Margit Sandemo - The Ice People 14 - The Knight

The cold voice replied: “He disappeared with Miss Lottie, of course.”

Now the kind voice was irritated. “Can’t you see that she’s come round? Was that really necessary?”

The cold woman’s voice became shrill. “I won’t be chastised by a halberdier!”

A halberdier? Her halberdier?

Hildegard wasn’t concerned to find out the owner of the cold voice. There were so many of them at court.

They laid her on a sofa. It was quieter here. Cooler.

Servants came running with a stretcher. The Queen gave orders.

“Carry the princess to her room! No, not through the ballroom. Use your common sense!”

They had to walk a long way. The stretcher swung. She still didn’t have the strength to open her eyes.

Somebody walked next to the stretcher all the way. Quiet and soothing. Heavy, firm steps, the creaking of boots.

“The shame ...”

“This is no shame, Princess!”

Her face showed fatigue and bitter despondency; she could feel it. Her tears were stuck on her eyelashes in this terrible, grotesque face that she couldn’t accept. She managed to lift her arm to cover her horrible face. A deep sob of despair about everything escaped her. She hadn’t wished it, but she wasn’t able to hold it back.

A strong hand was placed on her shoulder for a moment. Hildegard searched for the hand and found it – or rather, it found hers. She clung desperately to the big, strong, comforting hand.

“Please don’t leave me,” she whispered, ashamed of being so weak but unable to take any more; she just couldn’t cope any longer. “Do please stay with me! I don’t know you; I don’t know what you look like, but your heart is in the right place. That’s a rarity here.”

He was silent for a little while, then he said slowly: “You know very well who I am. We caught sight of each other in the hall.”

“The halberdier?” she said nervously.

“That’s right. Margrave Tristan Paladin at your service.”

“Yes, of course. Thank you for your help!”

It was difficult to define what this help had consisted of. But Hildegard and Tristan Paladin knew quite well what it was about.

Margrave! That wasn’t so bad, Hildegard thought to herself. So he was a true nobleman then.

The draught in the corridor died away; they had reached her room.

The servants placed her on the bed and summoned the chambermaid. The chambermaid said: “What now! Again?” She didn’t realize that Hildegard was awake. “She does nothing but faint!” Tristan’s voice wasn’t sharp, but nevertheless the rebuke was stronger than if he had shouted: “First, you are not to refer to the princess as ‘she’ but as ‘Her Highness’. Second, how dare you adopt such a disrespectful tone? The princess is very sick – are there no others who can attend on her?”

Hildegard could almost hear the chambermaid’s surprise, when she saw the handsome halberdier in the room. And to be rebuked by him!

“There are two of us who take it in turns,” the girl said in a far nicer tone than she had ever used when speaking to Hildegard. “Of course, I’ll attend to Her Highness as well as I possibly can.”

“That’s not necessary,” the noble helper said. “Just stay in the outer room with the door open so that no evil gossip reaches Her Highness. I’ll stay with her this evening.”

Thank you, Hildegard thought. From my heart! His slightly archaic and formal language touched her. It was as if she had been taken back to the era of chivalry.

The chambermaid left after showing him what he might need while nursing Hildegard.

It was so wonderful to feel the comforting hands place the blanket over her. To feel the way he lifted her head to give her a cup of water to drink.

“You’re much too kind, Margrave Paladin,” she whispered weakly. “I shouldn’t have fainted like that ...”

“Now, now,” he said in a soothing, almost humming, voice. “What does the physician say about these dizzy spells?”

“He doesn’t know what causes them. He just talks about my sick blood. But bleeding doesn’t help at all – on the contrary, it just makes me weaker. I normally don’t look like this,” she added quickly. “Actually, I’m quite slim ...”

“I understand. I was wondering ...”

He was silent.

“What are you wondering about, Margrave?”

“Oh, nothing. I know too little about you.”

Hildegard could feel that she was beginning to feel better. “And I know nothing about you. Her Majesty said that you’ve lost all your family?”

“My family is here in Denmark. But I have a sister and her small family in Scania. Beside them, a crazy cousin in Stockholm – but the rest of my relatives live in Norway. They’re known as the Ice People, and they were the ones I was thinking about a moment ago.”

Finally, Hildegard felt able to open her eyes. Tristan Paladin sat on a chair, at a fitting distance from her bed, but near enough for him to obey her smallest request. Close up, he was even more charming. A fine face, gentle without being effeminate, deeply sad, even when he smiled. No, gentle was the wrong expression. Sensitive. Yes, sensitive was the right word, because his features were definitely masculine, though without seeming coarse. His hair was thick and curly and probably his own, at a time when most men wore thick wigs. His dark eyes were very beautiful.

“What was it you wanted to say about your relatives in Norway?”

They were interrupted as Prince Jochum entered the outer chamber. Tristan rose immediately.

But Prince Jochum didn’t come into the room. “What are you doing here, my little girl?” he chatted to the chambermaid. “What’s this I hear about my wife fainting again?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Right in the ballroom.”

“That’s what I heard,” the Prince grunted. “There’s no end to her exhibitions. She loves to humiliate me. But why are you out here?”

The chambermaid lowered her voice so all they heard was his answer:

“What? A halberdier in her room? Well, I never ...

Who is it?”

The chambermaid said something else.

The Prince snorted. “What, that poor impotent soul! Well, I’m happy for him to be at her beck and call as much as he pleases,” he finished with a laugh. “Nobody can be offended by him visiting her! Greet my wife and tell her that I’m retiring to my own room now.”

His steps retreated. He slammed the door as he left.

Tristan Paladin had turned very pale.

“Please forgive my husband,” the princess said, ill at ease. “He’s been drinking heavily all evening.”

Everything was quiet.

A little later, she said cautiously: “So what he implied is true then?”

Tristan came to his senses, drawing a deep breath. “Yes, I’m afraid so. But I don’t understand how anybody ... The physician who treated me long ago must have been indiscreet. That wasn’t pleasant to hear.”

“That everyone in the castle knows about it? I can well understand. Was it a ... war wound?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Tristan answered yes.

The princess, who had recovered by now, said lightly: “Do you know, I wouldn’t take that gossip so much to heart. I think it adds an aura of mystique and excitement. There must be many women who’d like to see whether they’re sufficiently attractive to make you get over your slight infirmity.”

Tristan smiled. “You’re much too kind. But it wasn’t me we were speaking about.”

“No. You were about to tell me about your relatives.”

“That’s right. I’d hate to give you false hope; that would be awful, which is why I hesitated to speak about it.”

She raised herself on her elbows. “Now you are making me curious.”

“The thing is that the Ice People are a peculiar lot. I myself am perfectly normal; I haven’t inherited their peculiar traits ... I fear you won’t believe me if I tell you about them, but I’ll do so nevertheless. There’s a strong vein of medical knowledge and healing powers in my clan.”