'With your permission, my lord, your sister and Willa can remain in the Great Chamber. I, however, will not. I will sleep on a pallet in my pharmacea. I am the manor's healer, and it is my right to be there.' She then turned, and walking across the hall, entered into the little chamber.
'She has not eaten all day nor last night either,' Eadgyth fretted. 'I will have Ealdraed take her a plate of food.'
'If she would eat,' he said coldly, 'then let her come to the high board with the rest of us. She is my father's widow and has a place amongst us.'
'Caddaric, I beg you,' Eadgyth said gently, a pleading hand upon his arm, 'let me coddle her this night only. Her grief is greater than you can imagine.'
'Then you take the food to her,' he said. 'You must keep a strict eye upon her for me, Eadgyth, and see she remains in good health, for she will give me sons before the new year is out.'
Eadgyth sadly shook her head at his words. Wynne was not like any woman that they had ever known. Neither she nor her husband's other women would have ever considered refusing Caddaric anything that he desired; but Wynne would. Eadgyth knew that the beautiful Welsh woman was probably correct in her assessment of Caddaric's sad condition. There would be no children, and when Caddaric tired of forcing himself on Wynne, what then? What would happen to her, for Eadgyth knew that being faced daily with this particular failure would be more than her husband could stand.
'God and His blessed Mother help us all,' she whispered softly to herself.
In the days that followed, Eadgyth watched with growing distress as Caddaric's eyes followed Wynne whenever she came into his view. She had never seen her husband like this before, and neither had his other women. He was totally and completely obsessed by Wynne.
'What if she gives him a child?' Berangari posed the question that was in all their minds. 'What will happen to us?'
'Wynne assures me that there will be no child,' Eadgyth tried to reassure them. 'She says that Caddaric's bout with the Swelling Sickness just before our marriage destroyed his seed.'
'What if he falls in love with her in spite of it?' Dagian asked.
'Wynne despises him,' little Aelf spoke up.
'Aye,' Haesel agreed. 'I think if it were not for her children, she would have killed herself upon the lord Eadwine's death; but she absolutely dotes upon her babies.'
'He is obsessed with her no matter,' Berangari said.
'We must help her until we can cure our husband of this sickness that eats at him,' Eadgyth told them. 'We owe her that courtesy. Wynne has never been unkind to any of us, even when lord Eadwine made her his wife. It is not her fault that Caddaric desires her. She has done nothing to encourage him. She would be content to live out her life as Eadwine's widow and the healer of Aelfdene manor, raising her children, in peace with us all.'
'How can we help her, Eadgyth?' Berangari inquired.
'Let me speak to her,' Eadgyth replied. 'She will tell us what to do.'
'He has given me the space of a single moon to mourn Eadwine,' Wynne explained to Eadgyth. 'Then he tells me I must come to his bed. That I will never do, Eadgyth!'
'But what will you do?'
Wynne shook her head. 'I honestly do not know,' she said, 'but it is good to know I may rely upon you and the others in this time of my trouble.'
Caddaric, however, was expecting his helpless victim to attempt to outwit him. With a cleverness she would not have believed him capable of, he waited until his women were in the bakehouse one winter's morning, exactly five weeks after his father's death. Wynne, preparing a remedy for a serf's aching head, was seized in her pharmacea and carried kicking and struggling to the Great Chamber. A gag had been stuffed into her mouth almost at once in order that her cries not be heard. Wynne was lain upon the bed that Eadwine had had made for her, her arms and legs pulled wide and fastened to the bedposts by means of hempen rope. There she was left.
When her rage had abated somewhat and her heart had ceased to hammer so violently, Wynne considered her position, which was certainly a dangerous one. Gingerly she tested the strength of the ropes, but they had been made quite fast and cut into her delicate ankles and wrists at the slightest movement. The gag, though preventing her from screaming, was not unduly uncomfortable. She could breathe and swallow. Shocked, she realized that there was nothing that she could do to help herself. She would simply have to wait for Caddaric to make the next move, more than aware of what it would be.
She lay still for some time, her anger rising once more in the face of her helplessness. She had, she thought, been held prisoner like this several hours when she heard his step upon the stairs. Sauntering into the Great Chamber, he walked over to the bed and stood for a long moment gazing down at her. Finally he reached out and pulled the gag from her mouth.
'Aren't you afraid that I will scream, Caddaric Aethelmaere?' she demanded sarcastically.
'You may scream all you desire, Wynne,' he told her. 'I have sent Eadgyth and the others back to my hall for the time being. There is no one here who will help you now.'
'How clever you are, my lord, to have prepared this rape so skillfully,' Wynne murmured sweetly.
He laughed, at ease with himself because of her helplessness. 'You are foolish to fight me, Wynne,' he said. 'You know I mean to have my way with you. What can you do to prevent me? Nothing! Would it not be better to come to me willingly? I know my women have told you that I am a magnificent lover,' he bragged, and, bending down, pushed her head aside that he might kiss her neck.
'You revolt me,' she said icily. 'There is nothing manly in forcing a woman to your will, my lord.' The wet touch of his mouth on her skin was totally repellent.
'Hate me if you so desire, Wynne, I will still have children of you,' he told her. ' 'Tis all I really want from you, your fertile womb.'
'There will be no children, Caddaric,' Wynne said quietly. 'Why do you refuse to comprehend that? How many women have you poked with that weapon of which you are so prideful? And none has given you a child.
His answer was to take his knife from his belt and begin cutting her clothing away. Wynne lay silent now, for she could do nothing. It was fortunate, the thought passed through her head, that the garments he so heedlessly sliced and ripped were her work clothes and well-worn. When he had rendered her completely naked, he stood staring down at her, an almost glazed expression upon his face. Wynne felt a tingling in her breasts and almost laughed aloud.
'Loose me, Caddaric,' she said in a hard voice. 'My milk is beginning to leak and your sister must be fed. Untie me this instant and fetch Averel to me! I can go nowhere without my clothes, and you have totally destroyed mine with your mindless violence.'
The new thegn of Aelfdene shook his head as a large dog might do, and his eyes filled with comprehension. Bending, he undid the ropes that bound her, and then he said as he departed the Great Chamber, 'I will fetch my sister to you.'
Wynne rubbed her wrists and ankles to take the soreness from them and then, standing up, moved across the room to where the tub stood, seeking the chamber pot. Her bladder was near to bursting, and she had truly feared she would wet the bed through with her water had he not given her this small measure of freedom. Relieving herself, she walked back over to the bed and, climbing into it, drew the coverlet over her nudity even as he returned to the room carrying Averel.
'She is a fine strong girl, isn't she?' he said in pleased tones. It amazed Wynne that he seemed to have a weakness for his half sister. 'Give me hearty children like this, Welsh woman, and there will be no difficulty between us, I promise you!' He handed Averel over to her mother, ruffling the baby's curls affectionately as he did so.
Wynne smiled down at her daughter, giving her a kiss before putting the child to her full breasts. 'There will be no children, Caddaric,' she said grimly. 'Why will you not understand?'
He would not answer her, and when she had finished feeding her child, he drew back the coverlet and lashed her ankles once again to the bedposts before she might protest. 'Cradle my sister with but one arm,' he
