by Speer, Flora
“Yes.” He draped an arm over her shoulders. “I want a bath, I want to shave, and then I want you.”
“In that order? Well, now I know where I stand in your list of priorities.” That sentence was also different in Frankish. She didn’t often make such mistakes these days. When she heard Dominick’s chuckle and Ella’s giggle, Gina decided her language errors didn’t matter. But she couldn’t forget Fastrada’s threats, and she didn’t fool herself into believing that Dominick had forgotten, either.
Chapter 18
Upon seeing Dominick walk into his house as if he hadn’t a care in the world, a weeping Lady Adalhaid flung herself into his arms and began to kiss him.
“My prayers have been answered!” she cried. “I knew Charles would never condemn an innocent man to death!”
“Dominick hasn’t been publicly exonerated yet,” Gina explained. “He is confined to Regensburg, there is a guard outside the door to prevent him from running away, and Charles is going to call him back later to pronounce his sentence.”
“I don’t understand,” said Lady Adalhaid.
“Neither do I, but the delay means that Fastrada will now have time to work on Charles, and she won’t be working for Dominick’s benefit.” Seeing how pale the older woman had become, Gina decided not to repeat the queen’s threats against Lady Adalhaid and Hiltrude. Lady Adalhaid looked worn out. Gina knew she hadn’t slept for days, for she had been worrying over Dominick’s fate as if her daughter’s life depended on his well-being. As, perhaps, it did. Fastrada had implied as much with her taunt that she would have Hiltrude killed once Dominick was dead.
“If you ladies will be good enough to excuse me,” Dominick said, “I am for the bathhouse. I am not fit to be in your presence until I am clean.” Gently he freed himself from Lady Adalhaid’s embrace. Then, after calling for one of the servants to bring hot water, he headed for the back door.
“Go to him,” Lady Adalhaid said to Gina.
“What?” Gina responded with surprise to the intense quality in the older woman’s voice.
“When Dominick wakened this morning, assuming he slept at all last night, he believed he would die before the day ended,” Lady Adalhaid explained. “He still may die; we cannot know what Fastrada will convince Charles to do to Dominick. But for the moment, he is a living, healthy man.” She began to push Gina toward the back of the house, emphasizing each word with a gentle shove. “Do – not – waste – precious – time.”
“You are a very strange woman,” Gina declared.
“Do you think so?” As if she was offended, Lady Adalhaid began to draw herself up in noble pride until Gina impulsively hugged her.
“I meant that you are the most unusual ex-mother-in-law I have ever met, because Dominick is so fond of you, and you obviously love him,” Gina said. “You are also a good friend to me. I will take your advice.”
Pausing only long enough to kiss Lady Adalhaid on the cheek and then toss her cloak to Ella, Gina hurried off to the bathhouse.
It was considerably smaller than the bathhouse at Feldbruck, though it, too, was built next to the kitchen so hot water didn’t have to be carried very far. There were no windows. A pair of fat candles burned in dishes set on a shelf. A small metal mirror was propped on the shelf, a razor waiting beside it.
Dominick was already in the steaming water, scrubbing his hair with soap he scooped out of a wooden bowl. The old sheet that lined the tub dripped water onto the floor as Dominick splashed.
Gina shut the door quietly, then kicked off her shoes and pulled her gown over her head. Dominick still hadn’t noticed her. He was humming softly, a tune she didn’t recognize.
She wished she were clever enough to think of something witty to say about the way he had come through the trial with his skin intact. She couldn’t do it. She thought of all the men who were being hanged or beheaded even as she stood there listening to Dominick hum a silly tune and watching as he poured a pitcher of rinse water over his head. She thought of the women who loved the men who were dying, and who could never hold them again, and she shivered, knowing Lady Adalhaid was both correct and wise. While Dominick remained alive and relatively free, they could still be together.
She wanted that. The strength of her longing turned her knees to jelly. What she felt for Dominick was more than simple physical desire, more than lust for a handsome and virile man. Dominick’s heart called to her own heart. Without him, she would survive, as she had survived before she knew him, but she would be lost. In any century. In any country. And that certainty terrified her.
