Chapter 17
Hey everyone I'm back with another chapter! Hope you all enjoy and as always PLEASE REVIEW! God Bless you all!
-Innocentia999
Rupert's POV:
The rain poured down on us as we approached the woods.
"Officer Heim?" Lilla's father spoke up.
"Yes?"
"I think it best we stick together. I am not as familiar with this terrain as you are."
"I agree."
I was about to take a step when he caught my foot.
"Wait! Look!" he said, pointing to a very small, almost impossible to spot except for a very trained eye, indentation in the mud.
"It's her's. She must've gone this way."
"How can you tell it's not someone else's that might've just passed by here?"
"The freshness of the tracks, the size of the print, and the indentation indicates someone who was obviously running, trust me it's hers."
I was impressed at his knowledge despite myself, though my expression remained neutral.
"Do you think you can track her?"
"Probably not since the rain is quickly washing the prints away, but I may be able to use other signs."
I didn't have time to ask what those other signs were because he set off into the foliage and I had no choice but to follow.
"Lilla!" he called out.
"Lilla! Where are you?!" I joined him.
After a few more moments of trudging through the woods, he spoke up.
"When we find her, she'll probably kill me tomorrow for giving her name away to you."
"You didn't. I looked it up in the prisoner files. I learned about you too."
"Really and what did you read?" he asked, somewhat distractedly as he kept his eyes trained for any sign of Lilla's passing, though also with a hint of interest in his voice.
"Your name is Mordecai Ruzca. Age 47. Nationality: Hungarian…"
"There!" he spoke rushing forward towards a tree branch, I hurried behind him to see what he'd found.
He slowly extracted a small piece of cloth off a thin broken branch suspended from one of the trees and held it up for me to see.
"It's the same color of her dress" I remarked.
He nodded solemnly and said.
"Hopefully that means we're close."
Then it came, a small faint call.
"Lilla?! Lilla is that you?!" he cried.
Then it came louder and the words clearer.
"Help!" came the cry.
In an instant, Mordecai took off like a shot through the brush, moving so quickly through the foliage, I struggled to keep up.
Then suddenly we broke into a small clearing in the trees and there on the ground, soaking wet and shivering, lay Lilla.
Lilla's POV:
Relief washed over me like a tidal wave as I spotted them. Papa scrambled over to my left side and Heim to my right.
"Oh Lilla, are you alright? Can you move?" Papa exclaimed, worry permeating every note of his voice.
"I'm…fine…but my ankle" was all I managed to get out through my shivering. Papa moved over to my ankle and gently poked and prodded.
"Hssss" I hissed in pain.
"She's got a sprained ankle" Papa said to Heim.
"We need to get her back to the house, her lips are turning dark blue and she's shivering badly" Heim added.
"One of us will have to carry her, I don't think she'll be able to walk without pain" Papa replied.
"I'll do that. I need you to track so we can find our way back." Papa nodded and stood while Heim removed his uniform jacket and placed it over me.
"Stay awake, don't fall asleep you hear me" Heim inquired.
I could barely nod as I continued to shiver almost violently. Before I knew it Heim slipped his strong arms underneath me and lifted me from the mud, carrying me bridal style. I struggled to keep my eyes open as the rain continued to pelt down on us as we moved through the woods. Unconsciously, I found myself snuggling closer to Heim's chest, the warmth of his body soothing me somewhat.
"How far are we? I'm so…cold" I found myself murmuring.
"We'll be there soon. Just hang on" Heim replied.
It took every ounce of my remaining strength to fight to keep my eyes open.
"Lilla stay with me" his voice sounded somewhat far away as I rested my head against his chest, not even registering that he had just called me by my name.
"I see the house!" Papa exclaimed and the last thing I saw were the lights from the Heim's before my head slumped against Heim and I fell into slumber.
Rupert's POV:
"We need to hurry!" I exclaimed as Lilla sunk into sleep as we approached the house.
"Let's go through the kitchen door. That way no one will see us in case your Father's home."
Mordecai and I got Lilla into the kitchen and were just about to head to the stairs, when Mordecai pushed Lilla and I out of view.
"Your Father's at the living room table."
I peeked around the corner of the kitchen entryway and lo and behold there was Father, pouring over a report with cigarette in hand.
"What do we do now?" Mordecai whispered.
"Can you carry her?" I hissed back.
"Of course."
"Here's the plan. I'll go out and ask Father to come my office. The moment we're out of site, race her up the stairs to my room. I'll follow shortly after if I can."
Mordecai nodded as I transferred Lilla to his arms and strode out into the living room.
"Father" I called. He glanced up from his report.
"What happened to you?"
It was then that I remembered my uniform jacket was gone and I was soaking wet.
"I was outside."
