The Golden Braid

by Melanie Dickerson

  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.

  “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.

  “Did you enjoy it?”

  She smiled. Saints above, but she was pretty, with her thick blond braid hanging down her back and peeking out of her small head covering. She had the most perfectly sweet features.

  He tore his gaze from her face and cleared his throat.

  “I very much enjoyed reading about Parzival. It was good, but I was wondering—”

  “Would you like to borrow another book?”

  She smiled and nodded.

  “Of course. I’ll go get one now.”

  “No, you don’t have to go out of your way to do it now.”

  “It’s no trouble. Where will you be?”

  “I can wait for you somewhere. I was going to the meadow.”

  “I’ll meet you there and bring the book.” His step was light and quick as he strode toward the door.

  He had practically leapt at the chance to give her another book. But was it wise? Perhaps he should go back to treating her like a peasant and not paying attention to how pretty she was, but he couldn’t resist the smile that lit up her face when he gave her new reading material. Besides, what harm could it bring? She disliked him, and with any good fortune, he would be married soon.

  In no time he had fetched three small books and his horse and rode toward the tree at the top of the hill in the meadow overlooking the castle. Rapunzel was already there, standing and looking up through the branches at the sky.

  When she heard him coming, she looked in his direction, shading her eyes with her hand. She wore a woolen shawl around her shoulders to guard against the chilly spring air.

  He reined Donner in and dismounted, taking three books out of his saddlebag. “Here is the gospel of Saint John, the letter to the Romans, and I brought The Poem of the Cid.”

  “Thank you.” She accepted the books, and their fingers brushed.

  Her cheeks were pink, but he couldn’t tell if the color was from the crisp air or if she was blushing.

  “You didn’t have to bring three.”

  He shrugged. “They are all short. I found this copy of the gospel of John in a little shop in Heidelberg.”

  “Thank you. I enjoyed the story of Parzival, but the Holy Writ is more . . . comforting.”

  The way she caressed the books, holding them close to her, made his heart miss a beat. He cleared his throat.

  “Are you practicing your war maneuvers today?”

  “No, today Duke Wilhelm is taking Lord Claybrook on a tour of the town. I am taking Donner for a ride.”

  “Donner?”

  “That’s my horse.”

  She nodded. “I suppose it is rather inconvenient having Lord Claybrook’s men here.”

  “I’m not sure why he had to bring so many guards. But he’s from England. M
aybe that’s how all their noblemen travel.”

  “I caught a glimpse of him. The other servants and I were looking through the door at the feast on the day he arrived.” She paused. “I saw Rainhilda flirting with you.”

  “You saw that?” He ran a hand through his hair.

  “She is very beautiful. Will you marry her? I have heard she has a very large inheritance and dowry.”

  “Perhaps. But I think it more likely I’ll marry the widow of Lord Lankouwen. She has no heirs, and she is looking for someone who can defend her castle.”

  “That sounds like a very good situation for you. And she’s probably less . . . immature than Rainhilda.”

  He grimaced. “I must seem very greedy and grasping to you.”

  “I understand that you want to do well for yourself. I would not presume to judge you.”

  Well, she shouldn’t judge him. But he did wish she could admire him. Foolish, foolish thought.

  “You should marry Lady Kirstyn, Duke Wilhelm’s second daughter. She is a very sweet girl.”

  “Duke Wilhelm would never let one of his daughters marry me. I am only a landless knight. No, I could not hope to marry a duke’s daughter.”

  Rapunzel stared down at the books in her hands.

  “I should let you be alone. Fare well.” He swiftly remounted his horse.

  “Thank you for the books. I shall return them.”

  He gave her a quick nod and steered Donner toward the woods. He skirted the edge of the forest, letting Donner go as fast as he wished, letting the cold air sting his face, hoping it would distract his thoughts from the beautiful peasant girl with the golden braid and blue eyes.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  That night Rapunzel was brushing Lady Rose’s hair and thinking of how Mother used to brush her hair every night. Rapunzel would sing while Mother braided her hair. But she did not sing to Lady Rose. Instead, she listened while Lady Rose talked to her.