She started for the tub. Dominick saw her and stretched out a soapy hand, the cheerful, honest smile she so loved to see lighting his face.
“Have you come to help me bathe?” he asked, waving at the lightweight linen shift that was her only remaining garment. A few soap bubbles flew off his hand to float slowly toward the floor, shining in the candle glow as they drifted downward.
“Am I overdressed for the occasion?” Gina asked. There, she had discovered a light touch after all. She saw his smile deepen at her teasing question.
“Slightly,” he responded. “But it’s a minor problem, and one I can easily overcome.” He reached for the hem of her shift.
“In my days at the royal court I have learned decorum.” She took a backward step, putting herself beyond his grasp. While she was with him she was going to continue to be lighthearted, charming, cheerful. She wasn’t going to say a word about the trial or about the fate that could await him if Fastrada got her claws into Charles and talked him into doing something terrible.
“You have always been decorous,” Dominick said, grinning so she would know he remembered moments when she had been anything but. “However, I am only a rude, unmannerly warrior.”
He rose out of the tub, splashing water and soapsuds onto wallboards and floor planks, and seized Gina around the waist as if he really was a marauding soldier and she no more than his helpless victim. When he sank back into the water, he pulled Gina in with him, silencing her shriek of surprise with his warm mouth.
She thought she was drowning, not sure whether she was above water or below it, until she realized that Dominick was reclining in the tub and she was on top of him with her soaked shift floating upward and threatening to smother her. Dominick tore his lips from hers long enough to rip off the sodden linen and toss it to the floor.
“I see what you mean,” Gina gasped. “No manners at all. A cold-blooded warrior. A man of steel.”
“Not cold,” he corrected her. “My blood is hot. But steel, yes. Forged in passion.”
Taking her hand, he guided it to the hard, flaring evidence of his desire. And while she caressed him, he let his wet hands slide along her body, touching every sleek curve from her shoulders to her toes. He explored her as if during the past few days he had feared they would never be together again, as if he was memorizing every inch of her in case they were torn apart forever and what they were doing in the bathhouse was going to have to last for all eternity. His intense concentration communicated itself to Gina, threatening to demolish her attempt at lightheartedness.
Still, there were amusing aspects to their love-making. The tub really wasn’t large enough to hold two people. Dominick sat with his back and shoulders against one side and his knees slightly drawn up. Gina was forced to straddle him, a position that made it easy for him to reach every part of her but limited her access to his more intimate areas, unless she wanted to duck her head under the water and keep it there for a while.
Then again, she held a very important part of Dominick in her hand, and he didn’t seem to mind the restrictions of a cramped space. He kissed her lips and eyelids and nose. He nibbled at her throat and shoulders and lifted her a little so he could lavish attention on her breasts.
“I must taste of soap,” she said, pushing closer to his searching mouth.
“You are as sweet as honey,” he murmured.
Below the water, her fingers became busier on him, until Dominick
leaned back, a blissful expression spreading over his face.
“Now!” he breathed, his hands still teasing her breasts, making her whimper with delight. “This instant, Gina, or I will disappoint both of us.”
“You could never disappoint me.” But she could see that he had endured enough of her sensual tormenting. She rose on her knees until his hardness probed at her warmth, and then she impaled herself on him, leaning forward to kiss him as he filled her.
His arms clutched her, and she felt his hips lift once, twice. She heard his cry of release just before she was swept into a state of joy so intensely sweet that she imagined she was melting, running into the water, floating there, suspended in unending pleasure.
She drifted thus for a long, lovely time, until Dominick s renewed kisses brought her back to the reality of rapidly cooling bathwater and thigh and calf muscles aching from being forced into an unnatural position for too long. Still, Gina discovered that she didn’t mind being uncomfortable as long as Dominick was with her.
