And out there in this fierce malignant sea men would be dying and there would be no one to save them. It was not men’s lives they were interested in; it was the ship’s cargo; and if they saved lives what complications that might bring. What if the saved ones demanded to keep what was salvaged from their ships? So it was to the interest of Colum and his men that all perished.
It was this that I could not forget.
Soon after dawn I dressed myself and again went down to the shore. It was there that I found her. She was lying in the shallow water; her long dark hair floating about her. Her face was pallid and I thought she was dead.
I waded out and caught her arm. When the wave had subsided I dragged her nearer to the shore. The next wave came and nearly carried me out with her, for the sea had not yet calmed down and the waves were still strong. But I managed to drag her free of them.
She was lying on the sand and I knelt beside her.
She is dead, I thought. Poor woman.
I took her wrist and felt a pulse fluttering. Then to my horrified amazement I realized that she was heavily pregnant.
My father had taught me a form of artificial respiration. I turned the woman’s body so that she was lying face downward, her head turned to one side. I knelt and placed my hands on her back and keeping my arms rigid I pressed with the weight of my body—thus I drove the water out of her lungs and I believed saved her life.
I waited beside her, I rubbed her hands and wrapped her in my cloak. I watched her lest she should need further attention and in due course was rewarded for I could see that she was breathing more naturally.
What I wanted now was to get her into the castle. I wanted to put her to bed and make sure that she had the care she so urgently needed.
I left her lying on the shore and went back to the castle. I called several of the servants. I told them what I had discovered and we took a mule down to the shore, and dazed and shocked as the woman was we managed to get her on to the animal and bring her to the castle courtyard. There I ordered several of the men to carry her to a bed.
They took her into the Red Room wrapped in my cloak as she was and laid her on the four-poster bed. I had not wished her to go into that room but they had put her there before I could prevent them and it seemed unwise to move her again.
She lay very still and I said to Jennet: “We must not disturb her yet but bring clean clothes from my bedchamber. Her condition is dangerous for she is pregnant.”
“My dear life,” cried Jennet. “The poor soul will surely lose her baby.”
“We shall try to see that she does not,” I replied.
I sent one of the men to bring the physician. He lived five miles away but he would come at once if there was a call from the castle. Then I ordered that hot soup should be brought and between us Jennet and I undressed the woman.
I was surprised that she was younger than I had thought. I guessed her to be my age or perhaps a year or so older. Her skin was smooth; her limbs most beautifully formed and in spite of her pregnancy it was possible to see that she was an exceptionally beautiful woman. She was only half conscious but she seemed grateful for what we were doing. Her hands were long and slender; they had never worked, that much was clear. There was a patrician air about her face, an unearthly beauty, but perhaps that was because she was almost more dead than alive. Her hair was magnificent—thick, silky and black with that almost bluish tinge which is so rarely seen in England and when it is usually means foreign blood. Her lashes were as black as her hair and their blackness was accentuated by the pallor of her skin.
“She was on that ship,” whispered Jennet.
“She must have been,” I answered. “There is no other reason why she should be lying in the sea on such a night.”
Jennet’s eyes were dazed with memory. “The sea can be terrible,” she said.
“We will nurse her to health,” I insisted.
It was amazing how quickly she recovered. I was able to feed her with the hot soup and when she was lying in clean clothes in the warm bed, the faintest colour came into her face. It was as though a light had been placed behind the alabaster. Her skin glowed. I thought: I don’t think I ever saw such a beautiful woman.
I had to face Colum. I knew he would be angry. What would he have done if he had found the woman? Left her to the mercy of the sea I knew, which would have soon finished her.
I went into our bedchamber and came face to face with him.
“So you have brought a woman in?” he said.
“She was half drowned. I am nursing her. She is to have a child.”
“Why did you bring her into the castle?”
“She would have quickly died had I left her there.”
He gripped my wrist. “What concern is that of yours?”
“If I see someone dying I would do everything I could to help that man or woman.”
“So you bring her into my castle.”
“It is my home.”
“Forget not that you live here through my clemency.”
“And forget not,” I said, “that the dowry my father gave me has been very useful in maintaining the castle.”
He narrowed his eyes. I knew that he was passionately interested in worldly goods. It must be for this reason that he had become a scavenger; he had married me not only because he had desired me but because I brought a good dowry with me—as good as any girl of the neighbourhood would bring him—doubtless as good as that which came with Melanie Landor. My mother had prevailed on my father to endow me well. It was important, I being in the condition I was, that I should marry the man who had put me in it.
I found it so horribly sordid. He did not. His eyes gleamed now at the prospect of what riches the sea would bring him.
“You are becoming a shrew,” he said.
“And I am beginning to learn something of you.”
“Learn this then,” he said. “It is I who will decide who shall be a guest in my home.”
“What do you propose to do, turn this woman out? She is sick, or will be if she is not cared for. What would become of her?”
“Is that my affair?”
“Perhaps it should be, as you will help yourself to the goods which were being carried by the ship in which she travelled.”
“What should I do? Let the sea swallow them?”
“Perhaps they should be salvaged and returned to their owners.”
That brought out a peal of harsh laughter. “I can see my clever wife should indeed be managing my affairs.” The laughter died out suddenly; his mouth was grim. “On the contrary, I can see I shall have to teach her to manage her own. And that is that she interferes not with what she sees and that if she attempts to she will soon be wishing that she had never done so.”
“What will you do then? Strip me naked to the waist and tie me to the whipping-post as though I were a servant who has misbehaved? Will you wield the whip or is that too menial a task for your noble hands?”
He took a step towards me and lifted his hand. He had done it before, and as before the blow did not come.
“Take care,” he said. “You would find that if I were truly angry with you my wrath would be terrible.”
“I know it,” I said looking him in the eyes.
“Yet you provoke it.”
“I will not be your puppet. I would rather be dead.”
He laughed. There was just a hint of tenderness in his face. He seized me and held me tightly against him. “You are my wife,” he said. “You gave me the best son in the world. I am not displeased with you. But know this. I will not be crossed. My will is law. You have my favour. No woman ever pleased me for so long as you do. Let us keep it so.”
“And what of this woman from the sea? Will you turn her away?”
He was thoughtful for a moment. I could see he was thinking deeply. He was angry because there had been a survivor from the ship and because I had brought her into the castle and may well have preserved her life. He would have preferred her to die, so that there were no witnesses. He could send her away, but what if she lived to tell the tale?