The Fairest Beauty

by Melanie Dickerson

  “It is my duty to protect you from anyone who may wish you harm. I take my duty seriously.”

  She could certainly believe that, if the look on his face was any indication. But she couldn’t help contrasting … Gabe protected her just as fiercely, and he did it with a cute smile and a wink, not to mention doing it out of love instead of duty.

  Valten turned and seemed to be waiting for her to pass in front of him. She did so, hoping he didn’t expect her to take his arm.

  Inside, Valten and his father spoke with the innkeeper and ordered dinner and bedchambers. There weren’t enough rooms for all the knights who traveled with them, so Duke Wilhelm’s men arranged to stay in the stable with the horses. She wasn’t sure which was worse: sleeping in the stable with smelly horses or sleeping on the hard wood floor in front of the door of a girl whom you thought you were going to marry — but weren’t.

  At least, she hoped he wasn’t going to marry her. But if Gabe couldn’t make the arrangements …

  No, I will trust Gabe.

  The inn’s stew tasted good, especially after eating nothing but jerky, apples, and stale bread for three days. She sat between Valten and Duke Wilhelm. The duke was a good conversationalist, asking her, gently, about her childhood. She told him and Valten that she didn’t remember her parents, and she hadn’t known that Duchess Ermengard was her stepmother or that she was the daughter of the duke of Hohendorf until Gabe came and told her.

  “I am glad my son found you when he did.”

  Sophie smiled. “As am I.” She felt Valten stiffen beside her, but she couldn’t stop herself from speaking the words rushing through her head. “He was so well-mannered and chivalrous, and very brave — even after he was struck by the arrow that was meant for me.”

  Valten stared at her, unblinking, his jaw clenched, as if her words didn’t exactly please him. But she refused to be intimidated by him.

  “I am very thankful to the men at the Cottage of the Seven. When we arrived at the Cottage, Gabe was so ill. I was terrified for him, but Bartel, one of the seven, was very knowlegable in the healing arts, and was able to save him, and all the men there were so gracious to us. They all came to love Gabe — it would be impossible not to.”

  Duke Wilhelm’s eyes remained kind, but Valten was scowling at her so darkly, she wondered if she’d gone too far.

  “Do you think Gabe will follow immediately to Hagenheim?” Duke Wilhelm asked. She was suddenly very grateful that he had accompanied Valten on this trip.

  “He said he hoped he would only be gone for a few days, and he would follow us to Hagenheim if you and Valten had already come to fetch me when he got back.”

  “Had it all planned out,” Valten muttered. “He would.” He crossed his arms, bulging with muscles, and glared at the wall.

  “Brothers,” Duke Wilhelm said, smiling a lopsided grin that very much reminded her of Gabe. “Always a bit of rivalry there.”

  Yes, especially if the older one is a bully. But she smiled back at Gabe’s father. He was a handsome man, and her heart swelled at the thought that he would one day be her father-in-law.

  Valten continued to scowl. He had spoken very few thoughtful words during the meal. In fact, he had hardly spoken at all during the three days she’d known him. But now he looked at her and said, with his usual, serious expression, “I’m glad you and Gabe are well and safe after your escape from the duchess.”

  She searched his eyes for sarcasm but saw only sincerity. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. Gabe seemed to love him, even if they had not always been kind to each other while growing up. Not that I want to marry Valten.

  She held his gaze and allowed her eyes to soften slightly. “Thank you.”

  “It is growing late,” Valten said. “If you are tired, I will accompany you to your room.”

  They all stood up and made their way upstairs. Both Duke Wilhelm and Valten inspected her room, looking under the bed and combing every foot of the room, as if someone could be lurking. They tested the lock on the door, and then Duke Wilhelm sprinkled dried pennyroyal on the bed “to keep away fleas.”

  “Thank you,” Sophie said as they left her room. She had no doubt that Valten truly would sleep outside her door on the hard wood floor.

  Unfortunately, he was doing it because he thought she was soon to be his wife.

