A Melanie Dickerson Collection

by Melanie Dickerson

  Rapunzel shook her head. “Of course not.”

  Then Frau Adelheit summoned her outside the kitchen door and handed her a small book. “Sir Gerek asked me to give you this. He said you didn’t have anything to read and would need to practice your skills.”

  Frau Adelheit’s face was unreadable as Rapunzel took the book from her. She hid it in her skirt pocket and went back to work.

  That night all the maidservants were together again, and she dreaded a return to the subject. All she wanted to do was run away, find a secluded place—perhaps the apple orchard behind the castle—and be alone with her thoughts. She also could feel the book heavy in her pocket. What book was it? But she did not dare take it out and let the others see it and make more insinuations about her and Sir Gerek.

  Tomorrow she would finally have a few hours to herself, as she had the morning off before taking over Britta’s duties with Lady Rose and her daughters. Perhaps she would go to find Mother and let her know that she was well.

  The other maidservants were talking amongst themselves, and Rapunzel lay down on her bed and faced away from them. If she was fortunate, they would forget about her tonight. She patted her pocket, feeling the book inside, and marveled at Sir Gerek bringing it for her.

  Of course she knew, as the other servants did not, that he was not the least interested in her. He was too honorable to take advantage of her, or at least, she hoped so. He intended to marry a wealthy heiress, and Rapunzel was the furthest thing from it.

  Even if the other maidservants did think untrue things about her and Sir Gerek, she was still thankful for a friend—especially now that she cried herself to sleep every night thinking about Mother and about how angry and lonely and hurt she must feel. O Father God, please forgive me.

  Rapunzel walked out of the town gate toward the meadow on the hill overlooking Hagenheim. The cool air caressed her cheeks while the sun warmed her head. Under her feet, green grass was beginning to peek through the brown leaves.

  Part of her wanted to keep going, all the way to the little hovel in the woods, and explain to Mother where she was, that she was safe and working, but she simply did not have the courage. Yet.

  She sat on the ground with her back against the trunk of the lone tree at the top of the hill and pulled out the book Sir Gerek had given her. The title was Parzival, an epic poem by Wolfram von Eschenbach. She had heard of this story. Parzival was a knight in the service of King Arthur who searched for the Holy Grail. She began reading the story-poem and found herself quickly turning the pages to find out what would happen next.

  The faint sounds of a horse’s hoofbeats drew her mind and her eyes away from her book.

  “I thought that was you sitting here.” Sir Gerek stopped his big black horse a few feet from her.

  She drew her knees up and made sure her ankles were covered. She had almost gotten used to having her hair showing. Almost. She touched the thick braid that lay across her shoulder as she gazed up at him.

  “You’re not wearing your splints anymore.”

  He dismounted. “No. Frau Lena said the bones were probably healed now. What do you think of the book?”

  “I like it very well.” She couldn’t hide her smile as joy welled up inside her. She was reading a book. She was reading.

  “I found that illuminated copy of Parzival when I was competing in a tourney in Koln with Valten—Lord Hamlin. The illustrations are very colorful, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, they are quite wonderful. But the story is my favorite part.”

  He fiddled with his horse’s reins.

  “I shall return it to you when I finish.”

  “No hurry. I know where to find you if I want it back. How do you find working at the castle? Is it to your liking?”

  “It is interesting, but a little overwhelming. Sometimes I think I will scream, being around people constantly. I am not used to that. I rather enjoy being alone, walking through the trees and listening to birds singing and the rustle of the wind.” Alone, except for Mother. And she did miss her.

  “There is none of that alone time at Hagenheim Castle.” One side of his mouth went up.

  “I do not wish to complain. Everyone is kind, and the work is not too hard for me.”

  He nodded. “It is difficult when you are never quiet with your own thoughts. I shall leave you, then, so you can enjoy some time alone.”

  She opened her mouth to tell him she didn’t want him to leave, but instead she said, “Thank you so much for the book. I am enjoying it.”

  “When you finish, I can loan you others.”

  “I would like that very much.”

  He turned his horse and rode away, the horse’s hooves quickly eating up the ground, throwing small clods of dirt up behind each footfall.

  Why was Sir Gerek so kind to her? He hadn’t grunted or growled at her once since she came to the castle. Would he expect something in return? Mother would say so. Mother never would have allowed her to accept the book, or allowed him to teach her to read. Mother . . . what was she doing at this moment? Was she looking for Rapunzel? Would she do something terrible to her if she found her? Or was she only worried and sad?

  She glanced around the wide-open space. No one was near. The springtime sun was warm but the air was still cold, and she pulled her hood over her head.

  She tried to go back to reading, but her thoughts kept pulling back to Mother. Sometimes she could hardly believe she’d had the courage to leave and ask for a job at the castle. Guilt still pricked her. But it had been the right thing to do. Still, she would eventually have to face her.

  Chapter Twenty

  That afternoon Rapunzel went with Frau Adelheit to the family’s chambers and to Lady Rose so she could start working with her, taking Britta’s place on Sundays and occasional times when Britta was away. As they approached the solar, Rapunzel wiped her palms on her skirt and took a deep breath. Lady Rose was the wife of a duke. Would she think Rapunzel too awkward to work with her? Would Rapunzel know what to do? She had never been very good at fixing hair or mending or all the other things a lady’s servant should know about. Perhaps Lady Rose would realize she had made a mistake asking Rapunzel to be her new maidservant.

  When they reached the top of the stairs and stood in the doorway to the solar, Lady Rose was reading to a small girl about five years old. Two older boys were playing a game with carved wooden figures, and a young pregnant woman was sewing in a corner.

  Lady Rose finished reading and looked up. “Here is our new helper,” she said to the little girl. “Her name is Rapunzel.” She stood and reached out and quickly squeezed Rapunzel’s hand. “I’ll show her around, Frau Adelheit. Thank you.”

  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.