Page 10 of The Piper's Pursuit

Another sensation went through his chest. He suddenly wanted to earn her respect.

Her chestnut-brown hair lay uncovered and unfettered over her shoulders, her eyes sparking as she stared back at him. Her dress was colorful and fine, transforming her from the peasant girl she had appeared to be on the street into a wealthy burgher’s daughter. But he barely saw the dress because he couldn’t tear his gaze away from her deep blue eyes.

He would never try to force anyone to marry him. However, if she ended upwantingto marry him...

He closed his eyes, shutting out her lovely face, and mentally shook himself. The girl was beautiful, but he was not ready to marry.

He focused on the food in his bowl. The frumenty contained juicy chunks of pork and was delicious. And he didn’t even like frumenty. As soon as he’d inhaled the last spoonful, the servants entered and whisked away his bowl, replacing it with a plate. A servant laid a slice of bread in the middle of the plate, then ladled meat and gravy on the bread. More dishes—stewed fruit and cooked vegetables swimming in sauces, all steaming hot—were brought in on large platters and set in the middle of the table.

“Take some of everything,” Hennek boomed. “A young man like you needs his strength! Eat up! There’s plenty of food in the kitchen!”

The food looked delicious, but Steffan got a niggling sensation in his gut over how Hennek had treated his wife and daughter. Hennek seemed jolly and cordial enough, and his words, which had angered Katerina so much, seemed more careless than spiteful. But it was the looks on the two women’s faces and their reactions to Hennek that made Steffan uneasy. Hennek had unnecessarily mentioned Katerina marrying, more than once, which obviously infuriated her.

He’d never really thought about it before, but it would be humiliating to have someone offer you in marriage, especially when you did not know the person to whom you were being offered. It made him want to protect this girl.

The mayor had such a friendly smile. Perhaps he meant no harm. Though Steffan had never heard or seen his father embarrass his sisters or push a man on them. He couldn’t even imagine it.

In the past year, after what had happened with Wolfgang and the Teutonic Knights, Steffan had realized how wise his father was. Everything he’d said about the Teutonic Knights, which Steffan had thought reflected his father’s unjust prejudice, had actually been true. And his father was kind. His orders, telling Steffan what to do and what not to do, had only been a father trying to save his son from pain. His brothers and sisters had seemed to know that all along. Why had it taken Steffan so long to realize that his father and mother were good? That they had only had his best interest at heart all along?

But hadn’t he changed? He’d saved his brother’s life, after all. He still bore the scar above his eye from that tilt.

Hennek ladled stewed fruit onto Steffan’s plate. “Try this,” Hennek said, “and tell me if the cooks at Hagenheim Castle have anything this good.”

Steffan tasted the fruit. “It’s good.” But he refused to say it was better than Hagenheim’s cooks’ fruit. Could he be feeling a newfound loyalty to home?

Hennek began talking again, his blustery voice filling the room.

“My daughter here thinks she can kill the beast herself. What say you, Steffan? Do you think you can out-track her?”

“I do not know.” Truthfully, he had never done much tracking. His father had a master tracker who led their hunting parties. He’d done his own tracking in the last year, whenever he’d tried to fell a deer—with little success. But he wasn’t about to tell them that.

“Is Katerina a good tracker?” Steffan addressed the question to Hennek but kept his gaze on Katerina. Her lips thinned and she glared at him, her blue eyes darkening.

“I guess you will find out.” Katerina completely ignored her stepfather and went back to eating her food.

“My daughter likes to feign this fractious attitude.” Hennek laughed, a forced, aggressive sound. “She goes out every day with her crossbow and tells the servants she’s going to kill the beast, but she hasn’t killed it yet. Perhaps she feels pity for it and doesn’t truly want to kill it. Women are such gentle creatures. Not fierce like men.”

“I am fierce enough to slay a beast that kills children.” Katerina’s voice was quiet but seemed to shiver with a hard edge. “And you will find that I am not too gentle to put a bolt through the skull of any animal that bares its teeth at me, including ones that walk on two feet.”

With this she slowly and deliberately turned her head to stare straight at Hennek. But it was the look on Hennek’s face as he returned her stare that sent a jolt of heat up Steffan’s neck and across his shoulders. Would he have to defend the girl?

Hennek licked his lips and looked away from her. Then he laughed.

“Have you ever heard such talk from one of your sisters, Lord Steffan? I imagine your sisters are much more submissive.”

“Less than you might think.” Steffan glanced back at Katerina. “They’ve been known to fight back when someone threatens them and would no doubt approve of her hunting—”

Hennek cut him off by shouting at the servants to bring out the rest of the food. Then he said, “No one has been able to kill this beast. Soon there may be so many people hunting it that you’ll be likelier to shoot each other.”

Hennek’s laugh this time was even less genuine than before, sounding brittle and fake. Steffan glanced at both Katerina’s and her mother’s expressions. The girl’s face was red, tight-lipped, and her jaw hard as stone, while her mother’s was white, her bottom lip trembling, her eyes blinking rapidly.

“How many people have tried to kill the beast so far?” Steffan asked, trying to keep Hennek from further upsetting the women.

“Oh, there have been some, but they were not fierce hunters, only peasants from the area, and one or two of them were killed by the beast.” Hennek eyed Steffan as he took another bite of food. “But you, Lord Steffan, should be in Hagenheim helping your father, trying to curry your brother’s favor so you can inherit a grand estate somewhere.”

Heat leapt to Steffan’s cheeks.

“Oh, I know you are wanting to make your own way in the world. I understand that, of course! Look at me. I earned my success. I did not wait for my father to leave me an inheritance. He was the illegitimate son of the Duke of Braunschweig, and he distinguished himself in the Duke of Hagenheim’s guard. He was a captain when your grandfather was still alive. And he made sure his son was educated in some of the best households in the Holy Roman Empire. Now I’m the Bürgermeister of Hamlin, and you will also do well for yourself. A man who goes out seeking adventure, however, must be ready for it when it comes.” The shrewd look he aimed at Steffan did not match his smile.