Darkness closed in on her like an oppressive cloud. Which way was the door? She wouldn’t be able to reach it anyway. Her foot bumped into something hard. It was the stool she had sat on earlier. From the stool she tried to discern where the door would be. She felt the blankets on the floor and lay down on them.
Why wasn’t she crying? This was the worst thing that had ever happened to her, the most terrifying and dangerous, even worse than when Lord Claybrook had tried to take over Hagenheim Castle two years ago. At least then she had been with her mother and siblings. Her mother had kept them all thinking hopefully, praying and believing that everything would turn out well. But now that Kirstyn was completely alone . . . she was too terrified to pray. And too overwhelmed to cry.
There were probably no windows in this tiny structure, though she had not thought to look for one when she’d had the light of the villains’ candle. Would her father give the men the treasure they wanted? And then would the men let her go home?
Surely they only wanted the gold and silver. They had no reason to hurt her or keep her. She would be freed tomorrow. So she only had to be strong and wait for a while longer. She could do that.
Feeling more hopeful, she prayed silently until she fell asleep.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kirstyn awoke again for the fiftieth time. Surely it couldn’t still be nighttime. But as she lay on the uncomfortable makeshift bed, which seemed to grow harder and harder the longer she lay on it, a crack of light became visible near her.
She guessed it was morning. Perhaps she would have to wait only a little while. But she was so thirsty.
“Please? May I have some water?” Was the woman she had heard earlier still there? Kirstyn looked all around for her, but it was still too dark to make out anything more than shapes. Finally, over in the corner, a lump on the floor moved. Then it was still again.
“Can you hear me? I’m desperately thirsty. Can you give me some water?”
“There is water on the floor beside you,” the voice said. Was it her imagination, or had she heard that voice before? She’d been too upset to notice last night.
Kirstyn finally found the small copper cup and a bread roll on the floor next to her. She reached over and picked up the cup and sniffed it, then took a sip. It tasted like water, so she drank it all.
The person in the corner still had her back to Kirstyn and wasn’t moving. Kirstyn said, “May I have some more water, please?”
“No.”
Kirstyn clenched her teeth, thinking of all the things she might say. Wasn’t it enough they had hit her and seized her and tied her up? Would they refuse her a second cup of water too? Cruel, evil, hateful . . .
“I’m not allowed to let you go outside to relieve yourself, so it’s best if you don’t drink too much.”
The panic rose inside her again. “When will those men be back?”
“Soon.”
Kirstyn picked up the bread roll and broke it in half. It was stale, just like the water, but she ate it anyway. Perhaps it would quell the queasiness in her stomach.
What would everyone say when she was finally back home? Her brothers would not tease her anymore. She hoped Steffan and Wolfgang were in the chapel right now praying for her and repenting for every trick they had played on her and every time they ever teased. Mother would be overjoyed and would cry tears of joy. Father would have tears in his eyes too and hug her for a very long time.
And Aladdin . . . It seemed too hard that she would have to write to him about her ordeal. Would he return home, just to see her, when he discovered she’d been taken and mistreated and held for ransom? Did he care about her that much?
It must have been two or three hours later, the sun coming through the cracks in the walls and the ceiling, when the woman finally roused herself and sat up. Her brown hair flowed down her back, but Kirstyn still couldn’t see her face.
Just then the door opened and she was suddenly face-to-face with one of her captors, the smaller one with the scar on his forehead. He was not much taller than she was, with a thin frame and face. His eyes were rather bloodshot and hollow, reminding her of the men who sat outside the brewery day after day. Her brother had told her they were men who got drunk instead of working.
“Did you get your ransom? Will you let me go now?” Kirstyn tamped down her anger and tried to look and sound humble and cooperative.
The leader’s expression was sullen, but then he smirked. “It doesn’t work that quickly. I left my partner in Hagenheim to await the delivery of the ransom. I’m going to sleep.”
“Can I go outside to relieve myself now?”
