21
She entered the tavern; she was late and therefore probably in trouble. She called her apologies as she removed her shawl and went to collect some tankards that hadn't been moved from the night before. From the corner of her eye she saw that there was someone sat by the window. That wasn't right, the tavern wasn't open and breakfast was finished for those guests that had stayed the night. She turned towards the someone, who turned out to be a man with a book.
"I'm sorry sir, you will have to leave. I'm afraid that the tavern isn't open yet."
As she looked at the man, he seemed vaguely familiar, but she didn't know where she had seen him before. He turned towards her.
"Jake!"
Her face broke into a smile and she went towards him and took him in her arms. It had been well over a year since he had sat there, and despite all that had been said to her by the tavern owner and the staff she had never quite given up on him or his promise to return with her story.
"And he says that I'm the one who attracts the women!"
She turned and saw his brother, Will? standing by the fireplace.
"You found him! It's been so long, I thought that you weren't going to return.
"Lucky for you, my brother is one who keeps his promises."
"Will, you know each other?"
"He came here, looking for you over a year ago and I told him about your promise."
Jake had never told Will why he wanted to come to the tavern, he thought that he would think it was stupid to keep a promise like that. But now it turned out that Will had know about it all along. Will approached them at the table and removed something from his pocket.
"Here you are, fair lady. The money we owe you."
He placed a bag on the table; Kristina lifted it and felt the coins inside.
"And here is the story I promised you."
Jake reached into his bag and withdrew a large, but slim package. It had her name on the front and was sealed. He handed it to her.
"Thank you."
She stared at the package. She had the feeling that it contained something special.
"And what is going on here then?" They all turned to see the tavern owner standing behind the bar, "I only let the two of you in because you said it was an emergency."
"It was," replied Will "You have no idea what 's it like when Jake needs to keep a promise."
Kristine let out a laugh, which was quickly silenced by a look from the tavern owner.
"Don't worry, my brother and I are leaving. Good day, Kristina and I hope that we will see you again."
Jake moved to join his brother and they started to walk toward the door.
"I hope he paid the money he owed."
He had finally recognised the one with the glasses as the one who had conned Kristina with the promise of a story.
"He did." She replied, showing him the bag of money.
"And what's in there?" he said indicating the parcel that she had in her hands.
"The story." Replied the younger of the two men.
"The story! What's it about?"
"A man who rescues a princess from a tower where she had been imprisoned by an evil queen who is a witch."
"Not base on reality then?" whispered Will to his brother.
"Rescuing people from witches! Who do you think you are, the Brothers Grimm?"
"And what would you do if you had the Brothers Grimm here?" asked the blond man.
"Report them to the French, of course. They are wanted men."
"As far as I am aware the French have been looking for them for over a year. What make you think that they are still around here?"
"I don't think they are. The stories I've heard about them say that they were frauds, anyway, conning people out of their savings. Who would help them?"
"I don't really know. But I fear that my brother and I have taken up too much of your valuable time. Jake, we should be going."
They both walked out of the tavern. The owner crossed to the door and watched as they went to horses tied up across the street.
"Kristina, get back to work. Do I pay to stand around and stare?"
"No sir."
Kristina turned and walked behind the bar, depositing the money in the cashbox, placing the parcel behind the bar and returned to clearing the last of the tankards from the table. As soon as the bar owner had returned to the kitchen she removed the parcel, it was sealed with a large blob of red wax with what looked like a G stamped in it. She gently slit the seal. She removed the sheets of paper it contained and held them in her hands. There must have been ten of them, each crammed with neat hand written text on both sides. She had been lucky, as a child her mother had been on good terms with the local schoolmaster, and he had taught her and her brothers and sisters to read. She glanced slowly through the pages; he eyes alighting on a word here and there. There had been a brief note attached to the first page, signed by Jake and as he turned the final page over she saw at the bottom of the page a more formal note of authorship. She gasped as she read it; "Jacob Grimm" and she stared at the door that they had just left through.
"Our course," she said to no one in particular, "Will and Jake… Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm!"
She held the pages close and gave a small-excited laugh. Here was something she could treasure! She had heard stories about them and from what she had seen of the brothers she was sure they were the heroes that they said they were and to hell with the stories of their being frauds. They were just circulated by the French to get people to tell them where they were!
---
"Will, Kristina said that you had met her while you were searching for me? What happened?"
Although Jake had told Will about what had happened to him. Will had never said what had happened whilst they were looking for him. Jake had assumed that that they had just followed his trail and found him in the barn; to be honest he hadn't really got that far. But now he thought that there might be something more to it.
Will swung himself into the saddle, turned and looked back at his brother and smiled. He planned to tell Jake about what had happened during his search for him, but not today. That tale deserved it's own time and place.
"Jake, will you hurry up! I promised Angelika we would be back for noon."
Will turned his horse and started towards the town gates, well aware that Jake wasn't even in the saddle yet.
"Will, wait for me! What happened? Why wont you tell me!"
Will turned to see his brother struggling, his bag having got caught on the saddle.
"Jake, why must you always be lagging behind?"
He turned back and urged his horse on. Behind him he could hear Jake still struggling to catch him up.