Chapter 37: Nightmares

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.” – Plato

York, Great Britain. August 1075

Alice woke up and wiped the excessive saliva off her mouth. She looked at the wall and, judging by the moonlight, figured it was around 02:00. Waking up, she tried to figure out what woke her. Alice noticed Luke twitch; she had been sleeping on top and straddling him as usual when his twitching woke her up. When Luke twitched again, Alice realized what was happening and reached over to wake Marion and Gabby.

Marion grumbled when Alice woke her up. She was three months pregnant with her fifth child, and it was giving her problems, especially in the mornings.

“What’s going on?” Marion demanded.

“Luke’s twitching, and it’s getting worse.”

Marion turned her head to look over her shoulder at Luke. She had been sleeping with her back against him and arms wrapped around Gabriella, who always slept between the door and Marion. Now awake, Marion noticed the twitch and pushed Gabby to wake her. When she rolled, Gabby quickly found she was too close to the edge of the bed and fell out of bed.

Gabby wasn’t happy to wake up in such a way until she saw Marion climbing out of bed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Luke’s twitching.”

“Uh-oh. Better wake Kukka before he begins.”

“Yeah.” Marion went around the bed and gently shook Kukka’s shoulder until she woke up. “Kukka, get up. Hurry.”

“What?!?!”

“Luke is having a nightmare, and he is about to get violent.”

“What? How do you know?”

“I’ve been with him for ten years.”

No sooner did Kukka climb out of bed than Luke started twisting and turning as he screamed in his sleep. The screaming didn’t make sense to Kukka, but it did to Marion. After all, she had heard the stories. To Kukka, it sounded like Luke was battling for his life. She moved to wake Luke, but Marion stopped her.

“Don’t. If you wake him, he will have another nightmare as soon as he goes back to sleep. We must let him finish, or it will be days before he can sleep again.”

The guards heard Luke scream and came rushing in, but they relaxed when they saw the ladies standing by the bed. Gabby waved the guards back and had them return to their post. As Luke flopped around on the bed screaming, Kukka clung to Alice and Marion as tears streamed down her face. It killed her to see the man she had grown to love above all others suffering.

Finally, Luke shot bolt upright, panting, soaked in sweat, and eyes filled with terror from pain inflicted long ago. Without thinking, Kukka let go of Marion and raced to Luke, wrapping her arms around him. It was a stab to her heart when she felt him tense up as she hugged him. Luke relaxed, wrapped his arms around her, and placed his head against hers. Soon, the other three women were hugging Kukka and Luke.

After about five minutes, Luke stood and walked around the room. Marion sat on the bed to wait and see what he would do. There was about a 50% chance Luke would return to bed, and if he didn’t, he would head down to his workshop for a few hours. Only after working for a couple of hours would Luke try to return to bed.

To Marion’s surprise, Luke sat beside her and put an arm around her shoulders to pull her close. With his other arm, he pulled Kukka close, knowing he had hurt her by tensing up during her hug, but he couldn’t help it. The nightmare he just suffered was the worst he had in years; the last time he suffered one as bad was before being transported to Medieval England.

“Luke,” Marion started. “I think you need to tell Kukka everything.”

Luke looked into Kukka’s eyes and nodded. To allow Alice, Marion, and Gabriella to go back to sleep, Luke took Kukka to the library because the story was long and sad. By the time Luke was done, Kukka had cried so much that her eyes were redder than her hair. Luke held her and gently rocked until she fell asleep. He carefully picked her up and laid her in bed next to Marion, who woke feeling the bed shift.

It was almost time to get up, so Marion got up, and Kukka curled up to Alice. Luke and Marion entered the bathroom to take care of their morning business.

“Are you going to be okay, darling?”

“I think so, sweetheart. It’s just I haven’t had a nightmare that bad for years, and I wonder what triggered it.”

“What did you do yesterday?”

“It was a normal day in the office. I wonder if it was the news from Egypt.”

“Yeah, that’s not good news. I have already ordered all merchant ships traveling in the Med to travel in convoys.”

“I think you need to seize Gibraltar. A strong presence there would stop any Mediterranean power from entering the Atlantic.”

“What about the Muslim powers in the area?” Marion asked.

“What about them? They are beginning to decline, and Gibraltar is an easy place to defend.”

“Give me a few days to think about it.”

“Something else to think about, sweetheart, is that by controlling Gibraltar, your ships won’t have to guard the convoy from Britain. Merchant ships could gather at Gibraltar until there was enough for a convoy. The warships would escort the merchant ships to their destination and back to Gibraltar, then wait for the next batch of merchant ships.”

“Still, give me a few days. Are you going to exercise this morning?”

“No. I think I’ll walk you, Alice, and Kukka to work, then return and nap.”

Luke watched the ladies dress and got teased for his efforts, not that he cared. It was exciting to watch the women dress, and Luke took every opportunity to perv on his women. After walking everyone to work, Luke wandered back to the palace.

York was growing even faster than ever as the advanced sewer system kept the people healthy, and immigrants poured in from around Europe. Many of the immigrants were Jews who were thrilled to be able to practice their faith openly. Helping Marion defend her religious toleration was that many of the immigrant Jews were highly skilled in medicine, metalwork, and finance. The rabbis also helped by keeping a low profile and making it a point not to complain about their Christian neighbor’s habits.

When Luke finally walked into the bedroom, he was exhausted but took the time to shower. Before going to sleep, he asked the guards to wake him in four hours.

While Luke was napping, Marion and Gabriella talked about his problem in the office.

“What do you think brought last night on?” asked Gabby.

