In spite of the length of his legs and of his stride, Lady Eadgith was able to catch up with her husband just as he walked into Leila’s room. Short of putting her own baby in danger, she would do all she could to prevent her husband from harming another woman’s child.
Leila sat on her couch, still in her nightgown, her hands empty, as if she had been waiting for them to arrive. She had for light only the queer colored glass lanterns that Eadgith had succeeded in banishing from the rest of the castle. These were all green, and they made her brown skin look positively black and the rest of the room like something out of a nightmare.
“Get up and let me look at you,” Leofric growled.
“Leof…” Eadgith quavered.
“Shut up!” he roared at her, and “Get up!” at Leila.
Leila stood, though she trembled in all her body. Eadgith wondered how much she knew of what Leofric’s wrath could be when he was drunk. He too was trembling, and Eadgith knew well what that meant.
Now Leila made no attempt to hide the swell of her stomach.
“You may thank your God and mine that I never strike a pregnant woman,” Leofric panted. “If I had learned of this some other way, it would have gone hard with your pretty face.”
“You have no right,” Leila murmured.
“No right!” Leofric howled. “Son of a serpent! You are my wife!”
“I am not your wife!” Leila cried.
Leofric was speechless with his fury. In firelight his face would have been purple, but here it only looked dark, like a hanged man’s.
“I am not!” Leila said. She seemed to have taken courage in his pronouncement that he would not strike her, but Eadgith was frightened that she would infuriate him beyond his own self-control. “Ask any priest!” she insisted. “The Church says I am not!”
“What do you care of the Church?” Leofric cried. “Your Barbary dogs have many wives! Your own father had three!”
“I am a Christian woman now! And you have dishonored me!”
“You are a Saracen slut!”
“I am a Christian woman! And you have made a sinner out of me! And you have made a prisoner out of me! And a slave to raise your children!”
For the first time, Eadgith felt pity for the woman. She realized how much they had in common – she too had lived for years in a sort of prison erected by her husband. She had been far from him, but as long as he lived, she could not remarry, could not have children, could not be free. And perhaps he had shown Leila his darkest side as well.
“Who is he?” Leofric snarled.
“You may ask Alred who he is!” Leila said, and Eadgith cringed at her impudence. One did not speak to Leofric in such a tone when he was drunk and furious, even when one was pregnant.
But Alred’s name quite distracted him from Leila. “Alred!” he growled, and the name rumbled up from his chest like thunder from a storm beyond the hills. “This is his revenge!”
Eadgith was stunned. It was true Alred had visited Leila once or twice, but… And Alred wouldn’t… But men were so…
Leofric turned to her, and his hand was already on the hilt of his sword. “Get out of my way,” he commanded.
This time Eadgith stepped aside, awed at the sight of him and of his rage that towered higher than he.
Leila turned her back to Eadgith and stepped into the room. She did not seem to be trembling now.
“I’m sorry,” Eadgith said weakly.
Leila did not reply.
Chapters
Oh no, please, tell me it's not Alred!?! He wouldn't be so stupid now, would he??