An Uncertain Choice

She’d left.

She hadn’t loved me enough to stay. Maybe she hadn’t ever loved me at all.

My head dropped and my shoulders sagged. I’d lost her.

I closed my eyes and let the last bit of hope seep from me. Without Rosemarie in my life, it no longer mattered what fate befell me.




I rubbed the fog from my eyes and darted up, my hands making contact with a hard bed.

A scratchy wool blanket slipped off and fell onto Trudy, who was sprawled on a pallet on the floor. My nursemaid snorted once in her sleep and then stirred.

From the light coming in a high barred window, I could see that I was in a small, narrow room. The walls were whitewashed and barren, except a wooden cross hanging opposite of the tiny bed where I sat.

There was nothing else in the room, save a chamber pot in one corner.

“Trudy,” I whispered, glancing at the thick planks of the door. “Wake up.”

Where were we?

Trudy rolled over, muttered something under her breath, and went back to snoring.

I slipped my feet over the edge of the bed and smoothed down my crimson gown, which seemed out of place in the unadorned, colorless room.

How long had I been asleep?

My heart jolted at the remembrance of what had happened, of how I’d been waiting for Bartholomew to bring Derrick, of the men sneaking up on Trudy and me, throwing sacks over our heads. Then everything had gone black.

I stood, tiptoed around Trudy, and padded straight to the door. With a silent, desperate plea, I yanked on the handle, only to fall back a step.

It was firmly locked.

I glanced again at the window. It was too high and the bars too narrow to even consider escaping through it.

“Trudy,” I whispered again, louder. “We need to get out of here.”

I rattled the door, studying the lock and praying I could somehow miraculously open it.

“My lady,” Trudy said from behind me, finally sitting up and yawning. “You’re up early this morning.”

Had my eighteenth birthday come and gone? Had I missed my chance to speak with Derrick and discover if we had a chance at happiness?

A strange panic beset my limbs. I lunged at the door, yanking on the handle and pulling against it.

“Derrick!” I cried. I needed to find Derrick.

“My lady,” Trudy said, blinking hard. Her voice rose with a note of anxiety. “Wherever in the world are we?”

“We’ve been kidnapped.” I stood back and appraised the room again.

“Holy Father, Son, and Spirit,” Trudy unfolded her portly form from her pallet and rose to her knees. Her prayer echoed against the barren walls. “Looks to me like we’re at the convent. This room reminds me of one of the chambers they use for the ill.”

The clamoring inside me came to an abrupt halt. “The convent?” I gave a shaky laugh. But as I took in the room, I recognized it too, from the time my parents had sent me to the hilltop monastery to protect me from the Plague. I’d been restless and had wanted to help, so I’d sneaked into the infirmary to assist the monks in caring for the diseased.

“We shall call for the abbot,” I said, drawing in a calming breath. “He’ll be able to get us out of this strange situation in no time.”

Trudy climbed to her feet and pursed her lips together.

I leaned against the door and listened to the sounds in the hallway outside our room. There were distinct steps coming nearer, slow and measured. And when the footsteps finally stopped in front of the door, I stepped back.

A key grated in the lock, and then the door swung open to reveal the abbot. He stood before me, tall and thin in his plain brown habit.

“Father Abbot,” I said, relief pouring through me and chasing away all my fears. I wanted to fall into his arms and let him caress the hair off my forehead as he often did. But at the sight of the two laborers behind him, I froze.

They were the same men who had followed James into the Great Hall. The men who’d captured Trudy and me.

“There you are, your ladyship,” the abbot spoke gently. “I’ve been waiting for you to awaken.”

“You have?”

He nodded and tucked his hands into his sleeves. “I hope you’ll forgive me for scaring you, and for the rough way in which my men brought you here. I shall have them disciplined, your ladyship.”

The laborer’s faces had gone pale, but they didn’t move, and it was only then that I noticed their wrists bound with chains, and that they were at the mercy of several guards.

I swallowed past new fear that had risen into my throat. “Why did they do such a thing?”

“It’s nothing to concern yourself with, your ladyship.” The abbot nodded curtly and one of the guards shoved the kidnappers down the hallway, forcing them away.