Chapter 21

“Shaelynn, it’s past midnight,” Tristan chided. “You need to get some sleep. Come the morning we can pick right up where we leave off tonight. None of this paperwork is going anywhere, I promise.”

Somewhere in a remote corner of her mind, Shae could hear Tristan speaking, but she truly didn’t know what he said. Instead of listening, she placed all her attention on the letter she now held in her hands. In fact, she couldn’t take her eyes off the thing. She ran across it quite by accident as she searched through the Norwegian letters looking for those written by Hans Christian Heg. Reuben asked her to make sure she didn’t miss any of them. Since the newest exhibits focused on the famous commander, he requested she finish translating them first. In her quest, she didn’t find anything else written in Norwegian, but she did find this one written in English. With her eyes glued to the sheet of paper, she turned her chair toward her companion.

“Tristan, did you know a month or so before you died, Hans Christian Heg recommended you for a promotion to lieutenant colonel?”

“There is probably a mistake on that somewhere. I’m sure if you keep reading, you’ll see it,” he said as he ambled toward her. “The army doesn’t make a practice of skipping ranks. Not unless all of one’s commanding officers died on the battlefield, and you’re next in line. Even then, it’s only a temporary assignment.”

“Oh, I beg to differ.” She met his gaze, lifted a brow, and tossed him an impish smile. “If you will give me your undivided attention, sir, then I will be happy to enlighten you.” She sat up a little straighter, cleared her throat in an exaggerated manner, and read the amazing letter aloud.

All the while, Tristan peered over her shoulder. She called attention to the passages, which noted his courage, valor, and honor. Shae placed a great deal of emphasis on the paragraph noting his “excellent leadership attendant to the field of battle.” Colonel Heg ended his post to the General by recommending “Captain Tristan Jordahl be found satisfactory in filling the demands inherent with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.”

As she finished reading the letter, she looked up at Tristan’s astonished face and grinned. “See? Lieutenant colonel.”

Tristan shook his head as if mystified. “That is very interesting. No one I know has ever received such a recommendation before. My guess is they promoted everyone holding a higher rank at the time and needed to take captains.”

Shae wore a bemused smile as she rose from her chair and headed for the copy machine to make another copy of the letter for their file. “That is so like you to ignore the praise of your commanders and focus on the military order of things.”

“I’m just telling you how things are done,” he said as he then turned his gaze toward the clock. “I feel the need to remind you, yet again, that it’s late, and you need to get some sleep. So put all your documents away, and we’ll get back to it in the morning.”

“Not yet. I’m really not tired and maybe there is something else I can find that will help us to—” Before she could complete the sentence, all the lights in her office shut themselves off. She blinked several times in a failed attempt to peer through the darkness. Tristan placed a gentle hand on her waist, turned her toward the door, and nudged her toward it. She breathed out a sigh as she rolled her eyes heavenward.

“All right, all right. I’m going, since I have no choice in the matter. But I want you to know I probably won’t sleep a wink. I’ll toss and turn and wonder if something else is within my grasp that will clear your name.”

Tristan shrugged as he escorted her down the hall and toward her bedroom. “I don’t care. Toss and turn all you want. However, just so you know, the lights will remain off, and the door will stay locked until morning. You won’t be able to find a way to get inside until I say so. I guarantee it.”

“You are such a bully,” she grumbled.

“You’ll have to do better than that. I’ve been called much worse.”

“Well if you give me a minute, I’ll see what I can do,” she threatened as she entered her bedroom and shut the door against his laughter. Despite all assertions to the contrary, as she slipped into her nightgown, a sudden fatigue carried her off to bed and toward peaceful slumber.

Almost immediately, the first vestiges of dreams overtook her mind, She could feel Tristan’s presence within this dream and along with his presence, she could sense his impatience. And for a brief moment, she puzzled over the reason for it. He spoke to her then and the need to understand disappeared altogether as she locked her gaze to his.

“Care to take a walk with me, min kjærlighet?” he whispered as he curled his fingers around hers and inclined his head toward their magical woodland.

****

The forest seemed a familiar friend now, if not what awaited at the edge of it. Nevertheless, she prepared herself for this moment days ago, and she would not falter now. She could not falter now, no matter the difficulty of the task ahead. She promised. Tristan gave her hand a gentle squeeze as if aware of her troubled thoughts. She turned her face toward him with every intention of giving him a smile meant to reassure. But as she fused her gazed with his, she could see the same expression reflecting in his eyes that he wore once before inside this woodland. Just before he—just before he what?

The memory of it seemed so hazy, and she wondered at least half a dozen times if she imagined it. Perhaps she simply recalled a dream of her own making. Still, right now it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but the feel of his arms as he halted their footsteps. He placed his hands at her waist, turned her toward him, and gathered her into the warmth of his embrace. In return, she snuggled in all the deeper. She fit perfectly in his arms. They were two halves, which made the perfect whole.

