The Golden Braid (21 page)

Frau Adelheit curtsied and left. The little girl said, “Take me with you, Mama.” So Lady Rose took her hand.

“Come with me, Rapunzel. I'll show you where the girls sleep, and you can help us with our hair tonight and any other little things we need.”

“Yes, my lady,” Rapunzel said as Frau Adelheit had instructed her.

She followed Lady Rose down the corridor. Lady Rose knocked on a door.

“This is where Lady Margaretha and Lady Kirstyn sleep.” She opened the door and inside were two beds, some trunks, two chairs, and on the wall a large looking glass. “You can help them with their hair in a few hours—brush it and braid it—and then come and help me with mine. These pitchers need to be filled with fresh water every night and these towels replaced with fresh linens from the linen room.”

Rapunzel nodded to show she knew where it was. Then she became aware of someone standing just outside the door in the corridor.

“Mama, can I go play with Margret?”

“Yes, liebling.”

The little girl ran to the young woman standing nearby, who caught the girl in her arms and lifted her up high in the air, making the girl squeal.

“That little feisty bundle of liveliness is my daughter Adela and the young maiden is her nursemaid, Margret.”

Rapunzel nodded.

“So tell me more about yourself, Rapunzel. Do you have brothers and sisters?”

“No, my lady. I was left with my mother, who is a midwife, when I was a baby. My mother never married or had children. Only me.”

“And you did not want to be a midwife. I remember. What do you like to do?”

“I like to sing and make up songs. I also paint a little.”

“A songwriter? I would love to hear one of your songs. Do you know how to play any instruments?”

“No, but I have always wanted to learn. Is there anyone here who would teach me?”

“Perhaps you can learn with Kirstyn. She is just learning to play the lute.”

“That would be wonderful,” Rapunzel said in a breathy tone, awed at the prospect.

“You said you like to paint. What do you paint?”

“I paint flowers and birds and vines. I paint them on our houses since I never like the plain white plaster. Mother likes that I paint our houses . . . or she used to.”

“She used to? She doesn't like it anymore?”

Should Rapunzel be afraid to tell Lady Rose that she had run away from home to work at the castle? Would she force her to go back? Rapunzel was nineteen now, so surely she would not.

“I . . . my mother is angry with me just now. She did not want me to come here to work.”

Lady Rose put a hand on the back of Rapunzel's shoulder. “I am sorry she made you feel like she didn't approve. Did she want you to get married instead?”

“Oh, no. She does not want me to ever get married at all. Does that seem strange?”

Lady Rose seemed to consider that question carefully as she stared past Rapunzel. “I think it is very difficult for mothers—and fathers—to let go of their daughters. It will be difficult for me to see mine marry and go away to their own homes. But I have sons who have brought me daughters-in-law whom I love as my own children. It must be much harder for your mother since she has only you.”

Rapunzel's heart sank a little.

“Still, if your mother loves you, she should understand that you must make your own life. We mothers have to let go of our children and let them become adults. It is difficult, perhaps, but necessary and a healthy part of life.”

She couldn't imagine Mother ever being able to accept Rapunzel
being an adult, or being able to see that loving Rapunzel meant letting her make choices. Truly, it was a rather strange concept. Daughters were married off by their parents to the man who would make the best match for them, whether wealthy or poor. As a grown daughter, being able to make her own choices in life was something that appealed to Rapunzel very much.

But it would not please Mother.

“Perhaps she will realize you need to have your own life.”

Rapunzel wanted to agree. “Perhaps.”

How strange—and wonderful—that Lady Rose would want to have such a conversation with her maidservant.

Rapunzel had been at Hagenheim Castle for two weeks when Duke Wilhelm decided to give a banquet.

“What is the banquet for?” Rapunzel asked Cook as she prepared apples and plums for the sauce.

“Not
what
but
who
,” Cook said. “It's for Lord Claybrook, a new suitor for Margaretha, the duke's oldest daughter.”

“I hear he is from England and that he's very handsome,” Cristobel said.

Claybrook. That was the name Mother had mentioned. The man who had deserted her—she said he had gone to England with a Lord Claybrook.

“Cook, may I help serve the first course?” Cristobel asked.

“No, that's the job of the pages and squires.”

Cristobel's face fell, as did the other maidservants'.

“But I suppose, during the main course, if the pages need help, you can help serve.”

Smiles broke out on every face.

The reason her mother wanted to come to Hagenheim was to seek revenge on the man who had wronged her, the man who had just come back from England. What would Mother do now that he was back? Did the man still care for Mother?

The pace of the preparations grew more feverish as the night went on. Rapunzel and her fellow servants continued to work for hours, and always there was more to do, more dishes that Cook wanted them to prepare, more meat, more sauces, more frumenty, more diced-meat-and-fruit pies.

Finally, it was time to start taking the food out to the Great Hall and to the grand feast. The squires and pages lined up to accept the dishes and carry them out. One by one Rapunzel watched them carry the large, full platters. The food never ran out, but neither did the squires. The other maidservants were beginning to frown and grumble to each other. Still, Cook barked orders and they all continued to work.

Suddenly, Rapunzel looked up but did not see Cook. The other servants were whispering excitedly. Cristobel came and leaned over her shoulder. “We're going to go peek into the Great Hall. Want to come?”

