Free Lost Innocents (A Servant of the Crown Mystery Book 3) by Denise Domning

would have believed him," she said to the rustic, now speaking only to him.
    "Do you think I hadn't heard the whispers and asides you all traded about me? All of you thought I was trysting with a married man, even though none of the gossips could determine which of Wike's husbands had made me his lover. Some speculated that my paramour came from Coctune even though no stranger had tread Wike Lane in months. If I had spilled the truth, you would all have scoffed. You would have accused me of concocting a false tale to protect a man I loved but couldn't have."
    The old man made no reply, but his wild brows drooped over his now-hooded eyes.
    "So I said nothing," Amelyn continued, once again including her Crowner and his clerk in the audience for her tale. "I accepted my sentence for the sin of fornication. As I bared my back, I prayed that once our bailiff set aside the lash, my life would finally go on as it had—" Her words gave way to a startled sound.
    Shifting sharply, she looked toward the farthest of the homes in the hamlet, the one closest to the greensward where her Crowner's horse grazed. Without looking back at her better, she said, "But what if, as you suggest sir, it wasn't Odger who set Jessimond in my womb? Of a sudden, all certainty about who fathered Jessimond is gone. Perhaps this is because of what you said. Or mayhap it's because my tale sounds so different, now that I finally speak the words aloud. How is it that everything can change in but an instant?" Although the leper aimed her words at Faucon, there was aught in her tone that suggested she spoke only to herself.
    It was another moment before she brought her gaze back to the men around the well. She shook her head as if stunned. "Only now and because of you, sir, do I finally begin to make sense of what Odger did after he set aside the lash. No longer do I see a man bent on revenging himself on me for my first refusal, but one in a rage because he thought I'd given myself freely and illicitly to another when I had resisted his attack."
    One more time she turned her head to look toward the far end of the tiny settlement. "But if not Odger, then who?" she mused.
    "What is this thing that your bailiff did to you?" Faucon asked, urging her on as he kept one eye on the sky.
    Still gazing at that distant cottage, Amelyn said, "Although our customs gave Odger no right to it, on that day he forbade me from ever again working in the fields of Wike. When Martha asked how I was to feed myself if I couldn't work, he told all my neighbors that I'd already proved myself a lightskirt by bearing an anonymous bastard. If I wanted to eat, he said, I could earn my bread by whoring."
    With a quiet, pained laugh, Amelyn once more directed her words at the oldster. "That set off a storm among the others. Not because any of you wished to protect me," she said, her words bearing harsh emphasis as she addressed the old man. "Instead, all any of you wanted to know was if Odger was freeing me from my bond to our lady and her family. You included, Hew. That's all any of you asked of him, if he was setting me free!" A small choked sound escaped her as if she remained astounded by their betrayal despite the years.
    At the leper's charge, the oldster took a step closer to where she sat. When he halted, he canted to the side in his stance as if one hip ached. The old man spread his arms in a gesture of innocence.
    "We didn't know he was wrong about you or what you'd done." Hew's voice was as worn and cracked as his face. "How could we have? You didn't spill your tale, not then, nor earlier when we all realized you were with child, displaying fertility too long after Tom's death for the babe to be his. Instead, you stood in silence, looking shamed. Not even Martha offered a word of explanation."
    This Hew glanced at his Crowner before again addressing the leper. "You must have known we were all waiting for Martha to defend you. You two lived together, as close as mother and daughter.