Sir Willarn’s woman

"They're moving his things into her bedchamber," the first maid said.

"That's because her parents are coming. She wants to pretend that she is a good little wife. Once they're gone, she will go back to ignoring him again. If Sir Willarn was my husband…" the second maid trailed off.

"You would what?" a third one asked.

"He would never be cold," the second maid said wistfully. "Or alone. I would make him the happiest man who ever lived."

The other two girls giggled. "You're such a whore," the first maid accused.

"Don't you be pointing your fingers at me," the second maid countered. "I have seen the way you look at him. Both of you. Don't think I don't notice."

"He's so handsome," the third maid gushed. "I—"

"Did you see him the other day?" the first maid interrupted. "He beat seven of the king's knights. All on his own. Oh!"

Raina emerged from behind the pillar she had been eavesdropping from. The startled maids gave her a flurry of curtsies and bows and scurried away like ducklings in the wake of a diving hawk.

Raina watched them vanish with mounting annoyance. She thought of dismissing them but dismissed the idea out of hand. What good would it do? The whole castle knew her marriage was a sham. Better gossips she knew than those she didn't.

Raina took an apple from the kitchen and stepped out into the stiff autumn air. The castle's new outer wall was almost complete. Willy had insisted on it. Raina had been against it at first because it would cost too much but she liked it now. Two sets of walls made the First Fork a lot harder to assault.

She spoke to the builders, who were putting the finishing touches on a tower in one of the corners. "Ten days and it will be done, my lady," the master builder assured her. After commending the builders on their speed, Raina went to find her husband.

Willy, as was his habit, was training in the yard. He had one arm tied behind his back and a sparring sword in his other. He faced four squires alone.

The boys, thirteen and fourteen-year-olds, charged, baying for blood. Willy moved like the wind, blocking, parrying, sidestepping, and sweeping the boys off their feet. It was more dancing than fighting, with Willy laughing as his assailants howled and groaned.

When all four squires were on the ground, Willy increased the number to five, six, seven, and finally eight. It was only when facing eight boys with one hand tied behind his back that Willy was finally overpowered and forced into the ground. His men cheered lustily as he rose.

All the men tried their luck but none was able to fend off more than four squires with one hand bound. Then the groups split into sparring pairs, grown men and boys sparring separately. Willy, as usual, preferred to spar at a numerical disadvantage.

For the first time, Raina watched her husband with more than anger or annoyance. She tried to see him as other women saw him. He was a beast. She had seen Robyr spar but Willy was miles better. He was the dragon to Robyr's lion. And more, Willy enjoyed the fighting, always laughing when he dodged an opponent's blow.

At times, the sword in his hand would swing so fast that all Raina saw was a blur of silver. And whenever he swung, Willy hit something, or more specifically, someone. He never missed, not once.

Willy stopped mid-swing as his eyes met Raina's. He flashed her a smile and bludgeoned two of Caedmyr XIII's warrior priests into the ground.

As the warrior priests writhed on the ground, Willy flashed Raina a triumphant gesture, shrugged off a hit to his backplate, and turned on his unfortunate attacker. Willy had the knight on the ground in two blows. He never worried about any blow not targeted at his head. He trusted his armor to do all the blocking and battered his assailants into the dirt one at a time. With every man he felled, Willy smiled at Raina.

Raina fingered the pouch she always carried around her waist. "Forgive me, my love," she whispered. Robyr didn't answer. He never did. He haunted her dreams but abandoned her when she woke.

It felt like treason to Robyr but Raina had resolved to try making things work with her husband. He had grown on her. It was almost a year to the day since they got married and ten months since they retook First Fork.

In those ten months, Willy had reasserted Lamanbhurg control over all the lands in the vicinity of the First Fork, rebuilding holdfasts and watchtowers along the borders. He had single-handedly reconquered nearly all lost Lamanbhurg lands. Only Lamania was left and it wasn't going to remain unassaulted for long. Raina couldn't help feeling a grudging admiration.

Raina's parents were expected at First Fork in two to three days. Their stated purpose was to celebrate the first anniversary of her wedding but Raina knew the true reason for their visit: the recapture of Lamania.

One too many defeats had dimmed Lord Nylarn's prospects of raising a sufficiently large army and fleet for the assault of Lamania but with Willy winning victory after victory, men were flocking to the Lamanbhurg banner in droves again. Hardly a day passed without some knight or man-at-arms arriving at the gates of First Fork to swear his sword to Willy.

Everyone loved Willy. Everyone but Raina. I have to change that, she decided. It had taken her a year but she had resolved to be less hostile to her husband.

"Show him some affection," Melilla had advised. It was good advice, even if every bone in Raina's body screamed against it.

She was bound to this man for the rest of her life. The least she could do was find some joy in it. So Raina waited until the practice was over. After one last apology to Robyr, she stepped onto the sand.

"My lady, my lady, my lady," each of the men whispered and bowed slightly in turn as Raina walked past them. She returned the courtesies with small nods of her own.

Willy was seated on a bench by the armory. His hair was wet with sweat and more flowed down his face. His squire, Caedmyr XIII, stood behind him, undoing the straps of his breastplate and backplate.

"If you will allow me, Exalted One," Raina asked the boy king.

Caedmyr XIII relinquished his position behind Willy without a word. Willy turned to look at her with a puzzled smile as she fumbled with the straps of his armor. Raina shrugged and kept fumbling.