Rapunzel dropped the knife she was using to chop walnuts and followed Cristobel and the other servants. They ran across the walkway to the door that led to the Great Hall. They giggled and whispered. When they reached the door, someone opened it only a crack. “I can't see!” “Move out of the way!” “Open the door.”

The door was forced open wide, and Rapunzel was pushed from behind until she was standing in the doorway with the others.

She stared, trying to make out the different people sitting at the banqueting tables. Duke Wilhelm and Lady Rose sat on the dais, of course, with the rest of their family members. Duchess Kathryn, Duke Wilhelm's mother, was not present, as she was very old and sickly and rarely left her chamber anymore. But seated across from Lady Margaretha was someone Rapunzel had not seen before.

“Is that Lord Claybrook? He is handsome.” They all gave their opinions of the new suitor from England.

Lord Claybrook was wearing the most elaborate hat Rapunzel had ever seen. At the moment, he was smirking, his shoulders thrown back, his brows lifted in a most haughty fashion. Compared to Sir Gerek, he didn't seem very handsome.

Unimpressed with Lady Margaretha's suitor, Rapunzel searched the lower tables for Sir Gerek.

There he was, sitting with other knights on one side of the table, with a row of ladies seated opposite. And seated directly opposite Sir Gerek was the maiden Rapunzel had bumped into in town, the one who had called her an ignorant peasant and belittled her clothes. Rainhilda. She was wearing a similar veil to the one she'd worn in town, secured to her head with a circlet of ribbons. Sir Gerek and Rainhilda were smiling at each other.

“Look at Rainhilda flirting with Sir Gerek,” Cristobel whispered, making a gagging sound. “She thinks she's so pretty.”

And she was quite pretty in her pink silk cotehardie. Rainhilda was smiling and tilting her head, making her blond ringlets bounce, and paying no attention at all to the poor squire standing by her shoulder, trying to ask if she wanted some pheasant from his platter. But Sir Gerek was not discouraging her. He leaned his head forward and laughed.

Rapunzel was no one. Rainhilda was a beauty and an heiress, the daughter of a wealthy landed knight. Rapunzel was the daughter of . . . she didn't even know who.

And the only mother she had ever known probably hated her now.

But why was she reacting this way? She didn't even like Sir Gerek. He was arrogant and grouchy and did not wish to marry for love, due to his strange idea that if he loved his wife, he would mistreat her the way his father had done.

Her heart still squeezed in compassion at the thought of him as a little boy, learning that his father had killed his mother in a rage over an argument about him. And thinking of him marrying Rainhilda made her feel sick. Rainhilda was not the sort of wife Rapunzel would wish for him.

Cristobel whispered, “I've heard Sir Gerek is planning to marry a wealthy widow.”

“Is the widow here?” Rapunzel whispered back.

“I don't think so.”

“What are you girls doing?” Frau Adelheit's voice scattered the group of maidservants and sent them running back to the kitchen.

She tried to remember Sir Gerek as he had been when she and her mother had first come across him, slightly rude and arrogant, and how he had not wanted to teach her to read, but had only agreed because the monks were taking care of him and asked him to. If only he hadn't started being so kind to her, speaking in a friendly way to her at the castle, and even loaning her a book to read. Then she wouldn't feel this ache in her chest.

Sir Gerek and his fellow knights went into the Great Hall for their midday meal. Lord Claybrook was there, speaking with his captain, Sir Reginald, near the doorway.

“Is she trustworthy?” he heard Lord Claybrook ask in his native English.

“She will do whatever I tell her to,” Sir Reginald answered.

Lord Claybrook smiled and nodded, and they both made their way toward the trestle tables where Duke Wilhelm was already seated.

Gerek couldn't help wondering who they were talking about. Something about this Claybrook fellow, his captain, Sir Reginald,
and all the knights and guards he had brought with him seemed suspicious. Claybrook lived in England, so why was he seeking a bride in the German regions of the Holy Roman Empire? Yes, his uncle controlled Keiterhafen, which was nearby, but that made his presence here even more suspicious. Hagenheim had been so peaceful for so long, perhaps Duke Wilhelm was not on his guard against possible attack as he should be.

Claybrook complimented Duke Wilhelm on his defenses, on the obvious strength of the wall around the town and of the castle. “Indeed,” Claybrook said, “I have not seen a better fortified town anywhere, not even my uncle's town of Keiterhafen.”

When Duke Wilhelm turned to speak to someone else, Claybrook looked at Sir Reginald out of the corner of his eye and smiled.

One of Gerek's friends drew his attention away to ask if he was going with Duke Wilhelm, Valten, Claybrook, and several other knights to search for the robbers who had been plaguing the north road. Several rumors circulated about the number of robbers, as well as their identities.

“No, I have other business I must attend to,” Gerek told him.

He had not seen Rapunzel for a few days. Was she still working at the castle, or had she gone back to her mother? She had said she was tired of being around people all the time and wished for some time alone. Listening to the conversations around him, he was feeling the same way. Perhaps he would take a ride today.

His companions stood and he stood too. He turned and caught sight of a maidservant coming toward him. It was Rapunzel.

She had something hidden in the folds of her skirt as she approached him. Thankfully, no one was paying attention to them as she said, “I finished your book. Thank you so much for allowing me to borrow it.” She surreptitiously held it out to him.