“We think it was the news from Egypt. From the last report we got, I will probably be sending us to war. If I do, Luke knows he will have to lead them. I don’t have another commander I trust with such a mission right now.”

“General Jeevika is pretty good.”

“But she has little experience leading three divisions into combat and no experience with combined arms operations. Luke has that experience. If this operation were closer to home, I would let her lead it, but with the operational theater being several weeks away, that’s a risk I can’t take. And while Admiral Ewing has experience with combined arms in this century, she doesn’t have much experience commanding land operations.”

“Unfortunately, I agree and believe Luke would too.”

“I know he agrees with me. We discussed the situation several months ago. I think last night, his conscience tried to keep him from going on this mission. We both know Luke still hasn’t told us everything he went through in Iraq, and while today’s Egypt isn’t Luke’s Iraq, he will be back to battling Muslim forces in the desert.”

“So, what are we going to do, Marion?”

“There is nothing we can do, Gabby. Just make sure he has a minimum of a company of Household Guards and prey for his safety.”

“When do you think you’ll be sending in the army?”

“Let’s give diplomacy a chance first. The army will be mobilized if we don’t hear anything by October.”

“What do you think the odds are that we won’t go to war?”

“Almost zero. From everything we have gotten, Al-Mustanṣir doesn’t like Europeans except as slaves, has a very high opinion of himself, but is almost completely inept. I’m glad that Gretchen could intercept most of the dispatches from his agent here. At least the caliph won’t fully understand what we are capable of.”

“But maybe that would have convinced the caliph to back off.”

“Not for long, Gabby. Gretchen reports the caliph has wanted to go to war with us for over a year. A few reports wouldn’t have changed his mind. In fact, they might have made it worse because he would have held off for a few more years and further increased the size of his army.”

Gabriella shook her head as she returned to her work. Marion tried but couldn’t concentrate; she knew in her heart Luke would have to go to war again, and despite having three women, he would be alone. Eventually, Marion couldn’t work any longer and closed up early.

When Marion returned to her quarters, she found Luke sitting on the balcony, sipping whiskey and looking over the city. Without a word, Marion sat down in Luke’s lap and hugged him tightly while he stroked her hair and back. Neither said anything while they sat. Both knew there was a strong possibility that Luke would go back into action against an enemy far more potent than France.

They were still sitting like that when Alice, Kukka, and Gabriella came home. Once the rest came in, Marion gave up her spot so one of the others could sit with Luke. To nobody’s surprise, Alice claimed his lap and curled up like a cat. It didn’t take her long to fall asleep, and she slept until dinner. After dinner, Kukka claimed Luke’s lap but couldn’t curl up as Alice had due to her size. Instead, she laid her head on Luke’s shoulder and tried her best to melt into his body. Bedtime was a time for slow lovemaking between the bed inhabitants, and by the time everyone was done, all the women held a little bit of Luke between their legs.

When they woke the following morning, everyone was happy that Luke hadn’t suffered any nightmares and was delighted to get a restful night’s sleep. It was good that he got to sleep because he was buried under paperwork at the office. General Jeevika had her foot broken by a horse and was laid up until the bones healed. Luke found the mundane work relaxing and was done by 1600.

Since Luke was done for the day, he took a turn around the base before heading home. The base had expanded to accommodate the extra support needed for the 4^th division. The troops he passed during the walk saluted as they went by. Luke was proud of his accomplishments and looked forward to what was next.

On the way home, he stopped by his favorite tavern for a bag of pretzels for the children. As usual, he had a glass of ale and flirted with the barmaid. Luke found flirting with the barmaids entertaining, and they were a fountain of gossip. It hadn’t taken Luke long to figure out two classes of people who knew everything that was going on: prostitutes and barmaids. Since Marion would kill him if he visited a whorehouse and it looked tacky, Luke flirted with the barmaids.

After finishing his drink, Luke went to head out when a fight broke out. Luke looked at the combatants and sighed; he was getting too old for this shit. He returned the pretzels to the barmaid and had her put them below the bar so they wouldn’t get damaged before he could get them home. Slowly, Luke rolled up his sleeves and prepared to wade into the growing fight.

Luke had fun in the fight even though he received a black eye. When the police arrived, they didn’t know what to make of the fact the nation’s commanding general and husband of their queen was involved in a bar fight. Once everything was sorted out, Luke was allowed to leave.

The children noticed that Daddy had snacks as soon as he stepped through the door and mugged him. Luke laughed and divided the snacks between the children. When he finished, he looked up and directly into Marion’s eyes.

“What happened to you?” she asked in an annoyed voice.

“I got in a bar fight when I stopped to get the pretzels.”

“And you couldn’t leave before the fight got to you.”

“I could have, but where’s the fun in that? I had the barmaid put the pretzels in a safe place, rolled up my sleeves, and joined the fun.”

“But why? You could have gotten hurt!” Fear and anger crept into her voice.

“Marion, I’m in the army and have seen more than my share of combat. A bar fight is nothing.”

Marion couldn’t take it anymore and launched herself into Luke’s arms as the tears streamed down her face. She felt as if Luke had stopped caring if he lived or died, and the last thing Marion wanted to do was imagine her life without him. As she hugged him tightly, she whispered over and over again, “Please don’t die on me. I don’t think I can take it.”

With Luke’s powerful arms around her, Marion wasn’t going anywhere. Luke took her to bed and laid down with her. As they lay in bed with forehead to forehead, they stared into each other’s eyes, and the world disappeared. While not making love in the traditional sense, Luke and Marion were making love. Instead of trying to inhabit each other’s bodies, they were trying to inhabit each other’s minds.