Chapter 10
They heard shouts and running. Isabelle got up and started pulling on her clothing.
“Something is wrong,” she told him. He began to dress, too.
Someone knocked on the door and called, “Isabelle.”
“It’s old Doris,” she told Evan. “There must be some medical problem or maybe they have discovered Luther’s body.”
She cracked open the door and asked, “What do you need?”
“Heather’s in labor,” the woman replied. “She’s not doing well.”
“Give us a few minutes,” Isabelle replied. “I have a task that must be completed but we will hurry.”
“She’s in the birthing chamber, but the baby is big and she is small, not even full grown.”
When her door was securely locked again Isabelle turned to him and said. “We need to dispose of Luther’s body. Heather’s baby is his. Someone may go looking for him.”
“How are we going to do that?” he asked her.
“I’m going to show you one of my secrets,” she said. She walked across the room to a door that opened into a large, walk in closet. Stepping clear to the back she shoved aside some clothing and clicked a hidden latch. What appeared to be a solid stone wall smoothly and silently opened to a dark passage. “Follow me,” she said.
She grabbed a large ring of keys from a handy hook on the wall and showed them to him. “These are the keys Uncle wants. I’m not even sure how he knows about them. I never carry them with me outside the tunnels.”
Evan said nothing as he stepped behind her into what looked like a narrow hall, a passage maybe 6 feet wide and dimly lit with what appeared to be dawning daylight coming through periodic narrow openings. “Arrow slits?” he asked. She shut the opening to her room and led Evan on toward Luther’s room.
“Yes,” she said. “They were walled off and hidden at least 200 years ago when the castle was remodeled the last time the family who sold it to Gramps could afford it. They were trying to make the place look more like more of a manor house than the castle it really is. That’s when the painted walls went in and some of the newer furniture and décor. Even that stuff is old and antique now. My grandfather left these things as he found them. He liked the feeling of authenticity and continuity. Any building that’s as old as this one has been changed and remodeled throughout its existence. He also liked the secret tunnels and wanted to keep them. We have been able to defend the castle without revealing this part of its secrets, though I’ve come close to telling it exists when we’ve had problems with raiders.”
Evan walked closer to an opening in the wall and looked out without getting too close to it. He could see where his guard was camped outside the walls and one of his men watching the castle. “We are armed with bows and arrows, as well as other weapons. We can also fight with our minds if we need to. We could work with this.”
It gave Isabelle hope. She had never expected that she would be able to fight Uncle and win. Evan and his friends changed everything.
Isabelle continued down the hall until she reached a door. She took a key from the chain she had accessed when they first entered the tunnel and opened the door. Evan recognized Luther’s room and saw his body still on the bed.
“Can you carry him a pretty long way?” she asked.
“Yes.” he answered.
She hastily gathered the man’s belongings and stuffed them in some bedding that she formed into a sack. She handed Luther’s weapons to Evan and he tucked them away in his clothing. “Follow me…and hurry as much as you can.” Evan carried Luther and followed her as she continued to the end of the hall and pushed open a low door.
“Drop him out here,” she said. “Even if someone sees it will not cause comment. Uncle drops dead people out here regularly from a higher opening if he does not consider them worth a burying ceremony. It leads to the dump. It’s too close to the building but I set fires or have a thick layer of dirt and lime distributed over the top regularly to combat disease and odors. It also allows us to dispose of bodies or garbage without opening the gates at times when we are being threatened. We compost vegetable matter someplace else.”
Evan dropped the body with a few quiet words…something like ‘return to the Earth and be at peace.’
They turned together back down the hidden hallway.
“I have to go to the birthing chamber,” she continued. “You can stay in my room if you want.”
“I will come with you,” he said surprising her. “I assist at some births…as well as short funerals.” His voice was ironic, but she did not have time to think about it.
They nearly ran to the birthing chamber after going back through her room.
Heather was sitting up in a birthing chair, barely conscious. Her body was thin and much too young for the pregnant belly she was carrying.
Isabelle rushed to a basin of hot water and began to wash. Evan followed right behind her, stripping off his outer clothing. They scrubbed their hands and arms and then moved together to examine the wilting girl.
“She’s too young for this,” Evan said.
“Luther brought her here after he had already gotten her pregnant. She’s only 15 and has been undernourished, not that he cared. She seemed happy enough with him even though he would not marry her. He wanted me but I wouldn’t have anything to do with him. I think Heather was grateful to have enough to eat even though she had to put up with Luther.” Isabelle said as she bent to examine the birth’s progress.
“She is not dilated enough give birth yet. How long has she been in labor,” she asked Doris.
“Over 28 hours,” Doris answered. “She’s just not making progress and she’s exhausted. I don’t think she’s strong enough to push now even if it was time. I got her into the chair hoping gravity would help but it’s not enough. Every now and then a little foot comes briefly so we know the baby is turned wrong.”