  Chapter 27

  Gabe had known Duke Baldewin would slow him down, but it couldn’t be helped. Without the duke’s blessing, there was little chance he would ever be allowed to marry Sophie. At least the duke had been willing to set out for Hagenheim the day after they arrived at the Cottage. Although he had seemed a bit reluctant to leave Petra behind. Twice before they left, Gabe had walked into a room and found the two of them speaking to each other, their heads together as if they were whispering. When Gabe asked the duke if Petra would be accompanying them, he said no. Petra and Roslind would stay with the Seven and help the men with the cooking. But something about his manner gave Gabe the impression that there was something unsettled between him and Petra. There had been plenty of opportunity to ask the duke about it during their slow trip to Hagenheim, but he decided to let the duke have his privacy.

  Gabe was just happy to be on his way back to Sophie. And happy he had her father with him to grant permission for her and Valten’s betrothal to be broken.

  Thank you, God.

  Arriving in Hagenheim early in the afternoon after their night at the inn, Sophie tried to take in everything her eyes landed upon — the buildings, the streets, the people. Did Gabe know this person? Had he ever been inside that building? Was that young man a friend of his? She could see the towers of the castle rising above the rest of the town at the far end. Was his bedchamber behind one of those windows? Where was his mother? Would she be happy to meet Sophie?

  Her heart gave a little lurch at the thought of meeting Gabe’s mother for the first time. Would she be as warm and welcoming as Gabe promised?

  Valten brought his horse alongside hers, startling her. He kept his gaze straight ahead. The townspeople lined the streets, staring at them, some of them waving, others shouting “Willkommen!” An older woman called out, “Good health and long life to our young lord and his new bride!” More shouts rang out and people came running to join in the celebration.

  Feeling like she was betraying them all, Sophie smiled sheepishly and waved back to the children who were calling after her, “Schönesjunges Fräulein! Lovely Lady Sophia! Lovely! Lovely!”

  Valten kept his gaze straight ahead while his father nodded to acknowledge those welcoming them home. The people seemed to adore their duke and his son. Sophie couldn’t imagine the people of Hohendorf reacting in such a way toward Duchess Ermengard.

  Although they’d probably react in just this way when they learned she was dead.

  Their entourage of knights soon traversed the length of the city, crossed the Marktplatz with its impressive buildings that surrounded the cobblestone square, and entered the castle courtyard. Before she knew it, she and all the knights were dismounting their horses, and groomsmen were leading the animals away.

  Someone was taking her hand. She turned to see Valten placing her hand on his arm. Will he actually speak? No. Instead he silently led her to a huge wooden door in the side of the gray stone castle.

  They entered, and as her eyes grew accustomed to the dark interior, she heard a gasp, then quick footsteps coming toward her. She focused on a woman just moments before that woman took both her hands and said, “You must be Sophie. I am Rose, Valten’s mother. Welcome to Hagenheim, my dear. I hope you will be very happy here.”

  Sophie smiled. Gabe had been right. His mother was just as he’d said.

  Gabe’s mother ordered a bath be drawn for her, reminding Sophie of the seven men’s kindness. She bathed in a large tub, with warm water and scented soap and a wonderfully fragrant liquid soap for her hair. She almost began to feel like a lady.

  Every time guilt rose up to scold her for deceiving her
new family-to-be, Sophie let the warm water distract her. After all, when Gabe arrived, he would make everything right. He would convince his family to let the two of them marry, and Valten could find himself his own wife. They would understand.

  But without Gabe here to attest to their love, how could she tell them? Surely she could put it off until Gabe arrived.

  Make haste, Gabe.

  After her bath, Sophie received what she had been longing for — hours of talking to Gabe’s mother, who insisted she be called Rose. Lady Rose hinted that her own upbringing hadn’t been so different from Sophie’s. She’d grown up the daughter of a woodcutter outside the town walls, before the town healer befriended her and made her a healer’s apprentice. The healer had been kind to her and had taught her many things, including how to read. Sophie hoped to hear the rest of that story in the days to come, hoped to learn how she ended up marrying a duke when she was only a woodcutter’s daughter. But Lady Rose wanted to know about Sophie.

