Love Beyond Time (23 page)

“I will go to her at once.” Sister Gertrude
rose, adding in a stern voice, “I will speak to you later, Danise.
You will find Clothilde at our tent, where she is doing the
laundry.”

Scarcely had Sister Gertrude left Charles’s
tent for the queen’s tent next to it, than there began a fresh
noise of cheering and happy shouts of welcome. Those in Charles’s
tent stepped outside to see what had caused the noise just as
Redmond and the men he commanded arrived. Riding proudly by
Redmond’s side was Guntram. In the middle of the company,
surrounded by guards, was Autichar, his hands bound behind him, his
feet fastened together by a rope drawn beneath his horse’s belly.
His fanciful metal helmet was gone, but the red cloak still lay
about his shoulders and his head was held high.

“I am mightily sorry to see you in such
condition,” Charles said to him. “That a fine warrior like you
should be brought to shame distresses me.”

“I have done nothing wrong,” Autichar
replied.

Danise thought he must have seen her standing
behind Charles, and known that she would tell Charles all she could
about his plans, but Autichar gave no sign that he recognized
her.

“Put him in a tent as distant from Clodion’s
as you can,” Charles said to Redmond. “Let there be no message
carried between them. Allow him no visitors. Keep Autichar well
guarded, so he cannot escape. On the morrow, I will hear the case
against him and his friend, Clodion.”

“Come, Danise,” said Savarec. “Come to our
tents. Let me talk quietly with you. Assure me that you are indeed
unharmed.”

“Thanks to Michel, I am,” she said. “Thanks
to Redmond and Guntram, too, and all the others who searched for
me.”

“To think that I could have been such a
fool,” Savarec cried, “that I believed Lady Ingeborg. Ah, Danise,
your father is not worthy of you.”

“It was not your fault,” she said, hugging
him. “They are wicked schemers all, and you are an honest man. They
took advantage of your trust.”

It took her quite a while to calm him down,
to convince him she was unhurt by her experience, and by then
Redmond had claimed Michel and borne him off to join the other
young men who planned to spend the rest of that day exchanging
their various versions of recent events while they celebrated the
successful conclusion of the battle with Autichar. Saying he wanted
personally to thank Michel, Savarec finally left Danise alone in
the tent she shared with Sister Gertrude and Clothilde.

“Come down to the river,” said Clothilde,
looking in at her. “I have kept two buckets of clean hot water
after the laundry was done, and there is a bowl of fresh soap. I am
going to scrub you clean, Danise, and then I am going to put you to
bed. After such an ordeal, you will want to rest.”

“Not at all,” said Danise. “Why does everyone
expect me to want to sleep? But I would like a bath and fresh
clothes.”

Clothilde’s reaction to her discovery that
Danise was wearing a man’s undershirt was almost comical.

“We were drenched in the rain,” Danise
explained. “Michel had an extra shirt and it was dry.” She did not
add that she had used her own shift to wash herself on the morning
after she and Michel first made love, or that she had left the
shift behind because in the cold stream she could not get it
entirely clean of the blood then staining it.

“Of course,” said Clothilde, blandly ignoring
the fact that in order to put on a dry undershirt, Danise would
have to remove her dress. “Anyone would do the same. I will just
wash the shirt and give it back to Michel when it is dry. And I
won’t say a word about this to Sister Gertrude.” When Danise did
not respond to her provocative comment, Clothilde. said with a sly
smile, “If ever I needed to be rescued when I was a younger woman,
I would have wanted it to be done by a fine, strong man like
Michel. He likes you, Danise. I have seen him looking at you. If
you want to meet him later, I can distract Sister Gertrude’s
attention.”

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” Danise
was not scolding her servant. As she said the words, she returned
Clothilde’s smile.

“I am not the least bit ashamed of what I am
thinking,” Clothilde declared, “nor should you be. I am not so old
that I cannot recall what it was to be young. A man like Michel
will make you happy.”

