The Other Side of Heaven by Morgan O'Neill Read Free Book Online Page B

thing – that you travel to the church in Pavia. If he works for Berengar and stays with me, he will see that I muster my forces. He will learn where and whence I intend to go. No, he must travel with you. I insist.”
    Father Warinus was silent for a time. Then he quietly muttered, “As you will, my lord. As you will.”
    *
    Gwen sat on her horse watching Lord Alberto lead his men away. For three days she’d ridden with him, observed him, listened as he spoke with the priest and his men. Although he seemed to get angry whenever she approached, she could tell he was honorable, not given to mood swings or a violent temper. Reserved physically, he led his men with absolute authority, yet didn’t put himself above them, and they obviously admired him. And when he laughed…
    A pang tore through her as she recalled his laughter, quick and easy, his eyes sparkling. She’d been drawn to him from the moment their paths met, but now, now there was so much more to… miss.
    She wanted to call out and chase after him, even as a dust cloud rose from the departing troop and he disappeared from view. Would she ever see him again? Gwen frowned, wondering if her feelings were simply the result of her vulnerability.
    Her gaze flickered toward her remaining companion, Father Warinus, who looked as despondent as she felt. The priest was a mystery. Although he seemed kind, he had gone out of his way to avoid her, and they’d hardly spoken since her rescue. In prominent display, he now wore a sword at his waist. But would he really be able to protect them if the worst happened? Gwen wished she’d taken a martial arts class.
    Again, she let her gaze trail down the path along the river. The dust cloud was nearly out of sight.
    Gone. The security Alberto offered was gone. The man. Gone. She still wished he would turn around, come back to her, take away her fears.
    Or just take her.
    The thought was a familiar one, she’d been thinking it for days, but she knew she wanted Alberto for more than sex.
    Gwen was amazed by this unfamiliar emotion. Love? But no, she didn’t even know him, had hardly spoken with him. Love. It certainly had never clouded her relationships before.
    Yet something felt different, as if she were more alive in his presence. Now she wanted the whole man. She wanted his mind, his heart. And she wanted him to feel the same way about her.
    She looked down at her monk’s robe. But it was hopeless. He was gone. And anyway, he thought she was a boy.
    “Come. We must follow our own path, Brother Godwyn,” Warinus said.
    Gwen nodded. Her thoughts shifted to the one she’d been forced to take since Santa Lucia, now so far to the south. Then she remembered her family in California, so far in the future, and she felt lost, utterly alone.
    “Come, Brother.” The priest turned his horse toward Pavia, speaking over his shoulder. “The countryside can be fraught with danger, as you well know. If you would have any hope of returning one day to your Britannia, I suggest you be vigilant – and pray.”
    She trailed after Warinus, glancing back only once, the distance empty, a wilderness. Yet, she held the memory of Alberto’s eyes in her mind, to carry with her into the unknown, praying for something else, something that would make sense, a path Warinus couldn’t imagine.

Chapter 5
    2 April, 951, Pavia, Italy
    St. Peter’s Church of the Golden Ceiling. How grand it looked. Queen Adelaide of Italy took the hand of her daughter, Emma, and slowly walked past the tomb of St. Augustine, toward the new marble crypt of her murdered husband. She stopped before it and stared. Lothaire. A good man. Kind, wise, honest. How appalling his fate!
    “Mama, where is Papa?”
    Adelaide knelt before the tomb. Emma mimicked her.
    “Your father has gone to heaven,” Adelaide said to the three-year-old, for possibly the hundredth time. “He is with God.”
    “But Mama, when will he come back?”
    Adelaide sighed. How to explain…?
    She