“I have missed you sorely these last days,” he murmured, his lips against hers.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Gina wound her fingers into his wet hair. “I never want to find out, either. Oh, dear, that doesn’t sound right. At critical moments I lose most of my ability to speak fluent Frankish.”
“I comprehend your meaning.” Dominick placed a finger on her lips to silence her self-criticism. “I think you understand me, too, for much lies unspoken within my heart and must remain there until I know what Charles intends for me.”
“I cannot believe he will order your execution.” She paused for a moment, choking on that terrible word. “If he were planning to, he’d have done it today, along with the other men he sentenced.” She stopped talking again when Dominick’s arms tightened around her, and she rested her head on his broad shoulder.
Gina expected Dominick to be sent into exile. It wasn’t fair. His loyalty to his king should have earned him a reward, not punishment, but exile was far preferable to death. She began to calculate their chances of reaching Feldbruck if they were to flee from Regensburg now. Once at Feldbruck, perhaps they could locate the opening in his room, the gateway between the centuries. They could escape to New York together.
She wasn’t sure Dominick would agree to such a plan. He had refused the suggestion once, while they were still at Feldbruck, and he was so honorable that he’d probably believe it his duty to remain where he was and accept whatever Charles decided to do to him. But, assuming that she could convince him to flee to New York, and assuming they were able to travel across time without becoming separated, what kind of life could Dominick create for himself there? He was an eighth-century Frankish warrior and landowner, hardly a good fit for America at the end of the twentieth century. He was too accustomed to command ever to fit into the restrictions of the modern armed forces. Moreover, he knew nothing of computers or modern technology; he didn’t even know about electricity.
The qualities Dominick did understand – honor, valor, trustworthiness, loyalty -were attributes her world desperately needed but probably wouldn’t accept from someone like him. For Dominick was a man perfectly suited to his own time and place, and, therefore, he belonged exactly where he was. With a sigh of regret Gina concluded that she couldn’t expect him to escape with her, not even to save his own life.
“You are cold,” Dominick said, kissing her forehead. “Come, we will go to my room. I want to make love to you again, and we have occupied this place too long. Others will want to use it. It’s only polite of us to leave.”
“There, you see?” she said, forcing a laugh. “I knew it. You aren’t a rude, unmannerly warrior, after all.”
In late afternoon three days after the trial, Charles sent a man-at-arms to inform Dominick that he was to present himself at the king’s private apartments immediately following Charles’s return from morning prayers the next day.
“Lady Adalhaid and Lady Gina are to accompany you,” the man-at-arms added. “An escort will be sent for you.”
“Charles is going to send all of us into exile,” Lady Adalhaid guessed when Gina and Dominick found her in the great hall and told her the news. “Either that, or he will send you away, Dominick, and order Gina and me into convents for the rest of our lives.”
“Perhaps Ella can get a message to Alcuin,” Gina suggested. “He may be able to tell us what is going on.”
“No.” Dominick’s firm refusal put a prompt end to that notion. “Alcuin has done more than enough for me over the last weeks. I will not require more of his friendship. If he angers Charles, his own position could be in jeopardy, and I won’t do that to him.”
“Surely Alcuin could never be in danger of losing his place at court?” Lady Adalhaid cried.
“We do not know what has been happening since the trial,” Dominick said, “or who has spoken to Charles.”
Fastrada.
None of them mentioned the queen’s name aloud, yet her malicious presence pervaded the hall as they looked at one another.
“Well,” said Lady Adalhaid with a briskness that could not conceal her fear, “I must decide what to wear tomorrow and give a few instructions to Imma.”
“Are we to sit here like mice caught in a trap?” Gina asked when she and Dominick were alone.
“In honor, there is nothing else we can do,” Dominick responded. “I owe obedience to Charles. However, you do not. If you wish, I will order Harulf and Ella to help you leave Regensburg.”
“Don’t be silly,” she snapped at him, her own fears threatening to overcome her. She told herself to be strong, as Lady Adalhaid was. As Dominick was. “Charles has ordered me to appear, too. Even if I could go without endangering Harulf and Ella, I wouldn’t desert you. Or Lady Adalhaid. Tomorrow morning, we go to the palace together, and whatever Charles has planned for us, we face it together.”
