The Princess Spy (9 page)

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the stable master rushing toward them from the other side of the stable yard, his mouth hanging open.

The horse started forward, then reared. Margaretha clutched the reins, grabbing a fistful of mane along with them. The horse reared again as Colin tried to grab the horse’s neck — and the horse’s pawing hoof came within a finger-width of striking him in the head.

Somehow Margaretha managed to hang on and stay in the saddle. When he pounded his hooves to the ground, Margaretha’s teeth slammed together so hard she hoped they didn’t break.

The horse immediately bolted. Again, she was hard-pressed to keep from falling off as her bones seemed to rattle at the violence of his gait. The stallion’s hooves pounded faster and faster, heading straight for the stone well where the horses’ water was drawn.

The roaring in her ears nearly drowned out all other sound. Her heart pounded in rhythm to the horse’s hooves.

Was this the end of her life? Why hadn’t she listened to her father? Even Colin had warned her that the horse was dangerous.
O God
,
I don’t want to die.
How dishonorable it would be to die this way. Her father would be so disappointed in her, and poor Colin would be blamed for it.
O God
,
help me!

The horse thundered at an amazing speed, never wavering from his path toward the stone wall around the well. She held on to the horse’s mane with all her strength. Somehow she’d lost her grip on the reins. If they became tangled around the stallion’s legs, he would surely tumble head first and kill them both.

Still, he continued toward the well. Just when she was certain he would crash into the four-foot-high wall around it, he turned and headed back the way they had come, toward the stable, at the same breakneck speed. The stable master jumped out of the way, but Colin came toward them, raising his arms and yelling at her, “Jump! I’ll catch you!”

He must be insane to offer to rescue her this way. Still, it was her only hope to be saved from this horse that seemed bent on killing her. As soon as he was almost close enough for her to jump, the stallion changed his direction so that Colin was on the opposite side, making it impossible for her to leap from the sidesaddle into Colin’s arms without landing upside down.

The horse headed back toward the well again, galloping faster than ever, ignoring her shouts for him to stop. He drew closer and closer to the four-foot wall — it seemed inevitable that he would break his forelegs against the well. At the last moment, he halted.

Only Margaretha kept going. She braced herself as she landed on her back on the ground a hand-breadth from the well.

Chapter
9

She couldn’t breathe. She rolled over onto one
side, and after a long, horrible moment, the breath came back into her lungs.

As she clutched at her chest and gulped the air, sharp pain shot through her left arm and shoulder. Someone ran toward her, then fell to his knees at her side.

She blinked hard.

Colin leaned over her. “Are you hurt? Lady Margaretha, can you hear me?”

She blinked again. The black stallion grazed placidly several feet away, beside the well where he had stopped. She shuddered. The horse’s wild plunge toward the well had jarred every bone and tooth in her body. A few more inches and she would have cracked her head open on the wall.

She moaned.

“Where are you hurt?” Colin leaned even closer, bringing his face more into focus.

“I must have landed on the back of my shoulder.” Her shoulder hurt, but it would hurt more if any bones were broken. She hoped.

“I’ll go get Frau Lena.”

“No! Please don’t. I think I am well. Only help me sit up.”

Colin leaned even closer as he slipped his arm underneath her back and lifted her into a sitting position. She gasped at how easily and swiftly he lifted her, then at the pain in her left shoulder. She cradled her left arm close to her stomach.

“Is it broken? Are you in much pain?”

“No, no, I am well. I’ve fallen off horses before, and I don’t think any bones are broken.”

“Are you certain?” Colin still knelt in front of her. “I think you should see Frau Lena and let her look at you. I will carry you.”

“That won’t be necessary. Perhaps if I could just stand, maybe have a drink of water . . .” She kept her left arm close to her side and let him lift her by her right elbow. Her left hip was sore, but her legs held her up, and her left arm hurt, but at least she could move it. She leaned on the well and drew a ladle-full of water out of the bucket.

He hovered over her, making sure she was steady. She moaned again. What a disgrace she was. “Please promise you won’t tell anyone about this.” The bones in her legs seemed to have turned to water, but it was only from fear. “If I rest here a moment, I’ll be well. But I don’t want my father to know how foolish I was. Please don’t tell anyone about this.”

“I won’t. But what about the stable master?”

“He won’t tell. He is a man of few words and not a person to make trouble. But if my younger brothers found out . . .” She glanced around to make sure no one else had seen. “They would never let me forget it, and then my father and my mother might hear of it and be angry with me.”

“I should think you would be more worried about whether or not you are injured.”

Staring down at her wrist, she realized it was bare. “Oh no. I’ve lost my bracelet.” Her heart sank. She looked at the ground around her feet but didn’t see it. “How will I ever explain losing that bracelet? It was my great-grandmother’s. My mother will be so disappointed in me.” Tears filled her eyes. She blinked them back so she could better see as she searched the ground.

“I’ll help you look for it,” Colin said. “If it fell off between here and the stable, we should be able to find it.” He began searching the ground just as she was doing.

Du!
” someone yelled. It was the stable master, pointing at Colin. “You! Frog boy!” he said in German. “What do you think you’re doing, putting the Lady Margaretha on that devil of a horse?”

Colin merely looked at him, shook his head, and kept searching the ground for the bracelet.

The stable master stomped toward Colin and shoved his shoulder. “Answer me, frog boy.”

Colin ceased his search and stared back at the stable master.

“He doesn’t understand you,” Margaretha offered.

“Oh, he understands.” The stable master, Dieter, shoved Colin’s shoulder again. “He understands he put you in danger by letting you ride that horse.”

