Alys shook her head. 'I'm no witch,' she said. 'You told me to put all that aside, I did as you hid me. I cannot enchant you.' She was getting cold, half naked before him.

Hugo dropped on top of her and Alys was crushed beneath his weight. He had eaten spicy meat at supper and his breath was sour. She threw her arms around his broad shoulders and said, 'Hugo,' thinking how she had longed for this moment – that it must be what she wanted, since she had wanted it for so long.

'If you were a witch,' Hugo said, rubbing himself gently against her, 'what pleasures would you give me, Alys? Do you think witches can make men fly? Do you think they can make them lust all night and all day? Would you conjure for me virgin after virgin? All of them wet with desire, all longing for me. All lying with me and with each other? A great rolling bed of women with mouths and hands and bodies for my pleasure alone?'

As his words excited him he arched his back and leaned up on his hands and pushed into her. Alys screamed – a sharp scream of pain – and wriggled at once away from him. 'No!'

Hugo laughed, put his hands on her thin shoulders and said breathlessly: 'Take it, Alys! It's what you've been hot for! It's what you've been pining for! What did you expect? A touch as gentle as your own busy little fingers? This is what a man does, Alys! Learn to like it!' At every word he spoke he thrust deeper into her. Alys scrabbled frantically against him, trying to pull herself up and away from his greedy lust. 'Oh!' Hugo said suddenly, and he fell heavily on her.

They lay very still for a few moments. The pain inside her eased a little and she felt his cock grow limp and slide away. She smelled her blood and felt it trickle on her cold thighs. She felt the skin around her eyes tighten and grow cold with drying tears. She moved a little and Hugo rolled off her, like a pig in a wallow, and lay on his back, gazing blankly at the ceiling.

Alys crept a little closer and put her warm head on his shoulder. She could hear his heart thudding and slowing. His arm came around her and held her.

'I hurt,' Alys said in a little voice, like an injured child.

Hugo chuckled. 'Not a witch then,' he said. 'You've done no shagging with the devil, that's for sure.'

'I told you I was no witch,' Alys said impatiently. 'I was a virgin. You have taken my virginity. And you hurt me, Hugo.'

He nodded, as if it did not matter much. 'It always hurts maids the first time,' he said indifferently. 'What did you expect?'

Alys said nothing, but the world of her expectations was laid out before her in bitter colours.

Hugo gave a yawn and sat up. 'Give me a cloth,' he said. 'I cannot go back to Catherine like this.'

Alys slipped from the bed and walked awkwardly over to the linen chest. She could feel a trickle of blood flow warm down her thigh. She passed him a length of linen. 'Go back to Catherine?' she said stupidly.

'Of course,' he said. He mopped at his crutch with quick, hard gestures, wiping her blood away. Wiping the smell of her away. He looked up at her shocked face and shrugged.

'Come on, Alys,' he said impatiently. 'You heard my father, you know what this child means to me. Every night of my life until the baby is born I shall sleep in Catherine's bed. I shall make her as content and serene as I can. I owe it to my son, I owe it to my line and, by God, I owe it to myself! I have waited to sire a son for eighteen years! One woman after another has been barren with me. Now my wife, my own legal wife, is with my child and they all say it will be a son. Of course I shall watch over her, and anything she wants will be hers!'

'I dreamed of a son that we would have,' Alys started. 'You and me.'

Hugo leaned forward and patted her white cheek. 'When you are pregnant with my son you will be my favourite,' he said carelessly. 'While Catherine carries my son I am hers to command. Right now there is only one thing in the world which could keep me from Catherine.' 'And what is that?' Alys asked. Her throat was aching from holding in her anger and her pain.

Hugo grinned. 'The rutting I have dreamed of with you!' he said, laughing. 'Ever since I saw you, and especially since they all thought you were a witch, I thought you would take me – like witches are said to take men. I thought you would ride me like I mount a horse. I thought you would know ways which would drive me mad with lust for you.'

Alys shook her head slowly. 'And instead, I was just another virgin,' she said softly. 'An ordinary girl.'

Hugo stood up, tossed aside the bloodied cloth and drew Alys into his arms. 'Ordinary girls give pleasure too,' he said consolingly. 'Another time, sweetheart, when I am not wearied with travelling and sated with Catherine. Another time it will be better for us both.'

Alys nodded, hearing dismissal in his voice. 'But don't send Morach for me again,' he said warningly. 'Catherine is bound to find out and distress could harm the baby. I will come to you when I can leave her without her knowing. I will come to you when she sleeps.'

'In corners,' Alys said. 'In doorways. Hidden in secrecy.'

Hugo gleamed. 'I love it like that,' he said 'Desperate and quick. Wouldn't you like me to take you like that, when we're too hot to wait for a proper time?'

Alys turned her head away so that he could not see the anger and resentment in her eyes. 'Like any ordinary girl,' she said.

He put an arm around her waist and kissed her carelessly on the top of her head. 'I must go,' he said. 'Sweet dreams.' The door shut softly behind him. Alys walked wearily to the bed, flung herself down on her back and watched the flicker of the firelight on the ceiling. She did not turn her head as the door opened. She knew it was not Hugo.

'Fool,' Morach said companionably. 'I thought you were hot for him. I could have told you it would hurt, lying with a man you hate.'

Alys turned her head slowly on the pillow. 'I don't hate him,' she said slowly. 'I love him. I love him more than life itself.'

Morach gave a little crow of laughter and hitched herself up into the high bed.

'Aye, you say you do,' she said agreeably. 'And you think you do. But your body says different, child. Your body said "no" all the way through, didn't it? Even when you kept trying to tell yourself you were in heaven.'

Alys raised herself up on one elbow. 'Help me, Morach,' she said. 'It hurt and I hated him touching me like that. And yet I used to tremble when he so much as looked at me.'

Morach chuckled and heaved the blankets over to her own side. 'He's a disappointment to you,' she said. 'And you hate Catherine. You're torn different ways at once. And you don't consult your own pleasure. Get hold of your power, Alys! Find what you want and take it. You lay there tonight and asked him to rape you. What he wants is a woman to drive him mad – not another victim.'

Alys pulled the blankets back and turned on her side with her back to Morach. 'And you watched,' she said irritably.

'Of course,' Morach said calmly. 'And I can tell you, he had more pleasure with Catherine's wanton joy than he did with you.'

Alys said nothing.

'If it had been me,' Morach said thoughtfully to Alys' stiff back, 'I'd have taken my time and given him wine, and taken a glass myself. I'd have drugged him maybe. I'd have used earthroot which makes a man dream of desire until he is mad with it and makes him hard with no chance of ease for hours. I'd have told him bawdy stories, I'd have let him watch me touch myself. I'd have told him I was a witch and that if he touched me he would go mad for my touch forever. And when he was half pickled with lust then I'd have let him have me. I wouldn't have whimpered beneath him like a ravished scullion.' Alys shut her eyes and hunched up her shoulder. 'But I wouldn't have done any of that until I'd decided whether I wanted him or not,' Morach said to the quiet room. 'I wouldn't have a man when we had a score to settle. I wouldn't tup a man who was lying his head off to me. I wouldn't let him roll on me and then wash himself clean as if I was dirt. I'd make him choose between me and his wife. And I'd use my magic to make him choose me.'