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Before Bernat could say a word, Francesca's mother thrust a platter of lamb in his hands and whispered:

"Wait on the lord, and don't go anywhere near my daughter."

The peasants began to devour the lamb, still without saying a word, but from time to time glancing anxiously up at the table where the lord of Navarcles and his two friends were laughing and shouting. The soldiers were resting some way away.

"Before we could hear loud laughter from here," the lord of Bellera complained. "So loud it drove away all our game. Come on, I want to hear you laugh!"

Nobody obeyed.

"Country bumpkins," he told his companions, who burst out laughing again.

The three of them sated themselves on lamb and chunks of white bread. The platters of salted pork and chicken stew were pushed to one side of the table. Bernat ate standing up nearby, occasionally glancing anxiously out of the corner of his eye at the gaggle of women surrounding Francesca.

"More wine!" the lord of Bellera demanded, raising his cup. "Estanyol," he shouted, seeking him out among the guests. "Next time you pay me the taxes on my land, I want you to bring this wine, not the vinegar your father has been fooling me with until now."

Bernat was facing the other way. Francesca's mother thrust a pitcher of wine into his hands.

"Estanyol, where are you?" Llorenc de Bellera pounded the table just as a serving woman was about to serve him more wine. A few drops sprinkled on his clothes. By now, Bernat was close to him, and his friends were laughing at the accident. Pere Esteve lifted his hands to his face.

"Stupid old crone! How dare you spill the wine?" The woman lowered her head in submission, and when the lord made to buffet her with his hand, she fell to the ground.

Llorenc de Bellera turned to his friends, cackling at the way the old woman was crawling away from them. Then he became serious once more, and addressed Bernat. "So there you are, Estanyol. Look what your clumsy old women have done! Are you trying to insult your lord and master? Are you so ignorant you don't realize that your guests should be served by the lady of the house? Where is the bride?" he repeated, when there was no response.

Pere Esteve took Francesca by the arm and led her to Bernat at the table. She was trembling from head to foot.

"Your lordship," said Bernat, "I present you my wife, Francesca."

"That's better," said Llorenc, openly staring up and down her. "Much better. From now on, you are to serve us the wine."

The lord of Navarcles sat down again, and raised his cup. Searching for a pitcher, Francesca ran to serve him. As she poured out the wine, her hand shook. Llorenc de Bellera grasped her wrist and steadied it. When his cup was full, he pushed her to serve his companions. As she did so, her breasts almost brushed his face.

"That is how wine should be served!" the lord of Navarcles bellowed. Standing next to him, Bernat clenched his fist and teeth.

Llorenc de Bellera and his friends went on drinking: they kept calling out for Francesca to come and refill their cups. The soldiers laughed with their lord and his friends whenever Francesca had to lean over the table to serve them. She tried to choke back her tears, and Bernat could see a trickle of blood on each of her hands where she had been digging in her nails. Each time she had to pour out the wine, the wedding guests fell silent and looked away.

"Estanyol,' Llorenc de Bellera finally shouted, clutching Francesca by the wrist, "In accordance with one of my rights as your lord, I have decided to lie with your wife on her first night of marriage."

His friends raucously applauded the decision. Bernat leapt toward the table, but before he could do anything, the lord's two companions, who had seemed hopelessly drunk, sprang up, hands on the pommels of their swords. Bernat stopped in his tracks. Llorenc stared at him, smiled, and then laughed out loud. The girl implored Bernat for help with her eyes.

Bernat stepped forward, but felt one of the swords pressed against his stomach. As the lord dragged her to the outside staircase of the farmhouse, Francesca still looked at him beseechingly. When the lord grabbed her round the waist and lifted her over his shoulder, she cried out.

The lord of Navarcles's friends sat down and took up their drinking again. The soldiers stood guard at the food of the staircase to prevent Bernat from making any move.

The sky was still a deep, dark blue.

After some minutes of that to Bernat seemed endless, Llorenc de Bellera appeared at the top of the staircase. He was sweaty and was trying to fasten his hunting doublet.

"Estanyol," he shouted in his stentorian tones as he walked past him toward the table, "now it's your turn. Dona Caterina," he said, referring to his new young bride for the sake of his companions, "is weary of bastard children of mine turning up all over the place. And I'm weary of her sniveling. So do your duty as a good Christian husband!' he said, turning and addressing Bernat.

Bernat lowered his head, and then walked slowly and reluctantly up the staircase. Everyone was staring at him. He went into the first-floor room, a large area that served as kitchen and dining room, with a big hearth one wall that was topped by a wrought-iron chimney piece. As he dragged himself over to the ladder that led to the bedroom and granary on the second floor, he could hear his footsteps echoing on the wooden boards. Unsure what to do, he stuck his head into the gap at the top of the ladder and peered around him.

His chin was level with the boards, and he could see Francesca's clothing scattered all over the floor. The white linen smock, her family's pride and joy, was torn to shreds. He climbed to the top of the ladder.

He found Francesca curled up in a ball. She lay completely naked on the new pallet, which was spattered with blood. She was stared blankly into space; covered with sweat, her body was scratched and bruised. She did not move.

"Estanyol!" Bernat heard Llorenc de Bellera shout from down below. "Your lord is waiting."

Bernat could not stop himself from retching, then vomiting on to the stored grain until he felt as if his whole insides had come up. Francesca still did not move. Bernat ran out of the room. When he reached the bottom of the staircase, his head was filled with the most revolting sensations. He ran blindly into the imposing shape of the lord of Navarcles.