Evan reached for the girl and pushed her head back until she blinked up at him seeming barely aware of what was happening. “Rest until I tell you to wake,” he commanded, and it was a command, not a request. The girl fell asleep immediately. Isabelle felt for her pulse and found it a bit stronger than it had been.
“You will assist me,” he commanded Isabelle. There was compulsion in his voice. It made Isabelle nervous that he might make her do almost anything, but she was there to help so she said nothing, while promising herself she would bring it up later.
Evan went to the water container and washed his arms and hands again and returned to the girl. He placed his hands on her belly and ordered the baby to turn. Light came from his hands and Heather’s belly moved as the baby turned, obedient to his command.
“Do you have something to cut the cord?” he asked. “The baby will come soon now. We need to get him out so we can feed the girl and get her started regaining her strength.”
The baby obligingly dropped into his hands within a short time after only a few contractions. Heather seemed to be immune to the pains and still slept. He cut the cord with the sterilized scissors Isabelle put into his hand.
“The afterbirth should come soon, too, now that the baby has been delivered,” he said.
He placed a hand on Heather’s forehead and told her to wake.
Isabelle washed the baby and cleared its nose and throat, but it did not breathe or move. She turned it bottom up and gave it a brisk massage hoping to encourage it to breath and it still did not move. She laid it on the bed and breathed into its mouth resulting finally in a thin cry, as he seemed to come to life in her arms.
“It’s a boy,” she said. “Did Heather say if she had thought of a name?” she asked Doris.
“Not to me,” Doris said. “She might have spoken to someone else, even that bastard Luther. It’s his. I suppose we could name him after him.”
But then Heather spoke up. “No, not him. I want him to have the name of the man who delivered him.” She was awake and seemed in much better shape than she had been just minutes ago.
It seemed like a miracle.
“Call him Wolf for now,” Evan suggested. “It is our clan name and he can be part of the clan, too.”
“Wolf, he is,” Doris said as she bustled about getting food and drink ready for Heather.
Isabelle wrapped the clean newborn and laid him in Heather’s arms. “Let him nurse while we finish up.” She showed Heather how to introduce the baby to the breast. The baby was more responsive than she had feared. He and Heather had endured a long difficult labor. Both were lucky Evan had been able to salvage the situation with his magic hands and voice.
Heather looked worn out and she seemed worried so Isabelle asked her, “What’s worrying you? You seem anxious.”
“It’s Luther,” the girl said. “I don’t want to see him, especially alone. I’m afraid he’ll hurt us, me and the baby. I’m also afraid he’ll want me to have sex too soon since the baby is born now.”
Evan spoke up, “Don’t worry. You don’t have to worry about him any more. You and the baby are safe.”
The girl was not quite ready to trust in that without more reassurance. “He likes to hurt me and he does what he wants regardless of what I might want or feel. I really thought I would do anything to have enough to eat, but I no longer think that. He said if I would let him have sex with me, he would let me come here with him. Otherwise I could just starve. I wanted to be some place safer but having to put up with him was worse than I could have imagined. I would be happy to never see him again.”
“No one here will ever see him again,” Isabelle said lightly. “He left the castle shortly before Evan and I came here to this room. He will never return to hurt you or bother anyone else, either. You do not have to be afraid or worried any more.”
They cleaned the bed and the room and fed Heather, finally leaving her and little Wolf to sleep and regain their strength.
“Wake her in two hours. The baby is underweight and so is the mother. They both need to eat every two to three hours for the foreseeable future,” Evan said. “She’s going to crash pretty hard, so she is not out of the woods yet.”
“What did you do to bring the baby?” Isabelle asked.
“It’s a kind of compulsion. He was aware of what Luther did to his mother. He did not feel life would be at all good with the kind of man they would have to tolerate. He was literally afraid to live, to have to exist in such conflict. Babies are impressionable. They often sense conflict in the womb. Everyone needs a sense of hope and the baby only sensed fear and pain. He can also sense that his mother is in trouble or in physical distress. Part of what I do is to calm his fears of whatever he’s noticed in the world. His father was a rough, even cruel man. His mother was having a lot of physical stress, which I was able to relieve through the compulsion I used on her. I’m glad I killed Luther, for Heather and the child as well as for you. I sensed he abused the girl and used her for rough sex. The loving attention and touch you gave him helped, too. The kindness of the touch brought him into this world…made him want to live, unlike his father.”
“They will be better off without him, but she will still have to raise the child alone,” Isabelle said.
“We will help them,” Evan said. “Plus she will become more educated and independent as she matures. It will take a long time for her to recover from what Luther did to her. She may never wish for a mate after being with him.”
