Page 63

I swallowed the last bit of meat. “It is fine food,” I allowed.

“You are unaccustomed to such fare, I suppose, living on gruel and potage. It’s an ugly life for a beautiful girl, isn’t it?” Baron Joachim picked up an apple and tossed it into the air, catching it without looking. “It hardly seems fair.”

An ugly life. A beautiful girl.That he could compliment me and mock me in the same breath filled me with anger. But I said nothing.

And wasn’t the baron right, anyway? Our lives weren’t fair, and I’d always known it. Nobles deserved their power and riches, while people like us deserved our toil and our poverty, and that was how God and everyone else wanted it.

Such was the claim, anyway. I had no use for it.

The baron threw me the apple, and I caught it without thinking. He laughed. “So youarepaying attention,” he said.

I set the apple on the table. I’d eat no more, not with him watching.

“You’re trembling. Are you frightened?” he asked, moving another touch closer.

“No.” There, I’d spoken. But it was a lie. Iwasfrightened. Not because I thought he was going to hurt me, but because I couldn’t understand what was happening. Why had I been brought here? Why did this nobleman even notice me at all? I was no better than an animal to him—he’d made that very clear.

“Have a drink,” he said, picking up a gilded cup and holding it out to me. “It will soothe your nerves.”

“I’m not thirsty,” I said. “And I shouldn’t have eaten. It was a mistake.” I’d come to the castle to ask for help, and then, when faced with platters of food, I’d devoured them like a mindless glutton. “I was weak.”

“Drink,” Baron Joachim said again.

The sudden threat in his voice was subtle but real. He’d spared me on the gallows, but there’d be nothing to stop him from gutting me like a rabbit if the fancy took him. What was a peasant’s life when held up against a nobleman’s pleasure?

I accepted the cup and drank. The wine was rich and sweet. It warmed my throat.

“There now,” he said. “That’s a good girl.”

“My name,” I said, “is—”

“Hannah. I know it.” With his thumb he reached out and wiped a red drop of wine from my lip. My heart clanged in my chest. “Are you done?” he asked softly.

“I am.” I wouldn’t touch anything else. Not when he was watching. Not when everyone I loved was starving.

“Then come with me,” he said.

CHAPTER 61

Mutely I followed Baron Joachim down one long stone hallway after another. He walked quickly and never looked back, his shoulders broad and his spine ramrod straight. It was the posture of a man who’d never bent under a plough. Who’d never known a single day of hunger, not in his whole life.

I tried to stand taller myself as we passed servants and men-at-arms, each going about their business. Some looked at me strangely but said nothing. Others never raised their eyes to see whom they passed.

The castle streamed with life, and everyone’s spirits but mine seemed high: after Lord Sicard’s defeat, no one needed to wonder if Baron Joachim was up to the task of ruling his lands. He’d been tested, and he’d proven himself.

And if he’d done so thanks to help he hadn’t expected, did it matter? Surely his knights would happily forget how farmers and tanners from the surrounding villages had brought their crude weapons to the fight.

And no one—not even I—would know if my hastily scrawled letter had had anything to do with the baron’s victory.

“Hurry along now!”

I jumped. Suddenly Baron Joachim was at my side.

“There’s a long walk to make still.”

I turned away; I didn’t want him to see the confusion on my face. He’d only taunt me more. “Are you sending me home?”

He didn’t answer.