“Good.” She nestled her face against his neck. “I do not think I was able to forgive Rutger that quickly. But he has suffered too. I am thankful the margrave allowed him out of the dungeon after three days. He found a small house near the south gate. Did you know?”
“Yes.”
She sighed, her breath warm against the base of his throat. “I keep thinking how everything has turned out, how everything is the reverse of how it began . . . the opposite of what I thought would happen.”
He rubbed the back of her shoulder, wondering when he might kiss her again. “I know.”
They stood like that for several moments. Then Odette lifted her head and looked him in the eye. “I am so overjoyed to be marrying you. I hope you don’t change your mind.”
She was looking at his lips. He kissed her but purposely kept it brief.
One more week. Just one more week.
Odette awakened with a sense of anticipation, a bit of crispness in the late-summer air.
Her sleepy eyes flew wide. No wonder she felt a sense of anticipation. Today was her wedding day!
She jumped out of bed as Anna came into her room, bearing a tray of food.
“I was astonished at you sleeping late on your wedding day!” Anna said. “I did not sleep at all the night before my wedding.”
While they ate breakfast together, Odette was thinking that she would never wake up in this room again. Already she shared it with two other girls. With Odette married and gone, more girls could come and have a home here. It felt so good and so fitting. Odette sighed.
When they were finished, Anna helped Odette on with her dress. A shade of blue green, the dress was made from Flemish fabric Rutger had brought home eight or nine months ago. The fabric itself was decorated with a repeating pattern of silver and green stitching, with a matching border around the neck and a belt that settled below her waist on her hips.
The style of the gown was simple and fitted, with sleeves that hung down to the floor. When she had first tried it on, Anna said, “It brings out the color in your eyes.”
“I will go see if the children are getting ready to go to the church.” Anna hurried out of the room while a servant finished preparing Odette’s hair.
A few minutes later, her hair was ready and Anna was running up the stairs. “Jorgen is here! And he is impatient to see you. He sent me to hurry you down. Odette, you look beautiful.” Anna stood staring at her from head to toe. “That dress is perfect.”
“Thank you.” Odette gathered her skirt to go.
“No, don’t go yet!” Anna held up a hand to stop her.
“Why not?”
“You should make him wait.”
“But you said he was impatient.”
“That is why you should make him wait.” Anna winked. “Husbands need to know right away that we will not be rushed. And they like it when we stand up to them and do not let them order us around.”
“And you know this how?” Odette couldn’t decide whether to laugh or look shocked.
“Because Peter and I have been married four years.” Anna winked. “And my mother and father have been married for thirty years and they are still in love. I used to hear them laughing together every night, and I don’t have ten brothers and sisters for nothing.” She gave Odette a knowing look. “My mother never lets my father tell her what to do without telling him what she thinks.”
“Does she do what he tells her?”
Anna shrugged. “Usually. But he is never left to wonder what she thinks about it.”
Odette laughed. “It sounds like it works for them. But I see no reason to keep Jorgen waiting. I am ready.”
Odette made her way down the steps, holding up her skirt so she wouldn’t tread on the hem. As she neared the bottom, Jorgen stared up at her. He brought his lips together as if he were about to whistle, then put his hands behind his head. “You take the breath from my chest, you are so beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
The look in his eyes was everything she could have wanted. He didn’t even blink. But while he couldn’t take his eyes off her, he seemed reluctant to touch her. So she stood on the tips of her toes and kissed him on the lips.
He gazed into her eyes while lifting her hand to his chest. He pressed her palm over his heart and she felt it pounding. She smiled as she took his other hand and placed it over her heart.
“I am ready to marry you,” she whispered.
“Are you marrying me because you want to or because the margrave ordered you to?” There was a twinkle in his eye because he already knew the answer to that question.
“Neither.”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
“I’m marrying you because . . .” She frowned and looked up at the ceiling, as though she were trying to think of a reason. “Because you are the only person I know who is as good with a longbow as I am.”
He snorted, grinned, then kissed her.
“Can you not wait until after the wedding?” Anna was standing behind Odette, frowning and shaking her head at them.
When everyone had gathered on the ground floor of the now-lively house, including all the orphans living there, they set out for the church.
Thornbeck Cathedral had never looked more radiant, its stained glass windows sparkling in the midday sun and its turrets rising into the blue sky. Odette squeezed Jorgen’s hand and didn’t let go as the priest met them on the steps. Soon she would be the wife of the Margrave of Thornbeck’s chancellor, the wife of the former forester, the wife of Jorgen Hartman.
