Read The Outlaws of Ennor: (Knights Templar 16) for Free Online Page B

tried to take advantage of her, or of any of the girls in the islands. Religious, she felt sure he was holding his carnal desires in check.
    That was a
joke
! She soon found out that he
had
no carnal desires! His prickle wouldn’t rise even after the most careful and deliberate attention. She had even submitted to a tale told by a friend, who had heard from a sailor what some whores in the Sutton Water stews did, and set her lips to the task. All to no avail. Poor Isok did what he could, but nothing seemed to work.
    And so now, after three years of trying and failing to tempt her husband to service her, Tedia was here, standing at the southern tip of St Nicholas Isle some yards from her house, hoping to catch sight of her first lover since her marriage.
    The first drops of rain spat into the sand at her feet, and Tedia realised that she had been so deep in thought that the weather had overtaken her. The clouds were black and angry, and what looked like a wall of rain was approaching. It was two miles out to sea still, but approaching as though resolved to roll over the islands and crush them.
    Struckat first with anger that God should prevent her lover’s journey to her, she stamped her foot. Then she had a moment’s regret for her husband: if Isok was far out to sea, he would be right in the thick of this terrible storm … and then her feelings returned to pique. This was God’s way of preventing her from breaking her marriage vows.
    She only hoped, as she turned and marched homewards, that God hadn’t decided to make her lover pay for her lusts with his life. If he was caught out in the banks with this weather, he must be drowned.
    She turned and stared, a hand shielding her eyes. If he died, she would never forgive herself. The poor fellow. All he wanted was a companion. He was like her, lonely. To die, just for seeking friendship, was cruel in the extreme.
    There was no sign of him, though. That gave her a moment’s relief, and then she saw another figure. Someone was wading back the
other
way, from St Nicholas to Ennor. Not many people were supposed to know of that route, but one man obviously did. She wondered who it could be, and then a freak gleam of light from the heavens answered her question.
    ‘Where are
you
going, Brother Luke?’ she wondered aloud, but then shrugged. Before the weather broke seriously, she wanted to be back indoors. Once home, she shut the door, but couldn’t settle. After only a little while she went to peer out to sea. The rain was falling regularly now, the wind blowing mercilessly, and she again felt a twinge of guilt that her husband should be out there, risking his life in the attempt to win a living for her.
    There was nothing she could do for him. She shut the door and sat on her stool in the dark by the fire, swaddled in a blanket, but only a little while later her door suddenly opened. She spun round, hoping that it was Robert, but her husband entered. He stared at her a moment, then gazed about the room.
    ‘I thought you were out at sea!’ was all she could think of saying. In her heart, she was sad that she was not to be widowed. That would have been better for both of them. It would save him the lifelong shame … and her the grief.
    ‘Isthat all you can say?’ Isok demanded. ‘You look anxious, wife. Have you brought a man here to cuckold me, then? Or were you just hoping I’d never return?’
    Her expression must have given him his answer. ‘I shall leave you to him, then. I shouldn’t want to come between you both,’ he said and gave a harsh laugh, a sound halfway between a growl and a sob, before walking out again.
    The master was knowledgeable about the sea and his boat, Baldwin saw, and he was more than capable of defending it when evenly matched, but this was different. These Bretons were too numerous. If there was a good arrow and a decent bowstring aboard ship, perhaps they would have had a chance, although Baldwin doubted that even Paul, Sir Charles’s