Chapter 4—The Morning After the Masque Ball

After she finally stopped crying, Danielle slept in the barn. In the morning, the ground was soft enough to harvest. Danielle attacked it as though she was out to kill a dragon, slamming the hoe into the ground relentlessly. She was so caught up in it that she did not notice Rodmilla come up behind her.

"I have it on good authority that before your rather embarrassing debut last night, the Prince was about to choose Marguerite for his bride." Danielle did not answer. Instead, she picked up a basket of vegetables she had already picked and walked away from her stepmother, who followed her. "Men are so fickle. One moment they're spouting sonnets, and the next you're back to being the hired help."

Danielle stalked away, thinking, It can't hurt me anymore. There's nothing left to hurt. Rodmilla followed, still intent on sinking a barb. "But, I must say, I've never seen you quite this dedicated to your chores."

Danielle spat out a few words as she walked. "What makes you think I do any of this for you?"

"My, my, aren't we feisty this morning?" Rodmilla took a shortcut and Danielle found her path blocked.

"Let me pass!"

"You brought this upon yourself, you know."

Danielle took a deep breath and stared coldly into her stepmother's eyes. "Don't you understand? You've won! Go! Move into the palace and leave us be!"

"You're not my problem anymore."

"Is that all I am, your problem?" Danielle was stung. "I did everything you ever asked me to do and still you denied me the only thing I ever wanted!"

"Oh, and what was that?"

"What do you think? You are the only mother I have ever known. Was there ever a time, even in its smallest measurement, that you loved me at all?" The pleading in her tone was real. Rodmilla looked at her through slit eyes.

"How can anyone love a pebble in their shoe?"

Danielle lost all will to do anything. It had been plain to her ever since her father's death that Rodmilla did not love her like a daughter. Yet she had always hoped that there might have been some infinitesimal bit of love or kindness beneath that cruel façade . . . but now the hope was all gone. There had never been anything. She barely heard the first part of Rodmilla's next words. "Frankly, I never understood why you stayed on as long as you have."

Danielle was stone cold. "Because one day you will be dead and the manoir will still be here, and so will I. You've been a trespasser in my father's house for far too long." Rodmilla was about to answer sharply when Paulette called from the window in astonishment.

"Mistress, Danielle, it's back, all of it!" Rodmilla and Danielle hurried to the drive and Danielle was shocked to find all of the missing furniture on a caravan of carts. Rodmilla came toward the man at the head of the first cart.

"Ah, Monsieur le Pieu, right on schedule."

"It's all here, Baroness, every last candlestick."

"The paintings . . .my father's books . . .you sold them to him?" Danielle's voice cracked in disbelief. There was the desk her father had written letters on, the silver candlesticks that had lit most of their meals, the books . . .

"Yes, and now they're back." Rodmilla smiled smugly at her. "I couldn't very well have us looking like paupers when the King arrives."

Danielle looked at le Pieu warily. Her voice was barely civil, so strong was her hatred for this man. "Thank you Monsieur, this means the world to us."

"I am a businessman, Danielle, not a philanthropist."

"I don't understand." She looked toward Rodmilla, whose smug smile was still on her face.

"I can't very well have you around distracting the Prince, can I?"

"The baroness and I have an agreement . . ."

"You for all this, though I still think I'm getting the better end of the deal." Rodmilla's smile broadened as Danielle stared at her in mute horror, thinking, No, it can't be possible! She sold me to HIM? She tried to gather her wits but before she could, two of his guardsmen grabbed her. She kicked and screamed, but all to no avail. Maurice realized what was going on and tried to grab her, but he was pushed roughly out of the way.

"No, no! Let me go!" Danielle was thrown into an armored carriage, tears obscuring her vision. It had been horrible enough, what had happened last night, but this was beyond her imagination. Now she was even losing her home.

Le Pieu ordered two of his guardsmen to watch the armored carriage with Danielle and directed the rest of his men to unload the merchandise from the carts to the Manoir de Barbarac under the watchful eyes of Rodmilla.

After finishing business with Rodmilla, le Pieu returned to the Château Beynac. It was early afternoon when le Pieu, his men and Danielle arrived at his Château. Danielle had long since stopped crying and was determined that somehow she would escape.

After unlocking the armored carriage, le Pieu said, "This is your new home Danielle." When Danielle didn't answer, le Pieu added, "You belong to me now!"

