4. Chapter Four
Chapter Four
Valda
B efore I can properly react to the audacity of such a threat, Konrad uses our joined arms to yank me back before releasing me.
I stumble backward, catching myself in front of an alley between two warehouses.
When I turn back, Konrad has the knife-wielding man by the wrist. “This isn’t what we agreed to.”
Agreed to?
The scent of Konrad’s guilt is only combated by the bloodlust of the man threatening me.
I glance around for Eloise, but the child has scampered away, hopefully to somewhere safer.
Suddenly, hands grab my hood and yank me into the shadows of the alley just as it flies off.
“How dare you!” I cry, yanking my skirt up to find my garter sheath.
“How dare he what?” hisses another man.
Once my black dagger is in hand, I whirl around the two fellows, yanking my hood out of their grip .
These new assailants are identical, except one bears a silver tooth and the other has gold instead. Both have the weathered skin of sailors who cannot resist the sea.
“You dare touch me?” I brandish my blade at them. “You’ll pay for that.”
I lunge at them both, moving straight through the middle so they don’t know who I’ll attack first before I spin to the right. I stab that one in the collarbone.
He yowls as the man who must be his brother grabs my shoulders and pulls me backward. I kick at the man I stabbed, knocking him over.
I’m still clutching my dagger, and I reach to stab one of the offending hands. But my vision spins for a moment and I lose my balance. My blade slashes his garments but doesn’t pierce his skin.
Dazed, I turn to the brothers, sense their wonder at my speed and skill mixed with their pain and rage. I can almost taste the coppery flow of their blood in the air.
I take a faltering step toward them, and both men recoil. They needn’t have bothered, because my knees buckle.
Before I can stain my skirt on the filthy ground, brawny arms wrap around me, keeping me upright.
Looking up, I see Konrad’s concerned face. Actually, I see two of his faces. But that can’t be right— he’s not a twin like those two fellows . . .
“I’m so sorry,” Konrad says, pulling me completely into his arms like the first night we met.
My head nestles against his heartbeat, a gentle rhythm I didn’t realize I missed in my own chest. I can blink and breathe out of habit, but I can’t fake a heartbeat.
More than that, I enjoy being in Konrad’s arms. I think I belong here. Why is he apologizing? For not holding me sooner? Longer? The entire night long so I can actually feel warm again?
Konrad’s gaze falls on my injured shoulder, and he curses. “They weren’t supposed to manhandle you.”
“That’s what I . . . tried to tell them.”
He tries to adjust his hold on me so he can better inspect my wound, but I keep my hand in place so he cannot see it. My dagger falls from my hand despite my efforts.
“I’ll see to it that no more harm comes to you while under my charge,” Konrad adds as other hands wrap my cloak more around me and pull my hood up over my face.
I’m too weary to look to see who it might be. Why am I so tired? I never feel exhausted until sunset, and then . . .
Poison! I must have been poisoned. A sleeping tonic must have been slipped to me. A potent one to overcome my natural immunities. It must have contained nightshade . . .
Confused, I look back up at Konrad the best I can with my hood halfway over my eyes. Did he say I was under his charge? I’m under no one’s charge but my own. And why aren’t we running? Why aren’t our assailants attacking us even though he is busy holding me?
Then I remember the way Konrad leaned strangely over my nasty ale that I didn’t even want to drink. I haven’t felt right since then—
My eyes widen for a moment of clarity, even as darkness swims in my vision. “You son of a—”
“ W erw?lfe!” I gasp before my eyes are even open.
“Yes?” Konrad’s voice is weary.
Peeling my eyes open, I am relieved that it is still daylight. I am less relieved to find myself in what appears to be the captain’s cabin of a ship. Portholes let the sun in to illuminate the cot I’m lying on and nautical furniture nailed to the floor.
Konrad is sitting on a nailed-down chair, his hands folded in his lap as he faces me, his features pinched with . . . remorse?
