Godiva: Unbridled (10 page)

“It’s better, but ‘twill never be like new again,” he said, holding up the coat, letting the soapy water drip back into the tub, which was gray with filth. He carried the surcoat the short distance to the bathtub and began to pump clean water. Godiva dunked the fabric until Thomas stopped pumping, then she rolled it around the clean water. It looked good for all the time it had spent outdoors, just some dark stains in a few spots from where the mud had left its indelible mark, but no rips or holes. When she looked up, she saw that Thomas sat on the chair, holding his face in his hands.
 

“Thomas?” When he didn’t respond, she walked to him, wrapping her arms around his neck from behind.
 

“I have sinned beyond reproach,” he whispered. “I have lain with a married woman. A noble woman. The Earl of Mercia will have me hanged.”

“That won’t happen,” she said, squeezing him. “I would never let that happen. I am married only in law, not in love.”

“And what does that mean for us? Will you stay here now, hide out forever?” Thomas looked up, and she loosened her embrace. “He will find you eventually.”

“No, Thomas, that’s not what I’ll do.” She sat on the edge of the tub, facing him. “I ran away out of desperation, but I cannot run forever. The night before I left, I told Edwin I wanted a divorce. I never loved him, ours was a marriage of obligation. And to him, I was a silly girl, too wrapped up in my ideals and my impulsive opinions to make a suitable wife. He wanted me to be quiet and bear him an heir, settle into my station. But I could never keep my opinions silent, and they were so often opposite of his. We quarreled all the time. We weren’t… friends.” She took Thomas’ hand in hers, trying to get him to look at her. “And I know for some women that doesn’t matter, but for me, it did.
 
He’d taken me away from all my friends when he brought me here from where I’d been born, so I had nobody. I had only Niklada. She was my friend, my companion. When I told him I wanted a divorce he said I was ridiculous and acted like it was a silly impulse. We had just fought over the new round of taxes he’d passed down on horses and livestock. And I was furious. I could take no more of his greed and his lack of compassion for others. I looked for the deeds to my land—this is my own land, that I owned before I ever married him—but couldn’t find them anywhere. I knew that I couldn’t let that hold me back. So I took some money and some clothes and hid them in the stable. It was a reckless plan, I had no place to go, nobody to run to.” She paused as she silently thought of Leofric, Edwin’s brother, who she’d vaguely hoped would save her once she ran away, but even that was an ill-conceived notion, since she hadn’t confided in him what she’d planned to do.

“But early that morning, the day I planned to sneak away, Edwin heard me on the stairs. I panicked. I didn’t know what to do. He started yelling for me, and I just ran out of the house. I fled to the stable but didn’t even have time to gather the things I’d hidden. By now he’s probably found them, and realized that I’d planned to leave him. So I grabbed this surcoat, it was the only thing in reach, as I left the house. When I got to the stable I jumped on Niklada’s back and tried to ride away. He had some of his men gathered right away, and we fought again, over the same thing as always, my opinion, my hatred of his greed. And that’s when I accepted a terrible bet. A thing I don’t know how to handle now that things have changed so very much.”

“Your naked ride,” Thomas said, finally looking at her.

“Yes,” she breathed. “How did you know about that?”

“The other day, when I was in town, Mrs. McFarland was talking about it. The Earl of Mercia has made an official announcement. That his wife, the Lady Godiva, will ride naked through Coventry in protest of the taxes he’s levied on the townspeople. It was made to sound like a good-natured wager between husband and wife.” Her eyes flickered at the title of wife, but she didn’t lose his gaze. “And he’s ordered all doors and windows shuttered and locked on the day of the ride to maintain the Lady’s modesty.”

Now her brow knit in panicked terror. Edwin had announced it to the town. It was as though he knew she would hear the announcement, and have no choice but to make her appearance, where he would whisk her away, back into his clutches. And with the windows and doors shuttered, nobody would be witness to whatever he might do. If she didn’t show up, what punishment might his pride take out upon the town? He would have no way to hide that his wife had left him if she didn’t make this appearance, a thing that his ego could not allow. And a deed like that would not go unpunished, even if she weren’t around to take the punishment herself.