Dominick made no verbal response to her emotional declaration. He just took her into his arms and held her close. They were still embracing when Ella returned from a late-day foray to the marketplace. Her basket was loaded with a large fish fresh from the river, a duck that was intended for dinner on the morrow, and several bottles of wine from far western Francia.
“I have news,” Ella said, handing her purchases to the cook, who, upon hearing Ella’s voice, had come into the hall to collect them.
“What news?” Dominick asked.
“Lady Gisela has come for a visit.”
“Has she?” Dominick murmured.
It seemed to Gina that Dominick suddenly became quiet and withdrawn, as if deep in thought. Not so the cook, who spoke over her shoulder as she headed back to the kitchen.
“Aha!” said the cook. “That’ll show Fastrada who really matters. And none too soon, either. I say it serves her right.”
“What is she talking about?” Gina asked as soon as the kitchen door closed.
“Lady Gisela is Charles’s sister,” Dominick answered. “He loves her dearly and she visits him often. Fastrada is jealous of their affection.”
“Wait a minute,” Gina said. “I remember Hedwiga mentioning Lady Gisela. It was right after I arrived at Feldbruck. Doesn’t she live at Chelles? The same place where Hiltrude lives?”
“The same,” Dominick said.
“In that case, we must tell Lady Adalhaid at once. She will want to contact Lady Gisela to find out how Hiltrude is and perhaps send a message to her. And Lady Gisela ought to be warned about Fastrada’s threats against Hiltrude.” She started for the door to Lady Adalhaid’s chamber.
“Wait, Gina,” Dominick ordered.
“What do you mean, wait?” Puzzled by his abrupt command, she turned to face him, to explain her intensions more fully. “If we are all sent off into exile tomorrow, this may be Lady Adalhaid’s last chance to contact her daughter. Surely you realize what this opportunity will mean to her. After her unswerving support of you and her kindness to me, we owe her this information.”
“Do you trust me?” Dominick asked.
“Of course, I trust you, more than I have ever trusted anyone in my entire life.”
“Then believe that I know what I am doing. Say nothing to Lady Adalhaid about Lady Gisela’s presence in Regensburg. Nor you, either, Ella,” he added, looking at the serving girl. “I will speak to the cook and be sure she refrains from gossiping when Lady Adalhaid or Imma are present.”
“Yes, Dominick,” said Ella.
“Good. Gina?” Dominick regarded her with a question in his eyes.
“I don’t agree with you,” Gina said, “but because I trust you, I’ll go along with what you are asking. I won’t tell Lady Adalhaid.”
“Thank you,” Dominick said.
“I will expect an explanation later,” Gina added.
Dominick’s only response to that statement was a mysterious look.
For their evening meal they ate the fish Ella had bought, and they drank some of the wine. They all retired early, and Dominick spent several hours making tender love to Gina until she lay beside him limp and satisfied. But she couldn’t sleep, and she couldn’t stop wondering why Dominick had placed such an unreasonable restriction on her when he must have known what it would mean to Lady Adalhaid to have word of her daughter, or to be able to write a note to Hiltrude in the certain knowledge that it would be delivered when Lady Gisela returned to Chelles.
Chapter 19
It was obviously going to be a private trial, as opposed to the public spectacle of five days ago. Gina wasn’t sure whether she ought to be encouraged or frightened as the man-at-arms who was the leader of their escort conducted her, Dominick, and Lady Adalhaid into a reception room inside Charles’s personal apartments.
“Wait here,” the guard instructed, leaving them alone to stare at the hangings on the walls and the simple wooden stools and tables.
The quiet was ominous. Gina could hear her own heart beating. Lady Adalhaid grabbed her hand and held it tightly. On Gina’s other side, Dominick stood very straight and still, his face set as if he was prepared to deal with any enemy.
