But the four men again raised their brows at her and frowned.
“Very well. We will send him away. But I am hopeful he will be able to return in the future. And I will tell him so.” How could she bear to make her father unhappy, even though he had not treated her as a father should treat his daughter? He would make her feel guilty, accuse her of being a terrible daughter, of violating God’s commandment to honor her father and mother.
She wished Sir Gerard were here so she could ask his opinion.
While they were still discussing what to do with her father, another guard came with a report.
“Forgive me, Princess Elyce,” he said, “but your father is asking to see you. He wanted me to tell you that he wishes to leave his room and speak with you alone.”
“I would not advise that,” one of the guards said.
“At least do not meet with him alone,” Father Johannes said. “Allow me to stay with you.”
“Very well.” Her insides shook at the thought of facing him again. What would he say? He would certainly be angry, but surely he would understand that she had the people’s best interests at heart, and now that King Claude was dead, he could not be thinking of insisting on sending the people to work in the Valkenfeld mines. Surely he would listen to her and realize he had been wrong.
“Send him in here,” she said, as they were in Father Johannes’s study room at the back of the chapel.
A few minutes later, her father entered the room. His eyes were red and watery, his cheeks blotchy, as if he’d been crying.
“I wish to speak to my daughter alone,” he said in his best kingly voice.
The three guards looked at Elyce. She nodded to them. “You may go.” But she took a step closer to Father Johannes, who made no move to leave.
“Alone,” her father said, glaring at Father Johannes.
Elyce’s insides trembled. She was afraid of angering her father, but she was even more afraid of being alone with him. She glanced at Father Johannes, but he did not look as if he was intimidated by her father’s glare.
“Princess Elyce is in charge. Your people wish to follow her now.” Father Johannes spoke the words calmly and deliberately.
“How dare you?” Her father’s voice was raspy. He narrowed his eyes at the priest, then turned his gaze on Elyce. “And how dare you? You are my daughter, and you have no right to defy me—yet again—in your perverted rebellion. God shall punish you!”
Her stomach roiled at his condemnation.
“If this is the kind of conversation you wish to have with the future queen,” Father Johannes said, “then you should leave.”
“Father,” Elyce said, “you must accept the people’s wishes and understand that they feel betrayed by you. King Claude—”
“Ungrateful, unholy girl!” he cried. “How dare you lecture me!”
What could she say? His words felt like a blow to her chest, like a mountain of boulders falling on her shoulders. She wanted his love and approval, but she would never receive that. The pain was a dagger inside her, twisting and everlasting.
“Princess Elyce, you do not need to listen to this,” Father Johannes said softly, turning to look at her.
In that moment, her father reached out and snatched up the key that was on Father Johannes’s writing desk. Then he thrust the key in the door and locked it.
“What did you do?” Father Johannes said.
Her father thrust the key in his pocket and lunged at her, grabbed her by the neck, and dragged her away from Father Johannes.
“If you try to open the door,” her father said, squeezing her neck, “then I will strangle and kill her and you as well.”
He was already strangling her. Elyce tried to say as much. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She tried to scream, but it was only a small screeching sound.
He was crushing her throat. She was going to die.
She tried to hit him but couldn’t reach his head, so instead she used her fingernails to claw at his hands around her throat.
“Stop it,” he hissed in her ear.
She continued to scratch his hands, drawing blood, but as she did, he only squeezed harder. Her vision started to go black and her hands went limp.
“If you kill her,” Father Johannes said, “the guards will kill you.”
“Oh, I do not think they will,” her father said.
Now that she had stopped scratching him, he stopped squeezing so hard and her vision began to return.
“They will. Princess Elyce is their chosen queen.”
“Stop saying that.”
She could tell by her father’s voice that he was speaking through clenched teeth.
“They will not kill me, because who else will be their leader? I have no other heir. The kingdom will be thrown into disarray if she and I are both dead, without a leader and ripe for the picking by any aggressive leader nearby. The Duke of Württemberg, for example.”
He was right. And her father was going to kill her to ensure he remained on the throne.
“You will not kill her,” Father Johannes said, “because God will send you to hell for murdering your own child.”
“I will worry about that later. Besides, you yourself have said that God can forgive any sin—we have only to ask.”
“There is no forgiveness without contrition and repentance.”
“That is not what you said. Besides, there is no other way for me. Do you think I can live with my nineteen-year-old daughter taking my kingdom from me? Do you think I can bow and kiss my child’s feet like a groveling servant?”
Elyce drew in as much air as she could get and screamed.
He gripped her neck so tight she wondered if he’d crushed her airway irreparably. Either way, she was choking again.
Shouting came from the other side of the door, along with loud banging as someone seemed to be trying to break down the door.
“Do not do this.” Father Johannes came toward them and yanked at her father’s hands around her throat, but he couldn’t loosen her father’s grip.
Again, she felt herself losing consciousness. Everything was dark, and sounds were coming to her as if she were down in a deep well.
There was a loud sound, like wood shattering, and she was falling.
Twenty-Six
Gerard had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach when he arrived at Montciel Castle. He left his horse with the stable boy and hurried up the steps two at a time. As he entered the castle, the guards seemed confused and were running toward the chapel.
“What is happening?” he asked the first one he could catch hold of.
“The princess is meeting with the king, and the guards said the king locked himself in the room with the princess.”
“Where? Where are they?”
“This way.”
A scream sent his blood boiling. It was Elyce.
He ran to find three guards trying to break down a wooden door with their shoulders. Gerard grabbed the iron sconce on the wall and pulled with all his strength. It gave way and came off in his hands.
The guards saw him coming and stood back.
Gerard swung the heavy iron sconce and connected with the door. The wood splintered where he hit it just above the metal lock. He struck it again, this time knocking the entire lock and handle through the wood. The door opened, and Gerard lunged through it.