He smiled wistfully as if he were back in the park.
“This is my daughter, Alina. Please take care of her. That’s what the note said. Your mother and I felt like it was providence smiling down on us. It was a sign that our prayers had been answered.” Father wiped at his eyes with a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. Then, he continued. “There was this dagger in the basket. Only one man I knew would know about the knife—Giovanni. Giovanni liked to study ancient antiques, maps, and things out of this world.
“So, we took you home with us, overjoyed to have found you. The next day, I went to Giovanni and showed him the dagger. He paled when his eyes landed on it. He told us that you were a Timeborne who could time travel. But with that, you would unleash the darkness, and that darkness will hunt you and try to kill you.”
Now, Father looked sorrowful. The skin around his eyes pinched, and he looked like he might cry. “And I won’t lose you to Balthazar. I think he is that darkness who wants to destroy you.” He clenched his fist and shook it. “There are whispers about Lord Balthazar…They say he is a dark, vicious monster that hunts people and kills them for power. Alina, you must stay away from him. He will eventually grow tired of you and kill you.”
I felt so confused, torn between my defiance and refusal to listen to reason and a niggling fear in the back of my mind. What if Father was right?
I shook my head. He was telling tall tales based on fear.
“What about my siblings?” I asked him. “Are they adopted, too?”
“No, amore. After you came to us, your mother got pregnant with your siblings. But that makes you no less precious to us. We love you from the bottom of our hearts.”
I didn’t know what to think.
I flipped the page, letting it all sink in.
July 18, 1561
I couldn’t stop thinking about what my father had said to me. It bothered and ate at me. How could my father believe that I was a time traveler? How preposterous!
And the foul things he said about Balthazar. I still couldn’t understand or believe what he said. My father has been imbibing in the mead too much. I fear he has lost his mind. But I still loved him.
Later in the day, I was out for a stroll through the park, and I saw it with my own eyes—so horrifying—the man I love, Balthazar, killed another woman. I was horrified! He strangled her with his bare hands right there in the park! I don’t believe he knew I was there, for why would he want me to see such a thing? But, see it, I did, and, without thinking, I ran away, frightened to death!
Balthazar chased me and caught me. It was awful. We had a huge fight right there next to the dead woman.
Balthazar captured my wrists and drew them behind me, holding me with such force that I couldn’t free my hands. I did not know any man was capable of such strength. Then, standing behind me, he leaned close to my ear, so close I could feel his warm breath tickling my neck. He used his other hand to stroke my neck.
Ah, mercy, it was such a torment to have this woman lying there dead while I stood so close to him as he seduced me with his touch. I am a fool for him. And yet, crazier was how I still desired this man, my evil, despicable lover. I craved him with an unearthly desire that scared me. How could this be possible after witnessing such a horrific scene?
I gathered my wits around me and said, “Why did you slaughter that poor woman?”
He said, “She was a bad woman. I saw her kill her children.”
I desperately wanted to believe him, but I had not heard such a tale of a woman murdering her kin in our village. But what did I know? Lord Balthazar traveled in different circles than me.
“My father thinks you’re dangerous. He thinks you are a bad influence on me,” I said, leaning my head against Balthazar, taking solace in his warmth.
“I am nothing of the sort,” he said, caressing my neck and collarbone. “Villagers are afraid of power. I am very powerful.”
“And would you kill me just as easily?” I said, wanting to turn around and beat his chest, but my wrists were held in his iron grip.
His soothing voice landed in my ear.
“I will never kill you or hurt you, Alina. You are my love, my life.”
I saw the dead woman’s blood puddling on the ground. Some of it had seeped near me and stained my shoe. My father might have been right about Balthazar—he was cruel and dangerous. But I was obsessed with him and couldn’t imagine life without him.
“Let me go,” I begged him.
“I can never let you go,” he said. At the same time, he released my wrists and turned me so swiftly in his arms I was dizzy. And then he savagely and brutally kissed me, claiming me with his passion.
I could not resist him. I let him take me away, and we made love through the night like two wild savages.
August 10th, 1561
