The Golden Braid

by Melanie Dickerson

  “I am here . . .” She smiled. It sent a shiver across Rapunzel’s shoulders. “I am here because I am helping Lord Claybrook in his take-over of Hagenheim.” She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “Duke Wilhelm will finally get his comeuppance, and I will be a part of it.”

  “Why would you do that? Did you know all along that they were going to take over the castle?” She kept her voice low and glanced around to make sure Claybrook’s guards weren’t close enough to hear.

  “Sir Reginald told me.” The look on her face was like that of a child who had just accomplished an impossible task. “When he left me, he became the captain of Lord Claybrook’s guard. He still loves me and always hoped to come back and marry me. At first I didn’t believe him, but after all these years, he wants to marry me after he and Lord Claybrook seize Hagenheim.”

  Rapunzel stared at her. After all the things she had said about trusting men who said they loved her . . . “How could you?”

  Mother suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her into the nearest open door—the linen storage room. “Sir Reginald was a knight in the service of the Earl of Keiterhafen. He left with Lord Claybrook and promised to return for me someday, and now he has. He and Lord Claybrook will defeat Duke Wilhelm, and the Gerstenberg family will finally fall. The Earl of Keiterhafen is just arriving with the rest of his guards and knights. And if you try to help Duke Wilhelm’s family, you will not be spared.”

  Rapunzel stared at the woman before her. “But why? Why do you hate Duke Wilhelm and his family?”

  Gothel exhaled a long breath, her lips twisting, her eyes dark. “Because I was the illegitimate child of Duke Wilhelm’s father.”

  “What?”

  “Yes, that’s right.” Gothel sneered. “Duke Nicholas was my father, and Duke Wilhelm is my half brother.”

  Rapunzel’s mind reeled. “If Duke Nicholas was your father . . .”

  “My mother was his lover. But when she got pregnant with me, he cast her off. She is the one who first taught me to distrust any man who said he loved me.

  “Duke Wilhelm does not want to believe his father had a baby with my mother, but his mother knew it was true. Everyone knew. But it’s just like Duke Wilhelm to believe that his father could not have done such a thing.” She wiped her mouth with a hard swipe of the back of her hand. “My mother gave me to my grandmother to raise, and she never let me forget that no one wanted us in Hagenheim. But I got them back. I hurt them just like they hurt me.”

  “Yes, you hurt the Gerstenberg family. Duke Wilhelm and Lady Rose. My parents. Isn’t that right, Mother?”

  Gothel’s face went slack, but she said nothing.

  She shoved all that Mother had just told her to the back of her mind so she could ask the question that had been burning inside her. “Tell me the truth about where I came from. Where did you find me? The truth this time.”

  Mother narrowed her eyes. “What is it you think you know?”

  “Frau Adelheit saw the scar on my hand—the same scar that the duke’s third child, Elsebeth, had on her hand. Where did you find me, Mother?”

  “You.” She sneered. “You think one little scar proves anything?” Mother tried to laugh, but the sound was more of a wheeze.

  “Tell me. Did you steal me away, knowing who I was? Stealing me was your revenge, wasn’t it?”

  Her expression went hard again. “I watched you and your brother playing next to the river. I’d lost my baby a month before, and my grandmother met with her unfortunate accident a week later. She sneered at me one too many times for being just like my mother, for having an illegitimate child. She didn’t approve of me taking you—she never approved of me—and I was afraid she would tell them. She made it so easy when she stepped to the edge of that overhang.”

  A chill went down Rapunzel’s back. She practically held her breath as she listened to Gothel.

  “But I had no one. My family—even Oma—did not love me. The duke—my half brother—had two more children besides you and your brother, and it wasn’t fair. Why should I lose my baby and yet they had so many?” Her eyes were wide and vacant, unfocused.

  “I was thinking about taking you. I wanted you. You were so pretty and so innocent. I was your aunt, after all, and I would take very good care of you, not leave you with a careless nursemaid. So I distracted the lack-witted nursemaid by sending a little boy over to ask her a question. I told him to stand behind her so she would turn away from the water. I was hidden on the side of the riverbank where she couldn’t see me. Then I grabbed your foot and pulled you in.