She hated the knots. There were too many of them. And they wouldn't budge. By the time she was done untying all the straps, her fingers were sore. Willy said little through it all.

Once the straps were undone, Raina had to quickly step back to prevent the falling backplate from smashing into her feet. "Watch your feet," Willy warned as his men chuckled. One look from Raina had them mute again.

With his armor off, Raina took off her husband's arming doublet and tried to massage his shoulders as Melilla had taught her but couldn't go through with it. His shirt was so soaked in sweat that it was dripping off and flowing down his arms.

When Raina paused, Willy stood and clapped her on the shoulder with a big beefy arm. Standing so close, Raina had to crane her neck to look into his face. "Thanks, wife," he said.

"What are you planning to do for the rest of the day?" Raina asked.

"Take a bath then take a ride."

"I'll ride with you," Raina said.

Willy screwed up his face. "Why?"

"What do you mean why?" Raina tried to act indignant. "You don't want me to ride with you?"

"There is no need for this charade, Raina," Willy said. "Your parents aren't here yet."

"The servants are gossiping about us," Raina whispered.

Willy shrugged. "So?" He beckoned his men without waiting for a reply and they all trooped off into the bathhouse, leaving Raina standing alone in the training yard. She was seized by a deep dull pain. Pain from something she had never experienced before: rejection.

It took a long time for Raina to leave the yard. When she finally did, she found herself skulking behind a pillar near the kitchen again, listening to maids and cooks gossiping while trying to forget her pain.

The skulking paid off with some concerning gossip: Willy had blinded a tanner at a town a few miles south of the castle. The maids were gone before Raina could hear more. She thought of summoning them but reconsidering for the sake of her dignity, sent Melilla to suss out the details instead.

It didn't take long for the handmaiden to return with the tale. "Bashed his eyes in with the pommel of his dagger?" Raina gasped.

"Yes, my lady," Melilla said. "Smashed in both eyes like eggs. The tanner will never see again."

"Why would Willy do that?"

"The tanner was peeping at women when they bathed, my lady. Been doing it for months. Townsfolk set a trap and caught him."

Raina smirked. "Serves him right, the filthy creep."

"They're saying something else, my lady."

"What?"

"I shouldn't say."

"You already have and you will," Raina commanded.

Melilla swallowed. "Lara says that one of the women the tanner had peeped at is Sir Willarn's woman, my lady."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Lara says Sir Willarn visits this woman frequently. That she is his second wife."

"What?"

"You know Lara, my lady. Big mouth, lots of stories. They're not always true," Melilla said quickly.

"Then why would she say it?" Raina asked.

"Lara's sister lives in the town, my lady."

"So it's true?"

"I don't know, my lady."

"What do you think?"

"I have never heard the story before, my lady."

"I asked you what you think. Tell me," Raina commanded.

"Some nights, Sir Willarn doesn't sleep in the castle, my lady."

"Some nights?"

"Many nights, my lady. Leaves in the evenings, doesn't return till morning."

"How long have you known this?"

"A long time, my lady."

"Why didn't you ever tell me before?"

"I didn't think you would be interested, my lady."

"What gave you that idea?"

"You said you were not interested in Sir Willarn's comings and goings, my lady."

You did say that, a voice inside Raina's head confirmed it. She and her husband had lived largely separate lives since moving into First Fork. The castle was large enough that they had quarters on opposite ends. They ran into each other in the common areas sometimes but other times, they could go for days without setting eyes on each other.

Their interactions were cordial but never warm. Willy tried but Raina never bothered. She hadn't even noticed that he had grown increasingly uninterested in her as the year progressed.

They had moved into First Fork just before the winter of the previous year. Back then, he brought her flowers every day or two. There was also the occasional small gift. Raina remembered a striped pony that she hadn't ridden yet and a white lapdog she had regifted to Aidan's wife.

Raina felt a stab of pain when she realized that her husband hadn't given her a gift or said anything remotely suggestive to her in three months. She hadn't noticed until now. She didn't know why that hurt.

Raina had never cared for Willy as a man. Even her earlier attempt at being affectionate had been done out of a sense of duty and political necessity rather than desire.

She had grown to accept Willy but her heart would always belong to Robyr. Yet Willy's actions hurt her nonetheless.

It had been easy for Raina to ignore Willy over the past year. There were always disputes to settle, villages to visit, and temple services to attend.

She spent just as much time outside the castle as her husband did. But unlike Willy, Raina spent all this time among her subjects, the ever-diligent Aidan Sritanbhurg and his wife at her side.

Raina was present at the dedication service of every baby born in her lands whose parents mattered. She attended the funerals and weddings too, always with an appropriate gift in hand. She was there for the consecration of the land before planting season and the thanksgiving after the harvest was gathered.

If a family broke ground on a new house, Raina was there with a gift. If another family's house burned down, she was also there with an appropriate gift. Buying the love of the peasants, Nylarn Lamanbhurg called it.

These were the parts of ruling that Willy never bothered with. He showed up for the festivals and nothing else. Raina had always assumed he was off hunting or fighting someone. The thought that he would seek solace in the arms of another woman had never crossed her mind yet it should have and she knew it.

Raina left to confront Willy but he wasn't in his chambers. All his men claimed to know nothing of his whereabouts. Raina waited in his chambers until dawn. Willy didn't show.