Hot Summer's Knight by Jennie Reid Page A

so.”
    Esme took a deep, shuddering breath.
    “That poor girl.  As if she hasn’t been though enough already!”
    “I know, love.  She’s lost both her parents, her brother, and then her husband ups and leaves her for the Holy Land when they’re barely wed.”
    Esme succumbed to another bout of tears.  William was mystified.  What had he said wrong now?
    “That’s what’s wrong!  Her wedding!  All these years, I’d thought the damage had been repaired.  I never thought, I never guessed!  Oh, the poor girl,” Esme wailed, “It’s more than one person should have to bear!”
    “She has us here to help her, you know that.  Now tell me.”
    Esme gazed into his beloved face, its lines etched in moonlight.  How lucky she was to have a man as wise, as loving, as this one.
    “You remember the Lady’s wedding,” Esme said.
    “Indeed I do.  The wedding feast lasted for three days,” William answered.
    “But do you remember why it was held in the spring, with the snows melting, and the roads barely passable, and not in the summer, as had been planned?”
    “Ah,” said William, beginning to see where Esme was leading, “the rape.”
    “Exactly,” said Esme, “The rape.  The old Lord had been negotiating with Sir Huon’s father for some time.  After Berenice was raped, the date was brought forward a few months.  Just in case there was a child.”
    “Do you think Huon’s family was told about it?”
    Esme snorted.  “Not likely! And ruin Berenice’s prospects of marriage?  Except to the monster who did it to her, of course.”
    William swore.  “To think, I had my sword at his throat!”  His hand clenched into a fist.  “Why didn’t I finish Fulk off when I had the chance?”
    “Because you would’ve started a war, my love.  Fulk’s nephew was here in those days.  He would’ve avenged his uncle’s death, and the whole valley would’ve suffered.  Sparing Fulk’s life was the right thing to do, at the time.”
    “So what’s happened?  What’s changed?  This was all settled a long time ago.”
    “Berenice told me today Odo is going to petition the bishop for the annulment of her marriage.”
    “But how?  On what basis?”
    “On the basis of her virginity!”
    “What!” William almost shouted.
    “Shush, my love, Gareth mustn’t hear us,” whispered Esme.
    “But doesn’t she know?  How can she not know?”
    Esme held a finger to his lips.  “I know it seems impossible, but I’ve heard of this before.  Sometimes, when something so dreadful happens to someone they cannot bear it, God in His mercy takes away their memories.  I believe this is what happened to Berenice.
    “She told me today she wouldn’t let her husband touch her on their wedding night, because she couldn’t.  She doesn’t know why she couldn’t.”
    “But the sheets!  I know what happened as well as you do, but I thought the sheets proved everything had gone as planned.”
    “That’s what I’d believed too, until today.  I knew there wouldn’t be any blood on the wedding night – Heaven knows Fulk took more than his fair share from the girl.  I’d given her a little dagger before we all left her in the bridal chamber, and I told her to make sure there was something on the sheets to show everyone the next morning.  I thought she’d understood what I meant.”
    Esme took a deep breath.  “Today she told me she cut herself accidentally that night.  It wasn’t to pretend she’d been intact.  I don’t know what went on!” 
    She cried a little, nestling into William’s shoulder.
    William stroked her back.  “Well, we knew back then all was not right with the marriage, didn’t we?  The last time our friend downstairs was here he spent most of his nights in the bed he’s sleeping in now.”
    “My love, when the letter comes from the bishop, Odo’ll send her to St.  Bernadette’s to be examined.  Can you imagine how humiliated she’ll feel, how mortified, when they