  “I dove in and swam under the water until we were out of sight of anyone, then I pulled you out, ran, then hid. They never found you because I had you. I took you and went far away to a little village, and they never knew. All this time, no one knew except me.” She smiled such a cold, dark smile that it reminded her of Balthasar, her attacker.

  Rapunzel’s stomach sank to her toes. “Did you not have any compassion for the poor man and woman who thought their child had drowned, the parents who mourned and grieved over their three-year-old girl? You are heartless.”

  “Do I deserve nothing? Is that what you think? Do I not deserve a bit of joy and love? Do I deserve loneliness and hatred because no one wanted me? Because the man I loved did not marry me? Because I was the illegitimate child of the duke? But I got my first bit of revenge on all of them when I left and took you with me.”

  Rapunzel’s heart clenched in pity, then hardened at the woman’s reasoning. She had hurt innocent people, not Duke Nicholas, her father and the one who had actually hurt Gothel and her mother. “That wasn’t revenge. That was simply vengefulness and spite.”

  “And you will make the same mistakes my mother and I made . . . you and your Sir Gerek.” Her jaw twitched.

  “No, I won’t. Sir Gerek is not the same kind of person as . . .” Why was she even engaging in this mad argument? It would be better to learn what information she could to try to help Lady Rose and her children escape. “So now you plan to help your former lover defeat Duke Wilhelm, just because he never acknowledged you as his sister?”

  “His mother knew about me and no doubt told him to reject me. But now Sir Reginald has returned, and I will have revenge upon them.”

  “But what do you mean, Duke Wilhelm rejected you? What did he say? What do you and this Sir Reginald plan to do? Hurt more innocent people?”

  “Duke Wilhelm had plenty of opportunities to make right what his father had done. Seventeen years ago I even sent him a note, hoping he would help me, give me a dowry, so Sir Reginald would marry me. But he ignored me.”

  “Still, it was not right for you to steal his child.”

  “What do you know about what is right?” She put her face so close to Rapunzel’s that Rapunzel could see the red veins spidering over the whites of her eyes. “You left me to be a maidservant, to be with Sir Gerek.” She shook her head. “Perhaps I will not cast you off when Sir Reginald is ruling beside Lord Claybrook and I am his wife. I shall even ask Sir Reginald to watch over you and to not let any evil befall you, should a battle ensue. You know I am your true mother. You were meant to be mine. Rapunzel?”

  Rapunzel turned away from her, practically running out of the room. The mad, cruel woman. Rapunzel must refocus. She had to help Sir Gerek. And Lady Rose—her true mother! Lady Rose . . . she had only known her for a few days, and already she felt she was the only loving woman Rapunzel had ever known.

  But Rapunzel could not dwell on that now, did not have time to deal with Gothel’s madness. She had to do something to help defeat Claybrook and Sir Reginald—to save her true family.

  Rapunzel hurried back to the kitchen. One of Claybrook’s guards stood at each door—the one that faced the castle as well as the back door. The guard did not speak as she approached, but opened the door for her as she passed inside.

  The half dozen other maidservants turned to see who was entering the kitchen. Their faces were pale and their eyes wide. Cook was stir
ring a pot and wiping under her eyes with a corner of her apron.

  Cristobel walked toward her and seized her hand. “Lord Claybrook is taking over Hagenheim Castle! What will happen to Lady Rose and the rest of the duke’s family? Claybrook’s men may slaughter us all.”

  If the maidservants already knew, Claybrook’s guards would never allow Gerek to leave to retrieve Duke Wilhelm. Had they captured Sir Gerek already?

  The other maidservants gathered around her, asking questions. “Did you see anyone?”

  “What is happening?”

  “Has Duke Wilhelm come back?”

  Rapunzel held up her hands. “I don’t think so. All I know is that Sir Gerek saw Claybrook’s men knock the guard in the gatehouse unconscious and now Claybrook’s men are guarding the entrance and are keeping Lady Rose and the rest of the family in the solar.”

