The Beautiful Pretender (A Medieval Fairy Tale #2)(21)

Lord Thornbeck did not give the poor man another glance but placed the pottery shards in his leather saddlebag.

Avelina’s stomach felt sick, her heart beating hard and fast.

Meanwhile the other horse was saddled and a stable boy helped Avelina mount. She was still shaking after nearly being thrown from her horse. She closed her eyes for a moment and it flooded back to her—how Lord Thornbeck had rushed to save her, how he had pulled her off the horse with one arm, her body pressed against his as he carefully lowered her to the ground.

Instead of dwelling on that, she should be thinking about who might have placed those shards of pottery under her horse’s saddle. But why would anyone want to harm her?

Magdalen and Avelina set off, accompanied by Lord Thornbeck and the two guards.

Lord Thornbeck said, “Go on. I must speak with my guards, but I shall keep my eye on you.”

He slowed his horse and fell behind them. She heard his voice behind her.

“One of my guests was in danger,” he growled, “and you did not even look her way, talking and laughing as if you were at a wine festival. What do you have to say for your disgraceful behavior?”

The men mumbled something, then Lord Thornbeck warned them, “We shall speak of this later, and I shall expect a full explanation of what you were doing while someone was sabotaging a young lady’s horse with intent to do her harm.”

She imagined that angry scowl on his face as he rebuked his guards further, accusing them of nearly allowing an earl’s daughter’s death. The rumor that he had murdered his own brother darted through her thoughts.

They made their way down the castle mount on the road that led them through the thick forest. The trees were similar to the ones around Plimmwald, with oak, fir, and spruce, but this forest had more beech trees. It was late fall and a few of the trees still had their leaves, which were bright spots of color in the otherwise cloudy day.

After a quarter of an hour of riding, they came to the town gate.

When Avelina had passed by the gate on the way to the castle, it had been dark and she’d been too tired to even notice it. She stared up at it now. High and impressive, it was built into the brick-and-stone wall that surrounded the town. Two men stood guard, but they looked rather sleepy and dull—until they caught sight of Lord Thornbeck and his large party of about fifteen well-dressed guests riding toward them. They stood up straight and their eyes were suddenly alert.

Lord Thornbeck stopped to speak to them while the rest of the party moved through the gate and down the street.

Their guides were Chancellor Jorgen and his wife, Odette, who began telling the ladies the history of the town and of the margravate of Thornbeck. Fronicka and two others ignored her and talked among themselves, but the rest of the ladies seemed to be listening.

As it was not a market day, the streets were not very crowded or noisy, and there was no wind, so they could hear her quite well.

“This street is known as the Jewish section of town.”

One of Fronicka’s friends whispered rather loudly, “Jews? Did she say Jews live here?” She, Fronicka, and her friends wrinkled their noses and said, “Ach,” and “Let’s go faster.”

Being Jewish was a lot like being a servant. No one outside your work status, or in their case, outside their ethnicity, wanted to have anything to do with you. But there was one difference: From the looks of the four-story, half-timber houses, many of the Jews were quite wealthy.

A little boy was walking with a young woman down the street toward them. Though they were well dressed, they kept their eyes focused down and did not meet anyone’s gaze. Did Lord Thornbeck mistreat the Jews? Many towns had laws that prohibited Jews from belonging to any of the skilled workers’ guilds, thus preventing them from having any but certain types of jobs. Some towns, she had heard, had expelled entire populations of Jewish people, blaming them for plague, for poisoning the town well, or other disasters. Were the woman and boy, both of them obviously Jewish, afraid of the margrave?

Her heart constricted. She knew how it felt to have other people treat you as no one at all. It was a matter of course for a servant girl, the daughter of a crippled stable worker. But to be looked down on simply because you were born Jewish—that somehow seemed even more unjust.

Just then she caught Chancellor Jorgen writing something in a tiny book. Was he spying on them so he could report back to Lord Thornbeck? What was he looking for?

Magdalen was looking at Odette and the chancellor out of the corner of her eye. Was she also noticing that something was going on besides just a tour of the town?

Somehow Avelina had to figure out how to make Magdalen stand out in Lord Thornbeck’s eyes. But to do that, she needed to know what he valued, what he was searching for in a wife.

They passed on from the Jewish section of town and entered what Odette called the skilled workers’ section. “This street over here is where you will find many butchers’ shops.” The air smelled faintly of raw meat.

Most of the ladies wore bored expressions, and some even slightly resentful. Avelina imagined they were irritated that they were not being entertained. Taking a tour of the streets of this town, encountering ordinary people who did not even know that they were the daughters of dukes, earls, and barons, was not their idea of being treated as they deserved.

Odette took them down a side street. “We shall leave our horses at the town stable and walk the rest of the way.”