“When?” she choked out the word. “What day is it? How long do I have until I’m expected?”

“It’s just one week now,” he said. “At four o’clock in the afternoon on market day.”

“One week,” she whispered, her bottom lip trembling. “One week and he will have me back in his possession. I cannot do this deed! And yet, I cannot refuse to do it. He is a prideful man, Thomas. His ego will not allow him to fail in life or in marriage. He will not grant me a divorce on word alone. He will not grant me my freedom. And if I do not ride as I said I would, the town of Coventry will pay for my folly, for my loose tongue. I cannot be the reason for their suffering.”

“Then perhaps we can create a plan,” Thomas said slowly, thinking as he spoke. “Maybe we can think of a way for you to escape from him, after you fulfill your obligation. He cannot imprison you if he cannot capture you. So you must think of the best way to ride through the town, then the best way to escape, where he’ll have no chance of detaining you.”

“I don’t know the town that well,” she said, tears overflowing.
 

“But I do! I’ve lived and worked in this village for five years now. It’s not a very large town, and I know all the shops and passages between them. I could sketch it for you, and together we could make a plan for you to dash out and into the fields. If the Earl is truly concerned about your modesty, he won’t have a large number of men waiting to accost you. And if we have it all planned ahead of time, he might not expect for you to duck between the buildings and disappear into the woods. You did it once. If you can do it again, maybe he will take your request more seriously.”

“I could write a letter,” Godiva sniffled, tears still flowing. “I could write a formal letter requesting a divorce. And let it fly behind me as I ride away.”

“You could,” Thomas said tentatively. “I have two rounds of cheese I could take to market tomorrow, and trade them for ink and parchment.” She looked up at him suddenly, her eyes sobering.

“Oh, Thomas I’m sorry. I shall pay you back of course, for everything. I don’t expect for you to fund my every whim. I only need to get access to what is mine, and you and I can have a life together, away from all that I want to leave behind.”

An uneasy silence fell around them and her mind flooded with memories, with possibilities. What would she do if Leofric were there when she appeared for her ride through the village? It was he who she had always hoped to have a future with. But how could that ever come to be, leaving Edwin for his brother? And after all this time, after all that Thomas had done for her, did she still harbor love for Leofric? And was it deeper than what she currently felt for Thomas, who, though simple and rustic, was true of heart and deed, and had proven his love and devotion to her in a matter of weeks? Would his love for her change now that he knew who she was? Did she have a reputation that preceded her? She crawled into his lap, to be enfolded in his arms, the place that she had found comfort and solace over the past few weeks. He held her close and she inhaled the scent of his neck, that safe, familiar scent. She kissed him there, then along his jaw, moving toward his lips where she kissed his soft, gentle mouth, and as she threaded her fingers into his hair at the back of his neck, he suddenly pulled away.

“I cannot,” he said as he looked to the ground, shaking his head.

“But why?” she asked, a tight anxiety twisting in her stomach. “Thomas, nothing has changed between us.”

“But things have changed,” he replied. “You are a married woman. I didn’t know that before, but I do know it now. A deliberate act of adultery is different than one done in ignorance. I should have waited, I should have waited until you remembered who you were, that I acknowledge. But now that I do know, I cannot lay with you, Lady Godiva. You belong to someone else.”

“I belong to you,” she said, fear rising in her chest. She grabbed his face and forced him to look at her. “Thomas, I am yours, and yours alone. I do not care about the contract I’m in with Edwin. I do not love him! I want you, I want the life we’ve had…”

“Stop, please.” He took her hands in his, gently moving them from his face. “My lady, I love you still. Nothing has changed for how I feel. But I cannot continue to lay with you. Not until you have formally broken with your husband. That I have already done it, pains me. Were it not for how much I love you, I could not bear the guilt. And so for now, we must respect your status, and much as you may loathe him, we must respect your husband. To do otherwise would bring shame upon what our future might be.”

Tears streamed down her face and she choked on her breath. “I don’t want to lose this. I don’t want it to slip away because of my past.”