He looked askance at her. Then he turned toward the woman in the corner. “Take her out,” he ordered.
The woman turned around and Kirstyn gasped. “Anna! What are you doing here?” A sick feeling invaded her stomach.
Anna looked a bit sheepish for a moment, but her expression quickly changed to a smug smile as she crossed the room to press herself to the man’s side.
“I’m with Michael.”
So the smaller man’s name was Michael. He stepped forward, put his arm around Anna, and kissed her cheek. Anna’s smile grew even bigger.
Kirstyn went numb. The pain inside might overwhelm her if she let herself think about it, but she couldn’t help asking, “You helped them kidnap me?”
“Michael said it was my chance to never have to serve anyone for the rest of my life. Besides, I would do anything for Michael. He’s the first person who ever cared about me.”
“I cared about you. My mother cared about you. And she trusted you.” Kirstyn lost the ability to speak as she thought of how much pain her mother must be in, and how Anna had caused it by betraying them.
Michael laughed and Anna followed suit. He disentangled his arms from Anna. “Go on and take her out. I’ll be standing in the doorway in case she tries to run.” He untied the end of Kirstyn’s rope that was tied to the support beam, then fastened it to Anna’s wrist.
Anna let out a cry of dismay.
Michael laughed. “She’s not strong enough to drag you away with her. Now get on with it.”
They hurried outside. There were plenty of bushes and trees, and soon after, they were back inside the house. Michael untied Anna and tied Kirstyn back to the pole. Then Michael lay down and went to sleep.
Should Kirstyn try to convince Anna to help her escape? She wasn’t sure she could be calm, she was still so angry. Besides that, she didn’t want Michael to hear her. So she sat down and leaned against the wooden beam.
It’s all right. Just a little more time. Maybe one extra day. I can wait. But tears stung her eyes and her lips trembled.
She sucked in a deep breath. She could not afford to let despair close in on her along with the darkness of this room.
Anna went outside and came back in carrying a bucket of water and a loaf of bread. She poured Kirstyn some more to drink and handed her a chunk of bread.
Forcing back the tears, Kirstyn ate a few bites of bread, which was fresh and tasted like home and sunshine. I will not despair. And I will do my best to escape so I will have no regrets.
“What is happening?” Kirstyn opened her eyes. A candle hovered over her. Cold fingers bit into her arm and yanked her up.
“Get up.” Michael’s hard face was only visible for a moment before someone took his candle. He put something over her eyes and tied it tightly behind her head. Next he bound her hands together at the wrists, but in the front this time.
“Are you taking me to my father?” Kirstyn’s stomach churned as her heart beat hard and fast.
The next thing she knew, someone shoved a cloth in her mouth and tied it behind her neck.
Feelings of helplessness, anger, and fear overwhelmed her. Would she smother? She could still breathe out of her nose, but her heart was pounding, making her breath come so fast, she feared she would faint.
Tears again stung her eyes, but she concentrated on breathing in and out. Jesus. She brought to
mind the ancient crucifix she’d seen a thousand times in the chapel inside Hagenheim Castle. She focused her mind on that image, on all the thoughts and feelings she’d ever had while praying and meditating on Jesus’ sacrifice for her, on His suffering and His love.
Her breathing slowed and her heart stopped pounding. She was pulled forward by her bound hands, and as she walked, an overwhelming sense of peace replaced the panic and darkness.
“Watch your step,” Anna said as she held Kirstyn’s arm. Even though she was still furious with Anna, it was somewhat comforting to know a woman was beside her. Meanwhile, the feeling of peace kept her moving as her feet found the steps and went up, as if it were not frightening to be led, blindfolded and gagged, by the people who had kidnapped her.
Thank You, God, for this peace.
“You have to get into a cart now,” Anna said.
Someone picked her up by her waist and placed her on a hard, flat surface.
“Lie down,” Michael said.
Kirstyn lay on her side and brought her knees up, then felt herself being covered by a heavy tarp. She held up her hands to make sure the cloth did not cling to her face so there would be a pocket of air around her nose.