  Sophie told Rose that she’d had to leave her most prized possession, her pages from the Gospel of St. Luke, in Hohendorf. She confessed she wanted to be able to not only read in Latin, but also in other languages, and to speak and write them as well.

  “And so you shall,” Lady Rose said with a smile. Then she introduced Sophie to Gabe’s sisters, and the five of them talked and giggled until it was time to go to the Great Hall for supper.

  Sophie had the urge to stay very near Lady Rose as they entered the Great Hall. Would she be expected to sit near Valten and make conversation with him? Please, let us be placed as far apart as possible.

  Lady Rose sat at the end of the long trestle table and motioned for Sophie to sit beside her. Sophie sank down on the bench and Rose’s oldest daughter, Margaretha, sat on her other side. Sophie sighed in gratitude.

  Soon the men entered the room, all impeccably dressed, their hair looking damp and clean. Valten had changed clothes and was wearing a rich-green doublet and a crisp white shirt. Somehow he looked even more forbidding, even more like a warrior, than he had in his rough traveling clothes, so sharp was the contrast of his lordly clothing to his muscular size and rough demeanor. The scars on his cheeks and chin were more noticeable without the dust of the road to obscure them, and he seemed to overwhelm the sophisticated clothing with his broad shoulders.

  He sat on the other side of the table, opposite his mother. He looked at Sophie and seemed ill at ease, glancing away and then back again. Then he was staring at his mother, as though studying her face.

  Sophie glanced over at Lady Rose, who was pursing her lips and giving Valten a strange look, lowering her brows and nodding at him.

  Valten cleared his throat and asked, “Are you well tonight, Lady Sophia?”

  “Yes, I am quite well, I thank you.”

  “Good.” Food was placed in front of him and then he only had eyes for the roast pheasant.

  They all began to eat, and Sophie relaxed a bit. She was hungry after her long trip, and she ate heartily of the rich venison and pheasant, the puddings and fried pasties. Valten hadn’t said a word to her since the food arrived, and Sophie made small talk with Margaretha and Lady Rose, feeling happier than she had since Gabe had gone to Gemeinhart Monastery and left her with the Seven.

  Duke Wilhelm leaned over to Lady Rose and whispered something, then nodded and stood up. Sophie began feeling sick to her stomach as she waited for his announcement.

  As soon as he began to speak, the entire hall, which was full of people — perhaps sixty or seventy in all — fell silent.

  “Friends and family, I would like you to welcome the newest member of the Gerstenberg family, the betrothed of our eldest, Valten, Earl of Hamlin. Until recently, we thought she was lost to us, but now she is here, alive and well. Please welcome Sophia Breitenbach, only daughter of Duke Baldewin of Hohendorf.”

  “Stand up, my dear,” Lady Rose whispered, touching her elbow.

  Duke Wilhelm also motioned for her to stand. As she did so, the entire assembly clapped their hands and stomped their feet, cheering so loudly she wondered if the roof would lift. Sophie waved in a way she hoped looked graceful and sat down, her face heating.

  Valten was looking at her with the closest thing to a smile that she had seen on his face.

  I am a fraud.

  The cheers and clamor continued for quite a while, long enough for Sophie to imagine how shocked and hurt her new family would be when she told them she was in love with her rescuer, not her betrothed.

  Gabe, why aren’t you here?

  Sophie went to bed on the softest, most-comfortable bed she’d ever slept on, and when she woke up, was surprised to see the sun already rather high in the sky. She was sure she had never slept so late in her life.

  A servant was standing by to help her dress in a lovely blue-green gown, loaned to her by Margaretha, who happened to be Sophie’s size. When she emerged from her room, Margaretha and Kirstyn, who was carrying Adela, escorted her to the kitchen to get her some food, giggling all the way.

  Sophie ate her breakfast, sighing in between bites, as her new sisters — for that is what they declared themselves to be — alternately hugged her arm, patted her shoulder, and bantered playfully with each other. Gabe’s brothers, meanwhile, occasionally piped in with a story about the time they almost got a bull’s eye in archery, or a unique frog they had found once in the pond. To belong to such a family — it was all she had ever wanted, ever dreamed about. She only hoped they wouldn’t hate her in the days to come.

