The nights were growing colder, so close to the Scottish border. The wind tugged at her with claws and teeth, cold and unforgiving. Her eyes darted upwards for only a heartbeat, it looked like rain. But Gisela cared about neither, she was long past feeling wind and rain, sunshine and birdsong. And it was that emptiness that had kept her safe, had kept her mind at ease in these trying times. Her body might be standing on the parapets of Bebbanburg, but her mind was somewhere else, far away in the company of a different man, living a different life.
If only they had not caught her in that nunnery, that life could have been hers. But instead, she stood here, while dawn went down to day, wondering where he was. It was almost as if she could feel him coming closer with each passing day. Wistful thinking for sure.
A group of merchants began setting up their tents in the shadow of the castle wall. Ælfric was too paranoid to allow them inside his precious and so well fortified home. It gave her comfort, to know that dreadful man was so terrified of the one she called to each and every night. But the new Lady of Bebbanburg did not care for merchants either, so she turned away, lost in her own emptiness. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a shadow, someone moving between the tents, watching. And her heart skipped a beat.
It was him. It had to be.
Faster than she could even think about making a decision, faster than she should have acted, Gisela made her way down the stairs and out of the gate. Mud splashed upwards, her hurried steps already breathless. Then she stood between the tents herself, but he was nowhere to be seen. Gone. Like a dream, like a shadow. “Uhtred”, her voice barely a whisper as Gisela’s arms wrapped around herself, heart almost bursting with longing.
jbbartram-illu
vaporwave
prguitarman
ellievsbear
blakekathryn
annaxmalina
germansingergirl
janainaart
