Page 30 of The Piper's Pursuit

“Are there any sweetmeats?” Katerina deliberately made her voice loud.

Hilde and Grette jumped and spun around, clasping at their throats. “You frightened us nearly to death,” Hilde whispered.

“Forgive me.” She kept talking loudly. “I believe I found something.” She lifted up a cloth and did indeed find a soft pastry, fat with filling. But the words were for Steffan’s ears, if only he wasn’t dull of understanding.

Nine

Steffan only pretended to drink the strong drink Hennek had poured for them. Perhaps it was because he was so intent on what Katerina was doing, but he wasn’t as tempted by Hennek’s liquor as he had thought he would be. The smell was still familiar and enticing, but given a choice between getting drunk and Katerina, he chose the girl.

He did his best to nod and smile at appropriate times while Hennek talked on and on about himself. Then he heard Katerina’s voice in the kitchen. He focused his gaze on Hennek’s face, but he was listening intently to Katerina.

“I believe I found something.”

The words were muffled, but there was no mistaking them.

She said something else that was too low for him to make out. Then he heard her say, “I think I’ll go hunting.”

Other female voices, a bit lower than Katerina’s, answered her.

Hennek kept talking. Indeed, he seemed too intent on telling how his leadership had improved life in Hamlin to have heard Katerina. “Except for the rats, which you will rid us of, eh, Lord Steffan? To win the hand of a beauty like Katerina?”

Steffan smiled. “You know”—he pushed his chair away from the table—“I should go now and plot my strategy for getting rid of the rats. I have many ideas, actually.”

“Ideas? Won’t you share them with me?”

“Oh, poison them, trap them in a net, drive them into the river. Many ideas.” Steffan stood and headed for the door.

Hennek was still talking. “You hardly drank anything.”

“Thank you! I’m off to find some rats.” Steffan hurried out the front door before Hennek could say another word.

Steffan glanced around. As if his words conjured them, a herd of chittering rats was scurrying down the cobblestone street. People scrambled to get out of the way. Steffan waited for them to pass and caught sight of Katerina hurrying around the corner of the narrow street that bordered her stepfather’s house on one side. She must have gone out the back door. Steffan trotted after her.

He caught up with her. Her face was lit up and her eyes seemed to sparkle in the sun. He glanced behind him.

“Is anyone following us?” she asked without looking at him.

“No. Wait.” He saw movement. It was the man who had been with Otto earlier. “Yes, there is someone. One of Hennek’s guards.”

“We shall have to lose him. Keep up with me.” She suddenly darted down a side street and broke into a run.

Steffan ran just behind her. At the end of that street she hastened down another street, then another and another. Steffan no longer saw the guard following them. But when they reached the town gate, he’d probably be there waiting for them.

They suddenly came to a dead end—the town wall was directly in front of them. But Katerina kept going forward. A narrow alley led along behind the back wall of a house, just wide enough for a couple of people, and Katerina went down it a short way, then looked up at the wall.

An opening was there, about a foot above her head. She started climbing. When she reached the makeshift window in the wall, she stuck her head into it and wiggled and squirmed, then, pushing her feet against the wall behind them, she disappeared from view.

Steffan blew out the breath he’d been holding while he watched her shimmy through the opening in the wall, then he did his best to climb up as well. Thankfully, there were several jutting stones that made good foot- and handholds, and he pulled himself onto the bottom ledge.

This was harder than she made it look. Especially since he was wider than she was, and his arm was still throbbing. He scraped his elbows as he pulled himself through, his sword, which was strapped across his back, scraping the top of the opening.

He tucked his head as he fell to the ground on the other side and landed on the back of his shoulders. At least the opening wasn’t as high off the ground on this side as it was on the other side.

“Are you all right?” Katerina squatted by his side. Her face hovered over his.

Steffan lay on his back. “Just catching my breath.”

“I may have some evidence of Hennek’s corruption from his study. I also found two maps,” she whispered. “I’m wondering if they could be of a mine underneath the town.”