Chapter 17: A Single Name

January 11, 1813

Copenhagen, Denmark

The Copenhagen war office was not yet open when Anna came knocking. The man that opened the door for her looked like he was about to grumble at being disturbed so early but immediately refrained from doing so when he saw her. She recognized him as that helpful fatherly Danish clerk that she had spoken to several times before when she had been here over the past several days. He was the one that had been kind enough to pull up records of any Arendellian soldiers that reported to this office and handed her information.

"Your highness! We weren't expecting you so early," he greeted politely.

"Good morning, Mr. Einsborg, a pleasure to see you," she replied. "I would like to see Colonel Jorgenbjorgen please. He was recalled last night to the barracks."

The short burly man smiled pleasantly as he pushed the rim of his sliding glasses up his nose. "Ahhh one of the officers. We have a lot of them coming in last night. They've been gathered in a meeting with Marshal Ney until the wee hours of the morning to swear allegiance to the Emperor. They're probably still abed this early hour. Is it as a matter of importance?"

"Yes, I need to speak to him immediately," Anna replied.

"Please do come into the parlor of my office. I'll see what I can do to send for him. Would you like to have some coffee while you wait?"

Anna nodded gratefully. "Coffee would be lovely."

She followed after Mr. Einsborg who chatted animatedly about the number of officers that arrived last night until he had her seated comfortably in front of the fire of the pleasant little office.

So Hans didn't lie about that at least. There was a real summon from the war office for him to report to the barracks, Anna thought when she was finally alone with a cup of hot brew that Mr. Einsborg's young assistant had brought it. However, it still did little to reassure her nerves.

Anna evaded Caroline's question on the letter she found by giving her cousin some made up story that Hans was probably playing Secret Santa with his brother and correctly guessed Kristoff as his mystery benefactor. It didn't make much sense even to Anna but Caroline bought it and was convinced to leave the note where she found it. Anna then feigned sickness to avoid coming to dinner (It wasn't much of a lie, she was sick with worry). Once free of prying eyes, she returned to Hans' room and stole back the note. She then sent a message through one of the grooms to the war office to ask Hans to return. However, the servant returned with news that all the officers were in a closed door meeting with Marshal Ney and were not to be disturbed until tomorrow. Anna had no choice but to wait. She spent a sleepless night re-reading the note several times until the words seared into her mind.

"Send me word with a single name. You'll know the name, once you've read the document. If you send me the right name, I'll know you've done what I ask." Those were Hans' own words about the document he asked Holford to purge. But why would that name be Kristoff's? If Hans had known something about Kristoff he would have told me, wouldn't he? This is all a misunderstanding. I will not jump to conclusions. When I speak to Hans, he will explain everything that will make sense and all will be alright again. I just know it.

These were the words that she kept saying to herself over and over the whole night. She whispered them again to herself while she sipped her coffee alone. Yet somehow the note that weighed heavily in her pocket kept nagging at her, giving her a nasty feeling of doubt.

She shook her head to keep the bad thoughts away and resolved to find other things to distract her mind. The office door had been left slightly open when Mr. Einsborg and his assistant left and she decided to watch as the war office come alive with the early bustle of foot traffic. Soldiers and clerks passed by, as they came in and out of the front doors to go about their usual business. Most of them paused to politely tip their hats whenever they noticed her. However, none of them was Hans or Mr. Einsborg.

After several uneventful minutes, she grew impatient of waiting. She decided to ask the next man who would stop by to help follow-up on Hans. To her fortune, the next person that happened to pass was a young freckle-faced lad that she recognized instantly.

"Tommy? Tommy Thomsen!" she called out.

"Princess Anna?" the young teenage soldier replied enthusiastically before he bowed politely at her.

"It's good to see you again," she called out.

Thomas Thomsen or "Little Tommy" as everyone back home used to call him, was one of the young Arendellian soldiers she met the first time she came to the Copenhagen war office. She had first encountered Little Tommy when he was among the children who sang at her first surprise birthday party when Elsa had her infamous cold. He had a growth spurt last year so he now towered over her. The now six-foot-two sixteen-year-old lad was among youngest boys conscripted to the army. She had been so glad to see him alive and well with all his senses and limbs still intact—a rare thing among the soldiers she had met over the last several months.

