Sparrows

Part 14

SPARROWS 14

I will not regret it, how can I when my body still thrills at the thought of his hands! When Hew claimed his marriage due, it was as if he punished me for his need. Any pleasure that came my way  was soon crushed from me with curses and blows. But this...this is as if the empty years have faded into nothing.

So, here I am unbound, loose in a world I do not know, the lordling will go his way, I mine, never will we again meet. He will take back his son, live in his fine home, find a pliable woman to keep him warm at night...and I? I will live on.

Hmm, I must wash, men are such dirty beasts. 

It was morn; the sun not yet risen, but the sounds of people about the business of the day, edged out the disquieting thoughts.

A warm, comfortable cage of muscular limbs held Haddie, she was loath to free herself from its luxury, but inevitability that he would wake, curse his mistakes, perhaps even name her whore to all, made up her mind.

She moved with care, sliding free of him, found her shift, and brushed the brown, work-a-day kirtle clean, shrugged them over her head. Careful though she was, with limbs so stiff, her cunny raw and stinging, movement cost her. It seemed to Haddie that he had mounted her a dozen times, played such games with her senses that she hardly knew what they had done. Oh, and in his bullish way had, most assuredly, shown her Heaven. Now he lay naked on his belly, deep in sleep, red scratches on his back, raised gouges on his buttocks. She had marked him well, a day's ride would cost that arse dear.

Her hand flew to her mouth, stifling a soft laugh at the thought. To you sir knight, to you!

Mood lightened, she stepped lightly out into her day.

###

"Well, 'in't you looking fine on it?' The castle's laundress, mistress Jennet, greeted her with a knowing grin.

Haddie blushed, turned sheepishly. Had all heard them?

The washerwoman smirked. "Be needin' a good scrub I'd say. All that 'eaving 'an scrapping about the floor, leaves a person powerful mucky." Jennet winked, nodding toward the barn. "Mind 'is face were a pretty picture."

"Who's face?" Haddie feigned ignorance.

"Yer knight, who else? When that filthy lout grab ye, 'yer man looked fair fit t' bust. Then you kisses 'im an' runs off, thought he were gonna do murder, I did."

Haddie bit back a smile; the thought of his outrage pleased her.

The two women grinned at each other, shared their scorn at the buffoonery of men and their lust.

In a corner curtained by dripping sheets, Haddie stripped and washed herself. Cold water stung her grazed flesh. She wiped between her legs, he had spilled in her. Men!

But Haddie knew she would not conceive. In all her years with Hew only once had a child brewed in her womb.

Thoughts of the babe who followed his father to the grave swung her back to closer matters. Andreas le Pierre would pay for his evil, she would have her vengeance and his life. Find him, kill him; sink a blade into his malignant heart. The thoughts warmed her as she plaited her hair.

A plan, she had to have a plan.

###

The morning was advancing, less important wedding guests still slept about the place in nooks and crannies. Dogs fought over scraps of forgotten meats, cats lapped delicately at spilled niceties. At Lauds confusion ruled, by the sext bells, the sun was at its height and chaos was moulded, once more, into order. Servants would eat bread and cheese and return to their habitual duties, all evidence of the riotous wedding feasting would be gone.