"It would seem that the husband has not consummated his marriage," Llorenc de Bellera commented to his companions.

Bernat had to raise his head to face him.

"No... your lordship, I could not do it," he stammered.

Llorenc de Bellera fell silent.

"Well, if you are not up to the task, I'm sure that one of my friends-or my soldiers-will be more ready for it. I told you, I don't want any more bastards."

"You have no right...!"

The wedding guests looking on shuddered at what the consequences of this outburst might be. With one hand, the lord of Navarcles seized Bernat by the throat. He squeezed, and soon Bernat was gasping for breath.

"How dare you...? Are you thinking of using your lord's legitimate right to lie with the bride to late come and make claims for your bastard child?" Llorenc buffeted Bernat before letting him go. "Is that what you're after? Are you forgetting that I can punish you how and when I choose?"

He landed another blow on Bernat's cheek, sending him crashing to the ground.

"Where's my whip?" he shouted angrily.

The whip! Bernat has been only a child when, together with a crowd of others, he had been forced to accompany his parents to watch the public flogging that the lord of Navarcles had inflicted on a poor wretch, although nobody knew for certain what he had done wrong. The memory of the sound of the leather whip on that man's back resounded just as it had on the day and night after night throughout his childhood. No one who had been there that day dared as much as make a move; no one did so now. Bernat got to his knees and looked up and looked up at his feudal lord, standing there like a great boulder, his hand held out for someone to pass him his whip. Bernat recalled the raw flesh of the other man's back: a bleeding mass that not even all the lord's ferocity had succeeded in tearing any more strips from. Bernat crawled back toward the staircase blindly. He was trembling like a child caught up in a dreadful nightmare. Still no one moved or spoke. Still the sun shone in the clear blue sky.

"I'm so sorry, Francesca," Bernat whispered after he had struggled back up to the top of the ladder, pushed by one of the soldiers.

He undid his hose and knelt beside her. Glancing down at his limp member, he wondered how on earth he was going to fulfill his lord's command. With one finger he began to caress Francesca's bare ribs.

She did not react.

"I have... We have to do this," Bernat urged her, gripping her wrist to turn her toward him.

"Don't touch me!" Francesca cried, coming out of her stupor.

"He'll flay me alive!" Bernat protested, staring at her naked body.

"Leave me alone!"

They struggled, until finally Bernat had seized both her wrists and forced her upright. Francesca was still fighting him.

"Someone else will come!" he whispered. "Another man will be the one to force you!"

Her eyes opened wide in an accusing glare.

"He'll have me flayed!" Bernat repeated.

Francesca still struggled to beat him off, but he flung himself on top of her. Her tears were not enough to dampen the sudden rush of desire he felt as he rubbed against her naked body. As he penetrated her, she gave a shriek that reached the highest heaven.

Her cries satisfied the soldier who had followed Bernat and was witnessing the whole scene shamelessly, head and shoulders thrust into the room.

Before Bernat had finished, Francesca gradually stopped resisting, and her howls turned to sobs. Bernat reached his climax to the sound of his wife's tears.

Llorenc de Bellera also heard the screams from the second-floor window. Once his spy had confirmed that the marriage had been consummated, he called for the horses and he and his sinister troop left the farmhouse. Desolate and terrified, most of the wedding guests did the same.

Calm returned to the courtyard. Bernat was still sprawled across his wife. He had no idea what to do next. He realized he was still gripping her shoulders, and lifted his hands away. As he did so, he collapsed again on top of her. He pushed himself up and stared into Francesca's eyes. They seemed to be staring straight through him. Any movement he made would pressed his body against hers once more, and he could not bear the thought of doing her more harm. He wished he could levitate then and there so that he could separate his body from hers without even touching it.

Eventually, after what seemed an eternity, Bernat pushed himself away and kneeled down beside her. He still did not know what to do for the best: to stand up, lie down beside her, get out of the room, or to try to justify himself.... He could not bear to see Francesca's naked body, cruelly exposed on the pallet. He tried to get her to look at him, but her eyes were blank again. He looked down, and the sight of his own naked sex filled him with shame.

"I'm sorry-"

He was interrupted by a sudden movement from Francesca. Now she was staring straight at him. Bernat looked for some slight glimmer of understanding, but there was none.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. Francesca was still staring at him without the slightest sign of reacting. "I'm so sorry. He... he was going to flay me alive," he stammered.

In his mind's eye, Bernat saw the lord of Navarcles standing with his arm outstretched, calling for the whip. He searched Francesca's face: nothing. What he saw in her eyes frightened him still further: they were shouting in silence, as loudly as the screams she had uttered when he had flung himself on her.

Unwittingly, as though trying to make her understand he knew what she was going through, as if she were a little girl, he stretched out his hand toward her cheek.

"I...," he started to say.

His hand never reached her. As it approached, the muscles of her whole body stiffened. Bernat lifted his hand to his own face, and burst into tears.

Francesca lay there, staring into space.

After a long while, Bernat stopped crying. He got to his feet, put on his hose, and disappeared down the ladder to the floor beneath. As soon as she could no longer hear his footsteps, Francesca got up and went over to the chest that was the only furniture in the room, to find some clothes. When she was dressed, she gently picked up all the things that had been torn from her, including the precious white linen smock. Folding it carefully so that the rips did not show, she stowed it in the chest.

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