The Wise Woman Read online

  'I don't know,' Alys said. 'He's not with her now. She's full of joy. She thinks she's with child. I am to confirm it.'

  The other women exclaimed, Eliza's eyes grew round. 'At last,' she said. 'Hugo's done his duty at last.'

  'Yes,' Alys said drily. 'Praise be. And what an act of love it was!'

  'Is it true?' Eliza asked. 'She's had false alarms before. And if ever spite could stop a baby settling then she would be the one to do it.'

  'I doubt it's true,' Alys said. 'She has every reason to lie. But I'll tell her "yes" or "no". And I'll tell the old lord too. If she is lying, I will tell him at once.'

  'Hush!' Ruth said instantly. 'Go along, Alys, she'll be waiting for you. Shall I come too?'

  'Yes,' Alys said. 'She's been scratching at me until I am heart sore. Come with me, Ruth, and she'll mind her tongue.'

  'What are you going to do?' Ruth asked curiously as Alys took the prayer-book and the crystal from her bundle.

  'I shall see if I can dowse for a baby,' Alys said easily. 'Don't look so amazed, Ruth, it's a common enough skill.'

  She led the way back into Lady Catherine's room. Catherine was looking at herself in a beaten silver hand-mirror.

  'What is this mark on my neck?' she asked Alys. Alys looked a little closer. 'It is a bruise, my lady,' she said evenly. She could see the marks of teeth. He had bitten her and sucked her. Hugo had done this.

  Catherine sighed luxuriously. 'How could it have come there?' she asked innocently. 'What sort of bruise, Alys?'

  'A bite,' Alys said briefly.

  'Ohh,' Catherine sighed. 'I had forgotten. That was Hugo. He snatches at me and he bites me and sucks me as if he would eat me up. We will have a lion, not a son, Alys! For he mounts me like a lion!'

  Alys nodded coolly, but her cheeks were scarlet. Catherine did not miss the signs of jealousy. She rarely missed anything.

  'Are you a virgin still, Alys?' she asked. 'I could forward the match we spoke of. The young soldier is still willing. I should hate to think of you becoming old and dried-up and unloved. To have a man mad for you is a wonderful thing, Alys. When Hugo comes to my bed I feel as if I am a queen. And when he takes me in his arms and covers my whole body with his kisses! I can't tell you, Alys, how it feels! It is a pleasure so deep that it feels wicked – like a mortal sin.'

  Alys felt her anger rising like vomit in her throat. 'You are blessed in your love, my lady,' she said. 'Now can you tell me when you last had your times?'

  Catherine frowned at the interruption. 'Five, no, six weeks ago,' she said.

  'Are you at all sick?' Alys asked. Catherine shook her head.

  'Are your breasts tender or enlarged?' Alys asked. She felt her cheeks stinging with heat as she forced herself to speak coolly about Hugo's love-making with his wife – the fat sow, Alys said inwardly.

  Catherine laughed. 'Of course they are tender!' she said rejoicingly. She opened her shift so Alys could see her. Her large, brown-tipped breasts were marked on both sides with thin red strips, like little lines of blood blisters. Ruth gasped. 'Are you hurt, my lady?' she asked. Catherine closed her eyes, revelling in the memory. 'Oh, he hurt me,' she said, her voice very low. 'He bound me, and tied me, and mounted me from behind.'

  She opened her eyes; they were dark with remembered desire. 'Don't you wish he would do that to you, Alys?' she asked. 'Wouldn't you love him to cover you? To mount you like a wild stallion on a willing mare?'

  Alys cleared her throat. Her mouth was suddenly very dry. 'No, my lady,' she said simply. 'The ordeal you forced on me has cleared my head as well as my character. I no longer look for the young lord. In any case,' she said icily, 'my tastes do not run that way. I should never revel in pain.

  'Now, I shall lay my hand on your belly and see if I can dowse for a baby, my lady,' she said. 'It is the same as water-divining, many people do it. There is nothing to fear.'

