“Are you certain?” Colin still knelt in front of her. “I think you should see Frau Lena and let her look at you. I will carry you.”
“That won’t be necessary. Perhaps if I could just stand, maybe have a drink of water . . .” She kept her left arm close to her side and let him lift her by her right elbow. Her left hip was sore, but her legs held her up, and her left arm hurt, but at least she could move it. She leaned on the well and drew a ladle-full of water out of the bucket.
He hovered over her, making sure she was steady. She moaned again. What a disgrace she was. “Please promise you won’t tell anyone about this.” The bones in her legs seemed to have turned to water, but it was only from fear. “If I rest here a moment, I’ll be well. But I don’t want my father to know how foolish I was. Please don’t tell anyone about this.”
“I won’t. But what about the stable master?”
“He won’t tell. He is a man of few words and not a person to make trouble. But if my younger brothers found out . . .” She glanced around to make sure no one else had seen. “They would never let me forget it, and then my father and my mother might hear of it and be angry with me.”
“I should think you would be more worried about whether or not you are injured.”
Staring down at her wrist, she realized it was bare. “Oh no. I’ve lost my bracelet.” Her heart sank. She looked at the ground around her feet but didn’t see it. “How will I ever explain losing that bracelet? It was my great-grandmother’s. My mother will be so disappointed in me.” Tears filled her eyes. She blinked them back so she could better see as she searched the ground.
“I’ll help you look for it,” Colin said. “If it fell off between here and the stable, we should be able to find it.” He began searching the ground just as she was doing.
Du!” someone yelled. It was the stable master, pointing at Colin. “You! Frog boy!” he said in German. “What do you think you’re doing, putting the Lady Margaretha on that devil of a horse?”
Colin merely looked at him, shook his head, and kept searching the ground for the bracelet.
The stable master stomped toward Colin and shoved his shoulder. “Answer me, frog boy.”
Colin ceased his search and stared back at the stable master.
“He doesn’t understand you,” Margaretha offered.
“Oh, he understands.” The stable master, Dieter, shoved Colin’s shoulder again. “He understands he put you in danger by letting you ride that horse.”
Margaretha stepped forward. “Please. I beg you not to punish him. It was not his fault. I forced him to saddle the stallion for me. He tried to tell me not to ride him, that he was dangerous, but I refused to listen.”
Margaretha translated for Colin into English. “He is blaming you for me riding the stallion, but I am telling him it was my fault.” Then she turned back to Dieter. “I’m sorry. I realize I put myself in danger by trying to ride him. It won’t happen again, you have my word, but please don’t blame this man. He tried to save me and would have risked his life.”
“As well he should.” He made a gruff sound in his throat as he shot a scornful look at Colin.
Margaretha watched Dieter grab the black stallion’s reins. Surprisingly, the animal didn’t resist him, and he took the horse with him as he stomped toward the stable.
“Thank you,” Colin said quietly. “I’m sure you must have talked him out of sending me to feed pigs or empty chamber pots.”
“It was my fault I was nearly killed, not yours.” But why had Dieter called him ‘frog boy’?
Margaretha’s cheeks burned as she realized his nickname was her fault too. No doubt, the first time Dieter had seen Colin, he had been wearing the ugly green-speckled clothing Frau Lena had given him. She had promised to bring Colin some better clothes, something of her brother’s, and she had failed to keep her word. The fact that he had gone back to looking for her bracelet made her feel even worse.
Margaretha started searching again too, imagining the look on her mother’s face when she told her she had lost the gemencrusted heirloom, the only piece of jewelry that her mother had ever entrusted to her. Her sins were mounting. She had not kept her word to Colin, and now she had lost a valuable bracelet that was significant to her family.
They searched near the well, all around it, and then continued on toward the stable. As she was staring down at the ground, Colin rushed up close to her.