Woozily, I glance down to see that I’m wearing the same coral dress I put on this morning, and the bleeding heart blooms are still in their place, but are a tad crushed. My tonic perfume is also still on my person, and I’m still wearing my silk gloves that serve both as a protection from the sun and a protection from me accidentally scratching someone and infecting them with venom beneath my nails.
Only my cloak has been removed and is hanging on a hook in the wall.
I push myself up to a sitting position, waiting for the vertigo to pass before speaking. “What? Not the brig?”
“As you have surmised, Valda—”
“ Lady Valda.”
Konrad sighs. “ Lady Valda, you are in my custody. But you are my guest, not my prisoner.”
I cross my arms over my chest and glance out of the closest porthole. I see waves but no trace of land. Are we already at sea? “Do you always take your guests against their will?”
“I’m afraid I’m a bit out of practice. I haven’t had any guests over since your father allowed my home to be ransacked.”
And there it is, the truth behind Konrad’s betrayal— he is one of my vater’s many enemies. Unfortunately for him, he does not know my vater has other plans for an enemy like Konrad. “I am terribly sorry that you faced such ill tidings, but I hardly see what that has to do with me . ”
Konrad buries his face under his hands. “Your father is not a man with many vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, you were the only one I could find.”
He was so pretty, too. Why did Konrad have to go and expose himself as a fool?
I glance between my cloak and the cabin door. It is unlikely to be locked with him still within. Especially since he thinks I am merely a “vulnerability.”
“What I said stands. No harm will come to you while you are under my charge. Once your father sends the ransom for you, you are free to go.” Konrad glances back up, his expression pained.
I can use that. “Tell me,” I demand imperially, even as I waver unnecessarily to create a fa?ade of weakness. “Is your plan the reason you cut your kiss short . . . Or why you kissed me back in the first place?”
Konrad’s eyes widen, and his ears turn red. He turns away from me. “I assure you— our kiss didn’t factor into my plans at all. And I apologize for the terrible lapse of chivalry this has all been—”
Ignoring the rest of his ridiculous apology, I dart from my bed to my cloak. I yank it off its hook and pull it over me as I rush to the door. It truly is unlocked, and I bound onto the deck.
There are several men bustling around, but I dance between them as I scan my surroundings. Just as I feared, it’s ocean all around. But I think I see the silhouette of Trotzdem on the horizon. I think I can swim it, but . . .
I glance toward the sun. It hangs too low on the horizon. I won’t be able to reach shore before sunset.
“The prisoner escaped!”
At the high-pitched squeak, I glance up at the crow’s nest from beneath my hood. Little Eloise is perched up there and gesturing at me wildly .
The little snitch . . .
A man turns toward me from where he was tying knots. He has no hair to blow with the breeze, and I remember him as the first man who attacked us— well, me — at the wharf.
He gives me a toothless grin as he approaches. “Hello again, little missy.”
Suddenly, Konrad slides between us, his hair in disarray as he fills my vision. His frock coat billows behind him, and he looks like a pirate in this setting— an unfortunately attractive pirate compared to these other fellows, who seem unfamiliar with personal hygiene.
“Valda, I’m sorry,” he gasps, gripping me by the elbow.
I try to pull away, but with the audience we have, I don’t let myself succeed. “For which offense? The kidnapping or the kiss?”
“Both?”
My scowl deepens.
Konrad’s eyes widen in confusion. “Just the kidnapping? Just the kiss?”
“Let’s focus on your graver sin right now.” I make my face fall, hoping the water droplets gifted by the sea breeze look enough like tears as I infuse sorrow into my voice. “Just take me back. I swear by all the saints I won’t turn you in if you release me.”
My captor sighs heavily, seeming as aware of our audience as I am. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. But your stay here will be comfortable and—”
I release a dramatic sob. “I’m so scared!”
“Please do not be afeared!” Konrad awkwardly pulls me into his arms where I have decided I definitely do not belong, warm embrace or not. “No harm will come—”
Pushing out of his arms, I use his moment of unsteadiness to topple him overboard .
As he yells his ironic last word to me in surprise, I lean over the bulkhead. “ That was for the kiss.”