Gisela caught a glimpse of a small crowd of people gathering around the bottom of the steps, watching her and Ruexner and the priest. The townspeople wore various styles and kinds of clothing, from peasant to middle-class burghers, and they stared at the strangers standing at the top of the massive cathedral steps.
Gisela couldn’t let Ruexner force her into marriage. She could not let anyone bully her again. Her stepmother and stepsisters had required her to do things she didn’t want to do, when Gisela could have run away or even refused. She had not stood up for herself. Now she would do whatever she had to do. If she had to fight to the point of losing her life, she would not let Ruexner force her to marry him.
“Someone, help me!” Gisela cried out, trying to stare down individual townspeople as they glanced up at her. “I am being forced to marry this man! Help me!” She yanked her arm, trying to break free from Ruexner, but he jerked her closer and clamped his hand over her mouth.
“Get on with it,” Ruexner growled at the priest.
“What are your names?” the priest asked, as though nothing seemed amiss.
“Friedric Ruexner and Gisela Mueller.” Ruexner removed his hand from Gisela’s mouth and whispered harshly in her ear, “Stop it now, or I’ll break your neck.”
“And what are your parents’ names?”
Ruexner growled like an angry bear, then answered, “Baron Arnold Tockler Ruexner and Gisela Russdorffer Ruexner.”
Ruexner’s mother’s name was Gisela? How odd. Especially since her own mother’s maiden name was Russdorffer.
“And the lady? What are your parents’ names?”
“Christoff Theodemar Mueller and Fordola Russdorffer Mueller. My father was a knight —”
“Shut up.” Ruexner clamped his hand over her mouth again. He looked at the priest. “Go on.”
Gisela bit his hand and screamed. Ruexner clamped his hand over her mouth again and squeezed her face.
“Get on with it,” Ruexner said through clenched teeth. “Speak the marriage vows. Now.”
Where was Valten? She thought she saw him standing in the doorway, with three men holding him, a cloth gag tied around his mouth. She couldn’t let him see her married to Ruexner. But how could she stop him? She couldn’t get away from Ruexner. He was holding her so tightly she couldn’t even wriggle.
The priest said in a loud voice, speaking slowly and pausing every few words, “Does anyone here … know of any reason … why this man, Friedric Ruexner … and this woman, Gisela Mueller … should not be married? If so, speak now.”
Gisela could now only see a few people out of the corner of her eye, but she sensed there were many more behind her.
Someone cleared his throat. Then a woman shouted, “Their mothers were sisters!”
“They can’t marry then,” a man drawled somewhere behind her.
The townspeople were trying to help her!
“Who said that?” Ruexner roared, turning around and facing down the crowd. “It’s a lie!”
Of course it was a lie. None of these people knew her, but if she and Ruexner were cousins, the marriage could not take place. The church would forbid it.
In his rush to see who had spoken, Ruexner had removed his hand from her mouth again. Gisela yelled, “I won’t marry this man! I do not give my consent!”
Ruexner glared at Gisela, then at the priest. “On with it.”
“I’m afraid I cannot.” The priest gave him stare for stare. “Someone has declared the impediment of consanguinity, and this young maiden does not give her consent.” The people must have emboldened him.
Ruexner turned around to face the crowd, pulling Gisela around with him as if she were a rag doll. “If anyone says another word, my men will cut out their hearts and feed them to the vultures! I, Friedric Ruexner, take this woman, Gisela Mueller, to be my wife. And no one, not even the church, can stop me.”
Ruexner pushed the priest aside and pulled Gisela through the door of the church, his hand like a vise on her arm. Gisela caught a glimpse of Valten, being held by three men, as Ruexner shut the door behind him and started up the steps to one of the towers.
“Where are you taking me?”
“If we can’t be married, then you will be my prisoner.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Gisela said, trying to reason with him. “You can let me go. You and your men can —”
“You lied about your mother’s name being Fordola Russdorffer, didn’t you?”
“No. That was her name. She died when I was very young.” Perhaps their mothers really were sisters.
“I don’t want to hear anything else from you.” Ruexner halted on the steps, blocking her escape, and pulled a piece of cloth from his pocket.
Gisela tried to run back down the steps, but he grabbed her arm. She fought him, tearing at his fingers and their grip on her arm until he wrapped his big arms around hers and pinned them to her sides. He pulled her hands around her back and tied her wrists together.
“You will be sorry for this.” Gisela was so angry she felt tears of pure fury in her eyes. “Duke Wilhelm will bring justice on you. You will not get away with it if you hurt me or Valten.”
Ruexner continued pulling her up the stairs of the tower by her arms.