by Speer, Flora
“I haven’t invited Gina to Trier,” Lady Adalhaid said. “Nor will I.”
“I thought you were my friend!” Gina cried in complete confusion.
“There is only one solution.” Charles’s voice rose above the others’, who were all talking at once. “It is my duty to protect maidens from the depredations of men.”
Gina was going to tell Charles that she wasn’t a maiden and that if he didn’t know it he was blind and deaf, but something in his blue gaze made her keep her mouth shut and listen to his next words.
“Count Dominick,” Charles said, speaking very formally, “I hereby command you to marry Lady Gina. The ceremony will take place early tomorrow morning. Father Theodulf has agreed to bless the union during morning prayers. I regret to say I cannot provide a wedding feast here at the palace, as I will be leaving Regensburg directly after morning prayers end. Lady Adalhaid, you will then be free to leave also, though I trust you will rejoin my court before too long.”
“Of course I will. Thank you for everything.”
The way Lady Adalhaid made her thanks convinced Gina that she and Charles, together, had planned the interview and, for reasons of their own, had decided that Gina and Dominick must marry.
She was going to refuse. It wasn’t right to go through a marriage ceremony pretending that all was well, when she wasn’t sure Dominick really cared about her and, furthermore, she didn’t know how long she could stay in the eighth century. With a chill in her heart and a sudden, queasy rolling of her stomach, she recalled the way the ceiling of Dominick’s room at Feldbruck had opened, and the way she had almost been sucked into that long, dark tunnel. She was certain the same thing would happen again, and, when it did, she might not be able to escape.
“I can’t,” she said.
“What?” Charles was frowning at her.
She had never been frowned at by a king before and it was truly frightening. Gina stared back at him, knowing she was in for a major battle and fearing she wouldn’t be strong enough to hold out against his will, because, deep in her heart, she wanted to obey his command. She wanted so much to marry Dominick and live with him to the end of their lives. But she couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair to him.
“Gina,” Alcuin said, “look at me.”
She did, meeting his honest gaze and knowing that he was the only person in the room other than Dominick who understood her predicament.
“I advise you to do as Charles orders,” Alcuin said. “Obey the urging of your heart.”
“You know why I can’t,” she said.
“I know why you must.”
Alcuin’s cryptic statement left Gina so puzzled and nervous that her stomach began to churn.
“Gina,” Dominick said, taking her hand, “marry me. Please. I insist on it.”
Not, I love you and I can’t live without you. Just, I insist on it.
“What a typical Frankish male you are!” she exclaimed, and she heard Lady Adalhaid’s distinctive throaty chuckle.
“Marry me,” Dominick repeated with an intensity that suggested he might have some inkling of what was going through her mind. “Say yes.”
“Yes?” All her doubts were in that single word, making it into a question. She promised herself that, after they got out of that cursed audience chamber, she was going to talk to Dominick without the interference of well-meaning friends, and she’d remind him why it wasn’t a good idea for them to marry. For the moment, she just wanted to get away from Charles. She hadn’t fully realized how manipulative the king of the Franks could be beneath his relaxed, easygoing exterior.
“Good.” Charles was beaming his approval on them. “I’ll let you go now. I’m sure all of you have a great deal to accomplish in preparation for tomorrow. Alcuin will meet with you about the marriage contract.”
“Contract?” Gina said. “I don’t have any property. No dowry. I guess that means no wedding.”
“On the contrary,” said Charles. “I am settling upon you the estate of one of the exiled traitors. Vincona isn’t a very large estate, but the farmland is rich. So you now have a dowry in Lombardy.”
“Lombardy?” Gina cried. “You mean it’s in Italy?” She wanted to add, Are you crazy? but Dominick was thanking Charles for her, and by the time she had a chance to say anything at all, Charles had dismissed them.
Lady Adalhaid went off to bid farewell to Lady Madelgarde and her other friends.
Gina and Dominick spent an hour in Alcuin’s office while he and Dominick discussed the terms of their marriage contract. Gina agreed to whatever the men suggested. It didn’t matter what the contract said. She couldn’t marry Dominick.
Chapter 23
“I shouldn’t have to explain it to you,” Gina said.
Dominick had sent Harulf home, so the two of them were walking unattended beside the Danube. Sunlight glittered on the blue water. Tree leaves rustled in a gentle breeze. A few puffy clouds drifted overhead. The grass was springy beneath their feet. Altogether it was a perfect summer day.
Gina’s heart was aching.
“You know,” she said, stopping so she could turn to face Dominick, “ever since I met you, I’ve been pulled one way and then the other. I don’t know what to think or whether you care about me or not. I can’t take it anymore.”
“Are you saying that you want to return to New York?” His face was grim. His strong hands gripped her shoulders so tightly that her bones hurt. “Look me in the eye and tell me the truth. I will have nothing but honesty from you. I deserve that much, after you’ve refused my offer of marriage despite the king’s order and despite the fact that Alcuin is even now dictating the final terms of our marriage contract to one of his secretaries.”
“It wasn’t an offer of marriage, it was Charles’s command.”
“Stop quibbling,” he ordered. “Answer me truthfully.”
