All Alana saw was a group of children playing in the snow beyond the cleared fairgrounds. If their parents had been watching them, they weren’t now. Just about everyone at the festival was either at the wrestling match or heading that way. So she followed the little girl.
Alana soon discovered that the girl didn’t want help retrieving an actual dog, but a stuffed toy that had been tossed about fifteen feet away from where the children were playing. Some of the boys in that group were old enough to have helped. The child had probably asked them first and they’d ignored her. For whatever reason, the little girl was afraid to get the toy back herself.
Alana found out why when she started heading toward the toy and was soon trudging through snow that was more than a foot deep. The children were yelling at her to come back, that it was dangerous. Wild animals didn’t hide in the snow, did they? she wondered. She almost turned back, but the toy was only a couple more feet away, so lightweight it hadn’t sunk into the snow.
She didn’t reach the toy. The ice cracked under her feet and she was suddenly submerged in the coldest water she’d ever felt in her life.
Chapter Twenty-Four
CHRISTOPH WAS GETTING BORED humoring Karsten, but he’d managed to address a few more points while they rolled about the platform, each trying to pin the other. “I heard you’re sponsoring the sleigh races today. Will you be racing as well?” he asked.
“No, but I’ve entered my sleigh—and warned my driver not to win,” Karsten replied.
“So you are currying favor with the commoners here?”
“Why would that surprise you? I am the logical choice for Frederick to name as his successor. When he does, we will both want the people to be able to rejoice. I’m merely making sure, by my own merits, that they will like me as much as they do him. And no, I am not trying to hurry this along. Frederick is a good king. I love him. He’s the father I wish I’d had.”
Christoph grunted as he was slammed to the floor. Karsten had caught him by surprise with those remarks. Christoph knew that Karsten was actively campaigning to win Frederick’s and the people’s favor, but he was surprised to hear him admit it.
He bucked Karsten off him and got back to his feet. “And if our king should have a son, all your efforts would be wasted.”
“Why wasted? The boy would still need advisers, fresh ones, not those old coots who decry change. I’ll help this country in whatever role I’m deemed fit to play, just as you do. We feel the same, you know, when it comes to Lubinia.”
Truth or a cunning attempt to ingratiate himself with the king’s guard? It was hard to tell with Karsten Bruslan. But Christoph was ready to end this match. He’d looked for Alana and hadn’t been able to find her in the crowd.
He was about to shoulder Karsten and simply push him over the side when he saw people at the back of the crowd running toward the lake. Everyone knew the small lake was there and to avoid it. At the next winter festival it would be utilized, but at this first one, the ice wasn’t thick enough yet. He could see the hole in the ice where someone had been stupid enough to test it—or someone hadn’t known the lake was there. . . .
He leapt off the platform and ran as fast as he could, that last thought producing a gut-wrenching fear. Someone was trying to throw a rope out in the direction of the hole, but no one was there to catch it.
“Break the ice!” he shouted at the small crowd before he ran across it.
He only went five feet before his weight started another crack. He jumped down on the ice and was partially submerged. He used his elbows to widen the hole, then dove down into the icy water to look for Alana. He saw her submerged near the hole she’d fallen through, trying to use the floor of the lake as a springboard to push herself back up, but her heavy clothes were weighing her down. Her movements were too slow, her limbs barely moving. He swam to her and threw her toward the opening above them. There wasn’t enough room for both of them, so he grasped the sharp edge of the ice with both hands and pulled another chunk loose. He caught her again when she started sinking, but he was able to get both their heads above water this time. She was breathing, but she didn’t even try to hold on to him. He was terrified by how long she’d been in the water.
The men had broken through the ice up to the hole he’d made, and he saw Karsten there with three others, working to clear more ice away.
“Hold your breath,” Christoph told Alana. “We’re going to swim underwater a bit because the ice here is too weak to support our weight.”
“I—can’t.”
He hugged her tightly to him. “I’ll swim for both of us, it’s not far now.”
Christoph kept her in front of him as he kicked through the ice-covered water. They had only about six more feet of ice to get past, then another few feet and he was able to pick Alana up in his arms and walk the rest of the way to shore. Women were waiting there with blankets, which they threw around him and Alana. They all ran to the closest cottage, where Christoph laid Alana down on a pile of blankets near a warm hearth. The women tried to shoo him out as they peeled Alana’s freezing, wet clothes off her, but he wasn’t budging from the room. He could see the numbness was beginning to wear off because she was trembling despite the heated blankets the women kept wrapping around her.
One old woman, shaking her head at him, said, “You know what she needs, Count Becker. She’s your woman, see to it.”
Thinking she’d made her point, she took all the other women out of the room with her and closed the door. Christoph didn’t hesitate. He quickly removed the rest of his clothes and lay down in front of the fire next to Alana, putting her blankets over both of them and wrapping his arms and legs around her. She barely noticed. Her trembling shook them both and continued unabated. It wasn’t enough.
He began kissing her gently, first her cheeks, then her neck, sharing his warm breath with her as he hugged her closer and rubbed her briskly with his hands. As he continued to run his hands up and down her body, he noticed a little color returning to her cheeks and her breathing evening out. He also noticed his restraint was becoming painful. He began to sweat. A few minutes later, she did as well.
“I think you should probably move outside the blanket,” she finally said in a prim little voice.
He suddenly felt like laughing. “I should, yes, but I warn you, I’m naked.”
“I know,” she fairly squeaked.
He put a hand to her cheek. “This was necessary, Alana. There’s no shame in sharing heat when it’s desperately needed. You could have died in that water. When I found you, you were already giving up.”
“I wasn’t giving up, I just couldn’t tell if I was moving or not, and, well, I can’t swim, either, so that made it rather awkward. But thank you for finding me. I was out of breath.”
