“Why is she taking you back, Gerhaws?” Avelina asked the question again very calmly, as if it was the first and not the third time she’d asked.
“She wanted me to do it one more time, but I told her I . . . I don’t want to do it again.”
“To do what again, Gerhaws?”
“To . . .” Gerhaws took a deep breath and let it out—and let out a loud belch. Then she leaned forward, holding on to the butter churn as if to keep from falling face forward.
“What does Lady Fronicka want you to do one more time, Gerhaws?”
“I killed the margrave.”
Avelina’s heart shot to her throat and nearly choked her. “Wha-what?”
Without warning, a tear tracked down Gerhaws’s cheek. “I killed the margrave. I killed his lover. I killed them, and she was with child.”
Avelina’s face tingled as all the blood drained away. She waited for Gerhaws to go on, and after several seconds, her patience was rewarded.
“The duke told me to do it. He told me to. I was just like you.” She paused to wipe her large nose on the back of her wrist while she sniffed. “Your lord told you to come here and pretend to be Lady Dorothea. My lord told me to kill the margrave. I had no choice. I had to do it.”
“What did you do, Gerhaws?” She asked the question softly.
“I set the fire. I hid in their room, and when they went to sleep, I set their bed curtains on fire.” She started sobbing, a deep-throated sound. “I didn’t think I would feel guilty about it. I thought if my lord told me to do it, God would not hold me to account for it. It would be on my lord’s head and not mine.” She rubbed her nose on both wrists now, making a high-pitched mewling sound before going on. “The priest told me it was a sin to disobey my lord, so I did it. I killed the margrave.”
Avelina alternately felt pity for the woman, horror at what she had done, and anger that she could be so stupid. But she was right. Avelina had also done something wrong because her lord told her to.
“What was Lady Fronicka saying to you this morning?”
“Lady Fronicka?”
“Yes. She was talking to you. What was she saying?”
More tears ran down Gerhaws’s red cheeks, and she wiped her face on her sleeves. She put her flask to her lips and turned it upside down. She held it up and the last drop dripped onto her lip. She licked it off. “She said . . . she was taking me home because I could not do this one last thing for her.”
“What else did she say?”
“She said . . . I don’t remember.” Gerhaws belched again.
Avelina stood. She had to tell Lord Thornbeck the truth about what had happened to his brother. “I have to go to the privy.”
Avelina slipped out of the dark room. She made use of the garderobe, and as she was leaving, on a sudden whim, she sneaked behind the screen at the back of the Great Hall. She heard hushed voices nearby, male voices, and peeked around the edge of the wooden screen.
Geitbart was standing with four guards in front of him. “Go apprehend him now. Lady Fronicka saw him enter the library earlier and he should still be there. If he puts up a fight, kill him with the sword. I shall tell the king he attacked you and you were only defending yourselves.”
One of the guards asked a question, but Avelina did not wait to hear what was said. She slipped back through the door to the outside, her heart pounding. She ignored the pain in her ankle and ran. She ran past the kitchen and back into the castle through another door. She ran through the servants’ passage and into the corridor, past several rooms, and into the library.
“Lord Thornbeck!” she cried in a loud whisper. “They are coming for you! You must hurry!”
24
REINHART STOOD UP from his desk. Avelina ran to him and grabbed his arm, pulling him forward. “Quickly! Please, you must.”
Several men’s footsteps were coming down the corridor, drawing closer. Avelina gasped. “Hurry!”
If the men found her here, they would likely do to her whatever they intended to do to him.
“Come. This way.” Reinhart hurried toward the opposite wall and pulled on the end of one bookcase. The wooden shelves swung out, revealing a hidden space behind it. He pushed Avelina inside and followed her into the darkness. Then he pulled the bookcase back into place.
Avelina held on to his arm with both hands in the complete darkness of the tiny hidden chamber. A voice in the other room said, “Lord Thornbeck, you are requested by the Duke of Geitbart to come with us.”