  She longed to tell Lady Rose her secret. She would understand, wouldn’t she? She was obviously in love with Duke Wilhelm. Sophie could see it in her face every time she looked at him. She would understand how Sophie had fallen in love with Gabe. After all, Sophie hadn’t meant for those feelings to develop. But Gabe was so loveable, so kind and gentle and charming and handsome … Gabe was Lady Rose’s son too, so perhaps she would understand.

  “Sophie! What’s wrong?” Margaretha asked, wrapping her arm around Sophie’s shoulders and looking at her with warm brown eyes. Sophie marveled at how Gabe’s sister could look at her with such love after only just meeting her. The girl had no doubt lived a sheltered existence, but there was no selfishness in her expression.

  Sophie took a deep breath to absorb the tears, smiled, and shook her head. “Nothing, nothing.”

  “Aren’t you happy to be here with us?”

  “Of course! I am very happy,” Sophie said, but her words only made her remember how much she wished Gabe were there.

  “You are sad! What is it? Do you miss your home? I would be terribly sad to leave my home, which is why I am determined to never get married. I’ve already told Mother and Father I plan to stay here with them for the rest of my life.”

  “No, no. I don’t miss my home.” Sophie shook her head again and looked down, afraid to look anyone in the eye.

  “Do you not want to marry Valten? Is that it?” Kirstyn, the second oldest, asked, bending low to see into Sophie’s face. Her light brown hair hung in perfect ringlets by her cheeks. There was a serious but kind look about her light blue eyes.

  Sophie couldn’t speak as she tried to blink back the silly tears. Was her distress that obvious?

  “I know he looks quite scary,” Kirstyn went on. “I’ve always been a little afraid of him myself, but he is a good brother, and I’m sure he’ll be a good husband.”

  “Tears work quite well with him too!” Margaretha exclaimed. “If I want something from him, all I have to do is cry and he gives it to me. He can’t resist tears. He doesn’t talk much, but Mother says men don’t always want to waste their words, while women sometimes have enough to spare. Mother is very wise, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, she is,” Sophie agreed, hoping the conversation would be steered away from Valten.

  Adela, the youngest at only two years old, said, “Valten carry me!”

  Margaretha smiled at her little sister indulgently. “She’s talking about the time
she scraped her knee and Valten carried her all the way home.”

  “Don’t worry about Valten, Sophie,” Kirstyn said. “I saw him smile at you last night. I think he likes you already, and before you know it, you two will be looking at each other the way Mother and Father do.”

  Sophie didn’t know what to say to that.

  Soon it was clear that Sophie couldn’t eat anymore, so the sisters showed her around the castle, promising to also show her around the courtyard and, if they could find Valten to escort them, to show her around the Marktplatz and the main sections of town. Sophie enjoyed being with them, so she went along, vowing to confess the truth of her feelings for Gabe — and her lack thereof for Valten — as soon as she was able.

  They showed her every part of the castle, pointing out the various family members’ bedchambers, including Gabe’s room, which Sophie paid extra attention to. As they wandered around the courtyard, the sisters telling Sophie various stories of their adventures growing up, they turned and there was Valten, standing with his usual stern expression.

  The three sisters greeted him and, with a slight softening of his expression, he bent down to receive a kiss on the cheek from each of them. He cleared his throat and said, “I came to ask Lady Sophia to go on a picnic with me.”

  If Sophie hadn’t been sure he was incapable of such things, she would have believed he was blushing.

  What was it with unwanted men and picnics? Unlike her first few requests from Lorencz, she couldn’t think of a single excuse to turn Valten away. “Can Margaretha, Kirstyn, and Adela come with us?” At least she wouldn’t have to be alone with him.

  “As you wish.”

  Valten led them out of the town gate after collecting a basket of food from the kitchen and a blanket for them to sit on. The three sisters skipped arm in arm across the meadow, leaving Sophie and Valten behind, no doubt on purpose.

  “Have my sisters talked you to death yet?” Valten asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.