"Yes I gathered that much. Why?" his eyes narrowed suspiciously for a moment.
"I lost my spare key to the house from my pocket. I wanted to retrieve it before the storm blew it away.." I replied, smoothing over my momentary anxiety over coming up with some legitimate reason for my current state. I'd learned to be good at lying to Father whenever I did something wrong as a kid, like steal bread from the local baker when Otto, Mother and I were hungry because my Father had spent most of his income gambling.
"And did you find it?"
"Yes" I produced the key that had been in my pocket the whole time.
"And where is your uniform jacket?"
"It's drying in the kitchen" I replied, as nonchalantly as possible.
"Yeah well don't be so stupid next time. You were always losing things since you were a child."
My eyebrows knit together.
"It was a simple mistake. There was no harm done."
"Have you learned nothing?! What did I always teach you!" he suddenly snapped, his temper I knew so well flaring as he stood up from the table.
"That I have to be the best" I replied.
"Exactly and mistakes are not being the best understand?!"
"Yes Father" I replied, wanting nothing more but to race out of the room.
"Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to bed. I don't want to look at you right now in this state" he shot at me before striding out of the room.
I fought to keep stinging tears from my eyes as I turned to Mordecai and waved for him to go up stairs. He clambered up the staircase as fast as possible with Lilla, with me following closely behind.
Thankfully, we didn't run into Mother or Peter in the hallway on the way to my chambers. Mordecai practically kicked the door open to my room, and I shut and locked it so no one would follow us.
"Put her on the bed and pull the sheets over her." I ordered, before racing to the bathroom and starting a hot bath.
I hurried back to Mordecai.
"Bring her, she'll need the hot water after she's been out there so long." Mordecai hauled her into his arms again and we quickly placed her in the tub.
"Lilla? Come on Lilla wake up" I lightly tapped her cheek several times with my hand to get her to open her eyes.
I gazed at Mordecai and shook my head. Mordecai moved closer to inspect her.
"She's not shivering anymore thats good. Her color looks better. She needs to rest and keep warm though. When she wakes up she'll need to change out of those wet clothes though. Her dress should be cleaned too or else people will suspect something."
After Lilla had sufficiently warmed up in the tub, I hauled her up and moved her to the bed, I tucked several layers of sheets around her. She moaned softly, moving her head to the right and scrunching her eyebrows as if she were having some sort of dream.
"You should go downstairs, you're escort will be coming for you soon" I gazed at Mordecai.
"I can't leave her" he said, gripping Lilla's hand.
"I'll look after her. If you don't go someone will get suspicious. That wouldn't be good for either one of you."
I could tell Mordecai knew I was right, yet he didn't like the thought of leaving.
"I'll look after her" I reiterated as he continued to stare down at Lilla, warring emotions playing out upon his face.
Finally, he merely nodded and made his to the door, then stopped and turned back around.
"I am entrusting my daughter to your care. I expect you to treat her with honor and respect."
I gazed at him seriously for a moment.
"You have my word."
With only a slight nod he turned on his heel and exited the room, the door closing behind him with only the small echo of a click.
Lilla's POV:
My eyes scrunched and opened to rays of sunlight dripping onto my face. I moaned as I glanced around the room and found myself once again in Heim's bed, a few layers of sheets sprawled over me. I sat up to see the tin basin and wash board positioned at the end of the bed and a fresh dress laid out upon the sheets and my confusion only grew. It was then I noticed a note lying on top of a book on the bedside table.
Curious despite myself, I lifted the piece of paper and was astonished to find the Aschenputtel story I had been delighted to find on my first day at the Heim's. I turned to the note, scribbled in German in Heim's handwriting.
Lilla,
Yes I know you're name now and if your wondering how I looked it up in the prisoner files. Your Father and I brought you here last night and put the sheets on you because you were severely shivering and cold. Your Father said your ankle is sprained so don't try and move on it too much. He is attending to his duties as usual so no suspicion will be aroused. I am currently attending to my duties at camp and I have left you the wash board and tin to wash the mud from your dress so no one will ask questions, and a pair of fresh clothes you can wear while it is drying. Whatever you do: PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE THIS ROOM. I have left the book for you in case you get bored while I'm gone.
Rupert
P.S And don't rifle through my things again
Despite myself I rolled my eyes at that last statement and surprisingly felt amusement rise within me despite the fact he'd also thoroughly invaded my privacy by finding out my name and goodness knows what else about me. Well, there was no use dwelling on it now. I shoved aside the sheets and removed the clean clothes from the bed, limping to the bathroom. I stripped off my prisoner dress and placed it aside while I put my arms through the sleeves of the dress and buttoned it up the front.