“You will not lose anything. I will do everything in my power to get you through your fated ride. Niklada is a fast horse, and now she knows where to run where both of you will be safe. I will get you the supplies to write the letter. And after that, we shall have to see what happens when your husband responds. But I will always be here. The thing we will have to learn now that we didn’t practice before is patience.”

“I am not a patient woman,” she sniffled, her bottom lip pouting.
 

“My uncle always said to me, ‘as a man lives, he learns.’ I’m sure that can be said for a woman as well.” She laughed, and wiped the tears from her face.

“Edwin once said to me, ‘a woman is most beautiful in silent contemplation.’ It made me so angry. But to respond would be to bring ugliness upon myself. I always hated how that made me feel.”

“Oh, my lady,” Thomas said, rising from where he sat, letting her slip off of his lap. “It would take so much more than a response to that to bring ugliness upon your beautiful self. Unlike your husband, I think your strength and bold spirit is what makes you unique. Come on then. I’ll draw you a diagram of the town so we can start thinking about your ride.”

Chapter 15

The next day when he went into town, Thomas walked the path that took him by two farms that had geese and picked up several quill feathers that he thought would probably work with the ink he’d purchased from his sale of the cheese he’d brought to market. That, along with the meager supplies and foodstuffs that he brought back would keep him away from town for the next few days. Since he no longer needed to check the public boards for any missing women, he didn’t relish the thought of overhearing the gossip about Lady Godiva’s upcoming ride, which was buzzing all throughout the shops and streets. Once he’d gotten the things he’d came for, he walked the stretch of the village, paying careful attention to the space between the buildings, weaving around alleys and throughways to get a complete and current assessment of the layout. As he figured, he knew this tiny town as well as he’d thought, and his original sketch of it was fairly accurate. Since Coventry consisted of only one main road, Hill street, with a couple of smaller streets that branched off of it, there wasn’t much to consider except for what the Lady’s best escape route would be. At the south entrance of the town was a stone archway, and Thomas wondered if this would be where the Earl would position himself. As a boy, Thomas had grown up in a walled town, and he thought briefly on what a disaster it would be, were Coventry fortified in a similar manner. Since it was not, there were various options for Godiva to escape. Though she could easily dart down one of the off shooting streets, it might actually be best, if possible, for her to complete the entire stretch of road, and flee from one end of town or the other. As he approached the north end of town, he came to the tailor shop, where he normally worked. It was second to the end, with only the blacksmith on the side. The blacksmith had a wide yard around his shop where he also fitted horses for their shoes, so this would be somewhat of an obstacle, if she tried to exit on the north end. Thomas walked to the back of the tailor shop, and it provided no place to hide, no place to conceal a horse or himself for that matter. Walking back to the front of the shop, he looked at the wooden shutters covering the windows, sealed since his master had gone off to Paris. He turned to walk back through the town, considering all the options, and cementing the images of the village and all its pathways in his mind’s eye.

His heart was heavy. Gone was the contented bliss he had felt over the past several weeks, fool hearted as it was. He’d allowed himself to live simply by the day, in the moment in fact, celebrating each time that he made this walk back from town and not finding information of a missing wife or daughter. That somehow had given him free reign to feel as he chose, act as he chose, and he did so with utter abandon. Somehow, the recklessness of his uncle’s life philosophy must have embedded itself in his mind, for in response to Thomas’ more sage decisions, he had oft said, ‘
Take joy thy state of unawares, wisdom is folly, ‘tis better being jolly!’

But what a price that jolliness had brought.

Now Thomas wrestled in both his mind and his heart over the consequences of his actions. As he crested the hill through the town archway, he didn’t look off to the distance to where he knew he could see the gallows. Nobody had hung there in awhile, and he didn’t want to be the one who broke the tradition of lawfulness and peace in the town of Coventry. His uncle had some ranking, but not enough to pardon his nephew’s deed, and probably not enough to influence a sentence of execution if it were revealed that he’d lain with the wife of the Earl. And beyond that, what if Godiva couldn’t escape her husband? What if she rode in protest of his taxes and was captured? He may never see her again. The ache of that thought eclipsed even the thought of hanging at the gallows, and made him quicken his pace for the rest of the walk home.