“Tristan.” His name came out sounding more like a sigh. Yet, he denied her the opportunity to say anything else, as his lips now brushed against hers. Time ceased to exist, and so did her purpose as her arms traveled upward from his chest and encircled his neck. For now, this instant, she found enchantment in his embrace as he kissed her quite breathless. If someone granted her one wish, then she would forever remain inside this forest with her captain. The church didn’t matter and neither did Major Adlundsen. Despite the fervent desire, somewhere off in the distance the sound of hooves intruded on her contentment. As Tristan groaned his displeasure, she drew back. After making time for one more kiss, he caressed her cheek with the back of his hand.

“Are you ready to do this?” he asked.

“Yes, I’m ready,” she said. Then just as before, he escorted her to the edge of the woodland before he disappeared.

Moments later, Tristan approached the church on his magnificent buckskin. She made her way toward him then, just as she had once before. He dismounted and tethered his horse to the hitching post. All the while, Shae studied the major’s horses. The plain brown saddlebags on the back of the gray did not have the major’s initials. Therefore, she would need to look for Adlundsen’s missing saddlebags once she entered the church. Perhaps, as Tristan suggested, he carried them inside.

As he opened the door and stepped inside, she shot past him. Nils stood at the front of the chapel, facing the wall. Shae spared him naught but a glance. Instead, she focused her attention on each individual bench as she made her way down the aisle. Her gaze traveled along the walls and over the floor in search of the missing saddlebags. She didn’t find them. Adlundsen had not placed them on any of the pews, nor were they on or behind the pulpit.

She came to an abrupt halt just as the major took notice of Tristan’s arrival, and whirled around to face him. Shae seized the opportunity to look him over from head to toe. No visible signs of blood stained his hands or his clothes. She couldn’t see the knife to check the blade, for Nils already held it within the folds of his coat. That meant she needed to stand here and witness his first strike. The thought made her shudder.

“Nils, are you all right?” Tristan shut the door and began walking up the aisle. “You’re not sick again, are you?”

Shae looked down at the floor then, where she remembered seeing the smear of blood and gasped when she gazed upon it again. The stain existed well before Tristan’s arrival. She knelt down to get a closer look. How she wished she could touch it or even smell it. She could do neither of those things. Nonetheless, she could see without any doubt whatsoever that blood created the stain. The smear simply couldn’t be anything else. The stain still held a reddish hue and the flies gravitating toward and settling in it confirmed that fact.

“You are much earlier than I anticipated, Tristan. I can’t help but wonder why that is.”

She could hear Adlundsen’s accusatory tone as she searched for any droplets or spatters that would serve as a trail.

“Just finished up sooner than I expected, and thought I’d come on over and wait for you. I guess it all worked out fine since you are already here,” Tristan said.

Shae busied herself searching each direction from her kneeling position on the floor. No droplets or splatters appeared on the weathered planks. None. However, all of a sudden, something else caught her attention. The smear traveled toward the pulpit, and then abruptly halted. The formation of the stain told her something had lain across the floor to stop the flow and created a straight edge. What did that mean?

“Ah, Tristan, Tristan, my very good friend. You think you’re so much better, so much more intelligent than I am. You always have, and I must tell you I really despise you for that.”

Shae willfully shut out the chilling voice of the major as she continued to search the room. Perhaps Nils used a rug to move the body from this spot. If so, then surely she could find other telltale signs. The dust on the floor would be disturbed if he dragged a rug across it.

“What are you talking about? I don’t have anything that belongs to you.”

“Do you not?”

Shae concentrated all her efforts on looking for something Nils could use to move a body instead of on the voices. Yet, she didn’t find a thing. She didn’t see any trails of dust either. In fact, nothing appeared disturbed in any way. How very odd. She chewed on her bottom lip as she sought an answer to her quandary.

“I’ve already taken care of everything. There are no more loose ends.”

Cringing over the impending scene, she peeked up at Nils. From her position, she could see his nervous fingers twitching along the handle of his knife. Nils repositioned his hand to grasp the handle a little tighter as he continued his demented rant. He began inching the weapon away from his back. Instinct commanded her to close her eyes away from the sight but she needed to look. She needed to see the blade. Just keep watching the blade, she told herself.

“It’s a shame really, that you’re the one who is going to have to die. And I should probably tell you, you’re going to die as a traitor to your own country. I wonder what people will think about that? The perfect, noble, heroic, Captain Tristan Jordahl!”

Forcing herself to focus solely on the weapon, she held her breath as Nils thrust the knife toward her captain. A gasp escaped her lips. She could see blood on the blade. Nils used the knife on someone else before he used it on Tristan! In an effort to concentrate on anything but the ensuing battle, Shae left her place on the floor and began walking the perimeters of the chapel in search of Nils’s previous victim. A vital clue still escaped her, and she couldn’t seem to find it. A body just couldn’t disappear into thin air.