Danise smiled again and said nothing more.
Nor, later, did she answer Sister Gertrude’s persistent questions.
But she was grateful when Clothilde drew the nun aside to voice her
concerns over Savarec’s health and ask Sister Gertrude’s advice on
whether he ought to have some medicine to calm him after so much
excitement and worry. Danise had by this time reached a point where
she did not want to make explanations or relive her frightening
abduction. What she wanted as evening drew on, was to find Michel
and go into his arms and be held by him. But there was no sign of
Michel. He was still with his male friends.

Danise was wanted for a similar occasion
among the women. She was obliged to pay a visit to the queen.
Hildegarde was a kind lady, so though she made it clear to Danise
that she had been deeply concerned for her safe return, she did not
press Danise for every detail. Some of the women in attendance on
the queen were not so polite. Before long Danise was heartily sick
of pretending to answer probing questions while not actually saying
much at all. Finally, pleading a headache, she asked Hildegarde for
and received her release from the queen’s tent. Once outside it,
Danise made her way to the riverbank, there to sit beneath the
great oak tree in undisturbed peace at last.

“I thought I’d find you here.” Michel dropped
down beside her. “If it were still daylight, I’d have gone to that
place in the forest, but I was pretty sure you wouldn’t be allowed
to go anywhere very far from the camp without a guard of some
kind.” His hand found and held hers.

“I am so weary of people asking me if I am
truly unhurt,” Danise said, “or if I want to rest.”

“I know. I faced a barrage of questions, too.
I guess it’s to be expected, after what happened.” He paused, then
spoke again. “Sister Gertrude knows we made love. She guessed.”

“I thought as much, from the questions she
asked me. Which I did not answer.” Danise sighed. “I will have to
tell Redmond that I cannot think of marrying him. It would be
unfair to let him go on believing that I am still considering his
suit when all I can think of is you. We must also tell my father.
He deserves an explanation.”

“Let’s wait until Charles decides what to do
with Clodion and Autichar,” Michel suggested. “Tomorrow’s trial is
what is first on everyone’s mind just now.”

“Very well,” Danise agreed, glad to have an
excuse to postpone telling her father or Redmond truths they would
not be happy to hear. “After tomorrow, then.”

“Those two traitors aren’t the only ones who
can make clever plans,” Michel confided. “I have a few schemes of
my own to try.”

“I do hope one of them includes devising a
way for us to escape the fond concerns of relatives and friends,”
she murmured.

“You can be sure of it. For the moment, I
think I ought to deliver you to your tent and say a proper good
night.” He stood and offered a hand to help her rise. Before Danise
knew what was happening, she was locked in his arms and his mouth
was on hers. She knew then that just as she had been yearning to
embrace him, so he had wanted to hold her during the hours when
they were apart. She let herself dissolve into the sweetness of his
kiss.

“That’s all I dare to steal tonight,” he
whispered. “But soon, I promise you, we will be together again.
Even Sister Gertrude won’t be able to stop us.”

From Sister Gertrude’s attitude when Michel
said his proper good night at her tent entrance, Danise thought the
nun’s future goal in life might well be to keep the lovers sternly
separated. But Danise had her own private reasons for believing
that nothing could keep her apart from Michel for long. He had been
sent to her across the centuries. He would not be taken from her
now.

* * *

At mid-morning Charles took his seat on a
foot-high wooden dais built just outside the entrance to his tent.
Ordinarily, he moved among his nobles without any special
designation of his royal state, and when he sat it was in a chair
placed at ground level just like everyone else’s chair. On those
daily occasions only his strong character and the respect in which
he was held indicated that he was the elected king of the Franks.
On this particular day Charles knew that all those assembled at
Duren would want to see him clearly so they could observe for
themselves how their king would dispense justice to the accused
men. Thus, he ordered that the dais on which he would sit should be
elevated above the others who attended, with only a few of his
closest advisers standing around him.

