The Ward

Her hand rested on the cold stone as she looked out the slates that gave a narrow view of the countryside around the keep. She had been outside into those great forests and hills many times, but today was no such day. Even as the sun rose, she knew that today would be different. She reached up and clasped the little pendant that hung from around her neck. She could feel it and smell it in the air.

Her eyes drifted down to the gate which she could see out of the corner of the archer's window. The gates had been opened wide at dawn so peasants, travelers and the various residents of the keep could come and go as was needed. It wasn't any of them that held her attention. Most of them had been known to her since the day she had come to the keep over ten years before. Instead she was focused on the party that had swept through the gates carrying a standard that was very clearly not Germanic.

The standard bearer and two of the knights dismounted and came forward towards the keep's main entrance into the hall and she lost sight of them. Christhilde bit her lip. She was tempted to go down and to see how her father greeted them, but at the same time, something tugged at her gut, her instincts. What would happen if she went below? What could these men want coming to their keep uninvited? After all it wasn't as if Johannes Oppenheim, Baron of Stutwald, was the third of several brothers that had been born to the late Georg Oppenheim, Herzog of Luksee. If anything, the party should be going to see her Uncle Endres who had taken the old Duke's title and place on the council of electors, a responsibility that she knew he too very seriously unlike some of the other ruling noblemen she had encountered who were happy to take bribes.

"Did you get a good look at any of them Hilde?" Christhilde jumped and turned, crossing herself as she did so.

"Don't scare me like that Lyse," she hissed throwing a halfhearted glare at the younger girl who simply grinned in reply. "And no I didn't. They vanished into the hall. Do you think father's greeting them now?" Her anxiety had her biting her lip. It was unladylike she knew, but it had been a habit she had acquired sometime in childhood that she had never able to get rid of.

Lyse shook her head. "Clos sits in father's stead today. He had to leave early this morning to see to Uncle Walther's home. He was killed in his sleep and they think that his eldest boy Will did it. At least that's what the maids were saying." Lyse's cheeks turned a pale shade of pink as she admitted to listening to servant's gossip again.

Christhilde shook her head and clucked her tongue. "Well deal with that bit later Lyse. Right now we have to save our brother and those visitors. Clos is still too hot tempted by half to even be considered for sitting in father's stead while he's gone. "Why didn't he leave Paule or Oswald?"

Her younger sister waved a dismissive hand. "He took the twins with him I heard. Wants them to see how a Baron should properly deal with such things." Paule and Oswald were Johannes Oppenheim's eldest sons, but due to an incident in their childhood, no one knew which of the two boys were older facing the Baron with a dilemma that he had been putting off for almost four years. If one of them had been left, things would have been much simpler. Paule had always been more prone to thinking things over carefully before he acted while Oswald was a boy striving to live his life in the way of a knight like Roland, his hero.

"Let us go. I won't be much surprised if we hear swords clashing when we get down there!" Lyse declared excitedly taking Hilde's hand. The older girl groaned. That was the last thing that they needed. It was times like this that Christhilde found herself very relieve that Clos would never be Baron. They would like find themselves constantly besieged if he was given such a chance.

The two girls moved swiftly down the stairs, dodging servants and knights who were moving up and down the main circular stair that dominated the South Tower. They paused for a moment at the base of the stairs, exchanging a look before they slowly made their way to one of the many entrances to the great hall. Inside, they only saw two of the kitchen maids tending to the rushes. The girls exchanged a frown before moving purposefully into the great hall. A shout from the courtyard drew their attention there and they went running.

Lying on his back in the mud, piss, and feces that tended to dominate parts of the courtyard, Clos lay on his back, his face set in a look between a snarl and a sneer with a sword point aimed at his throat. The man holding it was thin but well formed. His face was intense and Hilde could see Lyse crossing herself out of the corner of her face at the sight of it.

"Stop!" Christhilde shouted moving down to the last step and watching the man turn those cold dark eyes on her.

"Get back in the house girl!" Clos snapped moving to get up only to have another sword pointed at him.

"I said stop!" she ordered thrusting her chin into the air. "For whatever he may have done to offend you-" Clos tried to sputter in protest but she ignored him, "-I apologize, but that does not give you the right to kill him in his father's courtyard."

The man arched an eyebrow, but nothing else changed on that expressionless face. Christhilde could feel herself becoming unnerved wanting to squirm at the sight of those dark eyes until he finally looked towards his men much to her relief. Her relief was quickly killed as the words that came from his mouth were in rapid French before he turned to her again. "You girl, than, shall attend to me and my men until ze Baron returns," he ordered moving past her and up the stairs into the keep.