Page 9 of The Piper's Pursuit

Hennek’s pinched look was slowly changing into a snide little smile, then a toothy grin as he turned toward Steffan.

“I wish you success, Lord Steffan, in hunting the beast.”

LordSteffan? Wasn’t that taking things a bit far in addressing a simple mercenary like this man?

“I honed my hunting skills in the Harz Mountains just outside of Hagenheim. And I fought in the Polish-Teutonic battles a year ago.”

“A soldier! Very good!” Hennek boomed.

Her stepfather never liked anyone else showing him up, and since he had never fought in a battle, he became quite loud to draw the attention back to himself—one of his many grating traits.

Steffan stared down at his frumenty. Was that regret in his expression?

“Kill many Poles, did you?” Hennek’s smile was obscenely broad.

Steffan cleared his throat, not quite meeting Hennek’s eyes. “I was fighting with the Teutonic Knights, but I’ve since parted company with them.”

“Parted company? Fighting was not to your liking, then?”

“No, it wasn’t.” Steffan seemed to let out a breath he was holding. He reached for his goblet and drank a gulp.

“Couldn’t stomach killing men, eh? But killing wolves is more to your liking?”

Steffan gazed down at his bowl. “You could say that.”

Well, perhaps the stranger from Hagenheim did have a bit of humility inside him.

Then he looked up at Hennek, the sad, humble look completely gone, if it had ever been there. He gave Hennek a wry smile. “My father taught me and my brothers and sisters to do good, never evil, with whatever skills or resources we have.”

“Oh yes, the Duke of Hagenheim would certainly teach his sons to do right. That is exactly how I live my life as well. I support the orphanage in town with my own money, and I do not use the town’s coffers for any of the orphans’ expenses. That has always been my way. I please God in all that I do. God is our ultimate Sovereign, and He requires we do good. When I was...”

Hennek began one of his hypocritical stories about some good deed he had done, but Katerina was no longer listening. Was Steffan the son of Duke Wilhelm of Hagenheim? That must be why Hennek allowed him to come to dinner and called him Lord Steffan. Her cheeks heated. That might explain why he was so arrogant. And she had not exactly treated him with deference.

He must think her ridiculous, a mayor’s daughter giving him disdainful looks, judging him when he was the powerful Duke of Hagenheim’s son. But then, why should she care if he was a duke’s son? He was a man just like anyone else. God was no respecter of persons, so why should she be? And if God hated haughty eyes and prideful looks, Katerina could hate them too.

“...and then the duke appointed me mayor of Hamlin.” Hennek sat back and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Now, tell us about your oldest brother, Lord Hamlin. We are due a visit from him soon. Has he been helping his father keep the rabble in their place?” He laughed as though it were a very amusing jest.

“I am not certain what my brother Valten has been doing. I’ve been away, as I mentioned.” Steffan turned his eyes on Katerina and gave her a look that at first seemed humble. But then his lips stretched into a small smile, and he winked, a movement so quick...

Humble, ha! He was no more humble than Hennek was. Probably the two men were quite similar, bullying their way through life, squashing ordinary people under their feet to get ahead. Oh yes, she’d heard of this younger son of Duke Wilhelm’s. The rumors were that he was a drinker and carouser and that he had left his father’s soldiers and gone instead to the enemy side, the Teutonic Knights, to satisfy his own ambition. These dukes and earls and their sons were all the same. They seduced women and laughed at their pain when they abandoned them. No doubt Steffan had done the same everywhere he went. She had heard Duke Wilhelm was a good and God-fearing man, though many people thought Hennek was as well. A reputation for righteousness meant very little in Katerina’s mind after living with a man who proclaimed, very loudly, his own.

But perhaps what she’d heard about the Duke of Hagenheim had been true and this Steffan had not been pleased to live under his rule. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t been home in so long.

“Katerina, you would like it if Lord Steffan killed the beast, would you not?” Hennek met her eye before he started laughing again, that fake laugh that went on and on, one of his many ways of controlling those around him, forcing them to wait until his loud laughter stopped before they could speak and be heard.

No one spoke. Everyone’s eyes were on her, even Mother’s. No doubt she worried what Katerina might say in front of Lord Steffan, the son of the lord of this land.

“I would be very glad if Lord Steffan was able to kill the beast,” Katerina said. “Then the people of Hamlin would no longer have to be afraid.”

Hennek chuckled. “She is a smart girl after all. My daughter would like being married to a duke’s son, would she not?”

She gave Hennek, then Steffan, her coldest look. “I am a free woman in the eyes of the Church, and I will not marry against my will. And it most certainly isnotmy will to marry.”

Three

Steffan couldn’t say he was surprised at the cold look the Bürgermeister’s daughter sent his way, but he was a bit surprised at her giving the same look to her stepfather. No one even moved for several seconds after her softly spoken but biting words.

She was not impressed that he was Duke Wilhelm’s son, then. He admired that. After all, he had done nothing to merit his status. And Katerina was just the sort of woman to only respect and admire people who had earned her respect and admiration.