She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his hard gaze, and she knew if she didn’t speak what was in her heart, she’d regret it for the rest of her life. No, she’d regret it for all eternity.
“The truth is, if I were given a choice of returning to the twentieth century or of staying here with you,” she said, “I would choose to stay with you.”
“Then marry me.”
“Don’t you understand? I may not have a choice. I don’t know how long I will stay in this time. What if I marry you tomorrow morning, and I’m taken back to the twentieth century tomorrow night? Or the day after? Or on the day when we return to Feldbruck and I walk into your bedchamber?”
“I am willing to take the risk,” he said. “I want to seize whatever time heaven grants us to be together. We can move to a different bedchamber at Feldbruck. There is a large room on the second level that I have never used because my needs were those of an ordinary warrior.”
“There is nothing ordinary about you,” she said, thinking of the grueling work he had undertaken to restore his health and strength.
“The room is bare of all furniture,” Dominick said. “Would you like to see to the decorating yourself? My storerooms are full, or you may take furniture from the other rooms if you like.”
“Pale blue walls,” she murmured, daring to dream for just a brief moment, though she knew dreams were futile. “Is blue wall paint possible in this time?”
“Anything is possible with you, my love.”
“A rug on the floor, a couple of chairs with thick cushions – what did you say?”
“Anything is possible.”
“No, I mean after that.”
“I called you my love.”
“You love me?” she exclaimed, uncertain whether to believe him or not. But why would he lie? Dominick never lied to her.
“I thought you knew,” he said.
“How do you expect me to know something like that when no one has ever – until now -?” She halted, still not quite able to believe he had actually spoken the words she wanted to hear from him.
“Let me say it straight out, so there will be no
chance of misunderstanding.” Using the name she had written on the marriage contract, he said, “Gina of New York, I love you.”
“Oh, Dominick.” She saw him in blurry fashion, for her eyes were swimming with happy tears. “I love you, too. It wasn’t until I met you and began to learn what a fine, honest man you are that I was able to understand what real love is.”
“Nor did I ever love,” he said, “until the morning I first looked into your beautiful green eyes.”
“But you did love before I came to Francia,” she protested. “You love Charles and Alcuin and Pepin. You love Lady Adalhaid, even if she was once your mother-in-law, and I think you did love Hiltrude, too.”
“Say, rather, I respect Lady Adalhaid. And for a brief time I was fond of Hiltrude in the way I would care for a young and innocent sister.”
“For heavens sake, Dominick, you even love your miserable brother!”
“Bernard would insist that you refer to him as my half brother,” Dominick corrected her.
“You probably treat Bernard’s mother nicely, too.”
“That is more difficult,” Dominick said wryly. “And never did I love any of the people you have mentioned with the kind of passionate, enduring love I feel for you. Gina, you are my whole heart and soul. I will love you until I die. And if we are ever torn apart as you fear, I will pray ceaselessly that we will find each other again in the next world, so we can spend eternity together.”
“That’s not fair to you,” she whispered, making one last objection for the sake of her conscience and his future happiness.
“I don’t care,” he said. “Please, Gina, marry me. It is the deepest desire of my heart, what I want above all else in this lifetime.”
“It’s what I want, too,” she said, capitulating to the love in his eyes. Silently she vowed to do everything she could to make him happy for as long as they were together. “All right. If you are willing to take the chance, then so am I. I will marry you, Dominick.”
He was still holding her by her shoulders, but now he pulled her closer, and his hands slid across her back, until she was right up against him. She lifted her face to him, and his lips caressed hers, sweetly, softly. Gina whimpered, and Dominick deepened the kiss, exploring her mouth until she went limp with desire and hung on to his shoulders to keep herself from falling.
“That was only a promise, for the future,” he said.
“No.” She pressed closer, recalling the frightening days when she had feared he’d have no future. “Dominick, please, kiss me again. Then take me home right away. I want to be as close to you as two people can be. I’ve missed you so.” It wasn’t just his physical closeness she had missed; it was his deep tenderness and the expression on his face in the last seconds before his pleasure seized him in a whirlwind that always – always – included her.
“I hope you understand,” he said, “that in this century a wife is expected to obey her husband in all things.” With that cool statement he took his hands from her and stood back.
Her eyes opened wide in hurt surprise, and she reacted with irritation bordering on anger. “I wouldn’t depend on that if I were you,” she said.
“I am about to issue my first order.” He actually shook a finger just in front of her nose.
“You aren’t my husband yet,” she reminded him. “Where I come from, women have rights.”
“So have Frankish women, as you very well know. My order is that, from this moment until nightfall, we will not speak of any unpleasant subject, nor of any unkind or unloving person.”
“Oh. Well, I think I can live with that.”
“See how easy it is to obey me? Here is your reward.” Before Gina could respond to his teasing comments, Dominick kissed her again, this time so thoroughly that she was rocked to her very toes.
“Now,” he said, releasing her, “we will walk along the river and talk and make plans as if we have forever to be together. For it may be that we have.”
“Walk and talk,” she said. “Is that another order?”