  Catherine nodded, irritated at the coolness of Alys' voice. 'I fear nothing,' she said. 'No one can hurt me but him.'

  Alys took out the prayer-book and muttered a few words of nonsense in Latin. She did not dare to bless the work as she used to do. The memory of the fragile communion wafer which had to be torn into pieces like skin before it could burn was still very bright. She dared not invoke the name of the Lord or His Mother. But she waved the prayer-book around and whispered low so that no one could say later that she had done the work unblessed.

  She touched Lady Catherine's round belly with her icy small hands and noticed with malicious satisfaction how the slack flesh quivered to her touch.

  'This woman is with child,' she said aloud. The crystal revolved in a lazy right-hand arc. Alys bit her lip and tasted her own blood, as warm and salty as a tear. Catherine was pregnant.

  'What does it say? What does it say?' Catherine asked.

  'You may be with child,' Alys said slowly. She longed with all her heart to deny the child. But nothing would stop it growing in Catherine's fat belly. It could not be wished away. 'Ask if it's a son!' Catherine demanded. 'The child is male?' Alys asked. The crystal swung again.

  Catherine gave a little delighted crow. 'Is that yes? Is that yes?' she demanded.

  Alys nodded.

  'Send for the young lord!' she said to Ruth. 'You stay here,' she said to Alys. 'He may want you.'

  Alys gathered up her crystal and prayer-book and went over to the window. Outside a brisk wind was blowing, bringing snow down from the moor. The little herb and flower garden of the inner manse below was drifting with whiteness, snow swirling between Alys in the second storey and the frozen ground below. Out on the moors Morach's cottage would be white, with great drifts banked up against the door. If it snowed hard and long the soldiers from the castle would not be able to get through. Alys had a great longing to be out there, in the cold and loneliness of the moor. Anything rather than be here, in this little hot room with this spiteful, corrupt woman, and with the man she loved obeying his wife's bidding.

  Hugo walked in without knocking. Catherine did not cover herself. Her shift was open, her breasts splayed wide, her belly showing. The fine linen sheet of her bed only half covered the bush of hair. She looked at Hugo as if she expected him to start love-making again, before Alys, before Ruth.

  'You sent for me, lady?' he said tersely. He did not look at Alys.

  'I have some news for you,' she said. She patted her bed. 'Come and sit a little closer.'

  Hugo made no move. 'Your pardon, Madam, but I cannot wait,' he said. 'I am riding out hunting today and they are waiting for me. If I delay, the horses will be chilled. There's a bitter wind.'

  'Stay home then,' Catherine said invitingly. She shrugged down a little deeper in the bed. The nipples on her breasts had hardened at the sight of him. Alys found herself staring. 'I can find sport to amuse you here,' Catherine suggested.

  Hugo nodded. 'Tonight, Madam,' he said. 'I have promised my father venison for his dinner next week. I must hunt it today.'

  'I'll be quick then and tell you our news. I have good news for you. I am with child and Alys here thinks it is a boy.'

  There was a stunned silence. Hugo still did not look at Alys.

  'That is the best news I could hear,' he said levelly, his voice under tight control. 'I congratulate you, Madam. I hope we have a healthy son. And now I must go-'

  'Where are you riding?' Catherine asked. 'Bowes Moor,' he said from the doorway. 'Oh, stop then!' she said, as if she had just thought of it. 'Stop, my lord. Go to Alys' kinswoman's cottage and bid her come to the castle. Send one of your men back with her. I need her skill, Alys needs her advice. Isn't that true, Alys?'

  'Morach has greater skill than I,' Alys said. She did not look up from the floor. She knew Hugo was not looking at her. 'But you will have no need of her until the birth, my lady, in October. You should summon her then.'

  'My lord would want me to take no chances with my health,' Catherine said positively.

  Hugo shook his head. 'Whatever you wish, Madam. I can fet