Carried Away by Anna Markland Read Free Book Online

joining my comrades in an attack against Heinrich’s army.”
    Her heart plummeted. Should she beg him not to go? He would think she’d 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 smouldered since the Great Saxon Revolt many, many years ago.”
    Liebling? He called me Liebling! Doesn’t that mean darling? Perhaps I’m mistaken, and it means something else?
    Dieter was still explaining, rubbing his thumb over her hand. “Heinrich has made attempts to confiscate Saxon counties as fiefs but has always met obstinate resistance. On the morrow we travel nine miles to Andernach to confront him on the plain.”
    Blythe was 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?
    She didn’t know his name. He didn’t care about her. She was his prisoner.
    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 swept over her. “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 didn’t 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, and I don’t yet know your name.”
    He saw the tears, drew her into an embrace, brushed his lips on hers and breathed, “My name is Dieter, Count von Wolfenberg.”
    His name was the most wonderful sound she’d ever heard. He was a Count! She closed her eyes and opened her mouth to his coaxing tongue. He braced his legs, cupped her bottom and pressed her body gently against him. She felt his erection 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.
    “Dieter,” she whispered. “Dieter.”
    “Blythe, mein Schatz , you’re so beautiful. I don’t want to leave you, but I must.”
    He pulled away and she felt adrift, frantically trying to remember what mein Schatz meant. Was she his cat ? How could he think her beautiful when she’d done her best to present an ugly countenance?
    He clicked his heels together again, bowed stiffly, kissed her hand and left.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    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’d left her. He’d called her his sweetheart . Good thing she didn’t understand German, though sometimes he wondered—
    He’d left her quickly or he would have torn the clothes from her body and made love to her on the table. He’d never wanted a woman as much as he wanted Blythe Lacey FitzRam. But she would never