The Foreign Bride

Six

Edward stepped out of the carriage and looked around the town of Munich. It was a charming town, filled with busy people, intoxicating smells and shops. All the buildings were colorful... at least, more so than England's villages. 

"Do you like it?" He heard his wife ask as she came to walk beside him. Her hand touched his arm gently as she awaited his reply.

Edward couldn't help but smile, "It's perfect, Anna."

She walked ahead of him and smiled, "I grew up here. My mother would take these daily walks through this market, greeting the people and supporting their local businesses. She especially loved to go to the bakery."

Her eyes went wide as she gasped, twirling around, "I have an idea!"

Her pale pink dress lagged behind her as she walked up to the nearest street vendor. The woman smiled at her and started to talk to her. Edward had no idea what they were saying but to hear his little wife talk in another language made him swell with pride.

After a while, she walked back to me and smiled, "So you can waltz, but have you ever danced?"

Edward's brow creased as she took his hand, "Anna? Whatever do you mean?"

The people around them morphed into a circle and music started to play. Mediocre couples danced into the circle, laughing and singing in their language. It was definitely not something that would have happened in England.

Annalisa grabbed his other hand and led him into the dance.

Citizens clapped to the beat, trading out dancers. The women twirled around in their drab-colored dresses. Someone had brought out a fiddle and was interacting with dancers, especially the women.

All Edward could see, though, was her beautiful face. She was like a flower in the middle of a field of wheat. She was like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. He had never seen her so happy before, it really put a new idea into his head.

An idea that made his 'I love you' on their wedding night seem childish and worthless.

He was actually experiencing feelings for his foreign bride, something he never thought possible. The way her eyes lit up or how her hair swayed around them when he spun her or how her soft skin glowed in the golden sunlight- they all got to him. His heart was swollen with pride and love. It wasn't like on their wedding night when he felt lust for her, but something more powerful than that. Something he could not control.

Her laugh rang out through the crowd like siren's melodic voice on a clear day. Her hand clasped onto his and led him over to the edge of the circle to watch couples dance, clapping along with them.

If this was how Germans usually acted then this was a true paradise.

Annalisa jumped back into the crowd again, dancing with a complete stranger as a young girl grabbed his hands.

He let the girl spin and twirl with him, fully knowing that Anna was watching him with a sweet smile.

He twirled the girl again an made a move to grab his wife back and switch with the man who had stolen her.

"I must say I am impressed, Edward." She laughed.

"Because I can dance things other than a waltz?" He asked, spinning her and pulling her back.

She started to open her mouth but another spoke for her, "When I was told my sister had married an English man, I could not believe my eyes, but now I have seen it with my own eyes."

Annalisa gasped and turned to throw herself at the foreign voice.

"Hans." Her tongue went into a strand of foreign words again, leaving Edward immensely confused. She ran over to the man, her words flying out of her mouth as she pulled the man into an embrace.

"Edward, darling." Annalisa's sweet voice brought him back. Edward glanced behind him at the silent crowd- every single one of them had bowed down to the floor.

"This is my brother, Hans. Hans this is my husband, Edward."

Hans, a great, powerful and handsome man studied Edward before shaking his hand, "Welcome to my Kingdom. May you be welcomed by many."

As Edward turned to greet them, he heard a hushed whisper fall over the crowd and the people stooped to their knees. Edward turned to look at Annalisa, "He's the..."

Hans stopped his words with two life-changing sentences, "The king of Germany, son of Hans the third. Come, please, stay with me."

~~~~~

Annalisa couldn't be happier with how her life was going. Edward and Hans were getting along well, leaving her a lot of spare time to explore the country she had missed. She had been able to go visit the convent where she stayed for most of her life. She got to see her parent's rose garden

 And best of all, she got to be carefree.

She had spent the majority of her morning with her niece, Johanna. She had never met the girl before and so, Annalisa planned on getting as much time with her as possible. Annalisa listened to everything that girl had to say- from fairy tales to what color dress to wear in the morning.

Annalisa almost wished she had a child to have a relationship with for when they went back to England. She knew that Edward would be busy and she wasn't ready to go back to being alone. She wanted to have someone to talk to, even if it was a child.

"Hello!" Her niece suddenly said as she focused her attention to the person behind her. Slowly, with a racing heart, Annalisa turned around, praying that it was not Peter.

With a relieved sigh, she smiled at the man in front of her, "What are you doing here, Lord Drake?"

Drake stepped closer to her and bowed towards Johanna, "Would you mind if I borrowed your Aunt for a while?"

Johanna shook her head and ran off towards her governess. Drake offered Annalisa an arm and started to lead her on a walk. "Why did you come back here?" He asked in a hushed voice.

Annalisa turned to look at him, "Because Edward wanted to."

Drake smiled at her, but she could see the anger in his eyes, "You must pretend like this is a friendly conversation. What will you do if Peter or Jacque find out you are here? I told them you had died on the way to England from a fever."

Annalisa's eyes went wide, "Why would you say that?"

Drake turned her to face him, stopping their walk very abruptly, "They would stop looking for you if they thought you were dead. You need to go back to England, as a way to protect yourself."

"What do tell Edward?" She asked. She did not want to have to lie to her husband but she did not want to have to tell him the truth about her past.

At least not yet.

"Anything. Say you feel uneasy, ill... anything to take you back to the safety of England." Drake smiled at her, "I don't want to see you hurt. Just promise me you will leave as soon as possible. My presence at court will distract them long enough to get you out of here. You need to leave soon, though."

And with that said, Thomas Drake left her.