In the first book, Barak is described as being estranged from his wife, seeing as little of her as possible, while she acts extremely formal and cold towards him. A bit later, they have a conversation where she says "My lord was quite insistent about certain rights and duties on the night of his return to Val Alorn. Not even the locked door of my bedchamber was enough to curb his insistence."

To which Barak then replies "All right, I'm sorry about that. I hoped that things might have changed between us. I was wrong. I won't bother you again."

And that, apparently, is that; when she continues with "A good wife is obliged to submit whenever her husband requires it of her - no matter how drunk or brutal he may be when he comes to her bed", Barak and apparently Eddings both feel she's just playing the martyr and making a mountain out of a molehill. Surely it's not just me who finds that disturbing.

Of course, by the end of the series, she has given birth to a son, conceived on the night in question, and suddenly they reconcile because clearly having sons does that to couples and never mind their two elder daughters. Or that rape.

While we're at it, the preceding chapter has one of the few exceptions to what I said about violent behaviour like in the Elenium, when Barak tries to murder an old woman for making predictions he doesn't like. Charming fellow all-round, really.