As they said their vows, she couldn’t stop glancing at him, with his thick brows low over his eyes, his perfect face serious and even reverent. When she had met him at the Midsummer festival, she could never have imagined everything that would happen. Now she was marrying the right man at the right time for the right reasons.
Because love was the best reason of all.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I WANT TO thank everyone who has helped me with this book, starting with my wonderful agent, Natasha Kern. Thanks for pushing me to come up with the best possible stories with plots that hold together, and for always being willing to give advice and help. Besides helping me with proposals and so many other things, you are simply the most savvy and courageous defibrillator of stalled-out dreams I know.
I owe so much to Becky Monds for helping me whip this book into shape! You saw exactly what needed to be fixed, tweaked, and changed in the characters and the plot, and I am more grateful to you for that than I can say. I am happier with this book than I could have ever been without your expert insight! Thank you.
I want to thank Julee Schwarzburg for her meticulous line-editing expertise. Thanks so much for all the help! It is much stronger for all your work, and I learned a lot from you.
I want to thank my first readers and critiquers: Carol Moncado and Katie Clark, who made me feel good about the early draft. And thanks to Carol, Suzy, Regina, Grace, Faith, and Joe for being willing to let me bounce plot ideas off you. You guys are the best!
I want to thank those who are always willing to pray for me and encourage me, especially Regina Carbulon, Suzy Parish, Jessica Bates, Karma Malone, and Ken and Dene Finley. Thank you so much! I don’t know how I would do this without your prayers.
I want to thank Daisy Hutton and Jason Short for seeing potential in me and being the impetus for this series of medieval fairy tales for adults, and Daisy for making it happen so quickly. I thank God for you and all the people at Thomas Nelson who do the work to make sure my book is well received. May God bless you for it!
Lastly, I want to thank my awesome readers who write me the sweetest messages through Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail. You are my inspiration! I love you all.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Do you think Odette is justified in shooting the margrave’s deer illegally in order to feed the poor? Why or why not? What about her background has led her to become a poacher?
2. What do you think of Odette’
s criteria for the man she should marry? What about Rutger’s criteria for the man Odette should marry? Did you understand why she felt obligated to marry someone who could help feed the children?
3. What do you think of hunting animals for food? If you had lived in the 1300s, do you think your ideas about hunting would have been different? How has a modern lifestyle influenced people’s thoughts about hunting?
4. How did the fact that Odette and Jorgen were both orphans and had gone hungry as children influence how they felt about the poor? What was Anna’s point when she said to Odette, “You’re not responsible for every single person in Thornbeck”? Was it healthy or unhealthy for Odette to feel so responsible for feeding the poor and to go about it the way she did?
5. What do you think of Odette’s and Jorgen’s efforts to help Kathryn when she was working at the brothel? What caused her to go back to The Red House?
6. Is it possible to be too loyal or to be loyal to the wrong people? Who or what were Jorgen and Odette loyal to? How did their loyalties influence their behaviors?
7. Did you blame Jorgen for kissing the look-alike woman at the ball? How would you have felt if you were Odette?
8. What was Jorgen’s reaction to shooting Odette? How would you have felt if you were Jorgen? If you were Odette? Would you have found it easy to forgive?
9. What was Brother Philip’s attitude toward women? How do you think men’s attitudes toward women have changed over the centuries?
10. What were Jorgen’s and Odette’s attitudes toward the Bible? Do you think Odette treasured the Bible more because it was scarce and she could only read it when she could borrow portions of it from someone else? Does this change the way you think about owning a Bible?
11. Do you think the margrave’s judgments and punishments against Odette and Rutger were just? What was your favorite action taken by the margrave?
12. Did you like the parallels in this story to the Swan Lake story? What were the similarities to “Robin Hood”?
13. If not for Jorgen, do you think Odette would have married Mathis? Would Mathis have made a good husband? Why or why not?
14. How did this verse come true for Odette: “In all things God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose”?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MELANIE DICKERSON IS a two-time Christy Award finalist and author of The Healer’s Apprentice, winner of the National Readers Choice Award for Best First Book in 2010, and The Merchant’s Daughter, winner of the 2012 Carol Award. She spends her time writing romantic medieval stories at her home near Huntsville, Alabama, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.
Website: www.MelanieDickerson.com
Twitter: @melanieauthor
Facebook: MelanieDickersonBooks
Melanie Dickerson, The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest
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