“I felt pretty much the same until I met you,” Isabelle said. “I was really starting to think all men were scum except maybe Albert.”
“Things are changing here,” Evan said. “Changes always happen. Influencing change and making changes happen can be one way to help people.”
It excited Isabelle to think that she could bring good things to Heather as well as lots of other people. “I’m really starting to like this.” She told him, unwilling and unable to hide her excitement. “What you did was remarkable. I’m afraid we would have lost her and the baby without your help. How did you learn to do it?”
“It came to me when I needed it the first time I had to deliver a baby,” he told her. “It’s like your visions of illness. It also is something more hopeful than just being a warrior. I know I have to be a warrior, but I can be something else, too.”
Isabelle thought she understood all too well. She really wanted to be something else besides a brothel keeper. Detecting illness wasn’t something she could tell people in her society without putting herself at risk, but Evan didn’t seem bothered by it at all. He seemed to think it was pretty normal.
It was full morning. “Let’s get some breakfast,” she suggested. “They should be serving now.”
Evan replied with his standard grunt and nod and they headed downstairs together.
Chapter 11
Uncle was there along with many other people. “So how are our newly weds?” he shouted. “Tell me man, have you tamed the witch yet?”
“I like her as she is,” Evan said. “Why would I want to tame her?”
It seemed best to change the subject and she rushed to say, “We’ve been busy delivering Heather’s baby…a boy,” Isabelle replied.
Uncle looked at Evan with disapproval. “I would have thought you’d have her within your control by now,” he said. “I don’t see why she has to attend births. We don’t need more mouths to feed. It just means we all get less to eat.”
“I see it as one of her virtues,” Ethan growled.
Albert sent servers to put food before them and the discord was interrupted before anything more was said. Isabelle and Evan ate well and left the great hall to go back to her room.
A guard approached them as they neared her room.
“Angela wants you immediately,” he said.
“Of course,” Isabelle replied. She turned and looked at Evan. “I’ll see her and return as soon as I can.”
“I’ll come with you,” he said.
They headed for the steps and hesitated outside Uncle’s room while the guard announced them.
Angela was alone in the room.
She turned and looked at them with haughty disapproval. She wanted to be arrogant but wasn’t capable of pulling it off. Isabelle and Evan were natural commanders, but Angela was just an unlucky woman who survived because she had big breasts. “I want your keys to this place. It’s my right to have them as the leader’s woman.”
“There are keys here and there,” Isabelle said. “I’m sure if you just make an effort you can gather them up and have them in one place if you want.”
“I want you to gather them up and bring them to me immediately,” Angela said. It was an order, not a request.
“This place belongs to me, not Uncle,” Isabelle said.
Angela smiled with obvious satisfaction, “But you failed to keep control. Now it’s ours and there is nothing you can do about it. Bring me the keys!”
“I’ll work on it,” Isabelle said, not intending to do any more than keep the peace.
“I also need all your notes and plans for our guest weekends,” Angela said. “We have one coming up next weekend and I will be running things in your place. I know a lot more about entertaining men than you do.”
It was probably true. Isabelle knew Angela knew a lot more about arousing men than she did. While Evan seemed to like her, most other men thought she was a demanding, nagging pain in the ass, plus she refused to do what they wanted her to do.
Evan chose that moment to jump into the conversation. “It’s a complicated thing to manage this place and entertain and feed and house a bunch of guests who expect and are accustomed to having a luxurious and comfortable stay in addition to their sexual pleasures. It requires more than knowing how to entertain men and flirt and have sex with them. It requires organizational skills and considerable planning.”
Angela walked closer to him and looked him over from head to toe, taking his measure and liking what she saw.
Isabelle suddenly realized she felt very possessive of her new husband. She thought of punching the woman, but Evan seemed
to sense what she felt and grasped her hand in a way that reassured her before she completely lost her temper.
At the same time Angela seemed to lose interest in him and got back to the weekend’s entertainment. Isabelle realized that Evan had used his ability to compel her away from him. It was a revelation that she approved. She definitely did not want to share him with anyone else sexually.
Angela said, “All the staff can handle their duties as usual. You only communicate orders to them. They do all the work. I will enjoy telling them what to do. I was born for this.”
It was a bit more complicated than that. Part of it was designing menus for the foods that were available. It was not possible to grow enough foods to make a consistent menu. Isabelle and the cooks were creating meals out of whatever they managed to grow. It changed every day. And someone, usually Isabelle had to come up with attractive recipes using whatever was in the gardens. Sometimes she really had to pluck things almost out of thin air and extend the ingredients to feed all the people who wanted and needed to eat. She and the people who cooked could never really relax. Additionally, their paying customers were demanding and many people who lived in the castle also had to be fed and with too little food.
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