Carried Away by Anna Markland Read Free Book Online Page B

master’s return. She no longer thought of them as her guards, but doubted they would allow her to leave. She worried about her family. Aidan especially would be bereft at her absence. If only England wasn’t so far away. A woman alone would never survive such a journey.
    Perhaps if she disguised herself as a nun? But where to procure such a garb? She’d heard stories of women who’d taken holy orders being raped and murdered. Her own Viking ancestors had not been blameless in that regard.
    She had no appetite. Even the garden failed to delight. It seemed there was no recourse but to wait for Dieter’s return. But what if he didn’t come back? What if he was killed? The thought sent her scurrying to her chamber where she collapsed on the bed, sobbing. The handsome knight of her dreams had come into her life, but he didn’t love her, and might never return from Andernach.

CHAPTER SIX
     
    “Agneta! Aidan! At last! News of Blythe.” Caedmon’s voice rang through the manor house at Shelfhoc. He clutched a parchment, brandishing it high above his head. “Where is everybody?”
    At the age of two score and seven, Caedmon was still an active and virile man, though he suffered from rheumatism in the winter, and his black hair had turned completely gray. He teased Agneta that it was she who kept him young.
    Ragna came running. “We were in the Hall. They have found my sister?”
    Together they hurried there, bursting through the door with excitement, both shouting at once.
    Agneta stood quickly and Caedmon threw his arms around her, laughing. “It’s news of Blythe, at last!”
    His wife clasped her hands to her mouth as tears trickled down her cheeks. “Blythe,” she whispered.
    Caedmon knew he was shouting, but couldn’t seem to do otherwise. “She’s in Cologne! Of all places! I passed through there during my misbegotten journey to the Crusade!”
    Aidan had by now jumped up to grab the parchment from his father’s hands. “What’s she doing there?”
    Caedmon slapped his son on the back. “As you see, my boy, she’s said to be a guest of someone named Count Dieter von Wolfenberg. We’re invited to retrieve her, which is an odd choice of words. The whole epistle is ambiguous. There is no outright mention of money, but—”
    Aidan looked angry. “You mean they want us to pay to free her? Is she a prisoner?”
    Caedmon scratched his head. “I’m not sure. Though the letter is in perfect English, it was obviously written by someone whose native tongue isn’t English. It’s almost too perfect. I wonder how she came to be a “guest” of this man? The last we heard from our King Henry she was taken forcefully from the cathedral at Mainz when someone tried to kidnap Matilda. Now the abductor wants us to retrieve her.”
    “Will we all go, Father?” asked sixteen year old Edwin.
    Caedmon tousled his youngest son’s hair. “No Edwin, the Empire can be a dangerous place, but I’ll certainly go to retrieve my girl.”
    “And I will accompany you, Father,” Aidan said with authority.
    Caedmon was about to argue, but it was Aidan’s right as Blythe’s twin brother to aid in her rescue. His son had been in torment while Blythe was missing.
    Ragna folded her arms across her chest and sulked. “I’m never allowed to go anywhere, or do anything.”
    Edwin snorted. “You do nothing but complain, Ragna. If I’m not allowed to go then you’re surely not going. You’re only thirteen, and a girl.”
    Ragna stamped her foot and fled the room. Meanwhile Agneta had slumped into a chair, sobbing. Caedmon went down on one knee at her feet. “At least we know she’s safe.”
    She gripped his hand. “But Caedmon, Cologne is so far away. I feared for you when you journeyed that way before. Poor Blythe, she’s so compromised now, no man will want to marry her.”
    She spoke the truth. Blythe’s whereabouts had been unknown for many months and now she’d turned up in the hands of a foreign Count. Her