The outfit felt soft and comfortable against my skin and it shocked me to recall how many months had gone by since I'd just been able to wear normal clothing. I shook off that thought and got to work. After I had scrubbed my dress clean I laid it over the desk chair to dry, before working on the bed sheets that had become soiled with mud from the back of my dress. It had become somewhat sultry in the room so I opened the bedroom window to allow some breeze into the room before hanging the soggy sheets over the end of the bed and plopping myself down with the Aschenputtel book on the mattress. A glimmer of joy arose within me as I flipped to the first page.
I knew the words practically by heart after reading it myself so many times as a girl.
*There was once a rich man whose wife lay sick, and when she felt her end drawing near she called to her only daughter to come near her bed, and said,
"Dear child, be pious and good, and God will always take care of you, and I will look down upon you from heaven, and will be with you."
And then she closed her eyes and expired. The maiden went every day to her mother's grave and wept, and was always pious and good. When the winter came the snow covered the grave with a white covering, and when the sun came in the early spring and melted it away, the man took to himself another wife.
The new wife brought two daughters home with her, and they were beautiful and fair in appearance, but at heart were black and ugly. And then began very evil times for the poor step-daughter.
"Is the stupid creature to sit in the same room with us?" said they; "those who eat food must earn it. Out upon her for a kitchen-maid!"
They took away her pretty dresses, and put on her an old gray kirtle, and gave her wooden shoes to wear.
"Just look now at the proud princess, how she is decked out!" cried they laughing, and then they sent her into the kitchen. There she was obliged to do heavy work from morning to night, get up early in the morning, draw water, make the fires, cook, and wash. Besides that, the sisters did their utmost to torment her,—mocking her, and strewing peas and lentils among the ashes, and setting her to pick them up. In the evenings, when she was quite tired out with her hard day's work, she had no bed to lie on, but was obliged to rest on the hearth among the cinders. And as she always looked dusty and dirty, they named her Aschenputtel.
It happened one day that the father went to the fair, and he asked his two step-daughters what he should bring back for them.
"Fine clothes!" said one.
"Pearls and jewels!" said the other.
"But what will you have, Aschenputtel?" said he.
"The first twig, father, that strikes against your hat on the way home; that is what I should like you to bring me."
So he bought for the two step-daughters fine clothes, pearls, and jewels, and on his way back, as he rode through a green lane, a hazel-twig struck against his hat; and he broke it off and carried it home with him. And when he reached home he gave to the step-daughters what they had wished for, and to Aschenputtel he gave the hazel-twig. She thanked him, and went to her mother's grave, and planted this twig there, weeping so bitterly that the tears fell upon it and watered it, and it flourished and became a fine tree. Aschenputtel went to see it three times a day, and wept and prayed, and each time a white bird rose up from the tree, and if she uttered any wish the bird brought her whatever she had wished for.
Now if came to pass that the king ordained a festival that should last for three days, and to which all the beautiful young women of that country were bidden, so that the king's son might choose a bride from among them. When the two step-daughters heard that they too were bidden to appear, they felt very pleased, and they called Aschenputtel, and said,
"Comb our hair, brush our shoes, and make our buckles fast, we are going to the wedding feast at the king's castle."
Aschenputtel, when she heard this, could not help crying, for she too would have liked to go to the dance, and she begged her step-mother to allow her.
"What, you Aschenputtel!" said she, "in all your dust and dirt, you want to go to the festival! you that have no dress and no shoes! you want to dance!…"
I paused in my reading, my mind already pondering forward to the end of the story when Aschenputtel would meet her prince. I had always wondered who my prince would be. What would he look like? Tall and muscular with dark hair and eyes maybe or lighter eyes and hair? I had always imagined his voice as deep and reassuring, his heart as kind, brave, and gentle yet fierce when it came to protecting those he loves, his selflessness and provision for me and any children we had giving them and I the best of futures.
My musings were interrupted by the sound of the key turning in the lock and the door opened to reveal Heim.
"I see your enjoying yourself" he nodded towards the book, as he shut the door.
"It's my favorite since I was a girl" I replied, not really knowing what else to say. I glanced down and messed with the corners of the book awkwardly.
I felt his gaze upon me and glanced back up. His eyes were steadily looking at me but with a softness and almost of a sense of admiration and passion I'd never thought I'd see in man like him.
I dropped my eyes.
"What are looking at Sir?"
"I'm looking at you."
"Why?"
"Because I want to see you. Don't you want me to see you?"
"I'm the one person in this house who no one is supposed to see remember."
I pushed myself off the bed.
"I must see to my Father."
I stepped around him and made my way through the door, though I could feel his gaze upon my back every step of the way out of the room.
*This is a passage from the Brother's Grimm Aschenputtel
Wow this was a hard chapter to write! PLEASE REVIEW and let me know what you think! God Bless!