Luke was a better-looking priest than the average, she reckoned. He was well-made, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. His eyes were a startling blue, his hair fair, and he had that way of looking at a person, as though there was no one else in the whole island who mattered. Her frustration was grown so great Tedia would consider anything — any man. She reckoned that if she wanted, she could have taken Mabilla’s place as another priest’s mare. Perhaps she still could. Trouble was, if she were to do that, it would almost certainly mean the end of Luke’s time here. Mabilla’s man, Peter Visconte, had been called back to Exeter as soon as stories of their behaviour reached the Bishop. The talk about that affair hadn’t stopped yet, although it had happened a good seven or eight years ago.
Strange that such a witty, intelligent man should have been sent here. The islanders were used to a strange mixture of malcontents and incompetents. To have someone who was apparently learned was curious. Especially since Luke was so good at the way he put his ideas across. All the women thought he was wonderful. Brosia was always preening herself when she went to church. The reeve’s wife said Luke always stared at her breasts. Tedia thought Brosia was fooling herself. The man had more interest in people like Tedia — someone with intelligence. That much was obvious.
But he was still a priest, and Tedia drew the line at seducing a man of God. The thought that she might do that was scary. She preferred to pick on men more of her standing. And Robert, the gather-reeve of Ennor, their neighbouring island, was the best she had seen.
He was a good-looking fellow, once he stopped strutting about. Most of the time he walked around like a constipated duck. She’d told him that, and he had looked hurt, but then he had to laugh with her.
It had been a long, wonderful summer’s day, only a matter of two weeks ago. Isok and the men were out in the boats, and Robert had come past. Tedia was thirsty after a backbreaking morning digging in her field, and Robert had been carrying a wine-skin.
‘That looks good enough to kill for!’ she had said, half-jokingly, almost before she realised what she was saying. This man was the gather-reeve for the Lord of the Manor, Ranulph Blancminster, after all! If Robert were to denounce her for her lack of respect, she could have been taken and whipped. She’d put nothing past Blancminster.
The latter instilled fear in all the peasants. Ruthless and indifferent, he ruled the islands under his authority like a monarch. There was no one on Ennor to restrain him, and although Tedia lived on St Nicholas, and was serf to the Prior, owned by the Manor and ultimately answerable to the Abbot of Tavistock, the Lord of Ennor would be a very bad enemy for a mere peasant.
‘You think I’d be worth killing just for a mouthful of wine?’ Robert had asked, with mock offence. ‘Perhaps I am too violent to give up my wine without a fight.’
‘You’d wrestle with a poor woman like me, sir?’ she’d responded, and then flushed to the roots of her hair.
Tedia knew that it wasn’t so often that a woman would flirt so suggestively with any man — especially the gather-reeve. She hadn’t meant to — but when he grinned at her he was quite handsome, and she felt a familiar stirring at the sight. It reignited memories which she had tried so hard to suppress. Memories of rolling naked with a boy in fields of flowers while the sun warmed their backs; memories of swimming naked with boys; memories of golden afternoons with nothing to do but lie in the grass and listen to the waves while a boy’s hands investigated her body with a cautious, delicious reverence.
‘I think there should always be wine for a lady,’ he had said, and within the hour, they were sitting side by side on the beach at the westernmost porth of the island, beyond the line of hills that hid them from the view of the vill and the monks of St Nicholas. Here they spoke for hours, until the sun was moving too far from its zenith. As it began to sink westward, they had stopped speaking, and merely watched. The wine was all gone, and Tedia felt a warmth flowing through her body from the unaccustomed drink. She wanted to stay there for ever. If she had died then, she would have died happy.
Her happiness almost turned to ecstasy when she touched him and felt him shake. And then she kissed him, softly, sweetly, and with real affection. An affection which grew to desire when she saw how his body had responded. She stared at him for what felt like an age.
It was curious. No, it was more than that: it was wonderful, exciting, thrilling! For the last few years she had felt like an old woman: undesired and unlovable. No matter what Isok said to her, she always believed that it was her fault. It was her sin, perhaps, in loving too many boys when she was a girl before she married; or maybe it was something Isok had done. She had no idea. All she knew was, that suddenly she had here, within reach, proof that she was not undesirable, that she could still make a man’s heart run with liquid fire. She could make his manhood rise as firmly and proudly as a mare could her stallion or a bitch her dog. She was still a woman.
That discovery was wonderful. It was as though her life had suddenly begun again. The desperation and despair of the last years were wiped out as though by magic, and in their place was a new confidence. This was the proof: the problem was not hers, it was her man who was at fault. And yet she could do nothing about it. She was tied to him with indissoluble chains, witnessed by God.
Attempting to balance her feelings and desires in this way, Tedia had driven herself almost into a brain fever. For two days she felt as though she was floating on a cloud of happiness high over all her troubles, and even tried to invigorate her husband again, but then she sank into the pit of despair once more. It was while she was deep in a depression on the fourth day that she had sought out Luke, the chaplain. She needed spiritual help.
At once he had seen her misery and asked what the matter was. After a lot of snivelling and sadness, she confessed that she had no idea what to do, explaining her predicament.
‘My child, the solution is easy,’ he said with that gentle smile of his. ‘You must divorce him.’
If Isok was unable to service her, he was failing in his duty to God and to her. She must find a new husband so that she wouldn’t fail in her duty. That meant she must divorce her Isok.
She listened with her mouth agape. The idea was shameful! Terrible! But there was a certain elegant logic to it. Divorce was less bad than continuing life without sex or children. That was unbearable. It was an insult to God, Who had commanded that men and women should multiply.
When Luke explained it to her, it seemed so clear and logical, she was overwhelmed with gratitude. He told her that she must find another man. That it would only be doing God’s will, were she to find a lover; she should find a man who could satisfy her, and whom she could also satisfy, while also producing the children which God desired above all else.
Of course, she thought. That is natural. And then Luke reached forward, and kissed her so kindly, she had felt her heart leap in response. She had risen, thanked him and explained that she must return to her husband or he would wonder where she was. There was a slightly petulant expression on his face when she said that, but she hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
So she had made her choice. Her lover was to be Robert. Last night she had hoped to consummate her love for him, and then, when the divorce was granted, she would go to Robert and be his wife. They would live at the castle behind La Val and would have many children as God wished.
Except Robert had not arrived the night before. It was no surprise. He was a man of authority. His face was known across all the islands, and he could have been called away to deal with a problem somewhere else. Or maybe he was simply intimidated by the weather. He could well have rationalised that her husband might have turned back from the sea as soon as he saw the storm approach, just as Isok actually had. In which case, Robert might be coming to see her today to apologise.