by R. R. Vane
As Tom told his tale and spoke his brother’s name, he thought of Robin and of that terrible night he’d found his wife in his brother’s arms. And he thought of the stricken look filled with grief and guilt on both his wife and his brother’s faces.
That night, Tom couldn’t even bear to look at Joanna or speak to her. She wanted to plead with Tom and tried to call after them in anguish, when he and his brother went to deal with the business that was unsettled between them. Tom had always been larger and more vicious in fistfights, yet Robin was fast and clever and never easy to beat. That night though Tom came close to killing his own brother, because Robin would not lift a finger to defend himself.
“Fight, damn you!” Tom spat at his brother, staring like mad at the bloodied, grazed knuckles of his fist.
Yet Robin shook his head.
“I’ll kill you!” Tom shouted.
Robin looked at him levelly, wiping the blood off his lips and face with a calm gesture.
“Then kill me. Me first and then Joanna,” he said in a mocking, bitter voice.
Tom felt like starting to weep. Because his brother’s voice held a truth that, for a long time, he’d not wanted to acknowledge. Before his brother had come back to their house, Joanna had been slowly dying, and he’d feared that the grief she carried over their lost child would one day kill her, and, like the time she’d been in agony, he would just stand by, unable to help her in any way.
“What you two did…” he said now conjuring up the searing rage he felt towards both her and Robin.
“I’ve always loved her, too. And I’ve loved her far more than you ever can,” Robin countered levelly. “I went away right before you wed. I shouldn’t have. I should have stayed on and married her instead of you.”
Tom cast his brother an astonished look, because Robin had never spoken to him of this. He’d never known. And now he heard Robin plead, in a humbled, anguished voice, “Let me take her away! She’ll die here and you know it. There’s nothing but grief left for her here.”
And Tom had known his brother’s words to be true, even though he’d hated him even more fiercely for them. He cast a bitter smile to the woman now standing in front of him, who was staring at him after what he’d told her of that night years ago when he’d allowed his wife and his brother to leave together and make a new life for themselves.
Beth clasped his hand.
“You spoke of a lost child.”
“My son, who died in the night when he should have been born.”
It felt strangely soothing to utter the words. Perchance this was what had forever severed the ties between Joanna and him. They’d never brought themselves to even speak to one another of their dead babe after that night.
“Grief,” Beth muttered. “You spoke of your wife’s grief. What of your own?”
Beth was the first who’d ever asked him this. He suddenly smiled at her, because it was due to her that he’d finally been able to overcome the grief which had, for so long, loomed over his life.
“Now, I find I feel it no longer,” he told her, cupping her face and claiming her lips for a deep kiss.
Chapter 12
That next morning Beth felt emboldened by the things Tom had shared with her. And when he attempted to take her in his arms and love her just as was his habit, right after they roused, she did not let him make himself master of her too soon, choosing to tease him with brash kisses and caresses of her own. She traced the hard muscle of his chest and licked his round arms, and pushed away his strong hands when he wanted to pull her to him.
“Ha! Getting bold now, woman?” Tom Reed said with an arched eyebrow, yet his own voice was laced with teasing.
She did indeed get bold and dared to pin his arms to his sides, so Master Reed, the blacksmith, was now at her mercy.
“Not so high and mighty now, Master Smith,” she said softly, moving to straddle him and speaking against his lips.
He did not make an effort to release himself from her hold, yet he attempted to capture her lips with his. She didn’t let herself be kissed, which made him furrow his brow.
“Too bold, I’d say. Bold women do get their comeuppance, didn’t you know?” he threatened, yet he still did not attempt to release himself from her hold.
Beth laughed, beginning to rain teasing kisses on his neck and shoulders.
“Perchance I could talk my way out of the punishment you must certainly have in store for me, Master Smith? Is there any means by which I could atone for my deeds?” she said between kisses.
“I reckon I can think of one,” her prisoner muttered, a mischievous sparkle dancing in his dark eyes.
He soon told her what he had in mind, and Beth only belatedly recalled to blush at what he now asked of her. She kissed her way down his taut belly to reach the stiff cock that he wished she’d tend to. Feeling just as brash and bold as before, she smiled against his skin as she lowered her lips to the red tip of his shaft.
“Like so? You need to school me, I have not done this before,” she said, making her voice quite innocent and coy.
In truth he had not asked this of her before, but Beth had left behind her maidenly shyness for some weeks now, and she soon found herself revelling in the hard length of her lover’s cock against her lips. And she also found herself revelling in the new power she soon discovered she possessed over her lover.
“Oh, it seems that, for once, it was you who lay at my mercy…” she told him at last, when she wiped her mouth and looked upon his sated face with a triumphant smile.
“We shall see about that,” her lover vowed in an ardent voice, and, in the next moments strived to prove to her that she could be just as easily brought to his mercy.
There was a taste of Tom still lingering on Beth’s lips, when they decided to start their day and she began to hum to herself as she was readying breakfast for the boys who’d just come in the kitchen.
“A beautiful morning,” Tom said, gazing outside.
