The Captive Heart by Bertrice Small Page A

good woman, and I had great respect for her, but I did not love her. She brought me land as a dower. It was land that matched mine. It was a good bargain,” the baron replied.
    “Yet I brought you nothing,” Alix responded.
    “Nay, lass, you brought gold and silver. You, too, were a good match. My son should have been grateful to have you as a wife. You were a far better bride than he might have expected. You are pretty. You know how to manage a household. You are devout and mannerly.” The baron sighed. “I have done you an injustice, Alix, for I did not realize the depth of my son’s passions for the miller’s daughter.”
    “You gave my father a home in his dying days, my lord,” Alix said, “and for that I will always be grateful. With your help I will now follow after the queen. Under the circumstances, she will surely give me her protection, if only for my parents’ sake.”
    “You would leave Wulfborn?” He seemed surprised.
    “My husband is dead, my lord. There is no place here for me now,” Alix said.
    “Is there any chance you might be with child?” Sir Udolf asked hopefully.
    Alix shook her head. “Your son could barely stand to use me even in the darkened chamber he seemed to need. He said my scent was not Maida’s, and he could not convince himself even in the blackness that I was she. While he entered my body, more times than not he did not spill his seed. And he had not come to my bed in the past few weeks. My courses came and went in the last week. I am sorry, but my womb is an empty one, my lord. There is no child of your son’s to be your heir.”
    Sir Udolf nodded.
    “I must go and prepare my husband’s body for burial,” Alix told her father-in-law.
    Again he nodded. “I will leave you so you may dress,” he said and, turning, he was gone from her.
    It was sad, Alix thought, that Sir Udolf had lost his only child. But I am free now! she exulted silently to herself. Certainly Sir Udolf will give me escort to the queen, and someone will know where she is. She will take me back and all will be as it was. My parents would want it this way. She pulled her brown jersey gown over her night garment, stuffed her feet into a pair of house slippers, and hurried to the hall.
    Hayle Watteson lay upon the high board, his head lolling to one side. He had been a handsome man despite the petulant twist of his lips and his round, childish face. No one had bothered to close his watery blue eyes and so now Alix did. “Bab,” she called, knowing the woman would be lurking nearby.
    Bab hurried forward. “He died to be with his Maida,” she said, looking from beneath her eyelids to see what kind of a reaction she would get from Alix.
    “Aye, he did,” Alix agreed. “Does he have anything better to wear?”
    Bab nodded.
    “Then go and fetch it. He should be buried as befits his station as Wulfborn’s heir.” She turned to the other women servants who were standing in a knot nearby. “Go bring water and clothes, lasses. We must bathe him before he is dressed in his finest.”
    The serving women scampered off to do her bidding. Bab had already gone.
    Alix looked at the body upon the high board. She felt nothing for it, but then why should she? Hayle Watteson had treated her badly. He had neither loved nor respected her. She had done her best to please, to be a good wife. He had felt no such compunction to respond in kind. She had no regrets, and she would shake the dust of Wulfborn from her shoes as quickly as she could. To have remained to publicly mourn him would have been hypocritical. The winter was close, and she needed to find Margaret of Anjou quickly before travel would be too impossible.
    The women returned, and together they stripped the clothing from the dead man’s body. Then they carefully washed him. They giggled and rolled their eyes at the sight of the young man’s genitals. “No wonder our Maida was so happy,” one said, and Bab cackled knowingly. A sharp look from Alix