THREE

“What is going on here, Puis-je savoir?” she heard the Baron’s voice asking her father, who now looked as pale as vinegar. He cowered under the Baron’s regard, but one look at his wife and he somehow found the courage to speak.

But his hasty explanations could not make up for the vehemence and righteous anger of the “wronged” Louis, who kept on interfering and countered every word that came out of his pale lips. It did not help that my poor father looked very insignificant in his peasant church clothes as he stood beside the more opulently clothed Louis.

“They duped me! They were all into it all along! This is quite humiliating! I have paid a price and I get a plain peasant wife in return. This is a disgrace to my honor and they are the ones who did it, my Lord!”

“And what of you, ma bichette? Can you tell me what happened?”

She hadn’t known he had addressed her until her mother shook her again. Adalene looked up at the Baron without comprehension. He had turned to her from atop his horse, and those eyes were regarding her with a focus that almost had her cowering like her father was, except she somehow felt that wasn’t his intent. That he just happened to be someone who gave his full attention to whomever he was speaking to.

She couldn’t understand why he was asking her, a woman, about a matter that only men in the family would discuss, though. Was this a test?

If she would open her mouth, would they put her to the guillotine for daring to speak to the Baron against her groom? She had no way of knowing, but it was very clear Louis Didier would not have a problem with that.

The Baron gave her a look that she could not dare believe as pity before he looked back down at Louis again. This time, his eyes were cold. How they could turn from warm to cold that easily or quickly confused her. She would not cross a man’s path when his eyes looked like that.

“Clearly, your bride is so terrified she couldn’t even speak. I arrived watching you shouting at her and if she hadn’t been shielded by her father, you would have hit her. I believe you do not treasure your new wife as befits her station and that you need a lesson about how to treat your woman right.”

“Ah-wh-what?” Louis replied, clearly shocked. “That... that is preposterous! I have bought her, a peasant woman. She might be pretty, but she has nothing to offer unless she acts what befits her state-she must serve me as my wife. Can’t you see, mon Seigneur? Clearly, I have paid more than her due if she is giving me this kind of distress before I could even bring her to my esta-”

“Which you are not,” the Baron said, effectively cutting Louis off with a voice so calm and yet, sounded so dangerous that the other man took a step back. The Baron scowled further. “Not right away, anyway. As lord of the manor and governor over your estate, I am invoking jus primae noctis, my right to your bride’s first night. She is coming home with me today.”

Shock silenced the crowd. Not even Louis could speak. He would not dare, though his face had colored alarmingly that Adalene felt guilty of hoping he would have a heart attack right then and there and fall on his ugly face, before she realized what the Baron was saying.

He’d just invoked jus primae noctis, the Lord’s Right to a bride’s first night.

And she became as shell-shocked as the others.

The Baron continued with his edict as her moaning mother held her tighter to her.

“I will enjoy the gift you are taking for granted. The Baron has ruled. My men will take your bride and will bring her to your estate after her first time with me is well and finished.”

After a moment of shocked silence, chaos erupted.

Her father, mother and brothers pleaded; as well as Adalene, whose cries of protests were drowned out by Louis’ wild screams of indignation. But it just took a moment for the knights-and their swords-to subdue them all.

And then they extracted Adalene from her mother’s clutching hands, and they lifted her trembling body up to the massive horse carrying the scowling Baron. His arms went around her as he adjusted his hold on the lead rope, then held her tighter as she swayed with a gasp when the horse moved. She had never been atop an enormous horse like this!

“Lean on to me, ma bichette. I will not let you fall. You’re safe.”

She hesitated for a moment, but when the horse moved again, she immediately followed his advice and leaned back on him, realizing first-hand how hard his chest was, and feeling his strength from the way he controlled his movement and the sturdiness of his arms. Adalene thought she heard him laugh, but she wasn’t sure, unless he finds it amusing that she felt afraid to fall from a horse after being rescued from the despicable Didier.

Might be that was amusing, she reluctantly thought.

She didn’t think he was truly going to follow through with his invocation of the Lord’s Right, right? There was no reason for her to believe he wanted her like that. She was sure he just felt pity for her, and only wanted to give her a few days of respite.

Right?

As she looked over her family and friends and saw the worry on their faces, she tried to look within herself fear for going with the Baron.

Then she saw the livid face of Louis Didier and she involuntarily tried to lean back further, except she couldn’t, what with the Baron’s body a solid wall behind her.

“Don’t be afraid. You’re safe now,” she heard the Baron’s said behind her in a soft voice only she could hear, and she realized she felt no fear being with him, because she would rather fall from the horse than be left here a slave to the other man who was claiming her as his bought wife.

Soon enough, Adalene rode away with the Baron on his horse and his knights, supported by his arms, while she tried not to flinch at being so close to a man that was not a relative but a stranger for the first time in her entire life...