“When we get to the bottom of the steps, go to the right.”
The men nodded, then escorted her down the dark steps.
“Who goes there?” A guard stood at the bottom of the steps holding up a torch, his other hand reaching for his sword hilt at his belt. The old gaoler was nowhere in sight.
Thomas greeted him and said, “Lord Claybrook ordered Lady Margaretha to spend the night in the dungeon.”
Men — her father’s own knights and soldiers — lined the walls, chained hand and foot. She even recognized Britta’s sweetheart, Gustaf. The sight of them made her clench her teeth and itch to use the heavy cross in her sleeve.
Thomas and Thaddeus had let go of her arms while they talked with the man guarding the dungeon. She heard a thud and turned to look.
The guard sank to the floor. Thomas stood holding his sword at an odd angle. Apparently he had struck the guard with the butt of the hilt. The guard lay unmoving on the stone floor.
“We must set these men free.”
Thaddeus was already taking the keys from the large ring hanging from the guard’s belt. He systematically unlocked each man’s manacles.
The men had obviously been shackled to the wall for quite some time. The ones who could barely walk were supported by the ones who were stronger and not injured.
“Come this way.” They grabbed all the torches they could find and Margaretha led them all down the corridor to the chamber at the end, then pressed the trigger stone to open the wall and lead them into the secret tunnel. When they were safely through, they closed the stone wall back into place.
Margaretha led them all as they moved, one in front of the other, in the narrow tunnel. Finally, without encountering any bats or even any rats, they came to the end.
“Here is the door leading out,” she said to Thomas and Thaddeus. They put their shoulders up to it and pushed the door open easily. The dark of night greeted them, with stars and moon shining in the clear sky, as they all climbed out of the tunnel and onto the grassy meadow.
“I want to go with you to find my father, but I hate to leave my family. It is possible Claybrook may kill them when he discovers I’ve escaped.”
“I don’t think he will,” Thomas said. “He will use them for bargaining if things don’t go well and the castle is besieged. Besides, he’s too sick at the moment to order anyone killed.”
That was certainly true.
“But what will happen to these men?” Thaddeus asked her, looking around at the men who had been chained in the dungeon. “Some of them are not able to come with us.”
“You are right.”
“Lady Margaretha.” One of the men approached her, and she realized it was Sir Edgar. “The men who are not able to come with you to find your father will all find succor at my home, which is only a short walk from here. My wife and servants will personally attend the injured ones.”
“Thank you, Sir Edgar. That is very good of you.”
While Sir Edgar gave instructions to the injured, Margaretha turned to Thaddeus and Thomas. “Do you think we can find Duke Wilhelm without being captured by Claybrook’s men?”
“I think so,” Thaddeus said. “Most of Claybrook’s men are either guarding the city gates or guarding the castle.”
Thomas said, “Since you are with us, Lady Margaretha, we should find Duke Wilhelm and his men without much delay, as the people know you and will not be afraid to tell you. But we should hurry, since we don’t know how potent the poison was that Lord Claybrook drank. Perhaps he will only be sick for a short time.”
As the injured started for Sir Edgar’s house, the rest of her father’s men that they had rescued from the dungeon joined with Thomas, Thaddeus, and Margaretha, and they started walking east, away from Hagenheim Castle.
Margaretha’s feet were still sore from all the journeying she and Colin had done, but she was too grateful to have escaped Claybrook to complain. She walked through the trees, across meadows, crossed a stream, over hills, and still they walked.
One of the men they had rescued from the dungeon knocked on the door to a family friend’s house to ask if he had heard where Duke Wilhelm, Lord Hamlin, and their men were. He did not know, but he told them the name of someone who might, and explained where to find him. So they walked on.
Margaretha had not slept well in many days, and she felt she could almost sleep standing up. Finally, they came to the large stone manse that belonged to another of Duke Wilhelm’s guards. Margaretha went to the door, along with the others, and knocked. When she had explained to the parents of this guard who she was and that they were looking for Duke Wilhelm and Lord Hamlin, they pulled Margaretha inside and immediately bustled about, finding her a chair to sit on and bringing her a goblet of wine.
The woman of the house told her, “My dear Lady Margaretha, you look worn half to death. Stay here while the men go and join your father.”