  Cook started weeping aloud, and several others gasped and called on God and the saints for help.

  “What happened here?” Rapunzel asked.

  “Claybrook’s guards told us we couldn’t leave the kitchen.” Cristobel placed her hands on her face, her eyes almost bulging from her head. “He’s going to kill us.”

  “No, I don’t think so.” Truthfully, she had no idea what Claybrook might do, but it would not help to panic.

  She patted the knife in her pocket.

  “Cook,” Rapunzel said, “give us some water and pasties to take up to Lady Rose.”

  “I don’t think they will be hungry at a time like this,” Cook said in quivering voice.

  “But doesn’t she usually have something sent up about this time? I need a reason to get back into the castle.”

  “You aren’t trying to escape and leave us here, are you?” She put her hand on her hip.

  “I need to find out if Sir Gerek was able to escape. If he did, he will find Duke Wilhelm and tell him what is happening here. We need to help in whatever way we can.”

  “What makes you think you would be able to help?” one of the maidservants said.

  Rapunzel gave her a cold stare.

  Cook sniffed and said, “I will get the pasties ready. Two of you—Rapunzel and Cristobel—can take them up to her if the guards will allow it. Does anyone know what’s happened to Britta?”

  No one seemed to know. Rapunzel would keep an eye out for her as well.

  Rapunzel took the bucket to fetch some water. She opened the kitchen door and was immediately confronted by the large man guarding the door.

  “I need to get some fresh water from the well.”

  He stared at her with expressionless eyes. “Come back quickly.”

  Rapunzel nodded and hurried toward the well at the center of the castle yard. All the while she was searching the courtyard.

  Three of Claybrook’s men were guarding the castle gate and gatehouse. She didn’t see any of Duke Wilhelm’s men. She looked toward the stable and saw no activity. While standing at the well, slowly pulling the rope on the windlass, a man stumbled out of the stable. He was not wearing any outer clothing, only hose. His chest and head were bare, and a trickle of blood was moving down the side of his face from his hairline.

  One of Claybrook’s men, who stood near the gatehouse, suddenly trotted toward him. Rapunzel strained to hear what they were saying to each other.

  “. . . Gerek . . . Hit with something . . . Horse is gone.”

  Gerek must have taken the guard’s tunic in order to look like one of Claybrook’s men. O Father God, please let it be so. Please let him escape and find Duke Wilhelm.

  The two men were joined by two more, and they ran into the stable, no doubt to fetch their own horses and ride after Sir Gerek.

  Rapunzel made her way back to the kitchen. Cook got the food prepared, and the servants readied a pitcher of water. Then she and Cristobel carried trays bearing the pasties and water out of the kitchen.

  The guard at the door glared at them. “Where are you going?”

  “It is time for Lady Rose’s morning repast. We have water and pasties. Would you like to try one?” Rapunzel smiled sweetly. If there was one thing she had learned since coming to work at the castle, it was that men found her . . . appealing. The guard’s glare softened.

  She slipped her hand under the cloth covering the tray of food that Cristobel was carrying and held it out to him. He took it from her hand and took a bite. “What’s in the pitcher?” he asked without bothering to chew and swallow his bite of food first.

  “Water. Would you like some?”

  He scrunched his face. “Move on, then. But don’t go anywhere except the solar.” He grunted. “The guards may not let you in.”

  Rapunzel and her friend made their way to the castle door. The guard followed and opened the door, then shut it behind them.

  When they reached the bottom of the stairs leading to the solar, Rapunzel saw one of Claybrook’s guards farther down the corridor. He started moving toward them.

  “What do you have there?” he called.

  Rapunzel slipped another pasty off the tray and handed it to the guard.

  He took it and sniffed it. “Where are you going?”

  “To the solar, to take Lady Rose her morning repast.”

  He lifted the cloth on the tray.

  “Is Lord Claybrook in charge of Hagenheim Castle now? Is that why you are questioning the maidservants? Or do you suspect the maidservants of wrongdoing?”

  The guard glared down at Rapunzel. “You may go.”

