The Silent Songbird (Hagenheim #7)(82)
Evangeline felt peace when she realized she didn’t need a husband or a friend to take care of her; she only needed God. What thought gives you peace?
Westley was very upset with Evangeline for defying his order for her to stay in Glynval. Do you think he was right to ask her to stay behind? Did you understand why she did not stay behind? What would you have done?
Evangeline and Westley were both willing to sacrifice themselves for each other. How do husbands, wives, family members, or friends make sacrifices for each other in today’s world?
In this story, what parallels or similarities did you see to “The Little Mermaid” fairy tale?
How did you feel about seeing familiar characters again from The Merchant’s Daughter? Did their lives end up the way you imagined they would? In what ways?
AN EXCERPT FROM THE GOLDEN BRAID
Chapter One
Late winter, 1413, the village of Ottelfelt,
Southwest of Hagenheim, the Holy Roman Empire
“Rapunzel, I wish to marry you.”
At that moment, Mother revealed herself from behind the well in the center of the village, her lips pressed tightly together.
The look Mother fixed on Wendel Gotekens was the one that always made Rapunzel’s stomach churn.
Rapunzel shuffled backward on the rutted dirt road. “I am afraid I cannot marry you.”
“Why not?” He leaned toward her, his wavy hair unusually tame and looking suspiciously like he rubbed it with grease. “I have as much land as the other villagers. I even have two goats and five chickens. Not many people in Ottelfelt have both goats and chickens.”
She silently repeated the words an old woman had once told her. The truth is kinder than a lie.
“I do not wish to marry you, Wendel.” She had once seen him unleash his ill temper on one of his goats when it ran away from him. That alone would have been enough to make her lose interest in him, if she had ever felt any.
He opened his mouth as if to protest further, but he became aware of Mother’s presence and turned toward her.
“Frau Gothel, I—”
“I shall speak to you in a moment.” Her mother’s voice was icy. “Rapunzel, go home.”
Rapunzel hesitated, but the look in Mother’s eyes was so fierce, she turned and hurried down the dirt path toward their little house on the edge of the woods.
Aside from asking her to marry him, Wendel’s biggest blunder had been letting Mother overhear him.
Rapunzel made it to their little wattle-and-daub structure and sat down, placing her head in her hands, muffling her voice. “Father God, please don’t let Mother’s sharp tongue flay Wendel too brutally.”
Mother came through the door only a minute or two later. She looked around their one-room home, then began mumbling under her breath.
“There is nothing to be upset about, Mother,” Rapunzel said. “I will not marry him, and I told him I wouldn’t.”
Her mother had that frantic look in her eyes and didn’t seem to be listening. Unpleasant things often happened when Mother got that look. But she simply snatched her broom and went about sweeping the room, muttering unintelligibly.
Rapunzel was the oldest unmarried maiden she knew, except for the poor half-witted girl in the village where they’d lived several years ago. That poor girl drooled and could barely speak a dozen words. The girl’s mother had insisted her daughter was a fairy changeling and would someday be an angel who would come back to earth to punish anyone who mistreated her.
Mother suddenly put down her broom. “Tomorrow is a market day in Keiterhafen. Perhaps I can sell some healing herbs.” She began searching through her dried herbs on the shelf attached to the wall. “If I take this feverfew and yarrow root to sell, I won’t have any left over,” she mumbled.
“If you let me stay home, I can gather more for you.”
Her mother stopped what she was doing and stared at her. “Are you sure you will be safe without me? That Wendel Gotekens—”
“Of course, Mother. I have my knife.”
“Very well.”
The next morning Mother left before the sun was up to make the two-hour walk to Keiterhafen. Rapunzel arose a bit later and went to pick some feverfew and yarrow root in the forest around their little village of Ottelfelt. After several hours of gathering and exploring the small stream in the woods, she had filled two leather bags, which she hung from the belt around her waist. This should put Mother in a better mood.
Just as Rapunzel reentered the village on her way back home, three boys were standing beside the lord’s stable.
“Rapunzel! Come over here!”
The boys were all a few years younger than she was.
“What do you want?” Rapunzel yelled back.
“Show us that knife trick again.”
“It’s not a trick.” She started toward them. “It is a skill, and you will never learn it if you do not practice.”
Rapunzel pulled her knife out of her kirtle pocket as she reached them. The boys stood back as she took her stance, lifted the knife, and threw it at the wooden building. The knife point struck the wood and held fast, the handle sticking out perfectly horizontal.