“Aye,” Beth readily agreed.
Declan cleared his throat.
“The sky is grey. There’s a storm brewing…”
He and Micah and William were casting glances at both of them filled with what seemed like astonishment and pity.
“Both on their way to madness it seems,” Declan muttered with a sudden smirk to the others, because he couldn’t help using his glib tongue.
“Don’t you have chores to do this morning rather than dazzle us with your prattle? Such as helping with breakfast instead of waiting to be served hand and foot?” Tom said, but his tone of rebuke was mild.
The rest of the morning that had begun so well passed uneventfully, yet later that day, while she was busy with her ledgers, Beth heard the sound of voices and went outside to see what was happening. She found Tom and the boys there, along with a small crowd of people who had already gathered. In the centre of it stood none other than Sir Lambert, accompanied by their parish priest. He cast a satisfied smirk when he at last glanced upon her, and with a cold stab in her heart, Beth began to understand that the day which had begun so well held peril for her.
“And here she is, the woman I’ve been speaking of,” Sir Lambert said in his heavily accented English.
Tom fought hard not to strangle the man in front of him with his bare hands. Yet Sir Lambert was a lord, and Tom knew only too well the odds were against commoners in this battle. A dire punishment was in store for him if he ever harmed a nobleman. And while he might be ready to forsake his life just in order to rid the world of Sir Lambert, he knew his actions would mean peril for those he held dear. Beth and the boys would suffer if Tom were to do something reckless.
“This is the woman who works for me keeping my house and ledgers. And what of it?” he said in his turn, striving to keep his voice level.
“She is a lewd woman,” Sir Lambert called, making sure the word had been heard by all those gathered around.
Father Septimus cast Tom a look of sheer misery. He was a kind, mild man wh
o seldom bestowed heavy penance on any of his parishioners, but Sir Lambert had made an accusation, and Sir Lambert was a lord knight, whose word no one could take so lightly.
“Beth has been summoned to appear in front of the archdeacon in three days hence,” Father Septimus said in a reluctant voice, casting a fearful glance in Sir Lambert’s direction.
“Summoned?” Tom said, as fear began to seize his heart.
A summons could not be ignored. And, even as a blacksmith well regarded in his own Guild, he did not have the authority to oppose a summons from the Court Christian. Lay people were summoned by the ecclesiastical court only when they stood charged of loose morals. It was upon a rare occasion that an archdeacon or even a parish priest concerned themselves with petty matters such as a married man keeping a mistress, yet it was plain Sir Lambert had made it his business.
“So, Master Blacksmith, perchance now you will get to see the real colours of the woman you’ve let inside your bed and home,” Sir Lambert said, with a satisfied smirk upon his face.
Tom’s hands itched to grab the knight by the neck. He glanced at Beth who was staring at both Sir Lambert and the priest, white in the face. He’d never seen her that frightened, not even that day when she’d been accused of thieving in the Square. And he resolved he would protect her no matter the cost.
“Three days hence then,” he said in a voice which was calm and unconcerned. “Thank you, Father. And, thank you, sire,” he added in flawless Norman, stressing the sire in such a way that left no doubt his view of Sir Lambert’s person.
Sir Lambert cast him a look of sheer venom.
“You will come to thank me, Master Blacksmith. This woman is not who you think she is. It has just of late come to my attention that her soul is even blacker than I thought. Perchance you didn’t know she already stands accused of seducing a priest in her hometown?”
Tom strived to receive the words with an unconcerned shrug, and not to glance too much at Beth whose face had gone an even sicklier pale. Yet she was truly distressed, and he felt like putting his arms around her for comfort. It seemed nothing short of a miracle that she even found her voice to speak.
“Three days hence then,” she said, echoing Tom’s voice, even if her own voice was tremulous. “I shall be there.”
She looked only at Father Septimus, not even glancing at Sir Lambert.
Tom strived to think upon what he was to do, with calm in his thoughts. He reasoned peril had come upon them sooner than he’d foreseen. Yet, he had already made up his mind this morning concerning what he and Beth were to do, even before Sir Lambert’s presence had darkened his day. He’d thought upon it all night, and had come to the only answer which could be had. He would not have people stare in scorn at the woman he loved. And he would not have her tossed in the streets from her home if something dire ever happened to him. Robin and Joanna had found their own happiness away from London. And he recalled the talk he’d had with Robin on that terrible night.
“No one would know,” Robin had pleaded. “We’ll pass for man and wife in another town and no one will know. Even if someone is bound to recognize Joanna, I’ll lie and say it is in truth a cousin of hers I wed. She looks much changed, paler and thinner than she used to be.”
“That would be deceitful,” Tom had muttered with a dark frown.
Robin had shrugged.
“Who are we harming? No one will know! And you… You could sell your business here and start over in another land. A land where you can find a new woman for yourself.”
But Tom had shaken his head.
“This is our father’s house. And of his father before him. I will not ever leave!”
Robin had sighed.
“At least release us! No one will know Joanna is not my wife!”