Danielle gave le Pieu a look of pure abhorrence and replied, "I belong to no one, least of all you."

Le Pieu began to slap her for her insolence but under the watchful eyes of his men decided against it. Instead, he ordered her to be locked in an empty room on the second level.

Danielle didn't know what le Pieu might do, but she knew she didn't want to be there that night with le Pieu and his men. As soon as the door was locked Danielle started looking for a way to escape her prison. There was a small outside window with the ledge about sixteen feet from the ground. Danielle realized she could squeeze through the window by hanging from the ledge. However, it would still be a ten foot drop, and it looked much higher. Escaping might not have been overly difficult for athletic young men, but le Pieu never considered that Danielle, a girl, might try it.

Danielle was scared to make the attempt, but she knew she had to risk it. For thirty minutes, Danielle looked out the window, gathering her courage and seeing if anyone was around. Danielle was about crawl out the window when she heard a key in the door. Danielle had just had time to sit down when le Pieu entered to check on his prize.

"How are you, Danielle?" le Pieu asked. When Danielle didn't respond, le Pieu said, "Come. I want to show you your new home, the Château Beynac."

Danielle got up to go with him but made it clear by her actions that she would not welcome him touching her. Le Pieu was used to having his way with women but decided to be patient with Danielle. When he showed her his bedroom saying, "And this is our bedroom," Danielle shuddered at the revolting thought of sharing a bedroom with such a foul creature.

"May I see the outside?" Danielle asked when she sensed the tour was about over. Danielle was already planning her escape. Once outside she noticed where all the windows were and what directions she would least likely be observed when leaving. Once away from the Château she needed a destination. She could either return home or go to Gustave, but both would be risky. Danielle noticed a nearby forest and asked if there were people living in it. Le Pieu told her no one, except maybe a hermit or two, lived in the forest. After additional questions, Danielle learned that it was about twenty miles through the forest to a river and that a road on the other side of the river led to a couple of villes. Danielle decided her plan would be to travel through the forest, and when she found the road she would follow it to a ville where she could find work.

Not realizing that Danielle was being amiable just to get information for her escape, le Pieu answered her questions and offered her some food, which she politely accepted since she was hungry and needed to eat before her journey.

After the meal, le Pieu offered to have a bath drawn and to give her nice gown but Danielle coldly refused his offer. Sensing her change in attitude, le Pieu locked her in the room again.

It was now mid-afternoon and believing this would be her best chance to escape her prison, Danielle crawled out the window, hung from the ledge, and let go while pushing herself outward. It was almost 8/10 of a second fall before her toes touched the ground. Danielle lay on the ground for several seconds, stunned but not hurt. I hope I never have to do that again, Danielle thought to herself.

Danielle's first move was to run into some brush and high grass about 150 feet away. Then, she crawled the next three hundred feet until she made it to the woods. Immediately, the hounds started barking, but fortunately they were locked up. As soon as Danielle made it to the woods she started running deeper into the forest, not stopping to rest until after about a mile.

While resting for a few minutes, Danielle realized she was in a panic and that she needed to calm down to think rationally. Danielle wanted to put as much distance as possible between herself and le Pieu. It was still three hours until sunset and Danielle could use the sun to guide her. Not knowing for certain the best direction Danielle chose to go west. Heading in the general direction of the sun, Danielle would jog as long as she could and then walk for a few minutes to catch her breath. Danielle continued at that pace for almost an hour until she was almost exhausted. Thinking she had put enough distance between herself and le Pieu, Danielle decided to conserve her energy by walking. After sundown she, could use the moon as a guide. Fortunately, it was almost a full moon and the moon would already be above the horizon by sunset.

It was an old growth forest and therefore there was not much underbrush. Further, Danielle had found a trail going in her general direction that had been used by animals and a few people, so she was able to make good time.

Two hours after Danielle left, le Pieu told his servant Pierre to check on her.

"She is not here," Pierre said moments later.

Le Pieu ran upstairs and asked angrily, "What did you do with Danielle? If you let her escape, I'll have your head."

"Maybe she climbed out the window and jumped," Pierre suggested timidly.

"Le Pieu looked out the window and said, "That is too high; she would break her legs."

"Let me go look, monsieur le seigneur, maybe I can find her," Pierre asked, looking for an excuse to get away from the ever-growing fury of le Pieu.

Calling for his other servants, le Pieu went outside to look. They discovered Danielle's escape route through the high grass when one of the men said, "It looks like she crawled through the grass here."

