Page 25 of The Noble Servant

Magdalen could hardly wait to see the duke’s look-alike shepherd so she could get the paper and ink from him that he had promised. She arose early, got dressed, and sat on the edge of her bed.

If she could only write those letters and find someone to deliver them to Thornbeck and Mallin, she would feel she was finally making progress toward getting her identity back—and discovering what had happened toherduke.

Katrin rolled over and blinked. Her eyes focused on Magdalen and she sat up. “Why are you up so early?”

“Oh, I’m hungry, and ... I was tired of lying in bed.” Both of which were true. She had awoken before anyone else and could not stop thinking about her situation, trying to think of what to say in her letters, writing them over and over in her head.

Her mind also kept going back to the shepherd, Steffan. Where would he get paper and ink? What if he was lying to her? She might not even see him again if he did not graze his sheep in the same meadow.

When Katrin finished dressing, they went together to the privy, to the well to get water to wash their hands and faces, and then to the servants’ dining hall. They were almost the first to arrive, and Steffan was not there.

The breakfast was the usual porridge, but today it had a scorched taste.

Katrin looked disgusted. “Can they at least not burn the tasteless food?”

“It isn’t tasteless. Now it tastes like coal.”

“Or half-burned peat.”

Magdalen put another bite in her mouth. She would have to wait several more hours before eating again, so she chewed thebits of oats in the porridge and swallowed. Katrin held her nose while shoveling it in. “It’s easier to eat it if you can’t smell it.”

Magdalen ate another bite, also holding her nose. But after three more bites, her stomach began to protest. Since she didn’t want it coming back up, she put her spoon down and took a deep breath.

She took notice of every face around the room and each person who came in the door. Steffan had not shown up. She let out a deep sigh. How would she get her paper and ink now? But she still hoped she would see him in the meadow. The hours went by so much faster the day before, and it must have been because she’d had Steffan to talk to.

Magdalen fetched the geese, letting them follow her down the castle mount and to the meadow where they’d grazed the day before. Steffan was not there either. She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding when she saw that she and the geese were the only ones there.

Ah, well. She didn’t need Steffan. Perhaps God wanted to teach her that she did not need to depend on this man’s help. God wanted to show her He could provide the paper and ink—and fend off the dullness of a long day—another way.

She sat beside one of the friendly geese, whom she had namedFlaumig, and stroked her back while she fed on the tender green grass and clover.

Suddenly she heard the gentle bleating sounds of a flock of sheep coming her way. She watched the narrow pathway from the other end of the meadow, her heart beating just a bit faster when Steffan appeared, leading his sheep.

His whole face was scrunched as he caught sight of her. “Youwill not believe what has happened. I am beginning to think Wolfberg the most lawless, evil place I’ve ever been to.”

“What? What happened?”

“The paper and ink you wanted? I had them. I had them in my small trunk, which I kept under my bed, and some scoundrel has stolen them. Stolen everything!” He threw his arms out wide as though the statement was inconceivable.

“Nothing truly valuable was in the trunk,” he went on. “No gold or silver or copper coins. I was not foolish enough to leave such things in plain sight. But some people will steal anything. The only things they did not steal were my books.”

He looked like he had the first time she’d seen him in the dining hall, with his brows drawn down in a scowl. How could a shepherd—one of the lowliest of the servant positions—be so appalled that someone would steal his things? And how did a shepherd know how to read or have the money to possess books and paper and ink?

He squatted next to his sheep and pounded his fist into the ground.

She would have felt more pity for him if he had not lost the paper and ink she so desperately needed. “How did you get paper and ink? Perhaps you could go acquire some more.”

“I ... brought it with me.”

“You are not from Wolfberg?”

He heaved a sigh. “Do you want to hear all about my life ...now?” He ran his hand through his hair. “You haven’t even told me your real name.”

“You did not bring me any paper or ink.”

“As I just explained to you, they were stolen.”

“You did not uphold your end of our agreement, but if youcannot get any paper and ink ...” She did not want to be cruel, but she needed those materials.