Coming back to present times, Tom reasoned he could do the same as his brother had done. He would find a remote place where no one knew Beth was not his wife. He’d already resolved upon this course this morning, and had meant to tell Beth of it this very night. He’d thought he had at least a month to settle things here with his business, yet it seemed time had suddenly grown short. He felt loath to leave with next to nothing, apart from some coin and the clothes on his back, yet he would do so, as soon as he settled the boys with other good masters of his Guild. He would not jeopardize their future by asking any of them to join him. He cared too much for them and would rather part from them because it was best they continue their apprenticeship in London. As for himself, he knew he was a very able smith and would not have trouble finding work. He thought of a remote village where no one would know them and where he and Beth could settle and have a life together.
Tom called upon Beth, leading her to the house and telling her they needed to talk. Beth glanced at him warily, recalling too well that his face had looked astonished when Sir Lambert had spoken of the priest she’d allegedly led astray. What would he think of her? Beth noted that Tom wasn’t asking her anything, but was staring through the window with a set expression on his face. She decided to speak before he even opened his mouth.
“Do you not want to know? If what Sir Lambert said was true?”
“Nay. Because I already know it for a lie,” he said quietly.
“So you believe me? In the Square… I tried to steal from you. And now…”
“You did not steal though. And I have come to know you well. You may be many things. Reckless at times. And stubborn. Sharp-tongued at other times. Though not a deceiver. And not seeking to harm others. Never that.”
His faith in her made her want to weep.
“Would you like to know what happened?”
“Only if you wish to tell me.”
And haltingly Beth told him her tale, recalling how it had been after her father and brothers had died. Her mother had been overtaken with grief, and fallen ill with it, and Beth had attempted to shoulder all the burden of their household, trying to be strong in this time of need. She’d been grateful when the priest of their parish had summoned her, telling her he would speak to her words of comfort. Yet it was a different kind of comfort he’d had in mind.
“He’d not attempted it before!” Beth said with an astonished shake of her head. “He’d always been kind and gracious, comforting, as a priest should be, but now… he propositioned me, boldly.”
Tom let out a short, mirthless laugh.
“The fiend. He knew only too well that now you no longer had a father or brothers. He took advantage that you were a woman who’d lost the men of her house.”
Beth nodded in chagrin. She had seen, after her father’s death, men who hadn’t even glanced in her direction had started to look at her with open lust and to whisper behind her back as she passed by. They had begun to speak of her bold ways, although her ways hadn’t changed at all since her father’s passing. And now Beth understood that while her father and brothers had been alive, those men hadn’t dared act. And like them, the priest had now looked upon her as his prey.
“He tried to ravish you. Just as Sir Lambert did,” Tom said grimly, perceiving the look in her eyes.
Beth nodded, as he came to put his arms around her.
“Aye. And when I attempted to tell others of what he did, he falsely accused me. They were coming for me at my house meaning to chastise me for what they thought I’d done, and we had to leave our home in haste, taking with us next to nothing of what we had. And then… The rest you know. Here I came upon Sir Lambert.”
“Who’s still living and breathing, although I should strike him down where he stands,” Tom said darkly.
Beth disentangled herself from him. Her heart thumped in deep fear. “Please! Do not attempt anything against him! It will be your doom!”
“And yours too! I know it only too well!” Tom muttered, clenching his fists.
He sighed then, coming to kiss the top of her head.
“We shall leave here. Today, I’ll make arrangements for the boys to be re-apprenticed. I hope we can leave this very night or at lea
st tomorrow night!”
She stared at him mouth agape.
“You would leave your house and business? For me?”
He said nothing, just nodding, and again Beth felt like weeping. She had done this to him. He’d been the only man to offer her a helping hand. He’d welcomed her into his home. And now he was paying the price.
“I will not have it,” she said quietly.
Tom shook his head.
“There is no other way. They’ll punish you. They’ll parade you in Church and they’ll flog you for a loose woman. And who knows what else they’ll do. Much worse…”
Beth nodded in full bitterness, then cast Tom an anguished glance.
“They may bestow heavy penance upon you as well. In their eyes, you’re guilty of adultery.”
“This is not what I fear! Have you not seen the mad gleam in Sir Lambert’s eyes? You now stand accused of seducing a priest! Not only of being my woman!”
Beth weighed all this in her mind, and she thought upon how well-regarded Tom was in his Guild, for being such an able smith, and she also thought that penance was most often bestowed on women for adultery or loose behaviour, and very seldom on men. As long as it was proved she was the one who’d lured him into sin, he would not truly suffer.
“I’ll face the accusation. I may be guilty in their eyes of being your woman, but this other thing I am not guilty of. I’ll speak my truth,” she said, resolve now strengthening her.
As she spoke the words, her heart became light again, and she understood she wanted to face the unjust accusation, only to tell everyone loud and clear that they were in the wrong. And she didn’t fear the penance for what she’d done with Tom. She would bear it gladly and take it only upon herself, rejoicing that he, at least, would get to be safe from the Church’s wrath. She was the one who’d come into his bed, tempting him, and she would state that for everyone to hear.
