If anyone knew what she was thinking just now—that she was tired and hungry and frustrated and just about to burst into tears—they’d hate and scorn her. She rather hated and scorned herself.
“Father’s and King Claude’s guards will come after us,” Elyce said. “Jacob, you should stay here.”
“Why, if I may ask?” Jacob looked at her, loyal, good soul that he was. “I intended to come with you.”
“Because you will be blamed, possibly accused of taking me against my will, if we get caught. It is too dangerous for you, now that they know I’m not dead. Indeed, if any of you wish to stay, now is your chance.”
“I am not leaving you,” Ysabeau said.
“We are here to help you,” Sir Gerard said. “But Jacob can remain. We will have to ride a long way, and fast.”
“Yes. Please stay here, Jacob.”
“If that is your wish.”
“It is. I don’t want to put you in danger.”
“Then I shall try to keep them from finding out that you are gone for as long as possible.”
“Thank you.” Elyce watched the loyal Jacob walk back the way they had come.
Sir Oswalt and Sir Gerard continued saddling the horses. Ysabeau tried to help them, but she’d never saddled a horse in her life, and she soon left the task to the men and came toward Elyce.
“I’m still very worried about you,” Ysa whispered. “You do not look well.”
“I’m beginning to feel a little better, but the potion is sure to have some lingering effects.” But if she were honest, Elyce was concerned as well. She did not understand why she was so weak and feverish.
“I brought the food you wrapped up earlier in your room.” Ysa pulled a small bundle from her pocket, unwrapped the cloth, and pushed it at Elyce.
She took a small pasty and nibbled at it, as Aunt Winifred had taught her, because a princess never takes a bite of food that she can’t easily chew and swallow quickly. But then she decided her aunt’s advice was unhelpful at a time like this, so she took a bigger bite and watched the knights’ progress as they finished saddling the first two horses and started on the next two.
Sir Oswalt was not as tall nor as wide in the shoulders as Sir Gerard. He also didn’t talk nearly as much as Sir Gerard, but she’d seen a wary look in his eyes, as if he was unsure why they were even here.
Sir Gerard had said Delia was worried about her. She’d said in her letter that she had encouraged her brother to come to help her, but he did not have to come. It was a long way, after all. Perhaps she was being too hard on him. But waking up to him kissing her had shocked and angered her. And she did not see why that was not a reasonable reaction, whether she be a princess or a shepherd’s daughter.
The longer she stood leaning against the wall, the more she couldn’t imagine being able to sit on a horse and ride. Her hands were still so weak, her knees trembling. She took a few more bites of food, but that was not helping as she would have liked. In fact, the food that was currently in her stomach was not settling well.
Was her humiliation about to get worse?
When Sir Gerard and Sir Oswalt started leading the horses over to the short stool, Ysa took her arm and said, “Lean on me.”
Elyce took one step, her arm through Ysa’s, and stopped, fearing she would fall. Her knees simply would not hold her.
Sir Oswalt said, “Perhaps we should not go. The princess isn’t up to it. And if we are caught absconding with the Princess of Montciel, we could lose our heads.” He drew his finger across his throat and grimaced.
“We must go.” Elyce’s voice was so faint, she doubted the two knights heard her.
“Are you certain?” Ysa whispered. “We could say that you are still too ill to marry Rodrigo and—”
“That will not stop King Claude. And he will prevent me from going to get help.”
“But our plan did not work. They do not think you died.”
“Ysa, I must get away. I cannot give Claude and Rodrigo another chance to hold me here. I must go for help.”
“But you cannot ride.”
Elyce’s heart pounded. Ysa was right. God, please help.
“The princess can ride with me.” Sir Gerard was staring straight at them as if they had included him in the conversation all along.
“Are you sure?” Elyce’s relief overwhelmed her.
Instead of answering her, he strode to her and picked her up, then carried her to one of the horses. The saddle barely looked as if it could hold one person, much less two people. But Sir Gerard lifted her into it anyway.
Sir Gerard kept hold of her arm. “Are you steady?”
“Yes.” She leaned forward, holding on to the horse’s neck with both hands.
Sir Gerard swung up behind her, pressing into her. He wrapped an arm around her middle while holding the reins with his other hand.
She was thankful she was still “as skinny as a twelve-year-old,” as her aunt had told her not long before she died. Her aunt had not meant it as a compliment, however, as she believed a curvier figure was much more desired by the rulers of kingdoms, who would see her as a means to an heir.
Ysa gave her a worried glance as Sir Oswalt helped her mount her horse. He also mounted, then led the fourth horse by its reins as they headed for the entrance of the stable that had been partially hewn out of the rock of an existing cave.
Her grip was worthless as soon as the horse started moving. The daylight hurt her eyes, even though the entrance of the stable-cave was in the woods behind the castle.
If only she weren’t so weak. Sir Gerard, however, kept her pulled snug against him. It was humiliating, but she was too desperate and grateful for his help to feel overly embarrassed.
But if he dared to touch her inappropriately . . . For some reason she didn’t believe he would. He was Delia’s brother, after all, and Delia was a most sincere and good person and spoke highly of her brothers.
How unfamiliar it felt to be so close to a stranger. Especially after thinking him so arrogant and obnoxious, and after railing at him the way she had. But he was making it possible for her to leave and carry out her plan. Without him, her potion-drinking might have been all in vain. She would have had to hide herself somewhere in the woods until her strength returned, and she easily could have been found by King Claude and his men.
They rode at a steady trot through the woods, which was mostly free of underbrush and low-hanging branches. Even though they were getting farther and farther away from danger, they could still be caught, depending on how soon King Claude realized she was gone.
“Which direction should we be going?” Sir Gerard asked.
“Northeast. To a cottage in the woods. Jacob’s sister lives there, along with a woman named Astrid.” She hated how weak her voice sounded. “Ysabeau knows the way.”
She would be glad to see Astrid, whom everyone had called die abgefallene Fräulein, or “The Woman Who Fell.”
When she was a child, Elyce was out walking with a servant and a guard when they heard a scream. Elyce looked up and saw a man chasing a woman, who then fell from a rock cliff. Elyce’s guard and servant carried the woman to Jacob’s sister’s cottage, as it was the nearest house. Astrid had remained unconscious for days, unresponsive and barely breathing. No one knew who was chasing her, though Elyce was certain she had seen a distinctive marking on the sword the man was holding.