Margaretha stepped forward. “Please
.
I beg you not to punish him. It was not his fault. I forced him to saddle the stallion for me. He tried to tell me not to ride him, that he was dangerous, but I refused to listen.”

Margaretha translated for Colin into English. “He is blaming you for me riding the stallion, but I am telling him it was my fault.” Then she turned back to Dieter. “I’m sorry. I realize I put myself in danger by trying to ride him. It won’t happen again, you have my word, but please don’t blame this man. He tried to save me and would have risked his life.”

“As well he should.” He made a gruff sound in his throat as he shot a scornful look at Colin.

Margaretha watched Dieter grab the black stallion’s reins. Surprisingly, the animal didn’t resist him, and he took the horse with him as he stomped toward the stable.

“Thank you,” Colin said quietly. “I’m sure you must have talked him out of sending me to feed pigs or empty chamber pots.”

“It was my fault I was nearly killed, not yours.” But why had Dieter called him ‘frog boy’?

Margaretha’s cheeks burned as she realized his nickname was her fault too. No doubt, the first time Dieter had seen Colin, he had been wearing the ugly green-speckled clothing Frau Lena had given him. She had promised to bring Colin some better clothes, something of her brother’s, and she had failed to keep her word. The fact that he had gone back to looking for her bracelet made her feel even worse.

Margaretha started searching again too, imagining the look on her mother’s face when she told her she had lost the gemencrusted heirloom, the only piece of jewelry that her mother had ever entrusted to her. Her sins were mounting. She had not kept her word to Colin, and now she had lost a valuable bracelet that was significant to her family.

They searched near the well, all around it, and then continued on toward the stable. As she was staring down at the ground, Colin rushed up close to her.

“I thought I saw something. It was only a feather.” He sighed and shook his head.

As he went back to searching, she noticed again how he seemed to have regained his strength and was no longer pale. He still had a few bruises visible on his face, but they were fading, and his thick hair completely covered the stitched-up wound on his head. It was as if she was seeing him for the first time. Now he appeared as he must have been before the attack — not pitiable and weak and raving mad, but strong and handsome and determined. He had said he was the son of a wealthy lord back in England, and she had no reason not to believe him. Perhaps she shouldn’t treat him so much like a servant.

“Thank you for trying to help me.”

He looked up at her with raised eyebrows.

“When you told me to jump and you would catch me.”

“Oh. Of course.”

“And I am sorry for not coming back to the healer’s chambers to visit you. I thought about you a lot and prayed for you.”

“You thought I was addled.” There was no anger in his tone. “That the blow to the head had brought on madness. It’s understandable. Besides, you are the daughter of Duke Wilhelm. Your family would not have thought it prudent for you to befriend someone like me who could have been a beggar, a ruffian, anything.”

“Frau Lena thought my presence made you anxious. She said perhaps I shouldn’t visit you anymore. But I am ashamed that I did not come back to see if you needed me to translate for you.”

“The priest came and helped me, so I was not completely alone.” He gave her a crooked smile, making his right eye squint.

“I didn’t think about the priest. I am glad he came and helped.”

She couldn’t be sure, but she thought he rolled his eyes again before going back to searching the ground. He was entitled to a bit of resentment, but she wouldn’t let him get away with too much insolence.

They searched all the way to the stable, keeping her left arm close to her side and trying not to move it, and still she did not find the bracelet. “I need some more water.”

She walked back toward the well. She dropped the bucket over the side and it splashed into the water below. When she reached with her good arm to pull it back up, Colin drew near and peered into the well.

“Halt!” He grabbed her arm.

She stopped pulling on the rope, leaving the bucket of water dangling, and leaned over to see what he was staring at. Something sparkled, caught on a stone that jutted out slightly a few feet down into the well. “My bracelet! You found it! It must have slipped off my wrist.”

“Yes, but now we have to get it out without sending it into the water below. Careful.” He took the rope from her, and the front part of his shoulder inadvertently brushed against the back of her shoulder, as he slowly and carefully pulled the rope. The windlass creaked as the bucket rose. He continued to pull, making sure the bucket didn’t sway and hit the bracelet and knock it off its precarious perch.

The slight brush of his shoulder against hers made her feel strangely warm.

“How will we ever get it out?” Her voice was a raspy whisper, as if talking might cause the bucket to bump the bracelet into the deep well below.

“I will go see who I can find to help.” Colin hurried toward the stable. Soon he reappeared with the scowling stable master Dieter and stable boy Fritz as he led them up the slight hill to the well.

“What does he want?” the stable master asked Margaretha.

“He wants you to help me get my bracelet out.” She pointed down into the well. “It must have come loose and fallen off my wrist when I took a drink.”

“Will you translate for me?” Colin asked her in his smooth English accent.

“Of course.”

“Tell them to each grab one of my feet and lower me down far enough that I can reach the bracelet.”

“Oh, that sounds dangerous — ”

Before she could say anything else, he hefted himself up onto the top of the well’s wall on his stomach and teetered on the edge.

Quickly, she yelled, “Grab his feet!”

Dieter and Fritz lunged forward, grabbing Colin’s legs. They hugged his ankles as they lowered him head first into the well.

Margaretha held her breath as he inched closer to where the bracelet dangled. If he didn’t grab it carefully it could easily fall, sinking to a watery grave, and then they’d never find it. But the thought of Colin himself plunging head first into the narrow well was what made her heart pound against her chest and her stomach turn in circles.

She shook her head and blinked hard to get the image out of her mind.

He was almost close enough to reach the bracelet. “Just a little more,” he said, his voice echoing back at them.