The Captive Heart

'Aye, my lord. But can you tell me, do you know, why this Englishman took our lady?' For all his size Beinn was a gentleman except when provoked. All the village children and every dog for miles around loved and gravitated to him.

'This lord believes my wife was betrothed to him. She was not,' the laird told the faithful Beinn. 'You recall how my lady was found?'

And Beinn nodded. 'Aye, I do.'

'She had been fleeing this man,' the laird explained. 'Do you remember the Englishman who came to the keep some months back? It is the same man. My wife and daughter kept to their chambers while he was at Dunglais overnight, and I told him I had no knowledge of the woman he sought. He is half-mad, I believe, but he will not harm Alix. Of that I am certain.'

Alix, however, was not certain at all that Sir Udolf was harmless. She was utterly exhausted when they finally arrived at Wulfborn. Had it always looked so bleak and lonely out upon the moors? Aye, it had, she thought with a shiver. It had been almost two years since she had escaped from here, and she was not pleased at all to be back when she first saw the house from a distance. The captain of the raiding party came to help her down from her mare. As shaky as she felt, Alix pushed him away, glaring.

'I don't envy your lord, lady,' he said quietly.

'The old fool who lives here is not my lord. I expect my husband is not far behind, and there will be blood before this is all over,' Alix snapped. It was all she could do to keep standing.

And then Sir Udolf hurried from the house, smiling broadly. 'My darling Alix, welcome home!' he gushed and made to put his arms about her so he might kiss her.

'This most certainly is not my home, Sir Udolf!' Alix said, shoving him away and wondering where she had gotten the strength to do it when she could hardly remain on her own two feet. She was surely going to collapse if she didn't sit down soon. Pray God the bairn was all right. The bairn! She had called it the bairn. I am becoming a Scot, she thought, and almost smiled, but caught herself in time lest Sir Udolf think she was smiling at him. She gazed hard at the man in front of her. He had aged. How old was he? she attempted to recall. In his late fifties, for he had been close in years to her own father. 'I am weary beyond telling,' Alix said coldly. 'Let us go into the hall.' And she pushed past him as she moved into the house.

God's wounds! The hall had become a pigsty. There were rushes upon the stone floor, and those rushes were filled with animal bones and other bits of garbage. The whole place stank of sour wine and beer, rotting food, and chimneys that were not drawing properly. It had certainly not been this way when she had first come to Wulfborn, nor while she lived here.

'He beat me black-and-blue when it was discovered you had escaped him,' a voice whined by her elbow.

'Why is the hall so filthy, Bab?' Alix demanded to know, recognizing the woman's voice. 'Where are the servants?'

'He kept saying you would take care of it all when you came back,' Bab told her, coming around to face Alix now. She hadn't changed either, Alix thought. She was still a bawdy old slattern.

'I did not come back,' Alix told the serving woman. 'He had me kidnapped from my own lands, from my husband, Bab. The laird will be here soon, and I will return home to Dunglais with him.'

'He were very excited when he found you,' Bab nattered on.

'I am not remaining,' Alix told her.

'He won't let anyone else have you, lady, and under the law you are his wife.'

'As his son's widow it was my right to choose a new husband if I wanted one. Your master is a lustful fool, but no decent woman would wed her father-in-law,' Alix told Bab. 'It is ungodly. It is incest certainly.'

'But he got his dispensation from York,' Bab protested.

'A dispensation he told me he would buy,' Alix said. 'When I could not dissuade him from his folly, I fled Wulfborn as any respectable woman would have done! I am not betrothed to your master, nor am I his wife. I am the wife of the Laird of Dunglais, as all at Wulfborn will learn to their misfortune when my husband arrives. Our marriage was sanctioned by the bishop of St. Andrew's. Now, Bab, I am exhausted. I must rest. Tell your master I will see him on the morrow.' And without another word Alix went upstairs to her old bedroom.

