are caught they will be branded as runaways so they cannot run ever again," Sir Udolf snarled. "Jesu! I stink of my own piss!" And his nose wrinkled in disgust. "I need to bathe. See the tub is set up in the kitchens and filled with hot water," he directed the servant. "When that is done, you will go and fetch the others back."
The serving man scuttled off to do his lord's bidding.
"My lord," the priest began, "I hope you realize how fortunate we are to be alive. The lady saved your life, although her husband would have been justified in taking it to serve honor. The other lords with him advised him not to heed her advice, but he did. We must thank God we were spared."
Sir Udolf Watteson glared at Father Peter. Had he not been a priest, the lord of Wulfborn would have struck him to the floor in his fury. "If God indeed spared us, Priest, it was so I might have my revenge upon that bold Scot and that whore he calls his wife. I will kill him! And then I will make that little bitch take her place by my side as she should. I will fuck her until she gives me a son. And then I will keep fucking her so she bears me more sons until she is worn with birthing and her tits are no longer firm and round, but slack from all the sucking my sons will do upon her. She is mine! I have a dispensation to wed her that says so. She will not continue to defy me or the church!"
The priest drew in a long breath. "My lord," he said softly, "let this anger and lust that is so consuming you go. The lady is another's wife."
"Priest, do not try my patience," Sir Udolf said grimly. "I will go to the king about this matter. I will have my justice!"
"My lord, what influence have you with this new king? Be reasonable," Father Peter advised. "You sheltered a fleeing king while another was crowned in his place. If that were to get out, you could lose all you have. And you seek to marry the goddaughter of that disposed king's queen. Think, my lord, think! Why would King Edward give you aid and comfort? He won't, and you may endanger yourself in the process. Alix Givet does not want you as a husband. She made that patently clear when she ran away. She has wed another man. Is having his child. Why do you persist in embarrassing yourself over this woman? I can find you a good wife, my lord. A woman of childbearing years. A widow who has already proved fecund. A virgin if you prefer. Do not shame yourself over what has happened."
"I will have my justice, and I will have my revenge," Sir Udolf answered the priest. "She is responsible for my son's death. If she had been a better wife to him he would have left the miller's daughter and cared not if she died in childbed. His heart would have not been broken when Maida died. He would not have died. I offered Alix Givet a home, a place of honor within my house, and my family. I sheltered her father in his last days and buried him honorably. And then she repays my kindness when I wish to make her my wife by whoring with another man, carrying his bastard!" The lord of Wulfborn Hall had begun to foam slightly at the mouth with his fury. "I will have my justice and my revenge, Priest!" he repeated. "I will!"
The priest sighed unhappily. The madness that had afflicted his master over the matter of Alix Givet was not abating. Only the return of the servant announcing that Sir Udolf's bath was ready caused him to cease his pleas. And he too needed to bathe himself, for he stank from their three-day captivity. "I will leave you, my lord, to refresh yourself," Father Peter said. And he bowed himself from Sir Udolf's presence to return to his own little cottage near his church. The fire was almost out, but the wood box was full. He soon had the flames in his hearth dancing merrily.
Heating some water, he stripped off his garments and scrubbed his scrawny frame free of odor. He did not allow himself the luxury of bathing too often, for it was a vanity he could ill afford, but the circumstances today warranted a thorough cleansing of his person. He hurried, however, through his ablutions for the air was icy. Then he redressed himself in a clean chemise and his only other robe. Clean and dry, he knelt down on the stone floor of his cottage and began to pray. Father Peter hoped his pride was not deceiving him, but he believed if he just had some more time he might convince Sir Udolf to let go of his anger and his disappointment so that he might find another to wed.
And it seemed as if God was answering Father Peter's prayers. Sir Udolf grew ill with an ague the following day, taking to his bed for the next several weeks. Some of the servants, although not all of them, had returned. While Sir Udolf lay abed he knew little about the state of his household except there was a woman who came to care for him during the day and a young man who sat by his bedside at night. He was spoon fed soup and a gruel of porridge and heated wine into which an egg and some spices were beaten. By the time he had recovered enough to get out of his bed the hard winter had set into Northumbria, and travel of any kind was next to impossible. But with the coming of winter the remaining servants had returned to Wulfborn Hall, slipping quietly back into the roles they had previously held.
Father Peter pursued his campaign to get Sir Udolf to consider other candidates for his hand. "Sir David Sheffield has a much younger half sister from his father's second marriage. She is no more than twenty, and has not yet had a husband," he said to Sir Udolf. "Her dower is small, 'tis true, but her reputation is excellent, my lord."
"I have seen her" came the answer. "She is a plain creature with mouse-brown hair and a long nose. And how could I be certain she was fertile?"
"Her mother had two sons as well as the daughter, my lord. And then her husband died. Who knows how many more children she would have born her lord had he not?"
"She is still plain," Sir Udolf complained. "She is nothing at all like Alix, who was so fair with her honey-colored curls and laughing hazel eyes."
"Is it said, my lord, that all cats are black in the dark," the priest murmured.
"Priest! You shock me," Sir Udolf said half-angrily.
"I was a man before I was a priest, my lord," Father Peter replied softly. "There is also Sir John Graham's widow. She is yet young."
"She bore him no children," Sir Udolf said.
"She was a third wife, and he an old man," the priest responded. "Her position is a difficult one as her stepson's wife resents her presence." Father Peter was surprised that Sir Udolf knew as much as he did about his neighbors, as he hadn't associated with many of them in years. But then the servants were great gossips and not averse to sharing what they heard. Of course, that went both ways, and he wondered if Sir Udolf's neighbors knew of his insane obsession for Alix Givet. And if they did, would they be willing to put one of their women into his charge? When it was possible to travel again, he would put out feelers, Father Peter decided.