"Well, if she is injured, she can't get far," another man replied.

It was another fifteen minutes, before they realized that Danielle might not have been injured. Le Pieu ordered his men to get the hounds and saddle up the horses. By the time le Pieu and his men were on Danielle's trail, she had a two and a half hour head start, and it would be getting dark within an another hour.

Not long after sunset, the forest turned into a dark, foreboding place. Only patches of moonlight, casting long shadows, could penetrate the trees. Frightened and alone in the dark, Danielle did her best to combat her fears and plodded on.

It was about an hour before midnight when Danielle first heard the hounds barking excitedly on her trail over a mile behind her. She had been following a steep deep ravine. Danielle guessed correctly that the creek at the bottom of the ravine would lead to the river.

At first, upon hearing the dogs, Danielle panicked and started running but quickly realized that running in a straight line was hopeless. Danielle knew she didn't have much time. She ripped off a piece of her undergarments, climbed partway down the ravine, and threw the fabric to the bottom of the ravine before climbing back up and back-tracking at a fast run. When the hounds were slightly over a quarter of a mile away, Danielle climbed and slid down the side of the ravine. As the hounds approached, Danielle was very quiet and prayed they would follow her original trail.

Danielle heard one of the men say, "I don't know how it is possible for the girl to travel on foot this far in just a few hours." When the hounds and horses had passed, Danielle thought that maybe she could throw them off the trail again. Ripping another piece of fabric, Danielle threw it to the top of the ravine. She then ran, in the center of the creek, through knee-deep water about one hundred feet further upstream before crossing and climbing the other side of the ravine.

"She crossed here," one of the men said when they reached where Danielle had stopped.

"I don't believe so; the dogs would have followed. Maybe she backtracked on us," the tracker replied.

"No, she ran in the creek so the dogs would lose her scent. Take some of the dogs in each direction until you find her or where she crossed," le Pieu ordered.

The tracker wasn't convinced, but he wasn't going to question le Pieu's orders.

"Over here," a man yelled when he arrived to where Danielle had entered the ravine.

"How did she climb that?" one of the men asked, after one of the dogs finally made it to the top, grabbing the fabric.

After sending dogs in both directions, it was fifteen minutes before the tracker figured out what Danielle had done and found where she had crossed. He would not be so easily fooled again.

"The horses can't cross here," one of the men said, stating the obvious. It was another ten minutes before the men found a place for the horses to cross and they were back on the trail.

Although not traveling in a straight line, by the time Danielle crossed the ravine, she had already walked more than twenty miles. Danielle didn't know it, but at that point, the river was less than five miles away. Danielle reasoned that if she could reach the river, she could find some deadwood as cover and float down the center of the river for hours before the dogs found her. Then the men would think she had drowned and would give up their search.

After crossing the ravine, Danielle ran away from the ravine for about a half mile at a forty-five degree angle, but still in a downstream direction before angling back toward the ravine. No longer following a trial, Danielle stumbled a time or two while running through underbrush. When she reached the ravine, she was utterly exhausted and couldn't run any more, so she followed the ravine at a fast walk.

When Danielle again heard the hounds, about a mile behind her, somehow she found the energy to run while looking for a place where she could cross, but the horses couldn't. While running, Danielle tore off and dropped more fabric, hoping the dogs might stop for it. Finally she found a place to cross, but she was so tired that she could just barely climb the other side.

Le Pieu was furious when he realized Danielle had crossed the ravine again.

"She is not far ahead, we can take the dogs and go after her on foot," the tracker said.

While the tracker, the hounds and a couple of the men crossed the ravine to chase after Danielle, le Pieu and the others looked for another place that the horses could cross.

Normally, Danielle would have been hard to catch on foot, but she was so fatigued and the men were being pulled along by the dogs. Danielle could see the river when they caught up with her. She had come so close to making it to the river and freedom, but she didn't have the energy to struggle. All she could do was sit down and sob tears of frustration and exhaustion. Danielle was dirty from head to foot and had scratches on her hands and face from running through brush. Danielle looked and sounded so pitiful, the tracker was almost sorry they had caught her and did his best to comfort her.

It was daylight when they arrived at the Château Beynac. Le Pieu wasn't taking any chances on Danielle escaping again. He locked Danielle in an interior room after first putting her legs in chains. The room was empty except for a dirty blanket he gave her to sleep on.