Luke’s HAARP Time Warp: Part 15

Marion becomes Queen.

Based on a post by somethin fishy,
in 15 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.

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Chapter 70.

Luke spent a couple of days in Sheffield while the rest of the army arrived.
The first thing he did when he arrived though was that he sent Pollyanna’s
engineers ahead with a strong dragoon escort to prepare the way for his
artillery. Mostly this involved doing work at river crossings. At many of the
crossings they would have to build bridges that were strong enough to support
the weight of the cannons for the big ones weighed a couple of tons. Luke had
designed them so that when smokeless powder became available, he wouldn’t have
to redesign them. The plan for crossing the Thames was to build a large number
of boats and create a pontoon bridge with them. This way supplies could keep
up.

Within a week of Luke arriving in Sheffield, he was looking at the Norman’s
fort. The march south had been extremely rapid and uneventful for no noble was
willing to challenge Luke’s army. As uneventful a trip as the army had; Luke’s
personal trip was far more eventful. Alice’s medical unit was one of the last
ones to arrive in Sheffield for she had to finish some important things in York
before she could depart. That evening she went into Luke’s tent. Luke always
stayed in a tent while he was in the field. His theory was that his soldiers
slept in tents so he should too. His army stayed in tents because Luke had
forbidden the army from sharing civilian homes unless it was a dire emergency.

She found him lying on his cot and looking at an old picture. It was the
picture of Luke and his older sister just after he had graduated from Marine
basic training. He was in his dress blues while she was wearing one of her
formal gowns. He was so into just staring at the picture that he didn’t even
hear Alice enter. It wasn’t until she cleared her throat that Luke noticed that
she was there.

“Oh, sorry Alice. I didn’t hear you come in. What can I do for you this evening?”
As she always was, she was struck by that line. It was never “what do you
want?” or even “hello”. It was always “what can I do for you?” It was just
another reminder for Alice that Luke was the kindest person that she had ever
met. She decided right there that if Luke wanted her, she would be his lover.
After all Marion had Gabriel; why shouldn’t Luke have someone else too.

“The voices bothering you again?” Alice asked trying to sound as innocent as
possible for she knew of Luke’s sometimes hair trigger temper.

“Marion talked to you, didn’t she?”

“Yes, she did. Luke, she is concerned for you and so am I.”

“Why are you concerned for me?” It was evident from his tone that while he
wasn’t angry, he could become very angry very quickly. Alice decided then and
there to lay all her cards on the table and confess to Luke her true feelings
for him.

“Why? Because I love you, Luke. You saved me from being raped. You taught me
medicine. You enabled my late fiancé and I to actually have a chance with each
other. You have already saved the lives of countless people. Finally, you are
the kindest, most loyal person that I have ever met. So, tell me, why would I
not love you.”

“Well let’s see. I’m married and I’m broken. I have almost constant
nightmares when I sleep. In fact, most nights I don’t sleep but for maybe an
hour or two and I’ve been having nightmares for many years now. I hear voices
in my head telling me that I be dead by the end of this campaign and yet here I
am getting ready to wage this campaign anyway. If that’s not broken and
hopeless then I don’t know what is.”

“Luke you’re not broken. Only a very strong person could have survived what
all you have been through. You not only survived but you have thrived. As far
as being on this campaign see my previous comment on loyalty and as far as you
being married; well Marion has a lover so why shouldn’t you. After all she was
the one who fixed us up the other night. She was the one who begged me to do
what I could to watch over you during this campaign. So, please Luke can you
just give us a chance.”

“I don’t…” that was as far as he got before Alice’s lips locked onto his.
When she broke the kiss, she locked onto his eyes with hers. He had tried to
look away but Alice put her hands on his face and gently pulled his eyes back
to hers.

“Please Luke” With their eyes locked she could almost see the epic battle
going on inside Luke’s mind. On one hand he was loyal. He was absolutely loyal
to his wife. On the other hand, Alice was exceptionally beautiful and smart and
she reminded him of someone who had been extremely dear to him that he had lost
a few years before.

It seemed like hours before Alice saw a change in Luke’s eyes, but finally a
look of calm took over. He moved over in his cot and invited Alice to lay down
with him. Since he was so large the only way that Alice could realistically lay
with Luke was to lay on Luke.

“Before you say anything, I want to show you something. Something that even
Marion has never seen and I don’t want her to see it either for she already has
enough to worry about.”

Luke then pulled out another picture. This one was of him when he was in his
mid to late twenties and he was with a stunning redhead. When Alice saw the
picture, she gasped for the redhead in the picture could have been her twin
sister.

“Who is she, Luke?”

“Who was she, Alice? Her name was Rebecca, Becky, and she was my fiancé but
she was killed two days before we were to get married. She was driving home
late one night when a deer jumped out in front of her car. She tried to avoid
it and in doing so lost control of her car and hit a tree. The autopsy showed
that she died almost instantly so at least she didn’t suffer. It also revealed
that she was eight weeks pregnant with twin girls. That was when I moved to Alaska
for, I wanted to get as far away from where she died as I could. I never did
step foot back in Louisiana again. She was my entire life and after her my life
has just wasn’t been worth living until, I met Marion. Then I met you and
everything went upside-down. You two even have very similar interest for she
was a surgical resident at the local hospital and was within a month of
finishing.”

“Oh Luke, I didn’t know!!” She gripped him as tight as she could and by the
time, she finished crying Luke had fallen asleep. She continued to lay there
and now paying attention she noticed Luke’s body tense up several times. When
this happened, she would hold him tighter and he would relax. Eventually she
was able to fall asleep, but now she was having nightmares of her own. Only
hers were what might happen if that voice in Luke’s head turned out to be
right. Would Marion be able to hold things together. As Alice thought about it,
the more she was convinced that Marion wouldn’t be able to. Alice had a huge
amount more interaction with the general populace than anyone else in Marion’s
group except for Luke, so she knew that a major reason the people were willing
to follow her was because of Luke.

For it was Luke that had the people’s complete trust. The one’s that didn’t
trust him, feared him so much that they wouldn’t do anything that might risk
his wrath. Alice of course knew why; after all this was the 11th century and
everyone understood brute force. This was what most people saw in Luke. His
power was blindingly so obvious that most everyone overlooked his true power,
his intelligence, his willingness to listen to the people around him, and his
kindness. Alice knew that Marion didn’t understand this dynamic and she
probably never would, after all she had been born into a very privileged life
and she was blind to the general population as a whole. Put any single person
or small group in front of her and she treated them with upmost respect. But
she was at best partly blind to the lower classes. At least to her credit,
Marion tried.

The next morning Luke was up early as usual. He gently slid out from under
Alice and covered her back up for she was still sleeping soundly. He started
his morning the same way he always did. He checked the night sentries. Granted
he was in friendly territory but that was no excuse for letting one’s guard
down. With sunrise the army got ready to leave. A message had come in overnight
from Pollyanna telling him that things were clear all the way to the Thames.
When Alice caught up with Luke later that morning, he invited her to keep her
things with his and she gladly accepted.

The army moved like the wind on their way south. By the time they reached
the Thames, Pollyanna had the pontoon bridge done so Luke’s army didn’t even
have to pause. They moved so fast that they caught the Norman army completely
by surprise. The only thing that saved the Normans from being annihilated
during the first contact was a storm had blown up and limited the visibility
thus allowed them to escape back to their fort. Not that being in their fort
would do them any good. Luke ordered his artillery to ring the fort at a
distance of five hundred meters with his infantry to dig in in front of them at
a distance of three hundred meters from the walls.

At this range they could pick off anyone who came outside the walls a