AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Andernach
To Blythe’s great relief, Dieter’s wound healed quickly. The house became an armed camp. No one spoke of the man who had been captured in the garden, and she was afraid to ask.
One day in October, her captor took her hand as they dined together. The stirrings of desire his touch never failed to ignite flared again. “Lady Blythe, on the morrow I’ll be joining my comrades in an attack against Heinrich’s army.”
She’d half-suspected some action was brewing, but her heart plummeted. Should she beg him not to go? He would think she had lost her wits. “Why must men always fight and kill each other?”
“Liebling,” he replied softly, his eyes caressing her quivering lips, “Köln must be freed from the unjust domination of the emperor. As for us Saxons, well, the conflict has smoldered since the Great Saxon Revolt many, many years ago.”
Liebling? He keeps calling me Liebling! Doesn’t that mean darling? Perhaps I’m mistaken, and it means something else.
He was still explaining, brushing his thumb over her knuckles. “Heinrich has made attempts to confiscate Saxon counties as fiefs but has always met with obstinate resistance. On the morrow, we travel nine miles to Andernach to confront him on the plain.”
Blythe’s emotions were in turmoil. Nine miles! The enemy was a mere nine miles away. She longed to throw her arms around him, beg him not to go, tell him she loved him.
Love him? Do I love him?
He didn’t care about her. She was his prisoner.
Still, she wished his thumb was caressing another part of her body instead of her hand. If she looked up at him, he would see the wanton desire in her eyes. “Black Knight, I wish you Gottes segen on the morrow. Godspeed.”
His eyes widened. He placed his palm against her face. A tear trickled unbidden down her cheek and he wiped it away. “If I don’t return from Andernach, be reassured I’ve sent messengers to your family in England. I’m sure they’ll come for you. You’re too precious to lose.”
Her heart fluttered wildly. She could barely speak as relief and foreboding swept over her at the same time. “Not return? My family? You don’t intend to sell me? My parents know I’m here?”
He let go of her hand and straightened, a scowl on his face. “Sell you? Is that what you think of me? If your parents don’t yet know your whereabouts, I’m confident they soon will.”
She did not know what to say, stung by the anger in his voice. “I’m sorry; I was afraid. I didn’t know what you intended to do with me.”
“That makes two of us,” he blurted out, shaking his head. He rose from the table, clicked his heels together and bowed. “I’ll be gone before you rise, so I bid you auf Weidersehen now.”
She stood to face him, tears flowing freely. “Black Knight, on the morrow, you’ll leave for war.”
He saw the tears, drew her into an embrace, brushed his lips on hers and breathed, “I want to hear my name on your lips.”
“Dieter,” she whispered. “Dieter.” She closed her eyes and allowed his coaxing tongue entry.
He braced his legs, cupped her bottom and pressed her body gently against him. She felt his desire and thought of what her mother had said about a man and woman joining their bodies. She wanted to crawl all over him, to possess him, to see him naked.
“Blythe, mein Schatz, you’re so beautiful. I don’t want to leave you, but I must.”
He pulled away and she felt cast adrift, frantically trying to remember what mein Schatz meant. Was she his cat? How could he think her beautiful when she had done her best to present an ugly countenance?
He clicked his heels together again, bowed stiffly, kissed her hand and left.
* * *
For the third time, the combatants in the conflict between the Holy Roman Emperor and the city of Köln faced each other, this time on the plain of Andernach. Dieter wished he could keep his mind on the business at hand. All he could think of was the bereft look on Blythe’s face when he had left her. He had called her his sweetheart. Good thing she did not understand much German, though sometimes he wondered—
Aroused by the sound of his name on her lips, he had departed quickly or he would have torn the clothes from her body and made love to her on the table. He had never wanted a woman as much as he wanted Blythe Lacey FitzRam, but she could never love him. He had frightened her. She thought he was going to sell her. “Mein Gott, she would think me capable of that?”
Her response to his kiss was simply relief at discovering he’d contacted her parents.
His comrade Magnus rode up beside him and brought his attention back to the mighty host facing them. “What do you think of our chances, Dieter?”
The dread roiling in his stomach as he surveyed the enemy ranks was a distraction from his preoccupation with Blythe. “Heinrich has a very strong force, infantry as well as cavalry. Spies tell us he has recruited Franconians, Alemannians, and Bavarians, as well as knights from Burgundy. If he stays true to form, he’ll send his dukes to fight the battle and await the outcome of the conflict at a distance. We number far fewer but cunning and bravery may win the day for us.”
Would he see Blythe again? Only a fool would leave without telling her of his true feelings.
