As she was being dragged away to the dungeon, Sophie had glimpsed Lorencz entering the duchess’s chamber. Were the rumors about him and the duchess true?
The huntsman had arrived at Hohendorf a few years before. He was handsome — even Sophie thought so — with his wavy brown hair and daring smile. And he had seen much more of the world than anyone else she knew. All the female servants sighed over him, giggling and whispering whenever he came into view. His confident swagger differed greatly from the bent-over, bowlegged shuffle of most of the men in the village, and his bright-green leather jerkin, brown-leather knee boots, and jaunty cap were a stark contrast to the dull-brown woolen tunics, loose hose, and hoods with long, floppy tippets the servants and poor villagers wore. Compared to them, Lorencz was almost a different creature.
But it was no business of Sophie’s what the huntsman and the duchess did together. She wouldn’t waste time thinking about them.
She shivered as the shadows deepened outside the high, grated window, located at eye level. The early spring air still wielded a sharp chill. Despite the breeze, the small dungeon chamber reeked of human waste, proof it hadn’t been cleaned since the last person spent time here, but she was already growing used to the smell. Stench was the least of her troubles.
As Sophie paced the dungeon cell, she prayed for Duchess Ermengard, since the book of Saint Luke told her to love her enemies. It was a difficult task, she had to admit. But the verses also said that God would someday put her enemies under her feet. She supposed she needed to be righteous for God to do that, so she continued praying for her enemy.
Duchess Ermengard was an unhappy person, given to vengeful speeches and angry outbursts, and Sophie shuddered to think how the duchess would be punished if the injustices perpetrated by her — especially all the cruel things she had done to the innocent people who served her — were discovered. Trying to kill defenseless puppies was the least of her offenses. Sophie had heard whisperings of people the duchess had murdered over the years, often with poison the duchess concocted herself. And she had killed at least one servant Sophie knew of, a servant who had attempted to leave Hohendorf without the duchess’s permission.
The duchess’s sins spread yet farther. She had destroyed the castle’s chapel when Sophie was only seven years old, and she’d done away with the village priest. Sophie wasn’t sure if the duchess had killed him, but she must have, or he would have told someone what she’d done. The church in Hohendorf had been vandalized and looted, but many people, including Sophie, still went there to pray. She could still see the young priest’s face, could still recall his reverent look when he spoke of Jesus the Christ and his love for mankind, his sacrificial suffering.
One of the maids had rescued an illuminated, transcribed portion of the Holy Writ that had been destroyed when the duchess burned the chapel. The rescued pages contained the book of Saint Luke, or most of it. Sophie had kept this precious portion of the Bible hidden ever since, and only took it out when she was certain none of the duchess’s spies were about. She wished she had it now so she could read it. In truth, she practically had the whole portion memorized.
The familiarity had come in part because she often had to read it aloud to the other servants, as she was the only one who could decipher its words. The priest had secretly begun teaching her Latin when she was five years old, claiming it was because she was the last surviving member of a noble family, though she still didn’t know what he’d meant by that or who her parents were. She had long ago decided the priest must have been mistaken — what noble parents would leave their daughter in such a dreary and hopeless demesne, and as the lowest servant of such an evil duchess?
Facing the small window, Sophie let her mind travel. She was standing in the middle of a sunlight-drenched meadow, situated in a safe, spacious, warm land far away from the duchess and her evil intentions. She was free. No one was yelling at her or belittling her or locking her in a dungeon.