The young man bowed again before her. "I was going to write you a letter and I was going to ask Mr. Einsborg to send it but I suppose you've saved me the trouble. I have news," he said excitedly.

"News? About what?" Anna asked.

"Well it's not exactly news in a sense..." he suddenly demurred. "But when you asked us if we can keep an eye out for anyone who can help out with getting news of Prince Kristoff, the Arendellians and I have asked around."

"Have you found someone?" Anna asked.

"I think I might have. Last night when Marshal Ney came to see his officers, there was a man who came with him who can speak our language. He's one of the translator scribes, one of the men who had to interpret for us who don't know French when one of the high ranking commanders wanted to speak to us directly. I remember this one because he used to come around our camps a lot and he probably moves around other regiments with Arendellians. He makes a lot of notes and translates then in French for the official reports. He's likely to have encountered Prince Kristoff."

Anna leapt to her feet. This was probably one of the best leads she can had found who might know of Kristoff directly. "Where can I find him? Is he here?"

"One of the clerks said he reports to the office early. That's why I decided to come by to find him today." He paused as middle-aged gentleman bearing a large bag just came through the front doors. "What luck! There he is!"

Anna did not hesitate and followed Tommy as they raced to meet with the man.

"Captain Bertole!" Tommy called out.

The man paused from his easy stride and immediately noticed Anna.

"Can I help you Madame?" Captain Bertole politely asked with a respectful bow.

"I beg pardon Sir," Tommy saluted. "But this is Princess Anna of Arendelle, sister to Queen Elsa. She has some questions about her husband..."

Anna no longer heard the end of what Tommy said for she was distracted by the Captain's sudden reaction. His face appeared to have gone visibly pale.

"Captain Bertole, can you help us? Perhaps you've met with our prince, Lt. Kristoff Bjorgman of the 26th Infantry?" Tommy went on.

The French interpreter did not speak for a moment but merely stared at her and it made Anna apprehensive she could not speak as well.

"Captain Bertole?" Tommy repeated.

"You have heard… no news of him before, your highness?" the Captain finally asked.

Anna could only shake her head and it was Tommy who spoke for her. "We've asked the administrative office for her and the other Arendellians and I have checked the tally lists daily. There's been no news. We're hoping you might know something, sir."

"I think you need to come into my office," the man somberly replied.

Anna knew she should wait for Hans but this was far more important. She and Tommy followed the man at the end of the long corridor to a small office littered with boxes of files. He bade her sit at the single guest chair beside the messy desk full of ledgers and papers. Tommy remained standing beside her while the Captain surprisingly did not sit behind his desk. He softly closed the door behind him but stood pacing rather apprehensively for a moment before he spoke.

"Princess Anna..." he began haltingly with such a grave expression that she immediately knew something was very wrong.

"You have news of my husband, Lt. Kristoff Bjorgman?" Anna asked shakily.

He swallowed hard before answering. "Ma'am I'm really very sorry to inform you. On the 13th of October, Lt. Bjorgman led four other men, all Arendellians and left their regiment's camp in Moscow without permission."

"I don't understand," Anna said, confused. "They left? Where did they go?"

The man heaved a sigh and pulled uncomfortably at his collar. "It pains me to inform you Madame, but they... the men... they deserted the ranks."

"Deserted?" Fear gripped Anna's heart. She knew what that meant. It meant Kristoff and those men were now outlaws and could be hunted down by their own commanding officers. But perhaps there was a chance they escaped and they were on their way home.

That was it. Kristoff is smart. He would lead those men home. In Arendelle, Elsa can grant them immunity and a pardon. Perhaps he was already there. My big mountainman is probably busy playing with the twins right now, just laying low. Elsa couldn't tell me of course via letters in case whoever was watching them got wind of it. Elsa would protect Kristoff, I'm sure of it. No one need ever know they deserted.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Anna said carefully. "So they just disappeared?"

