But he didn't. He turned away from her and walked to another stone, and when she got down from the stone where he had placed her he didn't look at her. She walked to him, but he kept his face averted, and only after some moments had passed did he look at her.
"It grows dark," he said softly. "We should return."
It was after that day that he began to stay away from her. In such a short time she had become so used to spending time with him that she found that she missed him. She saw him in the courtyard training with his men, so she borrowed some clothes from the cook's boy, dressed in them, and went to join him.
She smiled at him, but he did not return her smile. "You are my wife. You are not to display yourself before my men that way," he said, looking down at her legs, which were covered with no more than thin knit hose.
"What am I supposed to do all day?" she spit at him. "And I am not your wife!
"
She meant that she was his wife in name only, but he took what she said the wrong way. "You will be free soon enough," he said, and his voice was hard.
Zared turned away from him and from the men around them, who were watching with a great deal of interest in their eyes, and she went upstairs to her room. Her single, lonely room. She had been alone most of her life, and she was alone again, but why did it seem so much worse? It was as though she'd found a friend and lost him.
She flung herself on the bed, wanting to cry but not able to do so. She should be glad that he was staying away from her, she thought. Who wanted the company of a Howard anyway? She was a Peregrine, and she hated all Howards.
Didn't she?
She thought of what her brother Rogan was going to say when he found out that his little sister was married to a Howard. Rogan would go to the king himself and demand that an annulment be given. Rogan never trusted anyone—he'd probably demand that a midwife examine Zared to be sure that she was a virgin and that the Howard man had never touched her.
"I'm still a virgin," she whispered. "As clean and as untouched as the day I was born." And after Rogan had the annulment papers in his hand he'd no doubt hate the Howards more. He'd probably think that his sister had been rejected by a Howard.
"There must be something that I can do," she thought. "There has to be something that can be done to prevent more hatred."
"My lord," Margaret said softly to Tearle. He was at the well scrubbing off the sweat he had raised while training with his men.
"Yes?" Tearle turned to her. He hadn't been in the best of spirits in the last few days. Night and day his thoughts plagued him. He was falling in love with the brat who was his wife. Maybe he had been in love with her since he had first seen her struggling with his brother's men, men who didn't have sense enough to know that she was a female. But his feelings for the girl were not returned, for she still talked of returning to her brothers' house and of the annulment. He thought that someday soon he should consider sending a message asking the king to annul their marriage.
He looked at Margaret. "What is it?"
"Lady Zared has gone into the village."
He frowned. "She is not a prisoner. Did you send an escort with her?"
"Yes, but she eluded them."
Tearle was immediately alarmed. Had she run back to her brothers?
Before he could move Margaret put her hand on his arm. "She has been found. One of the men saw her going into Hebe's place."
"Why would she want to see that old woman?"
"It is said that she is a witch." Margaret's voice lowered. Like all servants, she knew much more about what was going on between the master and his mistress than they would have liked.
"Why would she go to a witch?"
Margaret hesitated. "Hebe rids women of unwanted children."
At that Tearle's face lost its color. "Tell John to saddle my horse."
An hour later it was an enraged man who burst into the old woman's dark, dirty hut. Tearle's first instinct was to kill the woman, and after that he was going to kill the woman he'd married. He had no doubt that it was Colbrand's child she was carrying. No wonder Zared had wanted to go back to her brothers'. There she could pass the child off as belonging to a Howard and perhaps use it to try to gain the Howard lands. He cursed her and himself and all women and marriage and everything else that had to do with men and women.
"My wife was here," he said to the terrified old woman. "Did you rid her of her child?"
"Nay, my lord," she said, her voice quivering. "She carried no child."
"Do not lie to me. I will burn you if you lie to me."