Read Terri Brisbin for Free Online

she finished her ablutions, and then they turned back to her. The maid was dismissed with a look and the chapel was silent until they were alone and the door closed.
    “I hesitate to ask you this, Lady Joanna, but I think I must.” Lady Margaret’s tone was soft and her eyes were filled with concern. She took Joanna’s hand in hers and patted it. “Did Lord Braden take you…your virginity…in the stables before my lord Orrick arrived?”
    She thought Lord Braden had attacked her and taken her virtue? Joanna shook her head. “No, my lady. He did not…do that.”
    Another glance between them. Wenda spoke this time. “I think the pain is from some bruises and being roughly handled, my lady. I do not think there are any serious injuries.” Wenda stepped away. “Some rest should be all that is needed for that.”
    “Before you leave, Wenda,” the lady began. “Joanna, the brothers who sent you here said that you had been ill through the whole journey. Do you know what caused the fever you suffered?”
    So, the good brothers had not examined her during the journey from the south? They had simply treated the fever? Still she hesitated to discuss her parents’ treatment of her and their attempts to gain her consent for the marriage. She really did not want to talk about all that had transpired before she’d run away.
    “I know not, my lady. Did the brothers have any hint of the reason?” She looked at the lady and waited.
    “None that they shared with me, I fear.” When it appeared that she would say something else, the lady shook her head instead. “Wenda, we will call you if we have need.”
    And then they were alone.
    “Lord Braden is demanding that you be turned over to him.”
    Joanna could not help her reaction—the shudder tore through her, making her shake and tremble. Pushing her hair out of her face, she tried to stand once more. This time she gained her feet. “But, I have been granted sanctuary here. Will he ignore the priest’s words?”
    “Lord Braden is not willing to recognize that, Joanna. He wants to take you from here this day.” The lady walked closer to her. “Mayhap if you can tell me the basis for your flight and your hiding here, I can convince him otherwise.”
    “He paid my father a large amount of gold for my hand in marriage,” she said. “Enough that my father would look no further.”
    “’Tis the way of things.”
    “My father would not accept my refusal and took all measures he thought necessary to gain my consent.” She looked at Lady Margaret. “All measures.” The skin on the back of her thighs and her lower back pulsed with its own memory of the punishments she’d endured.
    It did not take the lady very long to realize what she meant. Recalcitrant daughters were dealt with swiftly when a marriage that was advantageous to her family was involved. For certain, Joanna was not the first, nor would she be the last, daughter treated as she had been.
    “Did Lord Braden order such things to be done to you? Although he seems brutish, he does not seem cruel,” the lady said.
    “I do not know if he did or not,” Joanna said as she paced the back of the chapel. “I know only that he wanted me to wife and wanted me now. My father redoubled his efforts after I spoke out about the betrothal at court. He swore he would not take the chance of losing such wealth over my concerns.”
    She had not realized how terrible her words of refusal were until the repercussions spread through King John’s court. Then the king’s attention and involvement simply guaranteed the treatment she’d received.
    “Is it that you do not want to marry the lord of Wynwydd because you fear more beatings?”
    She had guessed part of it. But the physical pain, as bad as it had been, was not the worst. She feared dying unloved even more than she feared dying. As so far, in this life, she had been loved by no one but her sister.
    “The truth about Lord Braden was discussed almost openly at the