Page 56 of The Piper's Pursuit

Kat hadn’t even noticed the ravine. She stepped closer. It wasn’t terribly deep, but it was steep. Steffan started climbing down, sliding the last ten feet.

“There’s a little stream down here,” Steffan called, “but keep walking with the children until the ravine gets less steep.”

She kept the children moving. “Let’s sing another song. Do you know this one?” She started singing, “Under the linden, on the heath.” She sang of crushed flowers and grass and a nightingale’s song. If only her life were so peaceful, had ever been so peaceful.

Would these children ever find their way back to their secure and pleasant life, at home with their loving families? Some of them were probably like her when she was a child, left with no father, caring for herself and her mother rather than the other way around. And many of them were orphans.

She finished that song and started singing of King Wenceslaus, the saint, and of his good deeds for the poor and needy. After that song, she started one about the crusaders, “Palästinalied.” Steffan joined in from the ravine below, and the sounds they were making quite cheered her. She suddenly didn’t feel as tired anymore.

Katerina stepped off the road to peer down and saw that the ravine was growing more gradually sloped. She readjusted the little girl in her arms, propping her on her other hip, and kept walking, a bit faster now.

Steffan carried the tune well. Their voices seemed to blend as he sang the man’s part and she sang soprano, the lyrics all about seeing the Holy Land where their Lord once walked.

Soon Kat spied the water below, in spite of the forested ravine.

“This looks like a good spot,” Kat called down to Steffan. “Should I let the children come to you?”

“Send them down.” Steffan climbed up most of the way and helped the younger children. The older ones were able to go down without help. Kat followed at the end.

The children were kneeling and drinking out of their hands from the little fast-moving stream. Kat joined them. After she drank so much she felt a bit queasy in her stomach, she splashed her face, rubbing her cheeks with her fingers. The children were already lying down on the grassy bank, their eyes closed.

Kat sat near the littlest ones. Gazing up toward the road, she suspected no one could see them, unless they got completely off the road and gazed down, and even then they might not notice them through the thick foliage of the trees.

“Do you think we are safe enough here to stay for a while?” Katerina asked Steffan, who was sitting near her.

Steffan seemed to be thinking, then he said, “I’ll go see if I can buy some bread. You rest.”

“You need rest too.”

“I’ll be all right. But when I come back and they’ve eaten a bit, we shall have to force them all to get up again. It may seem cruel, but we have to get them to the town and hide them.”

“Yes. I understand.”

Steffan met her eye a moment, then turned to go up the bank.

“Steffan.”

He stopped and faced her.

What should she say? Be careful? Stay safe? “Thank you.”

He smiled. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Steffan was not at all the spoiled and privileged duke’s son she’d thought he was. And he had never been unseemly with her, not even when they were alone together. Did that mean he didn’t find her attractive?

“Ack.” Why was she thinking like this? With tears flooding her eyes? She was just tired, that was all. But should she stay awake and keep watch over the children? She should pray that Steffan didn’t get caught and that they would find kind people to help them in Keiterhafen. But she could lie down at least. She could pray lying down as well as sitting up.

Kat glanced around, making sure all the children were resting and still, then pillowed her head on her arm and started praying.

The next thing she heard was Steffan’s voice, so familiar and comforting.

Kat opened her eyes and Steffan was standing over her. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, of course.” She sat up quickly, despising how groggy and slurred her words sounded.

Steffan started rousing the children and handing them bread. Some clutched their bread to their little chests and then fell back to sleep.

Steffan gently lifted one boy by his arms and sat him up, tapping his cheeks with his fingers until the boy’s eyes opened.