That this would be a momentous morning no one
present could doubt, and no one, including the queen, wanted to
miss the excitement. Ignoring her unwell condition, Hildegarde
insisted on joining her husband on the dais, saying it was her duty
to be in her rightful place beside him. Alcuin was there, too,
standing on the dais behind Charles and next to Charles’s uncle,
Duke Bernard. At Charles’s command Savarec, along with all of the
men who had taken part in the search for Danise, were given places
close to the dais. Off to one side Adelbert and a second clerk sat
at a table, inkpots and quill pens at the ready, prepared to record
the proceedings and Charles’s decisions.

When everyone was in place, Autichar and
Clodion were brought forth from the tents where they had been held.
Blinking in the bright sunshine they were marched to low stools set
facing the dais and far enough apart from each other to keep the
two from conversing without their words being overheard. Lastly,
Lady Ingeborg arrived in the custody of Sister Gertrude and was
given her own stool.

“Danise,” Charles said as soon as all was in
readiness, “I will have you speak first. When you have finished,
stand here beside Hildegarde, where you can hear all that is said,
and where I can ask further questions of you if it proves
necessary. Do not be nervous, just tell us what was done to
you.”

Danise stepped into the open space before the
dais and began to speak.

“I thank you for your concern for me,” she
said to Charles. “I am not at all nervous, for what I have to say
is but the truth. However, I
am
angry, for my father was
greatly worried by my abduction, and his friends and mine were put
to immense effort to find and rescue me. Most of all, I am outraged
that these two men seated here before you should have plotted
treason against so fine a king.

“It was on the morning of the hunt that
Clodion forced me to the side of the field and took my horse’s
reins from me. Clodion believed, and rightly, that those near to us
would be so occupied with following the hunt that they would not
notice what he was doing.” She went on to recount everything she
had seen and heard, including the plot Autichar had revealed to
her, the plan to draw Charles into battle with Duke Tassilo after
making certain that he would have to divide the Frankish army in
two in order to fend off a prearranged Saxon uprising. She ended
with the tale of her escape from Autichar and how Michel, Redmond,
and Guntram had found her, rescued her from her pursuers, and then
had done battle with Autichar and his men.

“Of the battle itself I will let Redmond and
his companions tell you, since I was not there to see it,” Danise
said. “I have no word to say in defense of either of the accused
men, save that Autichar did prevent Clodion from taking me into the
forest and raping me on that first night. He and Clodion quarreled
about it. I am grateful to Autichar for that one act of
kindness.”

“Danise,” said Charles when she fell silent,
“I would hear the confirmation of this scheme from your own lips
once more and have everyone else present hear it also. Autichar did
tell you that his private army was camped near the Rhine, awaiting
his arrival there? And that this army would be among those placed
at my cousin Tassilo’s disposal when the time came to fight against
me and my men?”

“That is so,” Danise replied.

“Again, I must applaud your courage during
this ordeal,” Charles said, “and your wit in talking Autichar into
revealing his scheme.”

“It was not entirely his own plan,” Danise
said. “Clodion claimed credit for devising part of it, including
the way in which he would be found. And Autichar was very ready to
boast of how easily he would destroy your Frankish warriors.” This
statement drew a murmur from those same Fankish warriors that boded
no good for Autichar’s future.

“I may want to ask you more questions later,”
Charles said to Danise. “For now, you may join Hildegarde on the
dais.”

Charles next called Savarec to tell how he
had been tricked into leaving the hunt so he could not see Clodion
taking Danise away. Guntram followed, to give his view of Savarec’s
story. Then Michel and Redmond each spoke. Several other men who
had taken part in the search for Danise and in the battle with
Autichar also gave their evidence.

“I do thank you all,” Charles said. “Has
anyone else aught to say against these men or Lady Ingeborg in this
matter before I give the accused leave to defend themselves?”

Again there were a few angry murmurs and
fierce looks cast at Clodion and Autichar, but no one else came
forward.

“Very well,” Charles went on. “Lady Ingeborg,
since the charge against you is of lesser importance, I will have
you speak for yourself first.”

Lady Ingeborg rose from her stool and stepped
forward. On this day she was clothed in a loose gown of dark blue.
She wore no jewelry, her face was unpainted, and her hair was
gathered into a simple knot atop her head. She looked frightened as
she took her position before Charles.