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Anna did not want to rest in the next inn that they reached. Instead, she suggested, that they would go a different route to be able to visit her aunt. She would like to stay with her Aunt Mathilda for a couple of days to rest and digest the experiences. Lord Rosenkranz did not object. He kept riding alongside the carriage as they slowly went on.
“If you don’t want to wait, I’m sure that someone from my aunt’s staff will be willing to escort me the rest of the way,” Anna said.
She did not know how she felt about him escorting her the last two days. For a moment before, she had thought that he was going to kiss her. She had felt so safe being in his arms. That was why she had wanted him in the carriage alongside her.
“No, I’ll escort you,” Lord Rosenkranz said. “Mathilda, that’s Lady Gabel, you’re talking about, right?”
Anna nodded. She had not seen her aunt in ages, but she knew that she would be welcome and that she would feel safe at her estate.
“She’s my mother’s sister. I lived a couple of years with her and her family before I moved to court,” Anna told him.
He might already know this but what did she care.
“Are you sure that she’s home? Your aunt?” Lord Rosenkranz said.
He looked at the road ahead of them instead of looking at her. It gave Anna time to study his profile. He had reacted so resolutely. The whole thing had probably taken less than five minutes, but Anna still felt shaken from it.
If she had been with anyone else, she might have been dead by now. Raped and then murdered along with her companion. She could not help but shake at the thought of it. There could be no worse end than that. She would be eternally grateful to him.
“She hardly ever goes anywhere anymore, so I’d imagine so,” she said to Lord Rosenkranz to assure him, that they would be well received at her aunt’s estate.
She had leaned back against the carriage wall. For a moment she felt that Lord Rosenkranz was looking at her, but when she glanced in his direction he was looking straight ahead. If he had kissed her, would she had kissed him back?
Anna looked out the opposite window at the forest rolling by. She probably would have kissed him back. It would be a response, wouldn’t it? You would not even think about kissing someone back when they kissed you. She found herself looking at his lips, wondering whether he was a good kisser. She had not even realized that she had turned her head until now.
She watched his lips move as he said:
“That sounds like a good idea then.”
His lips were a bit fuller than most men’s lips. He probably was a good kisser. She wondered how many women he had kissed. Surely, he had to have kissed some, even though he was so shy.
They did not speak much for the rest of the way to Aunt Mathilda’s estate and only stopped shortly to get supper and to change horses. Even though it was summer, and the sun set very late, it was dark when they reached the castle.
Aunt Mathilda had gone to bed, but the servants recognized Anna immediately and found accommodation for all of them. Anna and Wulfric were placed in rooms on the second floor, while the driver and Joana got to sleep in respectively the stables and the kitchen.
Anna thankfully sank into the comfortable bed. She was unsure whether she would be able to sleep, but it felt like heaven for her sore body to be lying in a proper bed. Her whole body ached after a long day in the carriage and the fall from the horse. Luckily, she did not seem to have injured herself in the fall beyond scraped palms and bruised knees.
***
Despite the fact he had gone to bed late, Wulfric woke up early and was unable to sleep. He had dreamt of the two robbers that they had met yesterday. Only now the two men had tied him to a tree and had held Anna down on the ground. One of them had lifted up her dress, ready to rape her.
Wulfric had fought desperately to get lose but had not been able to. The man had lifted Anna’s dress incredibly slow, like the entire point of it was to torment Wulfric.
He had called out for her:
“Anna! Anna!”
She had turned her head and to look at him with such desperation and sadness in her eyes, that it had nearly broken his heart. Thankfully he had woken before he had had to witness the man raping her. Even though it was just a bad dream, it was not something he ever wished to witness.
Wulfric turned in the comfortable bed and closed his eyes for a moment, but when all he could see was Anna’s scared face before his eyes, he decided to get up. He put on fresh clothes, since the clothes that he had been wearing had been taken by the servant that helped him undress last night.
Even though it had only been seven days since he left the capital and all the creature comforts of a noble man behind, he still felt a bit strange having someone help him dress or undress. As a soldier he was used to handling those things on his own, except getting into or out of his armor.
Wulfric walked the corridors and met a servant that told him, that the baroness was already up as well. Wulfric decided that he’d better greet their host properly. His mother often met with Lady Gabel and Wulfric had been in the castle before.
“Lord Rosenkranz,” Anna’s aunt, Mathilda Gabel said as Wulfric entered the dining hall, where she was eating. She was a short woman, that looked like she would barely reach his elbow if they were standing next to each other. She was wearing a dress in an old-fashioned cut, but it still looked beautiful in the heavy bluish grey fabric, that it was made of. Wulfric could not see any resemblance to Anna in her.
“Lady Gabel,” Wulfric said and bowed his head. Lady Gabel had gotten up from her seat and curtsied slightly.
“My servants told me, that you and my niece arrived late last night. How are you? How have your trip been this far?” she said as she indicated with a hand where he could sit.
“Uneventful until yesterday when we were attacked by two robbers. Luckily, they were not able to harm us or get our values, but I trust that Lady Harold has had quite a scare.” Wulfric said and sat down.
“Of course, she has, poor thing. And so soon after losing her father,” Lady Gabel said affectionately, but Wulfric was still not sure, whether the affection was heartfelt or not.
“I gather that’s why you look all bruised,” she said and made a circle gesture in front of her own face as if to indicate that Wulfric’s face was covered in them.
“No, that happened earlier,” he said. Ironically, he had not been hurt at all by the robbers.
“Hmm,” was the only reply that Lady Gabel made.
They ate and Lady Gabel made small talk, while Wulfric was hoping that Anna would soon show up.
“It’s so dreadful, that Anna is to live at that estate all by herself. She should get herself a husband as soon as possible.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” Wulfric said and took another bite of his food.
It was very likely that Anna would marry someone now. He remembered Walter Hansen’s words, that he should do something about it. Perhaps he was right. That Wulfric should simply take a chance and see, how everything turned out. Maybe she would say yes. At least because she did not want to run the estate on her own... but everything in Wulfric turned at the thought of Anna marrying him for practical reasons.
“You would be perfect for her,” Lady Gabel said, and Wulfric looked up in surprise, afraid for a moment that she had been able to read his thoughts. “I should probably have a chat with your mother about it. After all I am Anna’s closest relative now. The joining of the two estates would make yours the largest in the entire country – you would be a very powerful man, if you entered into that marriage...”
“What marriage?” Anna said as she entered the room and smiled to her aunt. Her aunt got up and they both curtsied slightly before Anna kissed her aunt on both cheeks with her hands resting on the shorter woman’s shoulders.
“Anna, my darling, I’m so glad to see you,” Lady Gabel said as she sat back down. “It’s so horrible what happened to your poor father.”
Anna nodded and sat down rather stiffly. Wulfric wondered whether she had been hurt yesterday when she fell from the horse. He was not even sure whether he had asked her. So much had happened, but of course she would feel sore.
“I’m so sorry, that I was not with him in the end. When I heard that he was sick, I could not bring myself to go to him and have to see him die... But now it feels like I have let him down because I didn’t go,” she said and did not look at either of them.
“I sure that he would understand,” Wulfric said sympathetically at the same time as Lady Gabel said:
“Yes, it was very selfish of you.”
Both of them paused for a moment, then Lady Gabel went on saying: “You really should have thought more about your poor father and less about yourself.”
Wulfric could see that Anna bent her head to hide her tears. He wanted to get up and hold her like he had done yesterday but knew that it would be highly inappropriate and possibly also unwanted on Anna’s behalf. Wulfric excused himself, got up, and left.