And then she recalled the missing bedroll that one of the horses should have carried. What if Nils used that bedroll to move the body? Where could he take it in such a short amount of time?

A small hallway off to the left of the chapel caught her attention. That hallway led somewhere. Perhaps it led to the preacher’s office or the stairway to the belfry. The notion gave her pause. Tristan arrived early. Did Nils have time to drag a body all the way up there? There was only one way to find out. At once, she moved toward it, filled with the need to explore the church in its entirety. Despite the burning desire, some sort of invisible barrier blocked her path. She found that no matter how hard she tried, she could neither enter nor move past it.

Nils expelled a weak, but victorious chuckle as he gazed at Tristan’s fallen body. She turned toward the major as he struggled to his feet and headed for the door. His eyes could no longer focus on his path. The outside voices grew ever louder, and any minute now, they would come for Tristan. She couldn’t stay here and witness the callous dragging of his body outside and over to his horse. She just couldn’t! She squeezed her eyes shut as she sought a solution. Tristan said something once about waking up—

In that same instant, his arms were around her and he drew her close to his chest. “Come now, min kjærlighet, everything is all right now,” he crooned.

With gentle hands, he wiped the tears from her cheeks. She stood on tiptoes as her arms encircled his neck. Only then did she open her eyes. A relieved sigh escaped her lips as she took in the welcome sight of their lush forest.

“You said you were going to be able to do this without focusing on me, isn’t that right?” he asked as he stepped back, tilted her chin upward, and gazed into her eyes.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that I love you so much, and it hurts when I have to see what Nils did to—”

Tristan quite easily smothered the rest of her words with the intensity of his kiss. Shae didn’t mind. She couldn’t remember the rest of her sentence anyway.

Between the kisses, he told her how very much he loved her. She responded in kind. At that moment, Tristan didn’t know if he wanted to erase this memory. He didn’t know if he possessed the strength. She loved him just as deeply as he loved her and surely, that would be enough, wouldn’t it? Didn’t she deserve to know what transpired between them, thus allowing her to choose her own path? Couldn’t fate smile down upon him just this one time and make him the man, who would someday, become her prince?

He needed to make a choice. If he stayed with her here much longer she would become cognizant enough to remember, and he would not be able to erase this dream from her mind. Yet, how could he make an intelligent decision when her kisses were so sweet, so full of love, and he wanted nothing more than to stay?

Despite his tremendous desire to do otherwise, Tristan finally dug deep and found the strength he needed to break away. He cupped her face and gave her one last kiss. The kiss bespoke the depth, fierceness, and totality of the love he felt for his Valkyrie woman. He gave it in such a way as to last him for the rest of his miserable existence. She deserved so much more than what he could give. Her entire mortal life stretched out before her. He could not doom her to half an existence with a man who could do nothing more than express his love through words and dreams.

“Don’t go, Tristan,” Shae said, as if she understood what he meant by that kiss. Panic filled her beautiful eyes and she shook her head.

“I need you to stay with me, forever. Please, oh please, you mustn’t ever leave me. I couldn’t bear it if you did!” she begged.

The sudden terror in her eyes cut deep. Once again, he found that he could deny her nothing. At some future point, should she choose to live her life as intended, he’d retreat and remain in the shadows. The pain of standing by, doing nothing, as she found someone else to love and bear his children would consume him. He understood that truth. Nevertheless, he silently vowed to remain at her side. He could see no other choice in the matter.

He smiled to give her the reassurance she needed. As he caressed her cheek he said, “Didn’t you know? There is nothing on this earth that could make me leave you now.”

“Promise me, Tristan,” she demanded. “Promise me.”

He chose to seal the promise with a kiss, and then hurried to leave her subconscious thoughts. As he sat on the edge of her bed, she smiled contentedly before whispering his name. Somehow then, her fingers curled around his without penetrating his spiritual form. He couldn’t imagine how she accomplished such a thing, but he made no move to extricate himself from her grasp.

“I desire nothing more than to have you remember this dream in its entirety. But once again, you must only remember your experience after you reach the church,” he whispered as he closed his eyes against the sudden onslaught of pain that enveloped his soul.

Truly, he experienced his share of pain both before and after his death. But this pain didn’t compare with any he had previously experienced. This pain left him feeling shattered.

He released a deep sigh, born of hurt and resignation. What did either of them ever do to deserve this terrible fate? Why did the heavens decree their mortal lives should never touch? Yet, now as he considered the totality of his mortal life, would he truly have wanted to leave her a young widow? Would he have wanted to leave her with the legacy of his supposed treason, or have the burden of that label placed on any children they may have shared? No, he could never have borne such a thing. Not ever.

“Tristan,” she sighed his name and smiled her contentment.

In response, he leaned down, kissed the adorable dimple at the corner of her mouth, and left the room.