Peter saves me from making a mistake

Whether or not the Bishop of Freising would think me mad, Peter clearly did.

We were sitting at dinner when I told him how I felt about Anna Kristina, and my plans to go to the bishop.

“In love,” he said. “That’s fine. But running off to talk to a bishop when you don’t even know how she feels? That’s madness.”

“It’s true that she might not have feelings for me that way,” I said. “But I don’t want to propose before I know if I can marry.”

“Propose! Why, you haven’t even held her hand.”

“I have several times.”

“To help her into and out of wagons, maybe. But not the way a man in love holds the hand of a woman who loves him.”

He had a point.

“Besides, even if she does have feelings for you that way, what will she think once you tell her who you are and how old you are? A 16-year- old might love a 60-year-old, though I’m not sure I like the idea, but a 16-year-old and a 600-year old?”

He was off by a few years.

A few hundred, actually.

But I knew in my heart he was right. I must tell her how I feel, and who I am.

Over the years, I had willingly faced wild animals, church officials, barbarians, trolls, saints, thieves, giants, and murderers – but this was the most frightening thing I ever had to do!