The Captive Maiden (25 page)

Then she saw Ruexner walking with Valten. “Your turn, Lew.”

They were taking turns going into the woods to relieve themselves, and Ruexner had gone with Valten.

Her heart leaped, then sank. How could she be happy about Valten still being a prisoner?

Valten came and held out his hands to her. She reached up and let him help her to her feet.

Realizing how awful she must look, she tried to smooth her hair. “I’m a mess.” Her dress was torn and dirty, and it broke her heart to see the once-beautiful gown getting ruined.

“You look pretty, as always.”

She wanted to believe him. She didn’t.

While their captors were busy, Gisela looked up at Valten, wincing at the swollen, bruised state of his eye, and whispered, “If you get a chance to escape without me, you should take it.”

He lowered his brows at her in his dangerous way.

She quickly went on. “I couldn’t bear it if Ruexner hurt you again.” She reached up and touched his swollen cheekbone, but lightly.

Valten half frowned. He lifted his hands and ran his knuckles over her jawline. “You shouldn’t worry about me.”

“Hey!” Ruexner shouted. “No talking amongst the captives.” He motioned to Gisela. “Go relieve yourself and get back here.”

Gisela turned reluctantly from Valten and obeyed. At least she could be thankful Ruexner didn’t follow her into the woods when she had to go.

Soon, they were back on the horses and starting on their way again.

The day slowly crept by. As she traveled with Ruexner on his horse, a few hours after noon, he spoke into her ear, “You look like someone I once knew. Who were your parents?”

It seemed an odd thing for him to say, and Gisela refused to reply.

After a few moments, he asked, “You are from Hagenheim? And your parents are from Hagenheim?”

Gisela could have told him she wasn’t sure where her parents were from and didn’t even know her grandparents’ names, but she didn’t want to encourage his friendliness, so she simply said, “Yes.”

“And your surname is Mueller?”

“Yes.”

He said no more as they entered rougher terrain now, and often their trail led them around small mountains, or down steep hillsides and back up again. They seemed to be following any path that kept them away from the roads. Ruexner must have been afraid of Valten’s men following them.

When they stopped to make camp, Gisela watched for an opportunity to talk to Valten. She found it when Ruexner and his men decided to build a fire against the chill of the evening air and cook the deer Malbert had killed with his crossbow.

“Do you think we’re close to Ruexner’s castle?”

“Two more days, maybe three,” he whispered back. His gaze lingered on her face.

“Listen.” He spoke quickly. “Tonight I want you to try to untie the rope around my wrists, and then I will watch for a chance to escape.”

Gisela nodded, her heart rising into her throat.

Ruexner yelled at them to stop talking, so she stepped away from him, trying not to look as excited as she felt.

As they all sat down to eat, they heard someone whistling on the trail nearby. Ruexner glanced at their fire, then at one of his men. “Go see who that is.”

The men put their hands to their swords, as if to make sure they were there, and Lew cautiously stalked toward the sound of whistling, then faint singing. It seemed to be coming toward them, coming quite close.

“A good evening to you!” a voice sang out.

“Don’t come any closer,” Lew warned.

Gisela couldn’t see the person through the dense trees but sensed that he was very close.

“My good man, I mean you no harm,” the cheerful, rather meek voice went on. “I am but a poor friar on a mission to encourage all men everywhere to repent and believe in the goodness of God. I smelled the smoke from your fire —”

“You’re not welcome here. Be gone.”

“Perhaps your companions would be interested in the saving message —”

“Be gone, I say!”

“As you wish, as you wish.” Through a small break in the leaves, a man in a friar’s robe and with a tonsured head passed by on a donkey. His eye darted her way, and she was sure he saw her. She opened her mouth to call out to the man. But what could a friar, undoubtedly unarmed, do to help them? She might get the poor man killed if she alerted him to their plight. So she closed her mouth and stayed quiet as he and his donkey continued out of sight.

As night fell, Gisela lay close to Valten again, and Lew was left to guard them. Valten faced away from the guard, and Gisela plucked at the knot that secured the rope around Valten’s wrists, working to loosen it while keeping her shoulders still. When Gisela didn’t seem to be making any progress, Valten began wriggling his hands, using his thumbs to push the ropes, trying to ease them off. Gisela tried to help him, but eventually went back to trying to loosen the knot.

Gisela kept glancing at Lew. He was whittling something, probably the same thing she’d seen him working on the first time he’d watched them. He didn’t seem to be paying them any attention. Gisela hoped she looked like she was asleep. Fortunately, she could see both Valten and the guard without opening her eyes too wide.

She forced her eyes open and realized she had dozed off. Lew was still whittling and Valten was still working quietly and with little movement, pulling at the ropes around his wrists. He had let her fall asleep.

She pinched her arm, hard, to force herself fully awake, then started trying to loosen the knot again.

“I can do it,” Valten whispered, so low she could barely hear him, even though she was only a few inches away. “Go back to sleep.”

“No, I can help.” She also wanted to stay awake so she could tell Valten when Lew fell asleep. In spite of the way he had reacted to her recent suggestions, she thought he would appreciate her help now.

Valten had made some progress, but the ropes now seemed to be stuck at the joint of his thumb due to the splint around his left hand. He shifted his focus toward trying to work the coils over his right hand. It was slow going, and she wasn’t sure he would be able to do it. If Ruexner caught him, he would no doubt go back to tying it so tight it turned his fingers purple and rubbed the skin off his wrist.