  Rapunzel led the way up the stairs. When she reached the top, four guards were standing outside. Heat rose inside her at the invasion of this room, which was Lady Rose’s favorite place to spend time with her children.

  Rapunzel walked straight up to them. “We have Lady Rose’s morning repast. If you will step aside.”

  One guard lifted the cloth over the pasties and took one of them as Rapunzel brushed past them with her full pitcher of water.

  Lady Rose watched them as they brought in the tray of food and the pitcher of water and set them down on a table by the window. The guards stayed just outside the door, so when Lady Rose walked over to them, Rapunzel whispered, “Sir Gerek has gone to find Duke Wilhelm and tell him what is happening here.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered back. “Stay safe, my dear.”

  In a normal voice, meant for the guards to hear, she said, “Is there anything else we can do for you, my lady?”

  “No, thank you. You may go.”

  As they made their way down the stairs, Rapunzel urged Cristobel to move slowly. Once in the corridor, they stood still, listening. No one was around. But someone was coming. Footsteps were shuffling toward them.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Cristobel whispered, nudging Rapunzel in the back.

  “Wait a moment.” Finally, three men came into view from the direction of the castle courtyard. Two were Claybrook’s guards and the other one, walking between them, was one of Duke Wilhelm’s guards. His face was bloody, he shuffled his feet, and his head lolled on his shoulders.

  Rapunzel’s stomach felt queasy. The man could have been Gerek, except for the red-blond hair. O Father God, please keep Sir Gerek safe.

  Rapunzel moved forward as the guards noticed them. She guessed they were taking the badly beaten soldier to the dungeon, and she kept her eyes focused straight ahead as she and Cristobel headed back to the kitchen.

  Silently she prayed for God to deliver her and her true mother and sisters from Lord Claybrook, Sir Reginald, and Gothel.

  Gerek managed to escape from Hagenheim with his horse, only having to knock one of Claybrook’s guards unconscious. He would not have minded killing him, if it had come to that, but the man did not appear to be terribly skilled at battle.

  Gerek rode hard. But every time he thought about leaving Rapunzel and the other men and women at Hagenheim, including Lady Rose and all of the duke’s family, his chest tightened with guilt. Had he done the right thing?

  If he had stayed, he could have helped his fellow k
nights and guards to fight Claybrook’s men. But if they were defeated, Duke Wilhelm would come home to an ambush.

  What would happen to poor Lady Margaretha? Claybrook would undoubtedly force the duke’s oldest daughter to marry him in an attempt to make a stronger claim for Hagenheim. The poor girl.

  And what about Rapunzel and the rest of the maidservants? Would Claybrook allow his guards to take advantage of them, as usually happened in these situations?

  He urged his horse to go faster.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Rapunzel.” Cristobel caught Rapunzel’s wrist as they prepared to serve the midday meal to Claybrook and his men. “I just heard that Claybrook’s guards released all Duke Wilhelm’s prisoners from the dungeon.”

  For a moment, Rapunzel just stared at Cristobel. “What? Why?” If all the prisoners were released from the dungeon . . .

  “Claybrook said he would release them if they would fight with him against Duke Wilhelm’s men.”

  “That means . . .” The man who had attacked her, Balthasar, was free and possibly roaming Hagenheim Castle as a guard.

  “Don’t worry, Rapunzel. We won’t let that man hurt you.”

  “Thank you.” Her knees were trembling as she helped carry the food into the Great Hall.

  Claybrook’s men filled the tables. They were loud and unruly until Lord Claybrook stood and yelled, “My men will behave as noble knights, not as ruffians and cutthroats. I cannot hear myself think.” Lord Claybrook looked almost pouty as he plucked at his sleeves and plopped back down—in Duke Wilhelm’s chair.

  The men did grow quieter, she was thankful to see. As she set the platter of pork and stewed fruit on the table, she glanced at the next table and saw Balthasar grinning at her.

  Her heart stuttered as she gave him stare for stare, then turned with a lift of her head and strode back to the kitchen.

  “Was he there?” Cristobel asked her.

  “Yes. He saw me too.” She wanted to pretend she was not frightened, but when she pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear, her fingers were shaking.