Her husband had returned home. Letice had been surprised. Her husband had also brought more news: that Wulfrun’s family had paid his ransom and he would be returning home.
It had been eight years since Wulf had been sent to the Ellis stronghold. He had been captured returning to his home in Brunswick by Letice’s husband and sent back so that Peter could claim a ransom. Letice had been given no warning or told why her husband had kidnapped a fellow crusader but she would do what she could for him.
Letice helped the servants to clear out the guest rooms; they had made do for so long as a small household she had forgotten that as a Lady she was not expected to fetch and carry. She kept seeing glimpse of her husband.
When she and Peter had wed she had been a mere 12 years old; he not much more. He had been short and puny in his armour with a round face and small eyes. His eyes had not changed but he was now tall and broad and his face had filled out. They had been together for one night (which he was drunkenly asleep for) before he had set off to fight in the Crusades. She had not heard from him since.
They were a household of women and once the guards had dropped Wulf off they returned to the war. Letice even at 16 realised that the best thing to do would be to get him compliant as they would be no match for him should be run. Letice decided to share her midday meal with him so they could discuss how to manage his confinement. Sir Friedemann Wulfrun was an older man with a thick beard and shocking blue eyes. He carried himself with assurance and Letice wondered that he had been caught by the small child that was her memory of Peter. Wulfrun spoke Anglo – Saxon but with a thick Germanic accent. He agreed to cause her no trouble but only if he was allowed to walk the grounds of the castle every day. She trusted him not to run. He seemed honourable.
The next time Letice saw Wulf was at the welcoming feast. Having spent all day preparing the castle for her husband and his guests, the feast was the first time she had sat down. They had not kept up the custom of promenading into the Hall so when Peter arrived in her room she was a little surprised but took his arm and allowed him to walk her to the hall and sit beside her. Peter made a speech and Letice look around eventually making eye contact with Wulf. He was sat at the right side table next to some of the Pike men.
Letice had at first posted one of the spit boys on guard duty whenever Wulf had wandered the grounds however each night he would report back about Wulf’s helpful advice to the peasants about farming or the work in the castle which was received with increasing awareness of his experience of running his own estates in Germany. One day Letice over heard him discussing a book with the Friar and offered to show him the library. He was surprised to learn that she could not read but as a Lady there had been no need for her to read. That was what scribes were for. Wulf talked so of the pleasures of reading that Letice eventually asked him to teach her. The long hours they spent in the library lead them to grow to an intimacy Letice and Peter never had. It led to the kiss.
Having eaten her fill, Letice felt the weight of the long day on her eyes and decided to excuse herself. Peter waved her off and she could see that he intended to drink the night away. As she walked past Wulf she stopped and asked him when he would leave.
“Tomorrow, at dawn”.
She inclined her head and continued out of the Hall but her with her heart beating loudly in her head. After leaving early because she felt sleepy she was suddenly wide awake. Too passionate to read she decided to visit the children. As she walked up the turret stairs to the children’s bedroom she heard footsteps coming down. Familiar footsteps. Wulf appeared in front of her. He stopped but then Nanny Gough appeared behind him and had to dodge around him leaving them alone on the stairs but for how long they did not know.
“You should take the children.”
“No, they are better off with their mother, unless Lord Ellis...”
“He won’t suspect anything. I intend to tell him they are orphans from the village. He will not question this.”
“What about the servants?”
“They won’t talk. They believed he was dead too.”
“The Children?”
“I will speak to them. Did you say goodbye?”
“They are already asleep but I will take an image of their sleeping faces with me and I will take an image of you too.”
He stepped towards her but they could hear the steps of the heath girl as she sleaped up the stairs coming towards them. They could not be seen but still they could not part as though eight years and two children had not come between them. Wulf took her arm and kissed her inner elbow, the place he had traced her veins when they had first made love and then slowly as they both walked further along the stairs they held each other hand until only their fingertips touched.
Letice let him go know that they would never meet again. He would have to return to his family, his lands possibly his children and she would have to restart her life with her husband. She would succeed as she had survived the years without Wulf and Peter but this time she would know what she was living without and it would be harder.
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