God, please don’t let him get caught.
She was almost afraid to hope. God had saved her when she was locked in her room the day of the ball. She had begged for God’s help and he’d sent Ava’s servant boy, Lukas. Perhaps she only had to believe that he would help her again. She needed to have faith.

She had once seen a miracle play about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who got thrown into the king of Babylon’s fiery furnace. They told the evil king that they believed God would save them from the fire. But even if he did not, they still would not worship the king’s false god.

Perhaps that was the kind of faith God required of her now.

I believe you will rescue me, God. But even if I don’t escape, please let Valten escape. He has a family who loves him.

Valten suddenly seemed close to getting his hand free. He kept pulling. She glanced at the guard, whose attention was still focused on his carving.

Valten slipped the rope off his right wrist.

Gisela gasped. Valten pressed a finger to his lips. While working to keep her breathing steady, she glanced at Lew; he was still placidly whittling his piece of wood.

Valten held her gaze. Now what? She assumed they would have to wait until Lew fell asleep. Valten pointed to her and mouthed the words, “You sleep. I will watch the guard.” Then he closed his eyes, put his hands back together, and turned over, as if turning in his sleep. The guard noticed, stared, but then went back to whittling his piece of wood.

Gisela didn’t want to lie there while Valten plotted their escape. She wanted to watch with Valten, to be ready as soon as the guard fell asleep. But this guard didn’t seem tired at all, so she started praying again.
God, please let this guard fall asleep. Or let the next one come soon to take his place, one who cannot keep his eyes open.

Gisela had so often eased her pain by telling herself she didn’t care what happened. But she couldn’t tell herself she didn’t care if Ruexner forced her to marry him. To be his wife was a detestable prospect. So she kept praying to God to help Valten and her escape, and to keep them safe. It was comforting to ask for God’s help, to believe that he was listening and that he cared. She felt herself relaxing and letting go of her fear …

“You there. Pssst.”

Gisela’s eyes popped open, and she realized she’d fallen asleep again. The guard had changed, and the new guard, Malbert, was lying against a tree trunk, snoring.

Slowly, Valten rolled over, making no noise. But he was not looking at Gisela, but at someone behind her.

Her heart in her throat, Gisela rolled over as well, to find
herself face to face with a stranger. It was the friar she’d glimpsed as he passed by their camp on his donkey.

The man was bending over so that his face was almost level with Gisela’s. His smile seemed so out of place that Gisela could only stare.

“Do you need help?” the man whispered.

Gisela nodded while Valten quietly jumped to his feet. Then he and the friar each took one of Gisela’s hands and helped her up.

Looking over his shoulder, Valten put his hand under her elbow, and all three of them carefully picked their way away from the three men. When they were fifty feet away, they began walking a bit faster. About a hundred feet away, they came upon the friar’s donkey.

“Wait here,” Valten said. “I’m going back to get my horse. If I don’t return soon, go on without me.”

Before she could think of anything to say, he was walking back toward Ruexner’s camp. She stared after him until he disappeared in the dark woods.

What had she been thinking? They had escaped! She should never have let him go back for Sieger. Because if Ruexner were to catch him and find Gisela gone, Valten was a dead man.

Chapter
22

Valten walked more carefully the closer he
got to Ruexner’s camp. He avoided stepping on sticks, and he dodged tree limbs that might brush against his shoulders and make a noise. He was only a few feet from the sleeping guard when he had to step over an enormous rotting tree. A loud snap made him freeze — his foot had landed on a large twig. He watched the nearby guard, as well as Ruexner and his other man a few feet farther on. No one moved, and he could still hear the sounds of soft snoring.

Valten stepped his other foot over the log and pressed forward.

Sieger stood silently next to the other three horses. But before he made off with Sieger, he wanted to steal a sword, preferably his own, which he had forfeited to Ruexner when he’d turned himself over to him to save Gisela. Unfortunately, he didn’t know where Ruexner was keeping it, and he had to hurry before the next guard came to take his turn watching them and discovered them missing.

Valten crept closer to the sleeping guard, Malbert, until he could see that his sword lay across his lap with one hand laying limply over it. He couldn’t possibly take it without waking the man. So he crept backward and made a wide arc through the trees to get closer to Ruexner and Lew.

They lay on blankets in the leaves. Ruexner’s sword was by his side, and he too had his hand resting on its handle. Valten moved on to check on Lew, but he couldn’t see Lew’s weapon at first. Then Valten spied it on his blanket, half of the blade under his thigh.

Valten gritted his teeth. He didn’t dare try to steal either sword, for he would be too likely to wake the men. He turned back toward the horses. Just as he turned, something near the ground, propped against a tree trunk, caught his eye: Malbert’s crossbow.

Valten almost groaned out loud. He’d never been very good with a crossbow, but if he couldn’t have a sword, the bow was better than no weapon at all. He picked it up, then gently lifted the quiver of arrows lying on the ground beside it. Holding them carefully against his chest, he moved quietly away from the sleeping men.

The horses were sleeping as well. He’d like to steal one of their horses so Gisela would have her own to ride, as well as to put Ruexner and his men at a disadvantage, but as he drew near, the horses began to snuffle warily, obviously awake and not liking his presence. Valten moved extra carefully around the suspicious animals and made his way to Sieger. He untied his horse, who thankfully stayed quiet, and led him away from Ruexner’s camp.