Still, the sense of peace persisted.
The cart jolted forward. She was aware of the cool night air, but she was warm enough underneath the covering.
She got the impression it was nighttime by the way the air had felt just before they placed her in the cart. As the cart lumbered along, she soon fell asleep.
Aladdin and Abu walked through town to the marketplace. Spring was turning to summer as the weather became warm. Aladdin purchased two rolled wafers from an old woman, one for Abu and one for himself, filled with sour cream and sugared currants, preserved raspberries, and cherries.
Abu ate the entire rolled wafer before Aladdin was half finished with his. “May I have another?”
Aladdin laughed, walked back, and bought him another one.
“Tell me again how you got that scar on your leg,” Abu said between bites.
“You don’t want to hear that story again, do you?” Aladdin couldn’t help smiling at Abu’s fascination with the violent incident. He didn’t tell Abu that his leg still occasionally pained him.
“Just once more.” Abu’s mouth was ringed with red fruit stains.
Aladdin glanced up and noticed a large bird soaring overhead. Then Abu saw it too and pointed. “What kind of bird is that?”
Aladdin’s stomach flipped. “It’s a white stork.” Exactly like the one he and Kirstyn used to watch. Once he had promised he would think of her every time he saw one. That was an easy promise to keep—impossible to break, even.
“It’s the biggest bird I’ve ever seen.” Abu followed it with his eyes as it continued to soar out of sight.
Foreboding stirred inside Aladdin’s chest. It was as if the stork was a sign for him to pray for Kirstyn.
He prayed for Kirstyn every day, and it didn’t take a stork to remind him.
But it was foolish to think something was wrong. Her father loved her, and he was the powerful Duke of Hagenheim. He would never allow any harm to befall her.
Still, Aladdin said a quick prayer for her under his breath and headed toward Nikolaikirche.
“Abu, you don’t mind if we go inside the church and say a few prayers, do you?”
Abu shook his head.
Aladdin would let Abu light some candles, and then he would teach him a bit about prayer. Aladdin could pray for Kirstyn, and then surely this feeling of dread would go away.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Kirstyn was running. A dark figure was chasing her through an empty building. She ran up the stairs and could hear footsteps pounding up after her. Fear gripped her throat, making it hard to breathe. She went to a window, stepped onto the ledge, and looked down. It was a very long way, but Aladdin was on the ground looking up. He held out his arms and smiled.
“Jump! I’ll catch you.”
The person behind her yelled and she jumped.
She fell, but very slowly, and Aladdin seemed to get farther away instead of closer. Her body began to drift, floating forward instead of down, and soon she drifted over some treetops, obscuring Aladdin from view.
She used her arms and legs to try to change direction, to “swim” back to where Aladdin was still calling her, but to no avail. Her arms and legs were so heavy, and no amount of effort made any difference. She was sailing farther and farther away from the safety of her precious friend.
Her whole body shook with a violent jolt, and she opened her eyes. She was in the cart and had been dreaming.
Someone jerked the tarp from her body. “Get out, Mädchen.”
Would he now pretend not to know her name? Would he call her “girl” to try to make her feel unimportant, as if she were not worthy of a name? Heat rose inside her, but a rush of cold quickly replaced it. Had he decided not to take her home?
She sat up, her hands still bound, eyes still blindfolded, and mouth still gagged. She scooted to the end of the short cart and someone helped her stand, then touched the back of her head. The blindfold came off, then the gag. She lifted her bound hands to rub her face.
Trees were thick around them, making it dark, but she was certain the sun was up. How far from Hagenheim had they traveled?
Michael and Anna were unloading bundles from the cart. Should Kirstyn try to run for help? But they seemed to be in the middle of the forest again. They must have stopped here because the cart could go no farther on the narrow path.
Michael unhitched the horse from the cart. Then he came back. “Get up the trail. There’s an old house in the woods where we will stay while I decide what to do.”
