The Beautiful Pretender (A Medieval Fairy Tale #2)(7)

“Your job is to make sure I am not disturbed unless something of vital importance occurs. You are not to show any ladies into this study. If it happens again, you shall be sent to feed the pigs. Is that understood?”

“Yes, my lord. Forgive me.” The man’s face turned red.

“Now go.”



Avelina made her way to her family’s home just beyond the castle courtyard, picking her way around the manure piles in the dirt streets.

Before she reached the door, a high-pitched voice called out, “Avelina!”

She turned to see the two little faces she loved more than any others in the world. “What are you both doing?”

“We were playing with Frau Clara’s new puppies,” Brigitta cried.

“We haven’t been gone very long, and we helped Father before we left,” Jacob said.

“Did you bring us sweets?”

“Come inside with me. No, Brigitta, I don’t have sweets. I have some news for you.”

Very little light entered the wattle-and-daub structure, as there were few windows and it was a cloudy, gray day. Avelina was able to make out her father’s still form sitting in his chair, which his friend, a carpenter, had made for him.

“Avelina.” Her father squinted up at her. “Why aren’t you at the castle?” Long pieces of hemp lay in his lap. He had obviously been braiding them into rope. Good. He was at least finding something to do. He was much less morose when his hands were busy.

Avelina knelt in front of him on the dirt floor, and he placed his massive hand on her head.

“Father, I have to go away for two weeks, perhaps three, but then I will return. Do you think you and Jacob and Brigitta will be able to manage while I’m gone?”

“Why are you going away?” Brigitta asked in a shrill voice. The little girl threw herself between Avelina and their father.

Father was staring hard at her, waiting for her to answer Brigitta’s question.

“The earl has asked me to go to Thornbeck Castle. Lady Dorothea has been invited there to meet Lord Thornbeck, who is trying to choose a wife from among the noble ladies of this part of the Holy Roman Empire. There has been some feuding, as you know, between the regions and their noblemen, and Lord Plimmwald explained to me that the king thinks if Lord Thornbeck marries the daughter of one of them, it will help restore peace and build alliances between the regions.”

“We shall pray he chooses Lady Dorothea, then,” her father said. “Lord Plimmwald has long been afraid of the Duke of Geitbart attacking and taking over.”

Her father would remember that from when he had been the earl’s stable master.

“There will be other noble ladies there,” Avelina said quickly, trying not to think about the fact that she was deceiving them, letting them believe she was only accompanying Lady Dorothea. “Lord Thornbeck might choose any of them. Nevertheless, I shall return before you start missing me very much, I should think.” She smiled into Brigitta’s upturned face.

“You shall not go away like Mother did, will you?” Brigitta’s lips were parted and fear darkened her six-year-old eyes.

“No, of course not.” Avelina’s smile fled. “Mother did not want to go away, darling. And we shall see her again in heaven.”

“Are you going to heaven?”

“Of course not, you daft girl.” Jacob frowned. “She’s only going to Thornbeck.”

“There’s no need to call her daft, Jacob.” Avelina gave him a warning look, then softened it with a half smile. “I expect you to be kind and watch after your sister while I’m gone.”

Father said very little on any given day, and today was no exception. He nodded to her. “God give you safe travels, Daughter.”

“Thank you, Father.”

Avelina hugged her little sister, then kissed her cheek. “You obey your father, yes?”

“I will. Bring me something pretty—a ribbon! Or a sweet!”

“If I am able.” Avelina turned and hugged her little brother. “Don’t mistreat your sister. Listen to Father.”

Jacob squirmed. “You treat me like a little boy.”

“Twelve years old is not too old to obey your older sister and your father.”

Jacob rolled his eyes, but he gave her a half smile. She smiled back. He was at the age of wanting to pull away and be like the other boys, but he had a good heart, and he’d fight to keep his little sister safe.

As Avelina turned to leave, she had the distinct feeling that her journey would be longer than she had anticipated.



Hardly two hours later, with help, Avelina mounted one of the earl’s gentlest mares. Two guards accompanied her as they started away from Plimmwald Castle and proceeded north. The day was gray and dreary, but even as the sky did not shed much light, it also held back the rain.

Irma, who was being sent as Avelina’s maidservant, rode on the horse beside her. She was a plump kitchen servant with red, curly hair, a few years older than Avelina’s twenty.

“I have always wanted to go on a long trip.” Irma spoke not so much to Avelina as to herself. “And now I am a lady’s maidservant! I am sure to see the margrave, and so many ladies. Perhaps even dukes and duchesses.” Irma’s wide gray eyes and smile gave Avelina the sudden urge to laugh. But she managed to control her hysteria.