The man shook his head. "No your highness... I'm afraid they were captured by a group of cavalry officers close to the Emperor."

No!

"I'm really sorry to be the one to say it but... they were court martialed on field... and executed the following day."

No! NO! NOOO!

Her world was spinning and it wouldn't stop. She wanted to believe she misheard, that he said something else.

He is missing. Just missing! This can't be happening! It's not true! It's not true! Kristoff is not dead! My Kristoff isn't dead! He can't be! We have two children! He needs to come home to them! To me!

The man was saying something but Anna could not hear him over the rage of confusion rising from the pit of her stomach and spreading like fire all over her. She didn't even know she was screaming at Captain Bertole.

"YOU'RE LYING! HE'S NOT DEAD! HE'S NOT! He's everything that's good and honorable and true! He's not dead! YOU MADE A MISTAKE!"

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." muttered the man.

"HE CAN'T BE DEAD! WHO SAYS HE WAS? THEY'RE LYING! THEY LIED!"

"I'm sorry Madame, I'm really sorry," he rambled frantically. "It's the truth. I don't know why you haven't heard it before. I translated the original court martial proceedings. I filed the report. It should have been available in all the administrative offices."

He moved to one of the boxes and pulled out a large bound ledger and opened it in front of her.

"Here are the original testimonies... I had to translate the confessions from Arendellian..."

With trembling fingers, Anna thumbed at the pages. There it was in Kristoff's familiar handwriting: his signed confession of deserting his post. Her sight blurred with tears as she caught the words he wrote to explain his actions:

I just wanted to come home to my family.

Anna collapsed to the floor, the ledger still in her grasp. She felt Captain Bertole and Tommy reach out to her but she forcefully pushed them away.

"They murdered my Kristoff!" she muttered under her breath. "What monster would do this? He just wants to come home to me!"

"Madame please..." the Captain pleaded. "It's not murder. It was a lawful execution... the man was under orders..."

"I DON'T CARE! HE KILLED MY KRISTOFF!" she shouted at him. "WHO DID IT? WHO ORDERED HIS DEATH?!"

"Madame..." he begged again then turned to Tommy and motioned for him to take her away. Anna would have none of it. She realized she had the answer in her hands. She turned the page and she saw immediately another familiar set of handwriting.

NO! It can't be him!

The man who carried out Kristoff's execution wrote his own narrative to attest to completing the order at the end of the court martial. He then signed his name on the ledger in his usual neat and eligible script:

Colonel Johannes Kristian Jorgenbjorgen.

Author's Note: You're probably all going to hate me now but this was how I thought it would go from the start of the first chapter when I wrote Kristoff's letter. I commend a lot of my Guest Reviewers who have gotten close to the theory that Hans is hiding something about Kristoff even early on, but you probably didn't realize it's this drastic. I do appreciate all the wonderful reviews you sent and I'm glad I got you thinking on this mystery but I do hope you forgive me for pushing your heartstrings to the limit.

To give you a background on why Kristoff could desert you need to understand the situation of the Grande Armee in Moscow. Napoleon took Moscow on September 14, just a week after the bloody Battle of Borodino. You can imagine the army had not yet recovered fully from that hellish battle before they were faced with a desolated city that was burned completely by the Russians. Starvation soon set in as winter approached and there was little food to go along. Napoleon stuck to Moscow for more than a month and was forced to begin retreat on October 19. By then a lot of what remained of the army had died of hunger, disease and infection from untreated wounds. The desperation can hit any soldier hard and it must be even harder for the foreign soldiers like the Arendellians who were merely forced into this war. They had no true stake in it and most just wanted to survive so they can go home. It's not surprising Kristoff would be among them.

Here's my explanation about the report that Anna found: Realistically, Kristoff and the other Arendellians who were probably of peasant origins wouldn't know how to speak or write in French. Their court martial confessions would have been written in their native tongue. However, these would have been translated to French and that version would end up as the official military report. So what happened here was Holford was able to purge the official record in French, but he failed to destroy the original confessions written in Arendellian.