Anna took Kirstyn by the elbow and started toward the dirt trail that led into the thickest part of the trees. Kirstyn’s blood boiled at the girl’s touch. How could Anna do this? How could she have given herself to this criminal? Kirstyn jerked her arm out of Anna’s grasp and kept walking, her eyes focused ahead of her.
Somehow she would get away from them. She would wait for them both to fall asleep and then she’d run. She’d find this path and follow it back to the road. And if possible, she would steal their horse and ride it home to Hagenheim. It shouldn’t be too hard to find her way, should it? And if she was unsure of the direction, she would simply ask someone, whomever she encountered on the road. She might even tell them she was Duke Wilhelm’s daughter, if they seemed trustworthy, and they’d no doubt take her straight to Hagenheim.
God would be with her. Wasn’t God always with the righteous?
They reached the house, which was quite dilapidated, with even bigger cracks in the wattle-and-daub walls than in the last house. When her two kidnappers came inside, they all sat around a fire and ate some cold meat and cheese and bread. It was the only food she’d had besides the bread she’d been given the day before, in the two days—or was it three?—since Michael and the other man had taken her.
Michael and Anna talked a bit with each other, ignoring Kirstyn. But Michael had barely spoken, sometimes answering Anna with only a grunt, his brows drawn together. She flitted around him like a moth to a candle flame, as though trying to change his foul mood. Something about his plans must have gone wrong.
“Where is the other man?” Kirstyn asked. “The larger one who was with you before?”
Michael glared at her while Anna stared with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open. Michael’s eyes were red rimmed and a bit crazed. After glaring at her for several moments, he snatched up a knife from the dirt floor beside him and pointed it at Kirstyn.
“She doesn’t know any better, Michael,” was Anna’s feeble attempt to deflect his anger.
He shook the knife at Kirstyn. “You have no right to speak here. You are not a duke’s daughter. Here you are nothing. Understand?”
Kirstyn stared back at him, unflinching, as that now-familiar sense of peace came over her. “I understand that you have kidnapped me for ransom, have wr
ongfully taken me from my family, and can now murder me if you like.”
“I did not take you only for the ransom.” His voice was cold. “Imagine my surprise when someone told me that my father had given my share of the family business to an outsider—a Saracen named Aladdin.”
At the mention of Aladdin’s name, Kirstyn straightened, her breath quickening.
“This usurper has insinuated himself into my gullible father’s affections. Not only that, but my father even hopes to give him Grethel in marriage. This little orphan thinks he can take everything that is rightfully mine.”
What did he mean that his father hoped to give Grethel to Aladdin in marriage? Was this Aladdin’s intention? Who was Grethel?
“But Anna and other people I spoke to in Hagenheim said that Aladdin was in love with you.” He pointed his knife at her again. “If I hurt you, I can hurt him. I can use you to force him to give up his share of my father’s business, to give up everything he’s worked for to set you free.” He sneered. “I never planned to give you back to your father.”
She had been kidnapped because this man wanted to hurt Aladdin?
“What will you do, then?”
He studied the knife, ignoring her. “Perhaps I will kill you and throw your body at the Saracen’s feet, then plunge my blade into his heart.”
Kirstyn’s stomach roiled. Poor Aladdin!
Michael laughed, an ugly sound. Anna looked frightened until Michael sat back and put down the knife.
Kirstyn glared at him. Aladdin would never let you hurt him. He’s far too clever to allow that. And I will fight you with every bit of life in me before I let you harm either me or Aladdin.
Anna started rubbing Michael’s shoulders. “You didn’t sleep at all last night. You should sleep now and I will make sure she doesn’t escape.”
His eyes became even darker. He turned and shoved Anna so hard she fell back on her elbow, her head nearly hitting the floor.
“You don’t tell me what to do!” He leaned over Anna, his finger in her face. “I’m sick of you telling me what to do. I tell you what to do and you do it, do you understand?”