Love Beyond Time by Flora Speer Read Free Book Online Page B

suitor.”
    “Here is an added advantage to my decision to
convince Autichar to go home.” Charles was grinning now. “Danise,
you deserve a husband far better than Autichar.”
    “So I had already decided.” Danise met
Charles’s sparkling eyes with laughter. “But I do thank you, sir,
for sparing me the trouble of sending him away rejected.”
    “And I,” said Savarec. “I admit, I was in awe
of his lands and his titles, but he would have made a poor husband
for my girl.”
    “Now, if we could just rid ourselves of
Danise’s other suitors,” Sister Gertrude said.
    “Oh, no.” Hildegarde burst into laughter.
“Sister Gertrude, do not deny Danise the joys of wedded life, for
they are sweet indeed. Even the discomforts are but trivial when
one has married the right husband.”
    “Thank you for those words, dearest wife.”
Charles beamed at his queen. Catching her hand, he raised it to his
lips and kissed it.
    To this testimony to marriage Sister Gertrude
dared make no critical response. Not with Hildegarde smiling at her
husband and Charles watching his wife with a tender gaze. But when
Charles turned his attention elsewhere, the nun did have a few
choice words for Savarec.
    “You claim to love Danise, yet the quality I
would expect to see in her possible husbands is sorely lacking,
Savarec.”
    “I am not so rich or so powerful that I can
afford to ignore the proposals of such men,” Savarec responded. “In
fact, Clodion earlier today all but accused me of outright trickery
because he has discovered that Danise’s dowry is much smaller than
he expected it to be.”
    “In that case, let us hope Clodion will
decide not to pursue her.”
    “He made his suit contingent upon his meeting
with Danise,” Savarec said, somewhat uneasily. “You heard him. He
is enthusiastic about the prospect of marriage to her. I am not
unwise enough to refuse him.”
    “Unwise?” scoffed Sister Gertrude. “Say
rather, you have no wits at all in such matters. If you had, you
would not trust Clodion for a moment.”
    Savarec’s face turned red, and it seemed to
Danise that he was preparing a sharp retort to Sister Gertrude’s
scathing comments on his intelligence. Tired of their bickering,
she moved away from them. When she did so, Count Redmond fell into
step beside her.
    “I hope you do not find me as unacceptable as
Count Autichar,’’ he said.
    “Compared to Autichar, you are the most
charming of men,” she teased.
    “I do hope so. May I tell you about my home,
and why I believe you would be an excellent wife for me?”
    To this suggestion Danise assented, so while
they walked along the ríverbank in the golden midday sunshine,
Redmond set forth all the sensible reasons why they should marry.
She thought he was an honest man, and his person was clean and
comely. He provided a humorous description of life on his estates,
making her laugh several times. Danise felt completely at ease with
him.
    “I have spoken enough about myself,” Redmond
said at last. “Tell me how the stranger fares.”
    When Danise revealed the man’s name and
described his improved condition, Redmond had another question for
her.
    “May I visit him? He might like to talk with
a man close to his own age, which I think I am. Michel may be
lonely, or feeling apprehensive among people he does not know. By
providing instruction in the ways of our menfolk, I might be able
to ease his anxiety until his memory returns.”
    “How good of you,” Danise cried, liking
Redmond even more for his generous concern over a man who was never
completely out of her own thoughts. Neither Clodion nor Autichar
could begin to capture her interest the way Michel had done. But
Redmond? She regarded her third suitor with true warmth and a
bright smile.
    “I believe we will become good friends,” she
told him.
    “I would wish for more than friendship from
you,” Redmond replied, “but it is a fair beginning. Now, when may I
see Michel?”
    “I will take you