Chapter 4 #3
He looked down at the blood on his hands. He was still trying to wash off in the basin, but the water was so bloody that it wasn’t doing anything. He looked back at her with a frown in the corner of his mouth. “Aye, just caught a stag. Ah sold it at the butcher.”
Mazey knew she misread him, because if he sold something he would have extra money. That always made him happy. “Wonderful, should we celebrate?”
He glared at her before speaking. “Nay, we don’t celebrate. Ah lost the money in a bet.” He stood up and dried his hands on some cloth. She noticed there were scratch marks up and down his arms. “Ah’ll have my fill now, however.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him.
Mazey’s mind went numb. She knew what was coming next.
It was almost instinct that kicked in when this happened.
He was in a violent mood. This would hurt—he would like it.
He pulled her over to the bed and pushed her down, pinning her arms above her head while he hiked her skirts up around her hips.
Just as he was about to force himself on her, the alarm sounded outside. Mazey jolted back into reality and tried to get out from under Hume’s body, but he didn’t budge. “Shouldn’t we see what it is?”
Hume reached down and pinched the skin of her thigh as hard as he could.
The sharp pain made her cry out, and he grinned wickedly.
He pressed himself against her and lifted his kilt.
Before he forced himself on her, he bit down on the side of her neck.
She screamed out in pain, feeling blood trickle down her neck.
He only marked her in visible areas if he wanted her housebound.
“Ah don’t care what the emergency is. And ye’d best be staying inside for the rest of the week. ”
She tried to shut her brain off, but sometimes the pain he caused brought her back out of the fog.
Two days later, the woman she bought herbs from walked by and leaned in to the open window.
She spoke to Mazey in a hushed tone. “Did ye hear about the lass? Two days back when they sounded that alarm, they found a body in the ravine, just outside town. Someone raped and killed her just hours before. Best stay in town, love.”
Mazey careened back to the present in a rush of fear and emotion. Baile stared at her as if waiting for an answer to something. When she didn’t answer whatever the question was, he cleared his throat and asked again. “Are ye okay, lass? Where were ye just now?”
Tears fell like rain and Baile squeezed her hand in a comforting gesture while she spoke. “Ah should have known what was happening. Ah could have told ye and then those girls wouldn’t have died. Ah didn’t know. Ah should have seen though.”
“What did ye see, lass?” He spoke to her like one would speak to a spooked horse, to calm it.
“He came home covered in blood the day that girl died.” She shuddered involuntarily. “Ah should have known, but ah never thought he would do that. Ah didn’t put the pieces together until now.”
“Ye couldn’t have known. We all see the best in our spouse, and ye are no exception to the rule. Don’t blame yerself. He was the only one to blame for what he did.”
“Will he stand trial for the murders? Do ah have to speak against him?” She tried to quell the fear that bubbled in her chest. She could be strong for the women he murdered.
Baile sighed and lowered his head. When he looked back up at her, he seemed to have aged.
His ocean blue eyes studied her face. He turned his mouth down into a grimace.
“When we went to get ye from him, he fought us. Ah don’t think ye remember.
” He reached up with his hand and gently brushed the skin on her jaw line where she knew a nasty bruise must be.
This time, there was anger in his eyes. She shrank back from him, afraid she upset him.
He pulled his hand away quickly, then sighed again.
“Balloch and ah couldn’t disarm him. He’s a mighty warrior, that one. I killed him at the ravine, Mazey.”
She couldn’t feel anything. Shouldn’t she have broken down into tears at the news her ex-husband was dead? “Ah know ye did yer best. Ah thank ye for saving me from the same fate of those other girls.”
She reached out and grabbed Baile’s hand again. “Thank ye for coming to my side.” She closed her eyes and felt him place his hand on her cheek.
“Ah always will.” His face was close to hers and she held her breath, the pain forgotten for a moment. He kissed her forehead. It felt protective. She sighed, the tension disappearing from her shoulders.
“Ye need yer rest ah’m sure. Ah’ll have a servant bring ye some food. Please don’t get out of bed. Cohlm says yer rest is of the utmost importance right now.”
Mazey nodded in agreement, wincing again when the pain in her jaw doubled from the movement.
He left, and she was again alone with her thoughts.
Even though Baile said she divorced Hume, nobody in town would know that.
In their eyes, she was a widow. Scotland wasn’t kind to widows.
They often forgot them. There was little work for women feed their children.
Some widows took up begging for food on the streets, while others sold themselves to men.
She couldn’t manage sex for food. If she could go the rest of her life without another man laying a hand on her, she would be happy.
Now her only fear was that after the bairn was born, Baile’s sympathies for her would run out.
She would be without a means to feed her child.