“It is a desperate scheme,” he responded with solemnity, “intended to prevent me from dragging you back to my house and into my bedchamber as you requested. It will be difficult to restrain myself when I am burning for you and you admit that you also desire me, but I would like to wait until tomorrow, until you are officially my wife, before we lie together again. Then, on our wedding night, we will celebrate a new beginning.”
“You are, without a doubt, the most remarkable man I have ever known,” she said, touching his face tenderly. And the greatest optimist in the face of uncertainty, she added silently.
Gina wore a green silk gown to her wedding, another of Hiltrude s dresses with the seams taken in so it would fit her. She was no longer without jewelry of her own, for on their return from their walk along the Danube, Dominick had presented her with a necklace of heavy gold links set with green stones.
“I ordered Charles’s jeweler to make it for you soon after we came to Regensburg,” he said. “There’s a ring, too. You will see that tomorrow.”
Dominick set out for the palace early on the day of the wedding, attended by all his men-at-arms except for the two who were to escort Gina and the other women.
“That’s a good thing,” said Ella, bustling about. “Imma and I are going to clean Dominick’s chamber and put clean sheets on the bed for tonight. Cook is preparing a lovely meal for you that you can serve yourselves. The rest of us will carry our midday feast to the riverbank and enjoy it there.”
Lady Adalhaid was wearing her traveling garments. Her belongings were packed, and she and Imma were to depart from Regensburg as soon as Charles left.
“Let me say farewell now,” Lady Adalhaid said just before they were scheduled to mount and ride to the wedding. She embraced Gina warmly, kissing her on both cheeks.
“Don’t say good-bye,” Gina whispered, her throat suddenly too tight for normal speech. “Visit us at Feldbruck, and I hope we will meet at court, too. Dominick tells me that he is required to attend Charles periodically.”
“I will travel to Feldbruck,” Lady Adalhaid responded with a sly smile, “for the birth of your first child. I think you will want someone there to counteract Hedwiga’s bossiness.”
“That would be lovely. But who knows when, or if, I will have a child?” Gina’s cheeks warmed at the thought of what she and Dominick would do later in the day, which could, of course, result in a baby, but she forgot her momentary embarrassment when she heard Lady Adalhaid’s next, puzzling statement, which bore no apparent connection to what she had just said.
“Lady Madelgarde assures me most positively that Fastrada is not with child. Apparently, Fastrada was greatly distressed when the evidence presented itself right on schedule. She knew a pregnancy was her last hope of holding on to Charles’s affections, for he surely will not lie with her again.
“As for you, let me see now.” Lady Adalhaid held up her hands and began, rather ostentatiously, to count on her fingers. “As near as I can tell, it will be in late January or early February. If I visit Hiltrude and Audulf at Birnau for the Christmas festivities and travel on to Feldbruck immediately thereafter, I ought to reach you with sufficient time to spare. Is that arrangement acceptable to you?”
“What are you implying?” Gina asked. “Even if I were to conceive tonight – well, It’s early August. How could I possibly have a child in January?”
Lady Adalhaid didn’t answer. She merely chuckled, making that throaty sound Gina liked to hear, and regarded Gina out of smiling eyes.
“Unless,” Gina said, realization slowly dawning, “you are trying to tell me that I’m already pregnant. But how can that be?”
“I suppose it happened in the usual way,” Lady Adalhaid responded with dry humor. “I assume that you and Dominick were lying together before you left Feldbruck, which is why he kept you in his house here in Regensburg, rather than sending you to the women’s quarters at the palace. That was a wise decision in many ways.
I began to consider the possibility when I noticed that you were pale, with circles under your eyes, and you ate little. Your bosom has grown larger. Haven’t you noticed how snug the tops of your dresses are?”
“I developed circles under my eyes because I wasn’t sleeping much while I was so worried about Dominick,” Gina said. “That’s why I haven’t been eating.” Yet in the back of her mind lay the tantalizing memory of a brief conversation she’d had at the infirmary.
“There is a final, conclusive detail,” Lady Adalhaid said. “Since you first arrived at Feldbruck, you’ve not had a single monthly flow.”
“How can you possibly know something like that?” Gina cried, dumbfounded.
“Ella noticed. She told Imma, who then told me. Servants always know these things, sometimes before their masters or mistresses do.”
Of course Ella had noticed. At Feldbruck she and Gina routinely spread out the laundry together, including the cloths the women used each month. Gina recalled being glad not to have to use and reuse the same cloths and hoping she’d return to New York before she needed such supplies. Then, with the journey to Regensburg and all the excitement there, she’d forgotten about the matter entirely.
“Brother Anselm’s assistant told me he thought I had a female problem of some kind, and he said I ought to speak to you about it,” Gina admitted. “I was so concerned about Dominick that the conversation slipped my mind until now.”
“There, you see?” Lady Adalhaid chuckled again. “How can you doubt what even a lay brother has noticed? Why do you think I went to Charles and insisted that you and Dominick marry quickly?”
“You told Charles I’m having a baby? Before you said anything to me?”
“Of course not. I wouldn’t do that. I only told him that you and Dominick were deeply in love and deserved to marry but that I feared you would refuse him if he asked because you lacked a dowry. I knew Charles could easily remedy that little problem.”