She was shocked to find everything exactly as she had left it two years ago. Although dusty, it was still obviously the cleanest room in the house. Her trunk was yet at the foot of her bed and filled with her own clothing. The scent of roses assailed her nostrils as she opened it. It would appear it had not been opened since she had left Wulfborn. Alix whirled at a scratching on the door. 'Who is it?' she asked.

'Only me,' Bab said, coming into the chamber with a pitcher of water. 'I remember how you liked to bathe yourself, and you have been traveling for several days.' She set the pitcher down on a table. 'I told the master what you said, and he has agreed to see you on the morrow. Are you hungry? If you are I'll fetch you something to eat.'

'Aye,' Alix answered her. 'I would like that. Thank you, Bab.'

The serving woman left the chamber. Alix stripped off her cape. It was dusty. She would have Bab brush it. Pulling the chamber pot from beneath the bed, she peed, tossing the water from the window. Then she bathed her face and her hands in the water Bab had brought. The woman had remembered she preferred warm water to wash in, and not cold. Where was Colm? Alix wondered. Certainly he had been only a few hours behind her captors. She had been surprised when he hadn't caught up to her before they arrived at Wulfborn. Sir Udolf would not be easy to deal with, but her husband would quickly settle the matter to his own satisfaction, but not to Sir Udolf's.

Bab returned carrying a small bowl of soup, half a loaf, and some cheese. She set it down upon a small table near the hearth. 'You'd best eat it while it's hot, lady,' she advised. Then she sighed. 'The soup I fear will taste of nothing. The bread is stale, and the cheese hard with age. Nothing has been right since you left us.'

'Do you understand why I left, Bab?' Alix asked the serving woman.

'Aye,' Bab said. 'So you have told me. But he's mad. The dispensation he gained cost him dearly. The priest had to make two additional visits to Yorkminster before it was granted.'

'God and his Blessed Mother!' Alix swore lightly. Then she shook her head. 'Are there no suitable women of childbearing age hereabouts he might take as a wife? Why has he fixed all his hopes upon me?' She broke off a piece of the stale loaf and dipped it in the soup to soften it before popping it into her mouth. Bab was correct. The soup had no flavor at all, and she would swear that the piece of cheese brought to her had the marks of mouse teeth in it. She pushed it away.

'I think most of the gentlefolk in the region kept their daughters from the Wattesons because of Master Hayle. He were an odd boy, as you would surely know, lady. Sir Udolf has not spoken with his neighbors in many years now. I think he took offense towards them because of their attitude against Master Hayle,' Bab said. 'But I know there are at least two ladies still young enough to give him what he wants that he might take to wife. Their families are good and equal to his. He just doesn't know how to approach these families after all the time that has passed and the animosity between them. And you were here. Young and fecund, lady.'

'But after I was not here why did he pursue the matter?' Alix wondered aloud.

'Sir Udolf is like a flock of sheep. Once he gets going in a certain direction 'tis nigh impossible to turn him into another path, lady, without much effort.'

Alix shook her head. 'I wish your master no ill, Bab, but my husband will come for me, and when he does I will go with him. If Sir Udolf attempts to stop us, Colm will surely kill him. As it is, I shall have to dissuade him from slaying Sir Udolf when he first arrives. My husband is by nature a peaceable man, but he loves me and will be very angry that I, or the bairn I carry, might have been harmed.'

'You're with child?' Bab exclaimed, and then she looked closely at Alix. 'Aye, I can see it now. When is your child due to come into this world?'

'Late winter,' Alix told the woman.

'Will you tell the master?' Bab wondered fearfully. Sir Udolf was not going to be pleased at all to find that his heart's desire was carrying another man's child.

'I most certainly will tell Sir Udolf, Bab. Do you think I want to endanger my bairn, having to fend off his unwanted advances?' Alix pushed the tray away. 'And you say naught to any until I have.'

Bab nodded her grizzled head. 'Aye, lady, you may be certain I will say nothing, for I do not wish to be the victim of Sir Udolf's disappointment and outrage when he learns your secret. I still ache two years after the fact from the beating he gave me when you ran away,' the older woman said.