Page 71 of Veil of Winter

“I think that is a good idea.”

King Claude agreed so readily that he must have planned to have her marry in Montciel all along.

Elyce also had a plan, a plan that had entered her mindduring the long night when she couldn’t sleep. With God’s favor, it just might work.

She desperately wanted to ask him about Sir Gerard and Sir Oswalt, if they were well, to get reassurance that he truly did plan to hold them for ransom. But she didn’t want to give Claude the satisfaction of knowing she was worried about them. Besides, she couldn’t trust any answer he gave.

Still looking at her coldly, he said, “You are ready for travel? Let us be on our way.”

***

Gerard and Sir Oswalt were allowed to pack up their saddlebags and mount their horses, then their wrists were tied to their horses’ pommels, which were in turn each tied to a guard’s horse.

The entire ride out of the walled city and a mile past it, Gerard wondered if they were only pretending to take them to Valkenfeld, if they would take out their crossbows and shoot Gerard and Oswalt as soon as they were out of sight of Württemberg.

By the time they stopped for the night, it was well past dark, and the guards made sure to set a watch over them while they slept.

When the guards were sleeping and there was no movement from the guard who had been set to watch over them, Gerard whispered to Oswalt, “I have a knife hidden in my boot.”

“Ahead of you.” Sir Oswalt was already sawing away at the rope binding his wrists.

Chagrined, Gerard took the knife from inside his boot and started cutting his own bonds. Soon they were both free and staring at the guard. Could he truly be asleep? Gerard had never seen such incompetence, a guard falling asleep so soon after being left on watch. He suspected Count Eberhard had sent his less worthy guards while keeping his best men at home.

Carefully, Gerard and Oswalt sneaked away to where the horses were being kept. The guard who was supposed to be watching the horses was sitting on the ground with his back against a tree, his arms folded in front of him. From the way his chin was resting on his chest, he seemed to be asleep as well.

As quietly as possible, they took two horses and led them away into the dark forest.

Gerard braced himself, listening for thewhooshingsound of arrows or the shout of the guard on watch, glancing over his shoulder every so often.

They soon came to the road and stopped. King Claude’s guards were nowhere in sight. So they mounted up and rode away.

It was surprising that King Claude had not killed them outright, but perhaps he didn’t wish to draw the ire of King Richard, who certainly would have taken issue with a foreign king killing two of his knights who had only been trying to help a princess in distress. But the king would not have taken issue, likely, with his demand for a ransom. It was a traditional response to the capture of a foreign noble knight.

If they were fortunate, the guards would take their time about reporting them missing to King Claude. Furthermore, Claudemight believe he needed all his men in case there was an uprising in Montciel and would not want to spare any men to search for and recapture them. Claude also might reasonably presume that Gerard and Oswalt would head straight back to England, assuming there was little they could do to help Princess Elyce now.

They had escaped with their lives, but Princess Elyce was in Claude’s grasp. And Gerard could not leave her to marry Count Rodrigo and fail at her mission to save her people from Claude’s greedy schemes.

Oswalt was staring at him. “What now?”

Thinking out loud, he said, “We can go to the Count of Montfort, as King Wenceslaus suggested. Or we can go back to Prague and see if the king will send more men. But we have to do something. I’m not leaving the princess to marry that puppet, Rodrigo.”

“And what about Ysa’s brothers? Claude was planning to kill them if the princess doesn’t marry Rodrigo.”

“That’s another reason we have to act fast. And now that I think about it, I have an idea. Bertold is the heir to the throne of Valkenfeld, and he hates his brother. Who better to help us take down King Claude?”

“Right. But how do we find Bertold?”

“He said he was going to find Astrid and make sure she was safe, but then he would go to Valkenfeld to confront King Claude.”

“That sounds right to me.”

They turned their horses toward Valkenfeld.

When they reached the town where King Claude lived inhis large, gray stone fortress, they stopped at an inn to eat and to rest their horses before starting their search for Bertold.

They ate their bowl of stew rather hurriedly, and as they were leaving the inn, they nearly bumped into a man walking in. There was something very familiar about him. When the man’s face split into a wide grin, Gerard still couldn’t place him.

“Sir Gerard and Sir Oswalt!”