Love Beyond Time by Flora Speer Read Free Book Online

the
queen’s life Danise could see an example of the hazards that fueled
Sister Gertrude’s concern for her own future.
    Hildegarde took her seat in a large wooden
chair padded with thick cushions. The queen’s sweet face was pale,
her light brown hair hung in lusterless braids, while her swollen
abdomen only accentuated her overall thinness. Her ladies and her
children clustered about her. Baby Ludwig, just nine months old,
and two-year-old Carloman were in the arms of their nurses,
four-year-old Rotrud was playing at her mother’s feet, and
seven-year-old Charlot was strutting about with his toy sword as if
he were already a grown man and a warrior.
    Off to one side Charles stood talking to
several of his nobles, with his uncle, Duke Bernard, and Count
Clodion among them. Looking at those men, Danise sighed. So many of
Charles’s closest companions of the previous summer, men who should
have been in the group about him now, instead lay dead in Spain, or
in the treacherous pass at Roncevaux, or buried at Agen, like her
dearest Hugo. In the sad aftermath of the Spanish campaign, Charles
was much changed. He refused to speak about the tragedy at
Roncevaux, he would not even mention Spain, and he seemed to Danise
to be sadly aged and careworn.
    Savarec had told Danise that Charles’s
present most pressing woes concerned the Saxons, who repeatedly
rose in revolt against their Frankish rulers, looting and burning
and killing wherever they found the opportunity, for the Saxons
were determined to remain independent and heathen. Since they had a
habit of torturing and killing any Christian missionaries who
ventured beyond Frankish territory, and since they often made
unprovoked attacks on Frankish lands east of the Rhine, Charles had
decided Saxony needed to be subdued and converted to the True
Faith. Savarec believed the task would be a long and daunting one,
in which he would be deeply involved, for the fortress he commanded
was situated on the eastern bank of the Rhine.
    I’ll speak to you again later, Danise.” When
Savarec left his daughter to join Charles and his male friends,
Hildegarde gestured to Danise to come closer.
    “How does your injured guest?” asked the
queen, who had been kept fully informed by both Charles and Sister
Gertrude.
    “He is much better today. We have discovered
his name.” Danise went on to describe her most recent visit with
her patient.
    “Michel,” mused Hildegarde. “Named for the
warrior archangel. Is this Michel also a warrior?”
    “At the moment, he’s too weak to be
anything,” Sister Gertrude answered for Danise. “Though he has a
tough and wiry look to him, he is not at all well-muscled. Danise,
here comes your father and it seems he has found the rest of your
suitors.”
    Hildegarde laughed at the nun’s disgruntled
expression as Savarec and two men drew near. The golden-haired
Count Redmond came forward at once to greet first the queen and
then Danise. He also made a polite bow to Sister Gertrude, who
favored him with a nod of her head before glaring at Savarec.
    “I have found Autichar,” Savarec announced,
and presented him to Danise.
    Count Autichar of Bavaria was not much taller
than Danise. He was thickly made, with massive shoulders and arms.
By contrast his short legs appeared underdeveloped, as though he
spent more time on horseback than walking or standing on his own
feet. His hair was orange-red, his eyes gray, and his snub-nosed
face was sunburned and peeling. His bright red tunic and cloak
clashed with the color of his hair.
    Danise would have dismissed his lack of
physical attractiveness as unimportant if only Autichar had been a
pleasant man, but she quickly learned that his personality matched
his appearance. He scarcely looked at the queen, whom he ought to
have acknowledged first, instead examining Danise as if she were a
horse he was thinking of buying.
    “She doesn’t look big enough to produce
healthy sons,” Autichar said. “But then,