The False Virgin Read Online Free Page A

here?’
    Beornwyn came towards her, her chin lifted. ‘I don’t have to explain myself to you, a bondmaid. What business is it of yours who I meet?’
    ‘But you want to be a nun, that’s all you’ve ever wanted. You told me. You told me you didn’t want to be married to Aethelbald. It’s all been a lie!’ Mildryth
wailed.
    ‘I can assure you, it most certainly is the truth that I don’t want to marry that snake Aethelbald, because . . . because I am in love with another. There, does that satisfy
you?’
    ‘Who? Who are you in love with?’ Mildryth demanded furiously. ‘You are sworn to Christ!’
    Beornwyn hesitated. She had the grace to look a little abashed, but the expression stayed on her face only for a moment before she lifted her chin defiantly. ‘Cynwulf, son of the thane
Oswy. He is the man I love. I cannot help myself.’
    ‘But his father is the man your father branded a traitor and coward.’
    Beornwyn nodded. ‘Now do you see why I must meet him in secret? Do you really think my father would accept Cynwulf as a son-in-law? What else could I do? I have to be with him. I cannot
give him up.’
    Mildryth took a pace back, holding her hands up in front of her as if she were trying to push the knowledge away. ‘All this time I thought you were preparing to be a nun, all this time I
thought you were so holy . . . and you’ve been meeting him . . . no, not just meeting him, you’ve been sleeping with him in this very church. I thought you were a virgin, but
you’re nothing but a fornicator, a sinner, wicked, wicked—’
    ‘How dare you speak to me like that?’ Beornwyn stepped swiftly forward and slapped Mildryth hard across the cheek. ‘I love Cynwulf. I have always loved him and I will always be
faithful to him, as if I was his true wife, which I am in all things but name.’
    ‘No!’ Mildryth sobbed. ‘You promised that we would be together in the abbey. You promised to take me with you . . .’
    Beornwyn put both hands on her shoulders and pushed her hard. ‘Get out. Go now! And if you dare breathe one word of this to anyone I will have you sold to the next slave-master who passes
through the village. When you are entertaining a boatload of sailors then you’ll understand the meaning of fornication!’
    Beornwyn turned away and moved gracefully up the church towards the wolfskin lying before the altar. In the soft candlelight the smooth muscles of her bare back undulated beneath her skin as she
walked away.
    ‘She’ll have grown tired of waiting and gone by now,’ Cynwulf said angrily, as he and his brother, Wulfred, led their horses up the rise towards the
church.
    ‘It’s not my fault my horse got a stone in its shoe. Besides, it’s hardly likely she’d come all the way up here on such a night. Only a madman would venture out when he
could be sitting by his own fire with a flagon of mead inside him. I don’t know why I let you drag me out here.’
    ‘Because I’m your little brother and you swore to look out for me,’ Cynwulf said.
    Although it was too dark to see the expression on his brother’s face, Wulfred knew this last remark was said with a disarming smile which, ever since he’d been a little boy, had been
enough to turn away the wrath of any elder, no matter what mischief Cynwulf had been up to.
    When Wulfred had discovered what trouble his little brother was embroiled in this time, he’d tried in vain to talk him into giving up the girl. When Cynwulf stubbornly refused, he would
gladly have left the young fool to take the consequences, or so he tried to convince himself. But with the Viking raids and the rumour that the old dragon Badanoth had redoubled the guards, someone
had to watch the boy’s back. And ever since the young cub had been able to haul himself to his feet, it had always been Wulfred who’d had to make sure he didn’t fall down
again.
    Wulfred clutched his mantle tightly about him against the wind, which threatened to drag it