“No, my dear.” She reached out and squeezed Gisela’s hand. “I am too close to my time. But you may still use my carriage.”
“I can ride Kaeleb.”
“I insist you ride in my carriage.” She gave Gisela her sternest look, which wasn’t very stern. “I don’t want you mussing your beautiful hair or that dress.”
Ava was only a few years older than Gisela, but she had such a motherly way about her. She’d had a child already, but the baby had died shortly after birth.
“How did you ever get that dress past that old witch, Evfemia?”
Gisela laughed. “I put it on after she left.”
“That color … it looks beautiful on you.” She smiled, and in that moment Gisela thought there was no one more beautiful than Ava, with her kind gray eyes, flawless face, and pouty lips. Then her eyes flew wide. “Wait! I have a scarf that very color. You must take it with you, in case you find a knight who wishes to wear your color.”
“That’s silly, Ava.” Gisela shook her head at the thought. Ava the Hopeful.
“Go to that trunk over there.” She pointed in the corner. “Open it up. Look on the right side. See it?”
Gisela lifted out a handful of gauzy blue material that indeed matched her dress perfectly.
“Now wrap it around your neck. Come here. Let me do it.”
Gisela, feeling a bit foolish, leaned down to allow Ava to wrap the scarf and drape it over her shoulders and down her back so that it didn’t detract from her dress.
“Now you must go. The knights will be inspired to fight ever more valiantly with you watching them.” She winked.
“Do you want me to help you get up and get dressed?” Her friend looked so uncomfortable, though she also looked … content.
“No, no. Gudda will do that. You go now. I’ve already had the coachman get the carriage ready. He will drive you.” She flicked her hand at her.
Gisela leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”
On arriving at the tournament grounds — a natural amphitheater with gently sloping sides, grassy and green in the late spring sunshine — Gisela alighted from the carriage with the help of Otto, Ava’s coachman, and felt almost as if she was someone special. She could still remember how it felt to be cared about, to have a father who would bring her to a tournament in a carriage like this one. But it had been so long ago that it seemed like another life, another person.
Otto drove away, leaving her before the flat expanse outside the south side of the walled town of Hagenheim. Teeming with people, the profusion of color was dazzling, with bright hues of red, yellow, green, and blue, more extensive than the rainbow. Knights appeared here and there. Over their heavy breastplates and mail they wore a surcoat with their coat of arms in bright colors. Their horses were decked in similar mantles called caparisons, each in various patterns matching their rider.
Her eyes were drawn to blue and red checks on one caparison, red and black stripes on another, and on yet another, a bright yellow background with the repeating pattern of a white lion on a shield of black. Banners waved in the breeze from atop brightly striped or checked pavilions that dotted the field outside the lists. Ladies’ scarves flew from some of the knights’ helmets or from around their arms, displaying the colors of the knight’s lady-love.
Joy swelled inside her. She was here, actually here, at the Hagenheim tournament. All she had to do was avoid being seen and get home before her stepmother and stepsisters. But for the moment, she hardly cared if she got caught. Being here and seeing this spectacle was worth it.
She couldn’t help searching the grounds for Valten. He would no doubt be wearing his family’s coat of arms and the Gerstenberg colors of green, black, and gold. Perhaps she might even sneak away and see Sieger, when he wasn’t needed in the competition. But she didn’t see Valten or his steed in the crowd of people.
She made her way toward the tournament lists, along with everyone else around her. There was standing room around the perimeter of the field, with a light wooden barrier between the spectators and the combatants’ field of play. Many men, wearing the garb of farmer and peasant, stood and mingled there. Behind them, on the longer north and south sides of the large rectangle, great galleries had been built, the middle part shaded by large awnings that were graced with cushioned benches and wooden steps for the nobles, their ladies, and the wealthier citizens of Hagenheim.